http://www.record-eagle.com en-us Copyright CNHI All Rights Reserved. 5 Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:50:56 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_318215046.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_318215046.html I noticed stuff -- little things, really -- during our early October New York adventure that are worth mentioning. Jenny and I had flown there when she was 10, to learn French. I'd noticed her aptitude for picking up languages, and felt the time was right. Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:15:56 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_312081652.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_312081652.html Sigh ... Friday morning, true to form, smack in the middle of Manhattan, I managed an absolutely splendiferous faux pas, a feat I seem to repeat with depressing frequency. Jen took us, via the underground trains, to visit Roberto at his Fifth Avenue architectural firm. We'd been promised a tour, and, as architecture and I have enjoyed a lifelong romance, this expedition was eagerly anticipated. Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:00:56 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_304210121.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_304210121.html A bilious billboard reappeared again and again as I was ferried, via bike basket-nest all over New York. Huh. Piles of desperate people were seeking out their clinics, eliminating that worry. I bent double, speechless, convulsed with laughter, for what seemed like hours. Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:30:54 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_298083207.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_298083207.html On Oct. 8 Joe and I flew to New York for three days, guests of our oldest daughter and her lovely man. They treated us to unique tours of Brooklyn and the city from bikes -- or, more accurately, from three bikes. Nothing in Roberto's collection of nine sleek racers suited my small frame, so I was popped into a roomy, cushion-padded, low-slung steel basket in front of a specially constructed pumpkin-orange cycle. Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:00:53 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_291080304.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_291080304.html Sometimes, 2 eager and 2 ignorant add up to 4-get it. Unfortunately, I'm the poster child for pouncing on potential solutions before thinking carefully. Happily, 2 problems in 2 countries resolved because I didn't mind looking silly in my search for solutions. Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:05:56 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_283210606.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_283210606.html Sometimes, just before drifting off, I'll recall what flavored my day. Something always does. For example: Crossing State Street toward Wilson's Antiques I'd passed a miniature dachshund sitting upright in a low-slung stroller, gazing confidently around. His owner, a casually dressed man, pushed his charge while chatting with companions. Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:00:56 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_269200150.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_269200150.html The silliest, best idea I've had lately involves London ceramic chimney pots. I already owned two, bought cheap 20 years ago, and still boasting London soot. They partially disguise my tall, skinny overhead irrigation pipes. Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:05:55 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_262200650.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_262200650.html When mother and David moved to Bryn Garth cottage in 1981, they wanted to muffle the traffic sounds coming from the two-lane highway far below. Laurel introduced itself at a local nursery. It sat in its pot, those fat, perfect leaves thick, shiny and unblemished, ignored by disease or insects. Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:00:56 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_255200144.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_255200144.html It's incredibly frustrating to function financially in England if one lacks British citizenship. Even dangling deposit money in front of official noses doesn't make a dent in their demeanor. Sat, 05 Sep 2009 20:55:56 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_248205553.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_248205553.html That night I woke with a start to hoarse murmurs and splashes in the main fountain from invader-waders caring not a whit for stealth. I bolted down the stairs to the kitchen window. A full moon revealed two well-fed raccoons playing in the pool, tweaking the swans' beaks. Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:00:55 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_241220457.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_241220457.html Close your eyes. Picture a long, slim, paved country lane framed either side by precisely planted, half-century-old oaks emphasizing its gentle curve to the vanishing point. Sunlight filtered benignly through those sentinels' lush leaves onto a closely mown carpet of dappled, emerald grass. Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:50:55 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_234195201.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_234195201.html I was invited to Mensa's July luncheon meeting at a Traverse City restaurant to rattle on about my column (especially the "England saga") and mingle with the folks. It had been in my date book for nearly five months. Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:50:56 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_227195131.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_227195131.html This 10-day return trip was necessary. The insurance claim wants settling. We'll visit David (my late mother's cherished husband), now happily snug in a lovely countryside care home nearby. Elderly, he's felt much safer there, surrounded by devoted caregivers. Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:40:54 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_220194122.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_220194122.html One afternoon two smartly dressed ladies rang the bell and wandered through, discussing the merits of text-messaging. Hands waved, voices rose and fell as Lady One told of how her daughter had shared Darly's first day at nursery school by "texting" her mother, who was on her way home from shopping. Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:58:00 +0000 http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_213205525.html http://www.record-eagle.com/deeblair/local_story_213205525.html Millicent, 72 years old, was a widow. Ten years before, her husband, a minister, had died suddenly, leaving her alone in a drafty parsonage in Essex. One morning she calculated that 46 years had been spent in her kitchen, willingly preparing meals for village fetes, and a myriad of good causes.