I'd like to present my modest gift of something personal, and personally meaningful which I'd like to share with all my friends on Open salon, as I wish each and every one of you a peaceful day and much happiness in the new year. Love and blessings. I hope you enjoy these two vers… Read full post »

Fatma Hala and my sisters in Istanbul - just before we moved to Diyarbakir  - I'm on the far right corner.

~*~~**~~*~

She was the one Annecim somehow liked and got along. The only one in my father's small family of a mother and two elder sisters. The other one,/… Read full post »

Being a culinary enthusiast and having sampled a variety of gastronomical wonders, I consider myself very fortunate. Sometimes I even wonder if my prowess in the kitchen could be in part due to my cultural endowment.

Over the weekend, between baking, writing and paging through a collection of eclecti… Read full post »

There's so much I want to write and new topics I wish to share with all of my OS friends here. Yet, the uncertainty in the air, as well as the anniversaries of painful memories almost paralyze me. This is not going to be original, yet it's all I can do… Read full post »

After a night of restless sleep, she surrenders to another day

starting with the regular cocktail of Losec and Synthroid

followed by generic brand of Prosac and a small pink pill

to keep her anxiety at bay and nerves at an even keel.

Novapronalonol, acetylsalicylic acid and multi-vitamins

scat… Read full post »

Hot chocolate is a favorite for many families almost since forever. When we talk about holiday cheer, the first thing that comes to mind are cocktails, champagne and martinis. I love each and associate all with a mood of festivity and recollections of clinking goblets as we send off the o/… Read full post »

 

This is the story of a dilapidated large notebook. It has lined pages each of which is numbered on the top outer corner; and it is under a hard cover whose edges are curled in opposite directions – exposing fuzzy pulp pressed into the hard veneer. Facing different direction/… Read full post »

My daughter already forgave me by the time she was twenty. Until then every year around the holiday season I was reminded of the meanness of the act pulled upon young two souls, and questioned, “How could I?” - even though my intentions were pure and well-meant. But I… Read full post »

If only you could have known

how much grief, pain and sadness

I'm living with now- 

or

the moments of anguish and indecision

I have lived before

 agreeing at the inescapable. . .

If only I could once more hold your silky paws -

tearful eyes fixed upon your fading… Read full post »

The first snow of the season is falling – unannounced, silently. The snowflakes resist hitting the ground by performing little pirouettes in the air – this way and that – but at the end they cannot escape the force that pulls them down.

This year there won't be a… Read full post »

It is amazing how small events can impress young minds and anchor themselves as triggers associated with bigger emotions - later in one's life.

I grew up in a world which did not inculcate hero worship or celebrities, whose lives were exposed for imitation. My only heroes, role m… Read full post »

"There's a certain Slant of light,

Winter Afternoons--

That oppresses, like the Heft

Of  Cathedral Tunes--

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us--

We can find no scar,

But internal difference,

Where the Meanings, are."

~Emily Dickinson~

Like some other creatures of… Read full post »

Prince William announced to the media this morning his engagement  to Kate Middleton, whom he had been dating for the last eight years.  The young couple looked glowing and happy as they answered questions under a shower of camera flashes.  The Royal Prince presented Miss… Read full post »

"The Terrifying and Beautiful World of Otto Dix"

  Following the First World War, Germany experienced an unparallelled blossoming of artistic creativity in Europe. A time of joyful and unbridled revelry that would be known as The Roaring Twenties was also marked… Read full post »

They Rest Facing the Sun

Visiting a cemetery to see the grave stones of one’s ancestors, reading their names, dates and relationships inscribed on the head stones can be a humbling experience, especially when one can trace the family back over two centuries. But occasionally time,… Read full post »

 

On October 23, 2008 the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts inaugurated new galleries devoted to Napoleon and to the First Empire. The Napoleonic collection is a major gift of Ben Weider, who is committed to enrich the Canadian collection of the museum as a whole by having such an/… Read full post »

 I am not an atheist, nor do I define myself within the sanctions of any major religion. Yet, I believe in a supreme power that must have created the universe and regulates it. For the last few years I've been wondering, how the concept of god and prayer entered into my… Read full post »

I get seasick, I warn y'all. But, there ain't nuthin' I wouldn'a do in the spirit of pirate wimminhood sistahs.  So here's to you and to us and to all !

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  Read full post »

A squash medley

A healthy breakfast is the foundation of a good day, they say; and I'm a firm believer in that adage. After a night of resting our bodies and minds, we need to refuel ourselves with simple, yet nutritious choices for a kick-start to carry us throughout th/… Read full post »

No, no, no, not yet !  We'll have enough of that stuff for the next five months.  First it will be fun - white and pristine, glistening under the colorful christmas lights, reflecting from the windows and trees houses have decorated.  Then it will grow into mountains on the yards/… Read full post »

 In 2004 during my husband's fellowship at Cambridge, UK, I became acquainted with beloved Precious Ramotswe, and ever since, I have been a fan of Alexander McCall Smith, the creator of the fictitious character and the author of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Born in/… Read full post »

 "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."   (John 12:24)

On Sunday, October 17, 2010, in a ceremony presided over by Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, Montréal's Brother André,/… Read full post »

 As I take walks around my neighborhood, imbibing the golden hues of a waning season and admire the final floral glories in clusters of chrysanthemums ranging from whites to yellow, pink to deep burgundy, I cannot help but remember a story I used to present my s… Read full post »

I looked for you

in the autumn-splashed streets

of Montréal

on a rainy mid October.

On Ste Catherine Street

in a store window

I thought I saw your face.

I reached to trace your lips.

As they brushed the wet cold glass-

my finger tips… Read full post »

Bushels of Apples Under a Tree is an oil painting on canvas created in 1892 by Levi Wells Prentice (1851 – 1935). The artist was born in the Adirondack region of New York, in a town called Harrisburg. This is a region I travel quite often as I visit/… Read full post »