A moment with Margaret
In the midst of the Christmas shopping frenzy I met an old woman in a wheelchair and she called out to me in barely legible words that she was selling a book for $2 a copy. “It’s a book of my...
View ArticleBreast Cancer – A Beast of a Disease
Life can be such a bitch! Over the past few weeks two close friends have been diagnosed with breast cancer and had operations to have breast lumps removed and diagnosed. It means that today,...
View ArticlePhilipa’s Christmas: How Arts Decoratifs create joy
This is the house, so glorious with colourful Christmas arts decoratifs that it could well be used as Santa’s cave. It is laden with the exotic style and Christmas cheer of new-found Goolwa friend...
View ArticleMy Hand-made Christmas
We wanted something different and special to decorate our island home for Christmas because we didn’t want rummage through our storage pile of boxes to the artificial Christmas tree. And with...
View ArticleOne wedding, two funerals and a ”nouvelle maison”.
Pop goes the French champagne cork of my life on the eve of 2011. How else to capture the fabulous happenings of 2010 which have taken Olivier’s and my life together to a higher plane. Goodness. Who...
View Article“Philly’’ a phoney for real French fromages.
The French people are precious about their cheeses and savour the nose, palate and taste of their ancient fromages with as much passion as their wines. But now there is an American invader, the...
View ArticleWe Must Cultivate Our “Garden”
Eighteenth century French writer, Voltaire in his novel Candido, says “Il faut cultiver notre jardin’’, which means “we must cultivate our garden’’. He is writing metaphorically that it is important to...
View ArticleThe King of Cakes
Galette des Rois: There is something about religious tradition which gladdens the soul and in French culture, the festival of Epiphany when the Three Wise Kings, who visited the Christ Child, is...
View ArticleWORLD WINE MAN WOOED BY KI
There is something magic about Kangaroo Island which lures unsuspecting people and its raw beauty entices them to stay. Such as another gifted fellow, French winemaker, Jacques Lurton and we hear of...
View ArticleWonderful Wildlife, Wine and Art on KI
People flock to Kangaroo Island to see the wildlife and landscape, but it only when you stop to meet the locals, that their stories reveal its human face and how 10 per cent of the population are...
View ArticleThe Essence of Personal Style
How hard it is to define one’s personal style, yet British author, Kirsty Gunn in her best-selling book 44 Things: A Year of Life at Home captures her step-mother, Irene so beautifully in the following...
View ArticleSome days are stones-1
THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 2011, 2pm: Not a good day. I am in the doctor’s surgery with my French/Australian husband, Olivier, who has been treated for prostatitis, an infection of the prostate gland. It...
View ArticleFeminism fails girl in the telephone box
International Women’s Day, when we celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women, calls to mind an incident yesterday. I had called into a supermarket close to the controversial...
View Article“It’s a big story from a little finger”.
Monday, January 24. In one of the Beatles’ popular songs, there is a line “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans’’, and this captures the terror of today. We are sitting in another...
View ArticleThe Cullen
They are the last three days of a dismal summer and we are in Melbourne living a lesson in style at the zany boutique hotel, The Cullen. It is one of the new Art Series hotels, strategically placed on...
View ArticleHOUSE OF STICKS
One of the great joys of life is to watch manifest all of the dreaming, planning and myriad decision-making as our new Belair home rises seemingly magically from its slab. We live at Hindmarsh Island...
View ArticleThe Art of Living Fearlessly
Happenstance is an intangible thing. However, I find our mantra for living well with cancer in the most unlikely of places – The Cullen Hotel room where a colourful card had been left as a welcome...
View ArticleBeautiful native flower bowl
Did you know that the Greek goddess of flowers is Flora? It was a recent question in SA Weekend’s Brainwaves test and I should have known it, or guessed the answer. I have been picking native flora...
View ArticleWorld Cancer Day
It’s World Cancer Day and there is really only one statistic to remember today: 11 million people worldwide are cancer survivors who will celebrate a birthday this year. This good news does not negate...
View ArticleA fruitful way
There are myriad ways to bring pleasure into our lives and it helps to know that spontaneity is one element of longevity. So, when husband Olivier suddenly suggested we take a different road home to...
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