Giant green stalks. Affectionately known among friends here as ‘sparkles’, a play on the  German word for asparagus, ‘spargel’.

Russian salad is a bit like the term borsht. There are as many recipes for how to make either of these as there are people making them. One co...

Inception to Publication – what it takes to make a blog post. Notes on process.

Working on Social distancing – A visit to Moscow, it nagged at me, the time it takes me to make a post. The post itself began on Friday, 10 April. The post was published Friday 8 May. Part o...

This is a one of two portraits done by my friend Konstantin Zubrilan in whose studio I spent many wonderful salon like afternoons and evenings. It reminds me, I was once a person who had her portrait painted. The second portrait is in the hands of an old friend in the...

View of lake Lugano, at our first Qi gong group.

Just before Lugano went on lockdown four soul sisters came together to do a session of Qi gong and have a walk. We did this in one of their spectacular gardens. The sun was shining, and we enjoyed, complete with giggles a...

My beautiful, magical carnations which give me joy a hundred times a day.

It is the end of April as I write this and in Lugano we have been on lockdown since 17 March. Various parts of the world are observing varying degrees of lockdown for varied time periods. Just a f...

Chickpea. Garbanzo beans. Ceci. Chana. Gram. Top top mama. Nohut.

Whatever country you’re from whatever you call it, this beautiful bean is one of my personal comfort foods. 

As a very small child I am told my teeth would not come in and Poppa, my Spanish great grandf...

On one of their royal pillows, Bunny & Bearli pose on the terrace with their homemade masks, compliments of Poppy.

Creativity in lockdown is a particular delight.
 

When one evening Claudio said in his super sexy accent, “Bunny & Bearli need masks”, my ears perked up.

He...

 Click the image of me in Rome giving out hugs or this caption to see the video - and send it to someone who you want to hug/needs a hug today.

Remember when it was a thing to stand in the street and give FREE hugs?
I am told that YouTube videos went viral of people fro...

If you are wondering where Vladivostok is, go to Japan and take a left. For an image of the entire Russia Far East see the bottom of this post.

For me personally, Vladivostok is the epicentre of my universe. It is where I began my life abroad and from where the core fri...

Bunny & the Bearli's admire coconut palms at sunset on the beach outside our guest house Whispering Shells in Kalutara, Sri Lanka.

King coconut. Possibly one of the things that makes me love southern India and Sri Lanka so much is the coconut. Plentiful on the trees, co...