My World of Wonders: Wednesday June 3, 2026

What about the day? My mother's birthday was June 3rd, or was it the 4th, over 60 years of marriage my father never remembered it exactly. She would be 99 this week, if she were still alive. 

What about this year? My grandparents on my father's side, were married in August of 1926, I have five of the six chairs from a dining room set that they bought before they were married, those chairs are 100 years old this summer.  

What have I been up to in the kitchen? Oh my, I poached a chicken yielding chicken stock, and chicken for a pie (think shepherds pie but made with chopped chicken,) I baked bread, made pastry and a lemon tart with homemade lemon curd. A simple dinner of smoked sausage, baked beans, and coleslaw. Swiss steak and roast potatoes. Chicken stuffed with ham and cheese, rice and salad with homemade vinaigrette. 

Who have a talked with? Paul, Amy, Susan, Giuseppe, my Sweet Bear, Ana, Veronica, Jon, Joan, Warren, Marcel, Erica, Izzy, Scott. 

What have I been reading? Roman Ivory, a historical novel. Diddly Squat The Farmers Dog, 

What adventure am I planning? Travel for a conference at Syracuse in early October. We are going to do it as a road trip. 

Where have I been this week? The library, the grocery store, the gas station, the farmers market, the treadmill at the gym, the pool deck for the outside pool, the indoor pool, into DC to my old office, and a long walk across town. 

What to avoid when on the grand adventure? Anyplace being hyped by the "influencers." The business are easy to spot, people are standing in line, waiting to get in for "the best I have ever had anyplace" that someone decided to post about. Before we left friends emailed me the must go to restaurants and gelato shops. When they ask if I went there, the answer is simply we stopped at places that looked good, and had no wait to get in. Social Media influencers ruin great businesses by overwhelming them with crowds of people in search of the "best in a lifetime." Avoid those businesses like the plague. 

 

Travel Tuesday: Ponta Delgada, Azores

This was our first visit to the Azores, a group of islands about 600 miles west of Portugal, politically a part of Portugal. The ship arrived in the morning and left around dinner time. It was delightful, we walked for a couple of hours, had coffee and pastries in a funky coffee shop in what looked like a former pharmacy, and did a little shopping. 

May of the sidewalks are paved with volcanic rock, inset with limestone in geometric patterns. 

The smell of the ripe pineapples was amazing. 

Sailing out of the harbor at the end of the day. 

 

Monday Mood: Settling Back Into Routine

First: A Very Happy Birthday to John over at Going Gently. 

Many experts agree that it takes a day, to adjust for every hour of change in time zone, add to that arriving home with a serious head cold, it has taken me a couple of weeks to settle back into a routine. And that is fine. It is so nice to return and not have to go back to the office. I can take my time and settle in. 

We have done a lot of grocery shopping since we returned home, we largely emptied the refrigerator before we left (I even took all of the drawers and shelves out of the refrigerator and washed them before we left.) We have been restocking, and I have been playing in the kitchen. Having fun. Some of it is inspired by things we enjoyed while away, some of it is just playing.  We had a dear neighbor over for dinner one evening last week. His husband died shortly before we left.  I cooked and baked much of the day. He said it was his first home cooked meal since his hubby died. He enjoyed the dinner, and I had the double fun of having enjoyed the day of making it. I wish I knew how to inspire others to enjoy playing in the kitchen. 

Way back in the mid 1980's I started wearing colorful patterned socks. Someone at the office made a remark about them. I said the first thing that came to mind, "the routine things in life, need not be boring." So as a settle into a normal routine, it will not be boring.  

The Sunday Five: Boulangerie

1: What pastry are you most likely to order? 

2: Coffee, tea, or other? 

3: How close is the nearest French bakery to where you live? 

4: Have you ever taken a box of pastries back to a hotel room? 

5: When was the last time you baked bread? 

My answers: 

1: What pastry are you most likely to order? Cherry. 

2: Coffee, tea, or other? Coffee, cold if available. 

3: How close is the nearest French bakery to where you live? King Street and US-1, about a mile and half away. 

4: Have you ever taken a box of pastries back to a hotel room? Yes, one of the great pleasures of travel. I keep forks in my travel kit. 

5: When was the last time you baked bread? Thursday, we had a friend over for dinner and I felt like baking. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

Saturday Morning Post: Always Ready to Create

Our minds are always ready to create. To play a familiar tune, maybe in a new way, to tell a tale, to paint from the heart, to sculpt, to shape clay, to draw.  To do this we need time and to give ourselves permission to create. To free our minds from the shoulda, coulda, oughta, thought that stifles our creativity. To let go, and let it flow. 

It is interesting the first violin is on stage playing long before the orchestra is called.  She has been judged by her peers to be the best of the best, and yet she takes advantage of a few extra minutes to create music. Not because she needs to, or has to, her very being yearns to create music, and she gives herself permission to play whenever and wherever she has a few minutes to do so.

Make time this week. Ignore Facebook for an afternoon, create while the laundry dries, skip vacuuming the floor for a week, and take back those few minutes to create. Give yourself permission to enjoy your time, it is your time, we only have so much time, if we don't choose to do what we love, others will fill our time for us.  Don't let others steal your creative moments.  

Foodie Friday: A Month of Good Eating

Tony Bourdain urged us to travel, to go to Paris, to take a table at a sidewalk cafe, order a coffee, or a glass of wine, or two glasses of wine and watch the world go by.  To relax, observe, and learn. 

Across the corner from the hotel in Paris was an amazing bakery, I went over for breakfast a couple of times, and brought treats back to the room a couple of times. Coffee and a croissant at a sidewalk table in Paris was a bucket list item for me. Ahh!  

It was chilly while were in France, we rented a golf cart to tour the gardens at Versailles, back by the Petit Trianon was this coffee cart in the back of an Ape,  heaven sent, a double espresso warmed me to the core. 

The Viennese Pastries at the Royal Palace. 

After one of the museums in Vienna, we wanted lunch and to get away from the tourist crowd, Google maps showed a local restaurant a couple of blocks off of the beaten path, and Aperol Spritz and Apple Strudel. 

Lunch at Dom Schnitzel in Vienna 

There is this tiny shop that sells cured meats and cheese on the square in front of the Pantheon in Rome. The line to get into the Pantheon was massive, we skipped that, toured the shop and inhaled deeply. We really should rent an apartment for a couple of weeks in Rome. 

The Thursday Ramble: The Best and the Not So Best of the Grand Adventure

I will start with the cruise. It was out first time on Celebrity, the ship was the Ascent, one of their newest ships. The ship was pleasant, clean and very well maintained. The food was good, there are four primary dining rooms to choose from, and we had anytime dining. We could go to any of those four for dinner and be seated. We were always able to get a table for two. The menus annoyingly changed little during a two week voyage. We booked the "Infinite Verandah" room. The room was spacious because the space normally dedicated to the outside space, is a part of the room, with a room-width roll down window at the end. I found that it made a poor verandah, when the window is open the entire space becomes open, if the weather was perfect this might be nice, but for this crossing it was too cool and wet to have the window open, others complain that when it is hot outside, the entire cabin is too warm. The theater was very nice. Beyond that the ship had a lot of space, but lacked comfortable spaces for long walks.  It was not my favorite designs, I would book again, I would actually prefer some of the older designs.   

There were six hotels involved. The Holiday Inn Express in Ft. Lauderdale was booked based on location, one turn away from the entrance to the Port. It was comfortable and served the purpose well. Our room had a view of a sewage treatment plant.  I would go back there again. The hotel in Rome was on the Borgo Pia, an ancient street one block over from the wall that runs from the Vatican to the San Angelo. The location was amazing. The room was comfortable, though small. The shower had the best water pressure of the trip. I would go back, just for the location. The hotel Rio in Milan was weird. It was in a great location, just around the corner from the Cathedral. The room was dark, small, the bathroom was large with a tiny shower. I wouldn't go back. The room in Vienna, at Max by Steinberger was wonderful. The room was HUGE, large even by America standards. Because Eurovision was in Vienna I couldn't find a hotel in the city center where we wanted to be, this was three stops out on the underground, and two blocks from the station. The underground is comfortable and efficient and runs every few minutes. It was easily the best hotel of the trip. The only flaw, was a frosted glass window between massive shower and the beds, that lit up the room at night when the light in the bathroom was on. I would go back to that hotel. The Best Western Aramis Hotel in Paris is wedged into an older building. It is across the street from the St. Placide Metro station. The room was tiny, but comfortable. The elevator is micro-tiny. Lastly was the Novotel at Charles De Gaulle airport, this was our second time staying at this airport hotel, it is directly connected to the terminals at the airport, comfortable and quiet. An airport hotel the night before a morning flight eliminates a lot of stress.  

The flight to Florida was on American Airlines, it was unremarkable. We had two flights in Austrian Airlines, one from Milan to Vienna, and then from Vienna to Paris. I have to say that the airport experience for both of these was wonderful. Check in and baggage check was quick and efficient. On both flights we were asked at baggage drop if we wanted to check our carry on bags at no charge, as the flight was full and they expected to run out of overhead space. This was so nice and boarding was much smoother. From Paris home was Delta Airlines, on frequent flyer miles.  At check in we were directed the machines to print our baggage tags, both of us were having trouble making the machines work, I asked one of the staff for help, and she said, "oh come with me, both of you," and she took us over to the first class check in counter where the process was quickly accomplished by the very helpful staff people.  We cleared immigration in Boston, using Global Entry in about two minutes - the man asked me what was in my red messenger bag, and was satisfied when I started rattling off the list, for Sweet Bear, he simply said "welcome home, you are good to go." The terminal in Boston is being rebuilt, I hope they solve the miles long walk from immigration to connecting domestic flights. It is literally a couple of miles of walking.  

The train from Rome to Milan was booked online, comfortable and efficient. We took a local train from Paris to Chartres, it was expensive but comfortable.  

Other little things.  We are getting older and when traveling with baggage for a long trip, take a taxi to and from the airports. Yes it costs a little more, but it eliminates a lot of hassle. I packed lighter, with a much smaller carry-on bag this trip, and it worked just fine. The weather was cooler than expected, I washed out a light sweater a couple of times, and we had laundry done on the ship (pre-paid when Celebrity was having a sale.)  At most we planned one highlight per day, sometimes we saw more, we had few unscheduled days. The pace was very comfortable.  We have learned to not push it, and to say, "I am done and going back to the room for the day." 

Well that is kind of the ramble, on the travel part of the trip. None of it was terrible, really only the one hotel that I would not go back to - and even it was in the perfect location.