CALIFORNIA THOUGHTS

 While we've been out in California (new reader, North Carolina is our home), I feel like we've visited some of the most beautiful places on earth.  I could be exaggerating, you might say, if you've been in Switzerland, or Fiji, or the Bavarian Alps or the Norwegian fjords.  Where else?  Upstate New York maybe, the Great Lakes, Costa Rica, the American West.  But to me the California coast is a wonder.  One of the best parts is that it is accessible; Hwy 1 (State Route 1) travels up and down the Pacific coast, a kind of harrowing drive actually, according to my husband who did most of the driving. 

At 656 miles, it is second longest State Route in the U.S.  The Big Sur section, from San Luis Obispo to Carmel, is designated a national scenic by-way and we drove the whole thing the other day. It was breathtaking, over and over again. 

Cliff Top homes, Carmel

Point Lobos, Carmel

Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur

Whenever I travel I think about people who were born and raised there.  People for whom this view, this culture, this climate, is what they are used to.  I remember on our honeymoon we had saved every penny to budget-travel Western Europe.  We were in a Zimmer Frei, a room in someone's house available to let. Pre-internet, you would hop off the train and look for a Zimmer Frei sign in a window.  

 

I had barely ever left the Midwest and here we were in Interlaken, in the Swiss Alps with a spray of cold mountain air freshening the streets and outside tables.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to be born here, I thought.  To have my brother and parents and friends here and we knew how to ski and raise goats and we picked Alpine meadow flowers in spring.

 

What if Big Sur weren't someplace you traveled across country to see, but a place you came for picnics on weekends and school holidays?  Do you ever have imaginings like that?  Maybe everyone does, thinks of other lives in other places.  And some are able to make that happen, relocate somewhere exotic or special to them.  

 

My husband and I are too satisfied, too deep into our North Carolina lives to move. That's always been true of some of us, hasn't it?  We like to travel but we love to be home.  Our reality is actually as good or better than any fantasy.  I don't think this is sour grapes (you know, Aesop's fable where the hungry fox decides that the grapes he cannot reach must be sour and not worth eating).  It's healthy to be satisfied.  Smart to admire something but not want it.  Energizing to appreciate some thing, some place, and move on.

 

So, sour grapes notwithstanding, here are a few of the places I am loving and from which, in just 16 more days, we will move on. I hope you enjoy the photos, that they bring up some of your own travel memories.

 

The View from Nepenthe, Big Sur

Back Garden Orange Trees

A long walk down . . . Santa Barbara

Giraffe with an ocean view. Santa Barbara Zoo

 

With all these photos, I feel like this has been a self-indulgent post. I.e., giving me more pleasure than it may give you.  But we do all need breaks from the regime that is too much with us, the crazy-tweeter too much with us, and his exploitive billionaire cohorts too much everywhere.  So, thank you for taking this break with me.    Nina Naomi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THIS IS YOUR KINGDOM, WHEREVER YOU ARE

Tube Station (no upgrades here)

In a prior This is Your Kingdom post (Feb 6, 2022) I mentioned the online UK travel guide that handpicks contributors to write about their favorite places.  London is mine.  We were newlyweds there, lived on a tiny stipend, had a baby and generally built memories that helped shape a strong marriage.  I hope everyone has such a spot from their youth.  For three years, just about every outing we took began at Russell Square Underground Station. 

Now we've just come back from showing London to two grandchildren, ages 17 and 18.  We all have dreams that we may have to abandon, but this one, sharing the best part of our past with these two, came true last week.  My heart is full. 

Our original time in London began in a room in student housing, bathroom down the hall and electricity dependent on our stash of shillings for the meter.  After a few months an apartment came through in a Trust called Goodenough College, set up for those whose countries helped England during WWII.  The apartment was fourth floor, small dormer windows, two-burner stove, closet and bedroom. It was perfect.  

We had a key to Mecklenburg Square, full of mature London plane trees. Virginia Wolfe lived near there in the 1920s.  Charles Dickens once lived down the block. 

This trip we stayed in Goodenough College again, one of many returns but perhaps the best, having these youngsters to share it with.  The Square hadn't changed.  We had always relied on pasta for a filling meal then and did so again.  If you live there or plan to go, the restaurant is Ciao Bella on Lamb's Conduit St. in Bloomsbury. 

Pasta for Four

This was a whirlwind week, exhausting for us grandparents, who skipped the early morning Trooping of the Colors.  But we did make it to Westminster Abbey, Stonehenge and most of the other sites.

Choir, Westminster Abbey

Queen Elizabeth I and her sister Queen Mary are buried together in Westminster.  So is Chaucer; and many more. The whole trip sometimes felt like a living history class, a feeling we often get when we travel to heritage sites, don't we? 

Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain

Like the best of times, the most wonderful part was seeing something new (or old) with people you enjoy most.  The trip was filled with love and caring, the cousins for each other and both of them for us, the grandparents who slow them down but admire and appreciate them.  It was their gift to us as well as ours to them. 

National Gallery, Trafalgar Square

When I need to remind myself to be grateful, I think this trip will be foremost for a long time.  Maybe forever.  Let's each look into our lives and see what we can recall that awakens our gratitude.  I bet it involves someone very, very special.                     

                                    With all good thoughts, Nina Naomi

"ALL GOOD THINGS ARE WILD AND FREE," Henry David Thoreau

Autumn is too short a season for me.  We have a couple of August nights with windows open and I'm ready.  The hickory nuts are bouncing onto the deck, mostly jaggedy shells left by voracious squirrels.  Those little demons celebrate the season.  Not enough rain yet so  I water the Hellebores and whatever is left in pots.  Thank goodness for a deep well.  The petunias are long gone, impatiens are leggy and marigolds shriveling.  

Soon I can trade out summer annuals for violas and pansies.  I picture the choices:  apricot, lavender and deep purple?  White, russet and yellow?  Or monochrome?  The creeping rosemary on the back hill is so sculptural it looks like its swimming, and the oregano is still fresh too.  The chives weren't healthy this year, never even bloomed.  I miss their tiny white flowers. 

We're taking a fall trip.  We'll get back mid-September in time for the Autumnal Equinox.  I'm having such fun planning this adventure to Iceland, where we have never been, and to the Inner Hebrides of Scotland where we have also never been.  I have not flown since before the pandemic and the tales of airline woes are cautionary.  In this countdown to take-off I'm masking everywhere.  No way do I want to miss the waterfalls, black sand and geysers; the Scottish brogue, pubs and rugged islands.  

Sometimes on a trip you're in the company of great painters, spending time in museums with Renoir, Van Gogh and Monet, hanging out in another century.  Sometimes at the theatre with Shakespeare or Eugene O'Neill.  Sometimes you're with your whole family sharing meals and stories.  

This time I feel like we'll be with God and the aeons of time.  I'll learn about geothermal pools, see steep cliffs of lava, and stand among rocks on the Isle of Iona that have been there for 200 millions years.  How can that be?  It's 45⁰ F in Reykjavik right now, definitely fall weather.  I'm feeling very very lucky and we haven't even left yet.  Fingers crossed, thankful for this blessing and hoping happiness for all.  

                                                         Nina Naomi 

 

 

 

 

 

THIS IS YOUR KINGDOM

"This is your Kingdom" is an online United Kingdom travel guide that handpicks contributors to write about their favorite places--picture-perfect villages, foodie towns, unspoiled hamlets, rivers and streams.  Since our daughter was born at the Royal Free Hospital and we lived in London for 3 years, I have enjoyed every UK adventure we can manage, armchair included.  Travel is one of the things many of us have been yearning for.

Bunhill Fields, London

Although we don't have kings in America, I love the idea of thinking of our country as our Kingdom, filled with magical forests, mountains, lakes and other places that spark our imaginations. Our Kingdom has the views we miss when we are away, the people we know, the places we haunt and for many, the language we speak.    

Another UK source, The Simple Things magazine, includes a monthly feature where someone in love with their city--from anywhere in the world-- takes the reader on a tour.  This always makes me think about where I live.  Not Copenhagen or Lisbon or any well-known city at all, but Durham, North Carolina, a diverse, blue-collar university town in the rolling wooded hills of the Piedmont, halfway between the mountains and the sea.

The monthly feature in The Simple Things is set up as a Q & A that reveals the hidden gems of a city.  I can't say Durham's gems are all that hidden, but here's my Q & A. I hope it triggers thoughts about your own kingdom, or makes you want to visit mine.  

Q  What's the best winter-time activity in Durham?  
A   Duke Basketball!  Duke University is home to the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history, Coach Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) with over 1000 wins at Duke and 5 National Championships. That is our winter time activity--college basketball.  Tonight is our 2022 big rivalry away game down the road in Chapel Hill.

National Anthem, Duke-Carolina Game

Duke also has wonderful gardens and a beautiful Gothic Chapel where the 50-bell carillon plays at 5 p.m. each day.  Who would expect a Gothic enclave in a Southern town in North Carolina? 

Duke Chapel

Q  What are the people like? 
A  We're diverse. That's our pride. Our nearest elementary school has students from 80 countries. Multi-cultural night is an adventure.  Native costumes and dances, food trucks from everywhere. 

Q  What's the best place for a night out?
A   There are so many.  One of our favorites is the top of the Durham Hotel, a contemporary renovation of a former mid-century modern bank building.  The views from the rooftop raw bar are spectacular. 

Sunset from Top of the Durham

Q Has Durham's history been preserved? 
A  Yes!  Brightleaf Square, West Village . . . all of our tobacco buildings from the last century have been renovated for multi-use--condos, restaurants, shops.  The American Tobacco Campus lights the old Luck Strike Tower at Christmas.  It's a great place to hang out year round.  DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center) is a world-class venue.  We saw Jerry Seinfeld there, Phantom, took the children to Radio City Rockettes. . . .

Lucky Strike Tower

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This barely touches the treasures in my town.  There's the Eno River state park, the historical Black Wall Street area, the Museum of Life and Science, the Nasher Art Museum. . . .  Isn't it nice when we love where we live? When we feel like our home, our city or town, our special beach, our hang-out spots, the park our dog loves, the rivers we rock-hop on, the stars we see from our front yard--all these are our Kingdom? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE REMARKABLE HARRIET JACOBS AND OUR LIVES TODAY

Edenton, North Carolina

We took an outing to Edenton, a picturesque town on the Albemarle Sound just a two and a half hour drive from home, where preserved historic areas are buttressed by reminders of slavery, much as enslaved labor buttressed the coastal economy.   

My husband recently finished Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself.  In the 1820s and 30s, Jacobs (1813-1897) lived hidden in the attic of her grandmother Molly, a freed woman, for nearly 7 years.  Can you imagine? The room was less than head height.  She was waiting for the right time to escape to freedom by way of the Chowan River. 

We went to Edenton to try to feel what life there was like.  It was the kind of trip that acts more like a whipsaw than anything else.  Filled with contradictions like life often is.  For us, a stay in a lovely room at the Inner Banks Inn with morning French Toast or eggs-to-order.  A little kitchen off the living room to make tea and coffee all hours. 

Living Room, Inner Banks Inn

A world apart from the world of Harriet Jacobs. And of those less privileged today.  We're more aware, aren't we, of our privilege at whatever level it lies?  

Just after arriving we walked to the grounds of St. Paul's Episcopal Church where Harriet and her children were baptized.  As my husband was describing to me  the "owner" who made her life unbearable, we spotted his grave: James Norcom, M.D. (1777-1850), who was known throughout his life as  "one of the most distinguished physicians of his time."

And in fact he does seem to have practiced charity to all, all but the enslaved. To Harriet he is a "licentious master" and predator who subjects her (and others) to unrelenting abuse.  Both he and his wife were known among the enslaved for their cruelty and violence.  Harriet chooses confinement--for who knew how long--in the crawl space over her grandmother's home and bakery, to life in the Norcom household.  

The next day we took the Harriet Jacobs' Tour; basically a golf-cart ride with a knowledgeable State guide around the places associated with the writer. Neither of us had heard the term "maritime railroad" but along the North Carolina coast it was a thriving and dangerous route to freedom.  Jacobs dresses as a sailor when she makes her escape North.

To no avail Norcom continues to hunt her with a passion. Here Norcom offers a $100 REWARD for "the apprehension and delivery of my Servant Girl, HARRIET.  She is a light mulatto," he says, "21 years of age, about 5 feet 4 inches high. . . ."  "She speaks easily and fluently," he continues, "and has an agreeable carriage and address."   James wants her back.   In her autobiography she states that she is able to fend him off, no mean feat.  It enrages the man.  The guide tells us that he becomes obsessed with her. Just reading this poster is hurtful. 

Part of the Jacobs' tour includes the African-American Cemetery, mostly unmarked graves. A few weeks ago we also stayed one night in Old Salem, in another historic inn, just an hour and a half from home.  There we saw what is called the Stranger's Graveyard.  Stones of African Americans marked only Adult or Child.

Harriet's life story is remarkable. She unites with her children and once free leads a long and extraordinary life as an activist.  She does more good than Norcom ever dreamed of. 

These trips are moving occasions.  While we were at the Inner Banks Inn the Derek Chauven verdict also came down.  Guilty on all counts.  The jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that ex-officer Chauven murdered George Floyd with his knee.  And all because a prescient child filmed the murder with her phone.  We watched promises that change and accountability are coming and hope, despite almost immediate evidence to the contrary, that this may be true. 

We are used to intense times, aren't we?  Pandemic worries, fears of violence, and whatever else we cope with. We are used to the cognitive dissonance, as it's called, of living with tremendous difficulties, and yet having wonderful lives.  I feel like this was a week of paying respects.  But it was also a longed-for week of traveling with my husband, eating food cooked by someone else, and sleeping on sheets I don't have to change.  It was a week at water's edge seeing new sights.  Now at its end I feel transformed, in more ways than one. 

With love and respect for all, Nina Naomi  

1886 Roanoke River Lighthouse, Edenton