Time Flies

Autumn is coming

Time to hide some nuts and berries! (This is Mr.Chips who lives on our porch.)

A few leaves have gone from green to yellow, red, or even white.

Recent Reading

Martin Walker’s latest book about detective Bruno in rural France is a sad shadow of the earlier books in this series. There’s no real plot, no real crime, and no real character development! Bruno does cook a lot — to the point where it feels like one is reading a cookbook, with the detailed descriptions of prep and ingredients for one local dish after another. In earlier books, the cooking was an interesting distraction — here it’s totally over used. Sad to see this travesty on what was once a good detective series.

In Bury Your Past detective Tom Janssen in the English town of Wells-by-the-Sea solves the mystery of a body that has been hidden for six years. The body is uncovered by a violent storm that sets a grim mood for the many revelations that explain this and also other crimes. The detective is relatable, and the plot is well-thought-out. I hope to read more of the books by J.M.Dalgliesh.

Published in 1933, Death on the Oxford Road by E.C.R.Lorac is still a suspenseful and enjoyable read — though the author expresses some outdated attitudes towards people who didn’t fit into village society. A body is found on a little-traveled road, where very few cars pass by. Just this lack of traffic is a notable feature of life 90 years ago: cars were a rarity! Life was different then, but the main conventions of detective fiction were already in place.

 Samantha Schweblin’s short stories, set in argentina, are a little strange. What peculiar characters she depicts!

Good Food

Left: two different ways that we prepared salmon: patties and pan-broiled.
Right: blueberry pancakes and apple-peach cobbler with ice cream.

Classic dinner: lamb chops and corn-on-the-cob with butter.

© 2025 mae sander

Cooking. Eating. Reading.

Cauliflower, Pea, and Coconut Curry: adapted from a NYTimes recipe (link)
I prepped the food and made the recipe up until I took this photo — then Len took over the cooking.
It was the first time in a couple of months that I have cooked, as I recover from major surgery.

The curry. I added potatoes to the recipe as it was written, and omitted the rice.
Substitutions: I used green onions instead of cilantro, and peanuts instead of cashews.

Chicken thighs with potatoes and onions, which Len cooked earlier this week.

Carol’s fruit tart.

Reading about humans and other creatures

An interesting natural history book about “mutualisms,”
that is, examples of inter-species cooperation.

Rob Dunn, the author  of The Call of the Honey Guide, explores a number of interactions of humans with other beings, from micro-organisms to beavers and many others in between. The book is full of historical examples and quotations from literature and poetry that create a very interesting and unusual reading experience.

For example, the human relationship to trees: “Globally, humans have cut down, burned, or otherwise destroyed roughly half of all the forest that once was. … Nature is never just one thing or another. Trees offer extraordinary benefits to those, like us, who partner with them; they offer their fruits, their bodies, and their services. The poet Ross Gay has written that ‘our capacity and willingness to learn the language of trees, to study the language of trees, it’s so obvious to me now, might incline us to be less brutal, less extractive. It might incline us to share, to collaborate. It might incline us to give shelter and make room.’  Like the shaman in Peru, we can learn from our trees.” (p. 48-51)

The human relationship to dogs: “So far, I’ve avoided answering whether we are actually still engaged in a mutualism with our dogs. That we once were is clear, but on average, are we today? We certainly benefit our dogs. But how should we consider whether they benefit us?” The author’s conclusion is that walking one’s dog conveys many mental and physical health benefits to the dog owner, although many of the former tasks that dogs did (such as herding flocks of sheep or cattle, participating in the hunt, or watching for intruders of whatever other species) are no longer needed by most dog owners. (p 227 ff)

Blog post © 2025 mae sander

Richard Halliburton and the Acropolis

Earlier this summer, I visited Athens and the Acropolis for the first time. I read about the Parthenon and all the other remarkable ancient-Greek buildings on this site when I was around 12 years old in the Book of Marvels, which had first been published in 1938. Its author, Richard Halliburton (1900-1939), became one of my heroes.

Soon after reading this compendium of Halliburton’s lifelong adventures, I read the other books by this highly romantic and highly successful author. His first book, published 100 years ago (in 1925) was The Royal Road to Romance. I loved its breathless descriptions of the exotic places the author visited. I was fascinated by the idea of travel, and hoped to see many of the “marvels” eventually. 

In The Glorious Adventure, I read about a very romantic night that the author spent on the Acropolis, after climbing the fence after hours. Here is Halliburton’s dramatized description of the Acropolis at night:

It took decades, but a few weeks ago, I finally saw the treasures of ancient Greece for myself, including a visit to the Acropolis. Of course my visit took place during normal opening hours, among the huge crowds of tourists who want to see this historic site. And unlike Halliburton, I can’t say I actually had a conversation with the Caryatids: that is, the women-shaped columns that hold up the porch of the building called the Erechtheion. Seeing this magnificent sight was the fulfillment of a long dream.

How I Met Richard Halliburton

My longing to travel began when I was around 12 years old, when a neighbor named Mrs. Rosen introduced me to the books of Halliburton, a travel writer who had been active from 1920 until his disappearance in the Pacific Ocean in 1939. She loaned me all of them, beginning with the Book of Marvels, a compendium of his favorite places in the world. I loved reading about Halliburton’s trip to the Alhambra in Granada, which I visited in the 1990s, and his swim in the Panama Canal described in the book New Worlds to Conquer, which I visited in 2014. As the years went by, I continued to wish to see the Greek temples on the Acropolis — the adventure I had missed, as he described it in The Glorious Adventure, his second book. And finally I’ve seen them.

One of the copies Mrs. Rosen let me read was even autographed -- years earlier, when she was in high school, she had gone to a book signing at a bookstore near her home (I think she was from Connecticut). She had been an avid fan, and described what a handsome man he had been, saying how she hung around the bookstore all afternoon just looking at him.Halliburton still appeals to a surprising number of readers, despite or maybe because his books describe a world that's no longer the same. He describes a sort of adventure travel that way too many people have attempted to copy. An article in the Guardian called him "the greatest adventurer in history" -- see "Seven League Boots by Richard Halliburton – review" by David Shariatmadari, published February 1, 2013. This reviewer writes, for example, that according to Halliburton, "Traditional societies, black ones in particular, are 'primitive'. His retelling of the astonishing story of Henri Christophe, King of Haiti, is polluted with racist condescension and stereotype. But curiosity and a love of the unfamiliar also leap from the pages." I didn't have that kind of sophistication when I was reading the books. I just loved the idea of those adventures.

At some point I collected most of Halliburton’s books, which were such great best-sellers that many copies are still easily available to buy.  My copies don’t have dust-jackets, but above you can see images of what they looked like when they were published. And I’ve seen quite a few of the other destinations in Halliburton’s books. What is it like to read these old volumes now? Sorry to say, the style is extreme, with much self-congratulation, and a flowery over-written prose. I don’t feel like rereading more than a few pages. But the memory of how much I loved them all those years ago hasn’t faded, and I’m happy that I finally visited one more of the romantic locations from the books.

Links to my posts about Richard Halliburton from the past: https://maetravels.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-panama-canal.html, https://maetravels.blogspot.com/2007/03/sacred-well.html

My first visit to the Acropolis and the Parthenon, July 2025.

 Blog post © 2025 mae sander

Life in August

View from my window including flowers that friends brought me.
I enjoy the view but I am not yet going out of the house.

In My Kitchen: August 2025

It’s been a difficult month as I started it with a major medical procedure and I am still recovering. All the cooking in my kitchen was done by Len, Evelyn, Tom, and Alice. Obviously this means we ate many delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners. And although I am getting better, I still don’t have the strength to comment on other blogs. I have enjoyed some of the posts by Deb Nance and a few others. I’ll be back!

One example of Len’s great cooking: French toast on the griddle.

Dinner: French toast, sautéed apples and nectarines, maple syrup.

Tomato-Basil-Feta-Prosciutto Salad.

Meatball Dinner

Peaches in Season

Our neighbor Mary brought us a beautiful basket of peaches from South Haven, MI.
We love peaches!

Evelyn and Tom were at Costco while Mary was bringing us the peaches.
We lived up to the challenge: not one peach wasted!

Peach Cobbler

Peach jam

 

Late-August Reading

All the gods became very modern for this detailed story.
Nice book but it should be half as long!

The plot of this book is based on real events that took place in Ann Arbor years ago.
The author is a good writer but not very good at inventing a plot.

Reading now: Katabasis, brand new novel from R.F.Kuang.
After 100 pages: disappointed.
UPDATE: After 200 pages bored. Gave up.

Photos by Len and Alice

Blog post © 2025 mae sander

Happy Birthday, Len

 

Visiting family brought take-out from Satchel's BBQ!

A cake from Tous les Jours, a bakery that is now a favorite.
“Mango Cloud Cake.”

Happy Birthday!

I’ll be back to reading blogs soon…

Photos by Alice © 2025.

Recently

A walk along Mill Creek in Dexter, Michigan, around 10 miles from Ann Arbor.

Ice cream at the Dexter Creamery.

Sunday lunch at Bao Space in Downtown Ann Arbor.
Sesame balls are a treat! Filled with mochi and a dab of red bean paste.

An egret and ducks at the Botanical Gardens.

A turtle on a log in the Huron River at Gallup Park.

Turkish Pida at Carol’s house.

Photos © mae sander 2025

 

July Reading

Back home in my garden 

While we were on the ship in the Mediterranean in July, I didn’t have time or energy to read. We were busy seeing ancient ruins, modern villages, beautiful island scenery, and just watching the water. Long plane trips are a good time to read, though on the two 9-hour trips between Boston and Athens, I mainly slept — one book each way including airport time! 

Since we returned, I have read a few books — especially my chosen follow-up to the trip, which was to read Homer’s Odyssey. Here are the books I’ve read recently.

Airplane Reading

Gary Shteyngart’s latest book, Vera, or Faith is different from his earlier books.
Vera is a ten-year-old girl with some symptoms of Asberger’s like flapping her hands,
and being very very intelligent, perceptive, and socially uncomfortable.
But there’s no medical theme, you have to diagnose her as you read. She’s a person. Good book!

During the trip I read two detective novels by Anthony Horowitz.
I’ve enjoyed the Susan Ryland dramatizations, as well as the third, newest one in the series.
I also liked one with another detective at the center. I suspect I’ll read more.

After the Voyage

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s horror novels are (oddly) relatable.
I think I like the others better than The Bewitching: it’s too conventionally a horror tale,
with evil monsters and a naive smart girl to defeat them. It was just published.

When we came back, I wanted to read a book about traveling around the Mediterranean.
Odysseus was in a slightly different area, on the other side of Greece,
but nevertheless I found many of Homer’s descriptions very easy to picture, based on experience.
Notice that I read my old, dog-eared version of this ancient classic.

Detective Tom Janssen is entirely new to me.
I enjoyed One Lost Soul by J.M.Dalgliesh. It even has some pretty good food scenes.

Before the Voyage

Autocorrect: Stories by Etgar Keret is an interesting book by the Israeli author.
I read it and a couple others before we left, and I reviewed it July 9.

Blog post © 2025 mae sander