![Ten and Twelve Years Old](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/the-sea-150x150.jpg)
Ten and Twelve Years Old
On New Year’s Day this year at around 9:30 in the morning, my husband and I were sitting in the…
![Things That Disappear](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/roller-skates-150x150.jpg)
Things That Disappear
The pale yellow “favorite blanket” that you had as a child. The hair dryer that covered your head like a…
![Devon is Dry](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Devon-Cliffs-150x150.jpg)
Devon is Dry
The rains came after a week of heat. Finally. Thank God. Prior to their arrival it was baking and Devon,…
![Letter from St. Croix](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IMG_1939-150x150.jpg)
Letter from St. Croix
On the north shore of the Caribbean island of St. Croix, two miles before you reach Cane Bay, there lie…
![My Cousin in Pittsburgh](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cathedral-of-Learning-150x150.jpg)
My Cousin in Pittsburgh
On October 29th, two days after a gunman burst into a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa. and shot eleven people dead,…
![Hot, Hot, Hot](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/drought-crop-field-uk-e1444387912431-150x150.jpg)
Hot, Hot, Hot
You knew it before you got there, knew it if you’re one of those people who checks weather.com before you…
![The Future is Now](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/flashgordon-150x150.jpg)
The Future is Now
If you’d asked me a few years ago, only a few, whether or not I ever read dystopian fiction, I…
![Gina](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/lily.jpg)
Gina
Rainer Maria Rilke was an Austro-Hungarian writer who was born, wrote, and died a long time ago. He was most…
![The End of the World](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/hurricane-maria-dominica-damage-sep-21-1634-696x464-150x150.jpg)
The End of the World
In the nearly twenty years I’ve been teaching in the US public schools, I’ve had quite a few kids walk…
![What They Remember](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/school-crossing-150x150.jpg)
What They Remember
It’s been the summer of meeting up with former students, students I haven’t seen in more than a decade, a…
![Where We Come From](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/family-tree-150x150.jpg)
Where We Come From
A family history is a collection of stories, stories told and retold and made old not so much by the…
![Spread the Word](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/panda-150x150.jpg)
Spread the Word
Venice is a city of illusions: illusions of water and light, of time and space, of stillness and movement. Looking…
![Venice](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/venice-2-150x150.png)
Venice
Imagine a city where the taxi journey from the airport so satisfies your desire for adventure, your longing for beauty,…
![And Now For Something Completely Different](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/emily-carr.jpg)
And Now For Something Completely Different
Take heart, readers! This post will not be yet another cry of dismay over the troubling ascendancy of Donald Trump….
![De Ja Vu All Over Again](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ronald-reagan.jpg)
De Ja Vu All Over Again
There it was again. That feeling. The feeling that I hadn’t felt in a long time, but that I still…
![O Canada](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/canadian-flag-1534780-1279x852-150x150.jpg)
O Canada
A flash of light rent the October sky, lasted a few short moments, and then vanished as quickly as it…
![The Long Walk Across Europe](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/backpacker-1477833-1280x960-150x150.jpg)
The Long Walk Across Europe
In December of 1933, a young man set out from England on a great adventure. His intention was to walk…
![Everything Old Is New Again](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/rushing-troika.jpg)
Everything Old Is New Again
The summer I traveled to Sweden nearly thirty-five years ago the national news there was full of reports of phantom…
![Savages](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/lord-of-the-flies-150x150.jpg)
Savages
On the southwestern edge of the Wiltshire Downs in England, in the valley of the River Kennet, lies the ancient…
![Letter from England](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tillington-Church-150x150.jpg)
Letter from England
Normally, when you say you’re writing a letter from somewhere that’s where you are, but our time in England was…
![Fruits of the Earth](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/gooseberries.jpg)
Fruits of the Earth
Nadine Gordimer died today, the great South African writer, though I had actually sat down to write about another great…
![Westward Ho!](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/conestoga-wagons-150x150.jpg)
Westward Ho!
Keeping on the travel theme, my husband and I had reason to strike out for California last weekend, and if…
![Arrivals and Departures](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/santiago-de-compostela.jpg)
Arrivals and Departures
The Dutch novelist, poet and journalist, Cees Nooteboom, wrote a wonderful book called Roads to Santiago. In it, the author…
![The Sochi Saga](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sochi-150x150.jpg)
The Sochi Saga
You have to feel sorry for the Russian people. Or you don’t have to, not if you don’t want to,…
![Christmas in the Caribbean](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/christmas-in-caribbean-150x150.jpg)
Christmas in the Caribbean
Christmas Eve in Bequia is a day of frenzied shopping, for unlike up in the States, no stores down here…
![Road trips](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/russian-countryside-150x150.jpg)
Road trips
Crumbling provincial towns, the Gypsy wedding of a fourteen year old, the dismal condition of the M10 which connects Petersburg…
![One if by Land](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Old-North-Church.jpg)
One if by Land
So, we went up to Boston, my husband and I, about three months after the Boston bombings and found the…
![Hopscotch](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/hopscotch.jpg)
Hopscotch
You remember the 1980 movie “Hopscotch,” don’t you? Walter Matthau played a rogue CIA agent who was publishing a book…
![Stockholm’s Burning](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Stockhom-riots-150x150.jpg)
Stockholm’s Burning
Stockholm’s burning. That city I went to 33 years ago as an exchange student in the summer of 1980, that…
![Waiter, There's a Horse in My Soup](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/horse-150x142.jpg)
Waiter, There’s a Horse in My Soup
You really have to feel sorry for the French. No matter how bad things ever got over there, no matter…
![Island Of the Clouds](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/bequia-150x150.jpg)
Island Of the Clouds
Let me just get it over with and explain where it is we are. On an island called Bequia which…
![School Days](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Muslim-girl-150x141.jpg)
School Days
So the Taliban are now shooting girls who want to go to school, are they? Not that this is really…
![First Aid](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/George-Soros.jpg)
First Aid
On September 18th, the US government announced that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), after two decades of…
![September 11th](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/world-trade-globe-150x149.jpg)
September 11th
And so another anniversary of the September 11th bombing of the World Trade Center has come and gone replete with…
![Spanish Flames](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/marbella-in-flames-150x138.jpg)
Spanish Flames
As if they needed anything else to go wrong, the country of Spain has this last week been battling yet…
![Washington in Botswana](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Mannerheim-150x133.jpg)
Washington in Botswana
What do you think would happen if someone produced a film about George Washington filmed in Botswana with a local…
![Carcassonne: Land of the Cathars](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/montsegur-150x150.jpg)
Carcassonne: Land of the Cathars
One summer when I was about ten years old, my mother went to the library to get some novels for…
![Aragonese Pyrenees: What Spanish Crisis?](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/pyrenees-150x150.jpg)
Aragonese Pyrenees: What Spanish Crisis?
There are fires to the east of us in Catalonia after one of the driest winters on record in the…
![Big Ben in a rainy London](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/london-calling-150x121.jpg)
London Calling
It’s raining in London. What a surprise. Yes, but it’s been raining for a long time, practically the whole summer…
![Summer Solstice](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Midsummer-Bonfire-150x141.jpg)
Summer Solstice
What do you mean the summer’s over? Why it just started didn’t it? I only got out of school last…
![Russian Reformers Old and New](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/russian-reform-150x146.jpg)
Russian Reformers Old and New
The demands of the Russian reformers seemed reasonable enough to me. They wanted the Russian government to stop being so…
![Midsummer in Scandinavia](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/finnish-haystacks-150x145.jpg)
Midsummer in Scandinavia
“Make hay while the sun shines.” The phrase always had a lascivious ring to it for me. It suggested someone…
![Juneteenth](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/East-germany-1953-150x150.jpg)
Juneteenth
Juneteenth is an African-American holiday officially celebrated in 41 states of the United States. It commemorates the final abolition of…
![Don't Go to Gibraltar!](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/gibraltar-150x150.jpg)
Don’t Go to Gibraltar!
“Whatever you do, don’t go to Gibraltar.” This was what our friends and neighbors down on the Costa del Sol…
![Fascinators Forever](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Fascinator2-150x143.jpg)
Fascinators Forever
I’m going to a wedding in England this summer and I’m pretty pleased about it. Of course, I’ll be happy…
![Bilbao on the Baltic?](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/bilbao-guggenheim-150x150.jpg)
Bilbao on the Baltic?
The Helsinki City Council has finally decided. No Guggenheim for them, thank you very much. The city of Helsinki, chosen…
![Blame the Germans](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/angela-merkel-150x149.jpg)
Blame the Germans
They’ve been muttering about them in Greece, and in Spain, in Portugal and in Italy. All the countries of Europe…
![Haavisto Loses, Finland Wins](http://www.lindastrange.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/haavisto-and-flores-150x137.jpg)
Haavisto Loses, Finland Wins
Back in January, the Finns had an election, too. It was the first round of their presidential election. The Finns,…