Category: Country Life / City Lights

Beijing has the Forbidden City at its center, but you could call the whole thing ‘the Forbidding City’.  Usually when I am not working or sleeping, I love roaming in foreign climes, but Beijing is not friendly to the pedestrian.  Wide boulevards that would be great with a river in the middle and cafés along… Read more

 It’s 2 in the afternoon and the wan and anemic light seeping into Shanghai through the thin clouds and the pollution is more suited to dawn or dusk.  I wouldn’t know; I’m in that timeless space of arrival for the international traveler, before the clock has spun into local time.  Regardless of the hour, the… Read more

It’s a time of contradictions – everything is slowing down, dying, being put away for the winter, and yet the world is so alive. The flames of the leaves have receded, and the hillsides have been rusted with leaves until yesterday’s wind tore them all off, and now the bare branches shudder and shiver and… Read more

The suffering of an animal, like the suffering of children, puts our internal justice-maker on the warpath.  Our gray cat Simon made a beeline out the door last night, determined to have an October prowl. Wherever he was attacked, he made it back to the pasture near the garden, where the horses, and then Annie,… Read more

We’ll see what happens with it, but I just pulled in one of the more interesting 4 days of my long career, in a multi-disciplinary exploration of fascia (what else?). This unique multidisciplinary conference lived up to its name, including (in alphabetical order) personal trainers, physiotherapists, Pilates teachers, orthopedic surgeons, osteopaths, rehabilitation specialists, and yoga teachers.… Read more

I’m always happy when my hotel windows open, which is increasingly rare in the States.  I suppose it’s because someone could jump, and that’s bad for one’s reputation, but I feel more suicidal when forced to breathe recirculated air all night.  Fortunately in Hamburg I have one of those marvelous German windows (why don’t we… Read more