Thursday Doors: Alicante, Spain

After my trip back to the US (visit here if you’d like to see) in August to visit family and friends, my husband and I strategically packed up our apartment in France, shoving all our belongs into one large suitcase each plus a carry-on.  As our Schengen Zone visa was preparing to expire in a few weeks,…

Inhabitants of the Woodpile

Benji spent hours playing by the woodpile.  His mother smiled, glancing through the back window. What a wonderful imagination Benji has, she thought, pretending the bugs to be fairies. Benji ducked behind the woodpile and bent close to a damselfly hovering near his nose.  Its iridescent wings buzzed and its metallic blue body shivered.  Benji…

Thursday Doors: Family Home

If I summed up travel during this time, I would say, “Be prepared to hurry up in order to wait.”  Delay is the key word.   In July, after my trial trip to Carcassonne (see post from last week) to reacquaint myself with the world outside my apartment, I boarded a bus in Perpignan, France…

Thursday Doors: Bastide Saint-Louis, Carcassonne, France

The week before last, my contribution to “Thursday Doors” was from a trip my husband and I took in June to Carcassonne, southern France (visit here). The photos I featured were of the ancient fortified city that sits perched on a hill overlooking the lower city or the ville basse on the left bank of…

Chaos

Sally hunched over her toys.  She struggled in vain to ignore the commotion swirling around her. Raised voices reached out to her.  She cringed watching her parents shake their scarlet red faces and blow air from their puffed cheeks.   A man in a burgundy suit coat, wearing a strange kind of smile, stood among…