I recently returned to Ghana and dug deeper into the lives of everyday people and the history of the country.
Africa Memories
Inner City Hummingbird
When we moved to inner city North Nashville, our yard was a dead zone … traumatized by construction, compacted, weedy yard … but through diligent efforts over a two year period we’ve created an urban oasis. A great sign of health in the yard is the appearance of hummingbirds feeding on a trellis of honeysuckle.
The Newspaper
It’s there
Lying in the fresh cut grass
Wrapped in an impossibly thin plastic bag
Drawn tight against its muscular rolled pages
I feel the strain of those who created this ballet of words and images
Reporters (called by a President the last of the talented poor)
Hoping to turn a phrase and retire to television’s lap of ephemeral luxury
Sullen photographers with purloined badges in windbreaker pockets
World weary editors hacking away the rhetorical underbrush
Remembering their reporting days with harsh judgment
Designers sliding the electrons around
Cutting off the bottom three graphs
To make a photo just a little larger
Ignoring the stack of empty spaces
Where advertising will reside in truculent support
A printer with ink under his fingernails
Who, as a matter of principle, won’t read the paper
Until it is properly presented in his own gravel driveway
Truck drivers hammering water out of potholes
A mother of two, up at four in a busted up Corolla
Flinging a paper into every twentieth ditch, yard, driveway
My ritual begins
Reading, turning pages
A headline and three paragraphs
And they better be good or I’m moving on
Ink rubbing off on my fingers
Always something delightful disturbing lovely bleak hopeful
And, then, its done
The paper, so valuable and mysterious moments ago, dead now
Read, exhausted, spent
Tossed away without a thought
Prague, Czech Republic
What a joy it is to discover a wonderful city of which I had practically no knowledge.
A delightful, complicated clock at the city center.
Breathtaking architecture.
The beauty is in the details.
Interior of the cathedral near Prague Castle.
We enjoyed lunch in this old bell tower converted to a restaurant.
There were once 12 massive bells in the tower. During Nazi occupation, soldier melted down 11 of the bells to make ammunition. This is the only bell that survived.
A delightful treat: Chimney Cakes. Roasted over open flames and filled with Nutella and whipped cream.
One of my most moving experiences was the Old Jewish Cemetery. Room after room with the names of those killed in the Holocausts. The scale and weight of the sorrow stayed with me.
Families who visit the cemetery leave pebbles on the gravestones to illustrate their relatives are not forgotten.
I surprised ruby with a visit to a jazz club.
A visit to the Museum of Communism was an unexpected pleasure.
Delicious roasted meats were on offer at the Christmas Market.
Beautiful details on buildings throughout Prague.
A parting image of Prague, with the old reflected in the windows of the new.
Vienna, Austria
Superb Christmas markets throughout the city. A night out with friends.
Out little Christmas Tree.
Dog-shaped wreath.
Magnificent architectural detail.
We loved this little restaurant with cups and kitchen utensils handing from the chandeliers.
Christmas morning.
A concert by the Royal Vienna Orchestra in an elaborate venue.
Cici Palace.
Elaborate folded napkins.
Budapest, Hungary
New Answer to the Question: If you could live anywhere in the world and had to decide right now, where would you live?
I loved everything about Budapest. Ruby and I play a game where we ask the question: If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live? My answer has always been Florence, Italy. Until I experienced Budapest.
We loved everything about Budapest. The Christmas Market. The center city. The people.
A whole cooked pig at the Budapest Christmas Market.
The baths, fed by natural hot springs, were spectacular.
One of the great meals of our trip, maybe our life, at Bombay Budapest.
Budapest is a sophisticated city with just a little grit.
Zagreb, Croatia
Our first night in Central Europe was in Zagreb. There was a celebration of the national team for its excellent showing in the World Cup.
An artful and ancient city.
Peasant woman.
Cobblestones.
The umbrella is a national symbol.
Negril, Jamica
Gracie in Nashville
So Far From 