Coping with COVID

Position: 37° 35′ 49”N 0° 58′ 48”W We are on lock down. We can leave the marina only if we’re buying groceries or going to the pharmacy. Marlon can’t leave the marina and can walk only as far as he …

Olives, Granada & Alhambra

Position: 37° 10′ 35”N 3° 35′ 23”W Olives! Cresting the southern coastal mountains and heading north, olive groves blanket the dry, dusty, and otherwise barren landscape. From a distance, olive trees have all the hallmarks of a cash crop. First, …

Mrs. Malaprop Abroad

Position: 38° 43′ 20” N 9° 8′ 21” W ‘Arrigato!’, called Carol as she waved cheerfully to the chap who had just delivered our morning bread. Berthed as we were in Porto, I’m sure she meant to say, obrigado. In …

The Angle of the Dangle

Position: The Picos de Europa are a series of dramatic limestone mountains 300 million years in the making. They cross northern Spain between Santander and Gijón for about 20 km. A cavernous gorge runs through the middle. A paradise for …

Creative Writing

I started and did not finish a Coursera course on Creative Writing. Here is one of the exercises and my submission. Peer feedback was only available to paying customers, not for us auditors. If the story sounds derivative and familiar, …

Boat Lust

There are those that argue the purpose of life is to propagate it, that everything else is mere window dressing. And what of love? Isn’t our destiny to fall in love and fulfill our desires? Perhaps it is, if mother …