August 13th, 2015 | General, Politics, Popular Culture, Society at Large, Women
I can’t get him off my mind. Normally I spend precisely none of my time thinking about him, watching his television shows or envying him his wealth. He’s bumptious and loud, though, someone more skilled in getting attention than a spoiled toddler in a toy store and...
July 1st, 2015 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, Gardens and Gardening, General, the world and Mother Nature
Our grill is no less used that the stove. It produces a perfect roast chicken and keeps the smell of onions out of the house. When red peppers are cheap, we blister a few dozen over the flame and freeze them in olive oil for whenever we need them. And, of course, it...
June 2nd, 2015 | Europe, General, Popular Culture, Shopping, transportation, Travel
Brussels Airport (BRU), technically in Zaventem, [http://www.brusselsairport.be/en/] is busy enough. Brussels, the capital of the European Union, is a convenient crossroads from pretty much any point to any other point in any of the six inhabited Continents and enjoys...
May 29th, 2015 | Europe, Genealogy, General, Politics, Popular Culture, Society at Large, Travel
Everyone has the right to live by the River Vilnelė, and the River Vilnelė has the right to flow by everyone. Everyone has the right to hot water, heating in winter and a tiled roof. Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation. Everyone has the right...
May 29th, 2015 | Europe, General, Holidays, Politics, Shopping, Travel
We could not have imagined what a good choice the apartment at Užupio 26-11 would turn out to be. My Dear One found the listing online. We both loved the old-fashioned blue-upholstered furniture and the sunlight flooding in the window. The apartment claimed a view of...
May 24th, 2015 | Europe, Gardens and Gardening, Matters of the Spirit, Popular Culture, Travel
You think you know what to expect but you really don’t. I had a vision of the Nemunas Loops Regional Park (Nemuno kilpų regioninis parkas) as a sprawling area, a place needing vigorous hiking skills or better yet a car. The park is 25,171 hectares—a quantity that...
May 17th, 2015 | Europe, Gardens and Gardening, Genealogy, General, Matters of the Spirit, Memory, the world and Mother Nature, Time Passes, Travel
It was possibly the best day of the trip. Or maybe not best. Maybe it is the one most firmly nestled into my visual cortex, the collection of images most likely to reappear when I am asked about Lithuania, what I experienced, what I remember. In television programs...
May 4th, 2015 | Europe, General, Matters of the Spirit, Memory, Travel
The location is still marked on Google Maps: Balbieriškio Švč. Mergelės Marijos, Holy Mary of the Rosary in Balbieriškis on Vilniaus gatvė. On maps.lt, the church is outlined, a classical basilica, a rectangular nave with a semicircular apse at one end. Yet if you...
May 2nd, 2015 | Europe, Genealogy, General, Memory, Travel
Researching my Dear One’s Family Tree has been, shall we say, a slow process. Facts and documentation, though, when found, bring a thrill, a surge of excitement that renews belief that the project isn’t fundamentally doomed. The problem is two-fold. Records pertaining...
April 30th, 2015 | Education, Europe, Friends, General, Matters of the Spirit, Memory, Politics, Society at Large, Travel
Most of us choose what to remember. We cherish feelings illuminated through rose-colored glasses and forget the uncomfortable; sometimes we nurse the grievances and grudges that give us our sense of self. In any case, the content and color of the past, the limning of...
