Take a Virtual Vacation: Scotland 2015

I’m getting ready to go on my first major trip since my mother died, more than ten months ago. I am remembering how I started every travel blog I ever wrote-going to visit my mother to say goodbye. She’d sit there under her wall of masks from her travels all over the world and she’d smile at me, […]

After celebrating our son Eli’s college graduation in Boston and spending a luscious week with my partner, all three of our kids and both grandkids in Granada, Spain, I said goodbye to my family and set off alone for Scotland to teach my retreat at Newbold House. I arrived back at Newbold House at midnight

This morning in our second full writing class, we talked about the importance of sensory details and then did one of my favorite exercises, practicing the art of “bare attention,” drawn from Vipassana meditation practice. After some instruction, I sent everyone out with jackets, sweatshirts and hats, a notebook, pen and a plastic chair–into the

I woke up this morning to another visit from the Scrabble Fairy at my door, though this message, like the others, only makes sense if you’d been here. It would take me a whole blog post to explain why I laughed out loud when I stepped out of my door and saw these tiles: But

At the end of every retreat I teach, I take notes about how things might be improved the next time around. I notice the things that go well, the things that fall flat, the rhythm of the days and the balance of activity, engagement, adventure and rest. And at the end of each retreat, especially

On this ten-day Write, Travel, Transform trip, we alternate a couple of days centered at “home” at Newbold House, with tour days. Today was one of our all-day tour days. Our first stop was Clava Cairns, laughingly described by one of our writers on the bus as “Stonehenge for wee people.” But once we arrived,

On the final outing in our ten-day trip, we headed out after lunch, with Alistair at the helm of our bus, on our way to Inverness to catch our boat to Loch Ness. “If you come from Inverness, you’re called an Invernessian,” Alistair told us over the bus microphone. As we drove by a the

Today, on the last afternoon of the last day of our retreat, seven of us hopped in the Newbold van with Christopher and Martin from the house and drove out to a local organic farm that produces grass fed lamb and organic eggs, owned by a lovely farmer couple, Peter and Therese Muskus. They’ve completely

This morning when we had our final writer’s group reading, Jackie Baritell read this poem as her contribution. I thought it captured many of the highlights of our trip and so I asked her permission to publish it here and on my blog. Here’s her piece: A PLENTIFUL SCOTTISH DIET Too full tonight. Too full