Blog

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As a curious observer of life, I blog on writing, marketing, my prairie - anything that interests me in the moment. I like to have conversations with readers, so don’t hesitate to leave a comment. I'll respond.

It's the "country" side

By Carol / 04 June 2011 /

This morning I awoke to the sound of a rooster crowing. Actually, every morning this month, that rooster has been my wake up call. I do believe he gets up earlier every day, and usually…

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Living with history

By Carol / 03 June 2011 /

If you lived with a Roman aqueduct running through your yard, would you think about history differently?  I asked myself that today when we biked for a mile or so along the base of an…

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Celebrating a national holiday

By Carol / 02 June 2011 /

We hit the roads on our bikes this morning eager to burn off the energy we’d built up when an all-day rain kept us inside. At first we didn’t notice it, but by the time…

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In search of the perfect gelato

By Carol / 01 June 2011 /

If you look up the definition of Italy in the dictionary, at least one of the entries must be ‘gelato.’ Gelato is ubiquitous.  Even bars sell gelato. On our orientation tour of the neighborhood, our…

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Sharing the road

By Carol / 31 May 2011 /

We biked into Lucca this morning – to tour the old city by bike rather than on foot, to eat breakfast at a sidewalk café, to check out the bus schedule to Pisa. Our route…

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It's everyday in Italy

By Carol / 30 May 2011 /

We realized this morning that we’ve stopped taking pictures of every door, every flower, every traditional Tuscan tile building we see. What that signaled to us is that we’re settling in, beginning to live the…

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We remember them all

By Carol / 29 May 2011 /

The stories we can know from reading cemetery stones are brief but often poignant. Read a stone marking the death of a young man in 1918 or 1942 or 1969 and you may guess this…

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"Connection Lost" – A month of Skype frustration

By Carol / 28 May 2011 /

Everyone told us how great Skype was. I have friends who happily chat away between states, in other countries, across oceans and time zones. My husband and I really thought it would be cool to…

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Cinque Terre – Cultural fusion

By Carol / 27 May 2011 /

  My last two blogs about Cinque Terre have been ‘off the beaten track.’ In fact, the area is a delightful fusion of traditional Italian architecture where buildings climb hills and cling to cliffs, where…

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Look at the snow!

By Carol / 26 May 2011 /

As we plotted our trip to Cinque Terre, I noticed that Carrara, Italy, known for the white marble quarried there since Roman times, was right along the way. This is the same area that produced…

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