Today in Meat Camp. AND, I leave for Paris in one month (squeee!)

 'tis another snowy day in Meat Camp

Winter is the best time

to find out who you are.

Quiet, contemplation time,

away from the rushing world,

cold time, dark time, holed-up

pulled-in time and space

to see that inner landscape,

that place hidden and within.

- - - by David Budbill

I leave for Paris in one month.  

(yes, yes, yes, I know I've mentioned it a time or two.  No Apologies!  I'm excited.  And, yes, I'm absolutely positively sure I'll be mentioning it more than a few more times both before leaving, while I'm there, AND upon returning.  It's good to have good things happening to be happy and excited about during these hard days of gloom and doom.  Right?!!  Damn right.  😊 )

Today, I decided, is a perfect day to pull out a few guidebooks to decide which, if any, to toss into my suitcase.

This is, of course, way too many guidebooks to even consider packing.  Add to that, I am being very careful this trip to pack as lightly as possible.  I would normally have Donald with me when flying, and he (being the gentleman his mom and dad raised him to be) always lifts my suitcase up and into the overhead for me.  Without Donald this trip, it will be up to me to get tha suitcase into the overhead.  Weight is of THE utmost importance this trip.

Once deciding if I need to take a guidebook or two then I'll check to see if there's a Kindle version.  OMG i love my Kindle.

Yes.  I do have a fascination with Paris.  

And a deep love of books.

 And, okay . . .

 admittedly, a bit of an obsession with books about France. 

And (again) I make no apologies -

I do love my Little Paris Library

But wait -

That's not all!

Looking for an escape to France?!

Check here -

https://www.kayebarleymeanderingsandmuses.com/2018/01/my-paris-reading-list.html

Looking for research material for France?!

Check here -

https://www.kayebarleymeanderingsandmuses.com/2022/02/my-paris-reading-list-non-fiction.html

Both lists were updated last May.  

Maybe I'll use this snow day as the perfect opportunity  to update the lists.  Maybe.

Bonne lecture, mes amis

❤ ❤ ❤ 

🗼💋 ☕ 🍾 🇫🇷 

Recommendation -

 If you're familiar with author Jeffrey Siger, it's probably because you read his Andreas Kaldis series set in Greece.  And if you haven't discovered this series yet, you should!  After all, The Greek government named Jeff as the only American author writing novels serving as a Guide to Greece.  

Aside from that - it's a terrific series that gets better with each book.

BUT.

Now we have a new Jeff Siger book.  The first in a new series.

I received it yesterday and read it in one sitting, and already tapping my foot impatiently waiting for the next one.  

Description from Jeff's webpage -

A Study in Secrets

Book 1 of the Redacted Man Mysteries

Now available in the UK and US

A retired gentleman with a complicated past. A missing priceless treasure. A young woman in trouble. The first in the brand-new Redacted Man mystery series set in NYC featuring Michael A, a Sherlock Holmes-worthy sleuth with a George Smiley secret-agent past.

Michael is a true gentleman who since retiring from the intelligence services lives a quiet, comfortable life. Practically a recluse and partially handicapped, he spends his days imagining the lives of the anonymous people he watches in the park beneath the windows of his elegant New York City townhouse–number 221–his every need tended to by his housekeeper, Mrs. Baker. He takes great care never to get involved in the lives of those he observes…until one day everything changes.

Each morning for weeks he watches a girl sit in the park at dawn. Always alone. Always watchful. And when the sun rises, she vanishes, as if she were never there. One day her routine changes–and Michael realizes she faces terrible danger. For reasons unclear even to himself he makes an uncharacteristic decision to abandon his solitude and help her.

Soon, Michael finds himself confronting the New York City underworld in an unexpected search for a priceless missing treasure. He’ll have to rely upon all the tricks of his former trade and resurrect long neglected relationships if he’s to keep not just himself, but his new friend, alive.

* * *

Now, in the spirit of transparency, I may have met the guy a time or two.

Let me just say - he's a doll.  Married to one of the most sainted of women.

And he can make you laugh till you think you might die.

These photos were taken in New Orleans at Bouchercon 2016 with some of my partners in crime

David Chaudoir and Lesa Holstine

David, Lesa and Jeff

Me with the Mrs. and the Mr.
Barbara and Jeff

Lesa, me and Jeff chatting about . . . shoes???

Jeff and Barbara

Maddee James (webmaster extraordinaire), David Chaudoir, Lesa Holstine, Jeff and Barbara, David Magayna




Now go buy Jeff's newest book!

You will thank me

😘

Happy President's Day!

 

Small Kindnesses

 Some days we need to be reminded -

Small Kindnesses

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying…
Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back…
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”

              - - -  Danusha Laméris

Paris Bound. Soon!! (edited)

A few weeks from now I will be in Paris.

Those of you who know me know I'm a lover of Paris.  I cannot get enough of Paris.

Paris and Meat Camp, NC are the places I love best in the world.  The places I get homesick for.  And, of course, they could not be any more different.  

But both are beautiful.

This trip to Paris is a girl's trip.  No husbands allowed.

No Donald and Annabelle.  No Brent and Roxie.

 

With long time gal pal, sister of my heart, partner in crime, Vickie.  

Vickie and I will be spending 10 days doing what we've decided will be a different sort of Paris trip.

We've decided to stay in a part of Paris neither of us have stayed previously.

The Latin Quarter.  

In a hotel with our very own balcony overlooking the Pantheon.

Squeeeeeee!

My first trip to Paris was also a girl's trip.  With Vickie and Lesa and Lisa.

It was wonderful, of course.  We did "all the things."

All the things you should do - The Eiffel Tower, a Seine River Cruise, museums, famous gardens, etc.

I loved it so much I went back a year later with Donald.  And, of course, we did "all the things."

And then Donald and I went back the following year to do a little more than "all the things,"  which included searching out carousels, which had to include visiting the Musée des Arts Forains, which just might be THE MOST fun museum you'll find in Paris (or maybe anywhere).

 

All of which resulted in our book, CAROUSELS OF PARIS.  

One of my heroes, Dorie Greenspan, had this to say:  "Carousels are an unexpected pleasure in Paris, a sight you come upon on a random stroll, see in a small park you hadn’t visited before or find in a plaza strung with holiday lights. Some are permanent, some ephemeral, all magical. Merci to Kaye Barley for creating this book and giving us all the chance to be charmed by these Parisian delights daily.”

—Dorie Greenspan, James Beard Award-Winning Author

Donald and I have been back often enough that we've broadened our exploring to include much more than " all the things, " including French villages well beyond Paris.

Honfleur

So.

This trip we will do some of the things simply depending on what feels right on that particular day.

There are, of course, a few things that we have on our "must do" list.  

Some of these are - 

A Saturday at a large flea market, probably Puces de Vanves which is not as large as Puces de Saint-Ouen, but every bit as fun and rewarding without being confusing and exhausting.  But.  We'll see.  We may decide that morning that we really need to go to Puces de Saint-Ouen.  Who knows.

A day exploring the covered passages.

Bookstores, galleries, art supply shops and needlework shops.

Shopping at nearby outdoor street markets for goodies to have for apéro on our hotel balcony overlooking the Pantheon.  

Vintage clothing shopping.

And so much more . . . 

Me and Vic

Paris

2017

Horizon (to Tristan Tzara) by Philippe Soupault

The whole town has come into my room
the trees have disappeared
and evening clings to my fingers
The houses are turning into ocean liners
the sound of the sea has just reached me up here
In two days we’ll arrive in the Congo
I’ve passed the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn
I know there are innumerable hills
Notre-Dame hides the Gaurisankar and the northern lights
night falls drop by drop
I await the hours

Give me that lemonade and the last cigarette
I’m going back to Paris

(translated by Rosmarie Waldrop)

Latest book recommendation

 

As a person trying to stay sane in a world gone crazy, i escape into books.

Not every book works.

And just because I start reading a particular book does not mean I'm going to finish it.

Life's just too short to waste time reading a book that does not speak to me.

RED CLAY by Charles B. Fancher hit all the right notes.

There’s nothing I love more than a saga. There just aren’t that many being written these days.

RED CLAY by Charles B. Fancher Description from Amazon

An astounding multigenerational saga, Red Clay chronicles the interwoven lives of an enslaved Black family and their white owners as the Civil War ends and Reconstruction begins.

In 1943, when a frail old white woman shows up in Red Clay, Alabama, at the home of a Black former slave—on the morning following his funeral—his family hardly knows what to expect after she utters the words “… a lifetime ago, my family owned yours.” Adelaide Parker has a story to tell—one of ambition, betrayal, violence, and redemption—that shaped both the fate of her family and that of the late Felix H. Parker.

But there are gaps in her knowledge, and she’s come to Red Clay seeking answers from a family with whom she shares a name and a history that neither knows in full. In an epic saga that takes us from Red Clay to Paris, to the Côte d’Azur and New Orleans, human frailties are pushed to their limits as secrets are exposed and the line between good and evil becomes ever more difficult to discern. Red Clay is a tale that deftly lays bare the ugliness of slavery, the uncertainty of the final months of the Civil War, the optimism of Reconstruction, and the pain and frustration of Jim Crow.

With a vivid sense of place and a cast of memorable characters, Charles B. Fancher draws upon his own family history to weave a riveting tale of triumph over adversity, set against a backdrop of societal change and racial animus that reverberates in contemporary America. Through seasons of joy and unspeakable pain, Fancher delivers rich moments as allies become enemies, and enemies—to their great surprise—find new respect for each other.

Aloka and The Monks vs. The Monster (edited)

The past several weeks have brought emotions that have kept us on a roller coaster like none we've endured in the past.

On one hand, we have this ridiculously demented corrupt evil man living in our White House, wreaking everything he touches or breathes on.  And, for all intents and purposes - nothing much getting done by a spineless and/or compromised congress to remove him.  

On the other hand, we've been privileged to follow a group of Buddhist monks led by the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara accompanied by their rescue dog, Aloka. 

Their walk from Fort Worth, Texas to D.C. has been to promote peace, compassion, and mindfulness across the United States.

I have cried because of both.

For one - The Monster - because he angers me, and he frightens me.  

For the other - The Peaceful Ones - because they fill my heart with their goodness.  And maybe some hope.

Aloka, The Peace Dog, has stolen hearts and brought joy to thousands of us.

Amazing, isn't it, how easily we trust and are made to feel safe by one of these, and so terrified and terrorized by the other?