Spitalfields Life
Best tagline ever…”In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house next to Brick Lane in the East End of London.” Vivid, vivid, life observed.
Hecktic Travels
Won’t make Marrakesh this year…but these travelers encourage me not to give up the dream.
Atlas Obscura
Today, July 24, 2021, it sent to my inbox a message about the incredibly pricy sale of Sylvia Plath’s recipe cards and (really pretty embossed) rolling pin. This is a site not to get too sunk into or will never escape. In a good way. (But for visiting Chicago and its wonderfully weird nooks and crannies, a must-check.)
Allerton Park
Peonies dedicated to my parents and my shepherd/collie mix’s favorite “go to the park”? He could not contain his excitement seeing each time where that country road led. This site’s creek cam does make me a little homesick, but with smile.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Lots of school trips here, and long peaceful walks. The tower, can see forever.
Zilker Botanical Garden
Right in the heart of Austin. Gem where my family strolled many peaceful days. My young son explored the Pioneer Village and the Prehistoric Garden. I breathed well at the Taniguchi Garden’s bridge and pavilion. What a treasure is this place.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
I can see our old seats when I stream from Austin. And my little cat becomes so much calmer when I play CSO.
Art Institute of Chicago
This place where I would camp for a month…if I could, and wander whenever I wanted..so much astounding human creativity, through centuries. Got me through a very (very) cold graduate school winter a while ago. Now I can not wait to get back to the huge light snowy or sunny Modern Wing and of course (of course) the stairs up to the Impressionist galleries. For now the “Collections” tab gets me there.
National Portrait Gallery London
My appreciation for life writing is the word part. My visual sense kind of matches up. I’ve wandered this place for hours, over the years, and been compelled by the faces and the costumes and the landscapes. Another place I would shack up for a month and keep wandering.
Victoria and Albert Museum
(Right now, December 2021, there’s a Beatrix Potter show…not interested) but mostly I love this museum for its’ design and fashion permanent exhibitions. And the staircases. Another place I would camp in for at least a month if that were possible.
Charleston House, Lewes, England
This is an unbelievable place of lived creativity, leaving a bit of artistic clutter but in a home like no other. Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf’s sister) and companions painted constantly for decades, every surface, all the furniture. (I painted my own dining room table, myself, in the Charleston style, but in my Austin backyard. Took me forever.) Both my husband and my son have visited with me there. Good trips (and some minor misadventures with car tires.)
The Menil Collection
Gob smack full of space and light, priceless art, Rothko Chapel just a very short walk down the greeny street.
Rothko Chapel
Place to deeply reflect, serenity in the kind of nutty world we somehow cope with right now.
MacArthur Foundation
The “more just, verdant, peaceful world” sometimes is part of my background when salad making during PBS NewsHour. I should pay more attention.
And my Dad’s name is Arthur…my best example of a very good man.
Freedom Reads
One of the 2021 MacArthur Fellows, Reginald Dwayne Betts, a man who made serious adversity in his life into something better not only for himself but surely also for others. Can not underestimate the link between reading and thought and practice.
Sandy Hook Promise
It’s a little hard to write that I “like” this site because it came from unfathomable grief. But it turns that pain into purpose. (While raising him, my own son gave me a few scares, and after an accident at summer care while I was at work (got to pay mortgage), could have bled out/died, really, really, really. Some nights in hospital with him and he recovered. So we were lucky.) I cannot begin to comprehend the pain of losing a beautiful, much loved, child to violence that never should happen. Those little precious faces.
International Rescue Committee
Conflict, climate change, politics that make it as hard, hard as it can be for the immigrants who make this affluent country (depending on who you are and where you live) help do its day-by-day. My own Grandfather was a teenage immigrant about a century ago. He (and my Grandmother) worked at hard, sometimes dangerous, jobs his (and her) whole life and made a home and family, with new generations of his (and her) name still productive and giving back. Surely this nation with resources (obviously not equitable for all, but with loads and loads, overloads, for some) can see the worth of welcoming those who also might build a better inclusive future.
Living New Deal
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were my first childhood hero and heroine (along with Franklin’s little dog Fala, namesake of my first dog…ruff…and main character in a pretty good old political speech). A battered old poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Eleanor wrote, is stuck up on my wall. They were a remarkable team (even with their human imperfections) and their examples of commitment to social and economic justice helped to shape my own thinking and my own values. Next up Green New Deal.
Dayna Finet 