Sometimes you want to go, Where everybody knows your name And they’re always glad you came. You want to go where people know People are all the same You want to go where everybody knows your name
Not a great photo, but I think you get my drift: with its comfortable seating and comforting food, Avli is waiting for me across my pedestrian-only street, several times a week.
With the latest Iran news, or maybe I mean, US-Israel news, it’s a great bolt-hole.
Actually, my micro-apartment’s spacious terrace is also a great escape. I was joined by a couple young Egyptian friends, for a look at the planetary parade on display last night: good pizza from Mystic, great Cabernet Sauvignon from I don’t know where.
Just so beautifully intricate, and so beyond reach,
This brilliant fluorescent shell with its paper-thin layers Like those great pieces* left by the tide on an Aegean beach.
Just so beautifully intricate, and so beyond reach,
The potential, very often achieved, of knowing how
to teach.
Although sometimes seeming one myself, at heart I never believed the naysayers.
Just so beautifully intricate, and so beyond reach,
This flashing, fluorescent shell with its paper-thin layers.
*abalone shells!
A Brief Memory: August 2025
Mark Bittman on salmon burgers – I couldn’t not think of Finn.
We grilled in my alley on that tiny Weber before vandals took it away! Yesterday I made Indian chicken curry, likewise in honor of where we’d “been”
I couldn’t not think of Finn.
And though much better at cards, he often let me win.
Whether Western Ave or Greece was better, I couldn’t say.
Mark Bittman’s recipe for salmon burgers – I couldn’t not think of Finn.
We grilled in my alley on that tiny Weber before vandals took it away!
A 19th Birthday
Other birthdays, other years,
But 2025 the first without you.
We had a Mass and several Igram tears. Other birthdays, other years.
Memories, yes, and of course as it nears,
Fall leaves, maybe pumpkin bars, and some things new? Other birthdays, other years
But 2025 the first without you.
Quite awhile ago, I went to Ananda Ashram, Tamil Nadu (for 6 out of 7 winters, actually). This year, Senthil, the staff, and these beautiful students held a memorial .
Fresh, local, artisanal — Food, plants, crafts. Ceci took her mother and me for a tour before her KAPPA sorority’s open house—
U of Oregon is a Presence
“Like ‘Calamity’ Jane, only I’m gentle,” said the lovely Chamomile Jane owner, as she posed @ the Saturday Market with son Forest and me…
His shirt reads “No Added Sugar.”
The man next to me ordered some duck eggs.Teresa loved the Afghanistan and Thai dishes which she started and I finished! I’m thinking: if this Saturday Market in Eugene, OR can do it, maybe an apartment building in St Paul, MN could do it. BRILLIANT
During Christmas week, my granddaughter Mary was in Rome with her liturgical student choir, Pueri Cantores, to sing at Masses and perform concerts in several basilicas. Elizabeth and I tagged along with Mary and Leilani.
S. Andrea della Valle — Elizabeth and I were on our electric golf carttour [sic], where the tour guide was as flexible as he was knowledgeable, so we had him stop here. Be patient w. this video: it’s worth a listen.
Every Roman church had its Presepe.
E. and I in front of Bernini’s “Elefantino,” outside S.M. sopra Minerva…an homage to TOM BRIEL, and the early-teen visit/forced march he made to Rome. This statue and obelisk were, I think, the best part of that odyssey.
Speaking of homages, we had lunch here, in Piazza Navona
When I sent this Lemoncello TOAST to Matthew, he reminded me — “Achilles was drinking wine when he was 4.”
… and just before this photo was snapped, Mary shook his hand!
Always difficult: I hate to leave Western Avenue when the weather is perfect. Even from my sunroom, over my first latté, it’s been a lovely several months.
A Sunday favorite: Our Family Zoom, great or small — never an indicator of quality — happens wherever we are. A couple Sundays ago, I was the only family member joining from Minnesota.
Then last week, I saw two great friends in Massachusetts, friends who took me to that town at the tip-end of the Cape, and true to form, PTown showed us her many sides —
Then direct from Boston to this Aegean city: I know about four Greek words, but nobody has ever held that against me (or against anybody, from what I can tell).
Oh, and coffee and Podcasts. This week, as the Synod begins in Rome, there’s been the gift of daily meditations by Timothy Radcliffe, OP,
What I’ll do in Athens: I go to Melissa in a couple days, but happily for me, this is a 4-day weekend. National elections. So, the Greek notion of days off, whether for demonstrations, strikes, or elections, persists. It works for me.
A word about the Athens digs: The studio apartment is as gargantuan as ever, and the terrace — whether for coffee and meditation (in that order), or coffee and staring, or coffee and reading — the terrace has never disappointed.
Megan drove us into another world today. We saw, I for the first time, the rooms where Charles Darwin worked and lived, including the study where he wrote On the Origin of the Species
So, this may not be the study, and I may not have played billiards, but then again…
But these ARE a small part of the Down House gardens where we walked this afternoon. Elizabeth I came to town for a christening in the late 1550’s, so this pub, named for her, has been around for awhile. I recommend the Fish & Chips, and Megan would tell you the star is the Wagyu burger. Anyhow, lovely staff, brilliant place.
Busier than I’ve ever seen it – and more wonderful – I’m privileged, for awhile, to spend mornings at Melissa. Then it’s home to Methonis, the pedestrian street in Exarcheia,. Here on Methonis is the bolt-hole I can call home again for a bit. . Covered with graffiti – Elizabeth has posted great photos of it in the neighborhood, as has Matt Barrett (more gaudy than E’s, and i can’t find hers at this moment (hint, Elizabeth) – my favorite restaurant, my “Cheers” is here. So are some of the best sunset views. In a word, LIFE IS GOOD. xx
First, though, a stay-over in Howard Lake: Auggie, May, and by herself, Queen Evelyn. I love the the crosses on their backs.
Many summers, my mother and I made drives like this, from Iowa to Nebraska, saw fields and farms like this. Tom drove us — past farmland you forget about when you’re somewhere else.This field is somewhere near Sioux City (or Salix or Sergeant Bluff, or Winnebago). I look at it as I’m writing this a month later in St Paul and think of ancestors who knew land like thisso well.
The Great Midwest Plains.
Brother William’s favorite Dalmatian
Omaha’s Old Market never disappoints.
On cue, the seagulls appeared as the blessing began.
St Francis of Assisi would be pleased — thanks, Tom, THANK YOU, BROTHER WILLIAM!
Finn joined me in Atlanta with what I assumed was a summer cold, and by Athens I was hounding pharmacies for antihistamines and saline drops for both of us.
We carried on, easy to do in one of the world’s best cities —
Sherpa Finn
Yes, a record
Fisher Finn, prepping
Teacher Finn
Horiatiki, Squid, etc etc
Then an email from mn.gov informed me that someone I’d “been in contact with during the past 15 days” had just tested positive for COVID-19. It was one thing to consider changing flights and Airbnb’s because of the fires raging in Rhodes. Going into quarantine? Aargh. But we knew what we had to do.
Iva recommended a good lab. Sadigue and Amir came along with us — we’d spent a lot of time with them in the previous couple days — and off we all went for a Rapid Test.
In the end, all four of us tested negative, we said our good-byes, and went off to Porto Rafti for fishing and seafood.
Finn hanging in there as we all waited for the COVID test, and helping our friend do the same.
This silly man is trying to instruct Finn on fishing.
mebtravelling 