When I was a kid, family vacations meant packing the 5 of us into the family car and heading . . . sometimes north to Canada for a fishing trip or sometimes south to the Carolinas for some sun. Either way, we drove. For hours. And hours. Buick Grille So to entertain myself, I watched […]
The largest antiques market in all of Tuscany is in the town of Arezzo. It’s always the first Sunday of the month and the Saturday before. Between the incredible antiques and the medieval architecture around every corner, you could spend the entire day just wandering, lost in the wonder. A visit to Arezzo is one […]
Place Sathonay, Lyon After he returned from 3 weeks in Lyon, France, Emerson offered me his journal to read. As I read, I wondered about the whys of his ways. He chatted with Marina on the first day. He struck up a conversation with Rosina and Stephan at dinner. He accompanied Romain to his workshop. Talked with Sid and Jean Pierre in the park—just to name a few […]
Sound bites. Audio memories. Sounds bite. One year ago my mother drifted from this world to another. I hear voices, memories really, of specific moments frozen by the utterance of words from one person and trapped inside my head as a recording. I hear the telephone ring and when I answer, she says, “Cheryl, it’s […]
everything imaginable—except bags! A brainstorm rewarded us with a great new idea for the garden: a “perch,” built into the slope behind the house, overlooking the grape arbor, the studio, and of course the valley. Besides many heavy stones, we needed some gravel. So, we went to one of our favorite ferramente, hardware stores, Guidotti […]
Yesterday, I walked through the picket gate and casually glanced to my left, where something caught my eye—the light blue ceramic ball floating above the ivy bed. Common in the Midwest When we first moved into this magical house some 20 years ago, we decided to fill it with old things, befitting its centenarian status. […]
We share the same middle name—Emerson. I miss my dad. About a week ago, an envelope arrived in the mail. The address was hand written in a recognizably flamboyant style, using what appeared to be a black Sharpie felt-tip pen. Clue number one was the unmistakable script—none other than my mom’s handwriting. Inside was a […]
Well, autumn is just around the corner and it’s mating season here in Italy for the Caprioli, Roe Deer. We hear them in the dusky hours every evening and in the misty dawn, making their unusual call of the wild. What a sound! It’s unbelievable. Seriously, the Roe coughs out a disgusting guttural grunt/scream noise […]
We have a new friend. Sort of. Well, not really, because we rarely see her and haven’t ever talked much at all, but . . . we have been in communication for years now. I know this doesn’t make sense yet, but give me a chance to explain. Along the white road We take a […]
This is a piggy-back post. Layers – June 2011 In a separate story called “Music Writing and the Creative Process,” posted on the Upside Lowdown, Cheryl describes how we write our music together. From spring of 2010 until mid 2011, we wrote and recorded the music and words for our CD, Layers. For those of […]
