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This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Combination of ‘Huckleberry Fin’ and ‘The Wizard of Oz’ – ‘This Tender Land’ offers a river odyssey set in a Minnesota that is part real and part imagined. Odie – short for the famous Greek traveler Odysseus – is a storyteller. This skill helps him get through the long hours of solitary confinement where he…
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Minneapolis – Turning the Wound Into Light
Art is a wound turned into light. — Georges Braque ‘So what was it like for you in Minneapolis?’ is a question I’ve received quite a bit recently. The week after the murder of George Floyd started off as a quiet one with mourning and vigils. However, soon the quiet vigils turned into riots and destruction.…
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All About Love by Bell Hooks
‘But it was love’s absence that let me know how much love mattered.’ — Bell Hooks Years ago I was astonished to learn that the ancient Greeks had eight different words for love. Even more astonishing to me was that the most valued form of love in today’s society – romantic love – wasn’t even…
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Mont-Saint-Michel: Worth a look
There is a huge decision to make for those visiting Normandy. ‘Should we visit Mont-Saint-Michel even though it’s one of the more popular tourist destinations in the world?’ After all, it’s not an easy place to get to unlike many other cathedrals and small churches you can encounter on your average Church Walk. To help…
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Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens
Even during a drought there is still plenty of beauty to be seen at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town.
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South Africa Wine Country
By a set of lucky circumstances a friend and I found ourselves on a three-day South Africa wine country tour with Luhambo Tours while the rest of our group were off on safari. On Day 1 we were met at our hotel in Cape Town by our new best friend Graham Nicoll. As we drove…
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In Search of Monet’s Water Lilies in Giverny
I first became aware of Claude Monet as a freshman in college when I walked into a friend’s dorm room one day and there above her bed was a poster like none I had ever seen before; a bridge with water lilies. The painting was surrounded by a thick green border with ‘Claude Monet’ written…
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Fjord Safari
One of the more popular day trips out of Bergen is to the small town of Flåm located on the Nærøyfjord. We drove out there one September day without a particular plan in mind. We had heard that the top attractions in this small town surrounded by mountains is the Flåm railway so after parking…
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Bergen Food Tour
We came to Norway in September expecting fjords, a bit of rain and the northern lights. Well, there were definitely fjords as well as a bit more rain than expected and no northern lights BUT there was also an amazing food tour in the city of Bergen. Our tour started at the outdoor food market.…
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Yes, there is enough love in the world – A tale of politics, walking and urban lakes.
This afternoon I had beer with a friend at a local brewery. Not extraordinary – one can’t leave the house nowadays without tripping over a local brewery. The extraordinary part was her tale of what happened to her the day before. As she was walking home from a pilates class, her route took her along…