Cloak and Dagger: The Accomplice, by Joseph Kanon

Joseph Kanon channeling Ernest Hemingway:

Aaron got up, passing under the low branches of the tree, and headed down the street, the white basilica gleaming on his right. Café Napoli. If this was the right day. His other lifeline. No Panama hat this time. That had been left behind in the rush out of Ortiz’s office. Clothes rumpled after the safe house. A bandage on his forehead. Not a leisurely meal — impossible when you’re this alert, watching everything. Maybe just a glass of wine, something to hold the table, until somebody turned up with an envelope.

— The Accomplice, p. 247

Walking Squares: A Warmer-Than-Usual Dublin

It’s been a hectic two days of hard traveling, but now self is almost to her destination, and she only has to get on the bus to Monaghan tomorrow.

Here’s her latest installment for Life of B’s November Squares Challenge: Walking Squares.

Dublin is warm! And sunny! Perfect walking weather. From her Airbnb on Aungier Road, she walked to the Chester Beatty Museum (in Dublin Castle), which is a jewel of a museum, with the most amazing collection of ancient texts, all compiled by one man, Chester Beatty, who deserves to be a household name. She spent about three hours there (10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) today. The museum has a café/restaurant (called, appropriately, The Silk Road), where you can take a break and eat a wide variety of hot food and/or pastries/salads/cakes/coffee.

The Chester Beatty is a small museum (only 1 % of the permanent collection is on display at any one time) but this is the Holy Grail of book collectors. If you can, take a docent tour. They’re 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and 11:30 a.m. on Saturdays. There are also excellent downloadable audio tours (free)

Six-Word Saturday: My Niece Is Getting Married Today

Here she is last night, at the post-rehearsal reception, in one of San Francisco’s premiere Tiki Bars, Pagan Idol on Bush.

It seems only yesterday when she wrote me a note: “Tita, I’m accepting Stanford because of you.”

Posting for Debbie Smyth’s Six-Word Saturday Challenge.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Catching People Unaware

Oooh, self loves this week’s CFFC prompt! She loves taking pictures of people. Thank you, Cee Neuner!

• Walking past Ottolenghi, 7 Artillery Passage, East London

• Train to London from Oxford was absolutely packed. These young people were having fun: the young man sat on his girlfriend’s lap. This was the last train I rode before the pandemic.

• At the Mountain View Farmers Market:

One Word Sunday: SMILE

Challenge coming to you via Debbie Smyth’s fantastic blog, Travel with Intent.

Self and the managing editor of Miami University Press, Amy Toland, somehow manage to meet up in London every May/June (with the exception of the lockdown years: 2020 and 2021).

Look at our BIG BIG smiles! And why shouldn’t we be smiling? It was June, and we were standing in front of the London Review Cakeshop in Bloomsbury! YAY for the memories!

Water, Water Everywhere # 145: Land’s End

I am fascinated by Land’s End. It’s the tip of San Francisco that abuts into the Pacific Ocean. It’s at one end of the Great Highway, past Ocean Beach.

Now, a section of the Great Highway has been blocked off, so I can’t take that iconic drive through the sand dunes any longer. I have to detour through the Outer Richmond before doubling back to the ocean.

The Cliff House is the only remaining landmark. It’s being used temporarily as a museum and art gallery. I heard a restaurant was going to take it over. Good. I’d only been at the old restaurant a handful of times, but I loved that the tables were arranged next to big, plate-glass windows that made me feel as if I were right IN the surf.

Posting this for Jez’s WWE Challenge.

Stay tuned.

One Word Sunday: CONCRETE

The theme for today’s One Word Sunday is CONCRETE.

Castro Street, Mountain View:

Skateboard locks outside Green Library, Stanford campus

Middlefield corner Jefferson, Redwood City Annual Fourth of July Parade

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge # 208: SUMMER VIBES

Oh, what fun. It is summer, self’s favorite time of year. It is hot as all get out, self is wearing a muumuu, she even wore it to go to a dentists appointment, and her dentist complimented her and asked where she got it.

This is wildfire season in California, and as a matter of fact there was a fire quite near her, just off Edgewood Road. But that was handled in three days. There’s another, bigger fire in Yosemite which is hopefully on its way to containment. There is a drought, so everyone’s been asked to limit watering to two days a week. Other than that, it’s been a good summer. Self has raised three new rose bushes and a bougainvillea in her backyard. And she’s been reading, a lot. In the past month: four Dr. Ruth Galloway mysteries, two Gone novels, Book One of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s The Final Architecture trilogy, and Where the Crawdads Sing (she’s still not sure if she’ll see the movie).

The guest host for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is solaner, and the prompt is SUMMER VIBES:

• Show us your favorite activity (yes, chilling is also accepted as an activity in this context) in summer. In my gallery below, I have some of them as inspiration: biking, mountain climbing, hiking, swimming, diving, sailing, surfing, kite-surfing, beach sailing, chilling, bbq-ing, beach partying, traveling, sightseeing, reading, dreaming, loving, dancing, and I’m sure, you’re finding lots more like i.e. Midsommar in the Scandinavian countries or the White Nights

Here are three little glimpses of self’s Summer of 2022:

• Her backyard — Roses are blooming!
• Allied Arts Guild in Menlo Park, which has such beautiful gardens! The bougainvillea is gigantic.
• Café Wisteria — She celebrated her birthday (Bastille Day) there last Saturday, seated in the courtyard. That’s the best thing about having a birthday in July: you can celebrate outside!

The Madeleine Arms, Iffley Road, Oxford

A lot of self’s posts from Oxford have tended to focus on food! That’s because some of the best pubs around are here. Specifically, just off Iffley Road.

Here’s a popular place on Iffley Road. Self had the most delicious steamed cod on a bed of lentils. She was here last week with the poet Jenny Lewis and that time she tried the monkfish. Also delicious!

Posting for Travel with Intent’s Six Word Saturday:

Cee’s Black and White Challenge: Two of Anything

Self loves this challenge. It gives her a chance to go through her archive and see which pictures look interesting in black and white.

The photos she selected are of her Airbnb in Oxford (two pillows on the bed), and a pub around the corner called The Chester Arms (two windows) that has really good pub fare (Aside from the usual steaks and roasts, they make mean vegan dishes. Their Mezza Platter is divine!)