Green stamps
When I was very young, I remember my mother collecting S&H Green Stamps.* The stamps were green, they carried different point values (1, 10, and 50), and they came in perforated sheets, like postage stamps. When you bought things, mainly groceries, but also lots of other things, the merchant would hand you the receipt along with a row or block of the stamps whose point value related to the sale total.
I’m starting a new feature of my blog: to tell the stories of a few of the people I meet in my travels, people who offer a product or service that I appreciate. They are people who lead lives of creativity and passion and craftsmanship, in a word, artisans. These are not ads or paid promotions, but rather my own experience of something noteworthy to share with you. I am calling the feature “New Discoveries,” and you’ll be able to search by that term to see other installments.
And now a drumroll, please … I bring you a very special perfume shop.
I come from the United States, where this is the season of Thanksgiving. For my readers outside the U.S., please know that I’m not trying to force an American holiday on you! Rather than thinking of this as a day off work for eating a lot and watching football on TV, I choose to focus on it being a time to give thanks, and that is something that all of us can participate in, no matter the country, and truthfully, no matter the season.
I think of this holiday as an opportunity to reflect on the great gift of love, such as the shared love of family and friends or the love a person has for her town or her country. And for me, it is a time to express gratitude for the blessings in my life.
One hour’s harvest of red pine mushrooms, also called saffron milk cap.
Mushrooms and Chestnuts, or Champignons et Châtaignes
Last week we donned our “wet forest” walking clothes and drove up into the hills behind town, in search of the edibles our forests could offer that day. It had rained two days before, and rain brings thoughts of the mushrooms that will appear shortly afterward.
Our first parking spot was in an area of scrub oak and some tall pine trees. It was the pines that captured our attention, because they mark the place to search for the vivid orange Lactaire Délicieux, also known as red pine mushroom or saffron milk cap.
A tale of two artists
During recent travels, I’ve had the great good fortune to see breathtaking works by two artists whose works explore the human connection to the beauty and wonder of nature. I bring you Dom Robert and Andy Goldsworthy.
Continue reading “Artists finding nature, plus a photo puzzle!”
It’s all in how you say hello
Or to be more precise, it’s all about the humanity in taking a moment to properly greet one another. A year ago, I wrote two posts about saying hello and saying goodbye, although those were really stories about interacting with people who crossed my path. In this post, I’m going to address the language itself.
Lo Vedo Life 