Living in the Mountains
In conversations with friends, I often find myself saying “When we lived in the mountains” and realize just how much that experience altered me. In 1998, we decided we’d had enough of the bright lights and big city, moving to the mountains in Northern Bohemia, about an hour and a half away from Prague. We…
Living in the City
The city is, in my case, Prague. I was born here but, until a teenager, didn’t spend much time in the center. Although full of history, in those communist days the center was a rather gray area, with many crumbling buildings and sad looking shops. As a kid, I lived on the outskirts in a…
My Animals
Animals play a very important role in my life, both personally and professionally. So here are the icons of my life, the best friends of all… Barkley The ultimate and unforgettable pet of my life was a black Labrador named Barkley (1996-2010). He was a legend among our friends, family and neighbors and for good…
Jim Freeman
Because I work from home and work together with my husband, my personal life is fully blended with my professional and artistic life. It’s all part of the whole. If I were born a British aristocrat, I would jump off the cliffs of Dover. If my husband was born an aristocrat, he would have loved…
Home Renovations & Décor
DIY Life I was supposed to be a boy and, having disappointed my Dad in this respect, he decided to teach me everything he intended to teach a son. I watched my parents build our cottage at the age of five. One of my earliest memories is having learned to open my own lemonade caps,…
Gardening
Gardening for me is part dream and part reality. I’ve lived in five homes, always starting or maintaining a garden that was never mine. After we moved back to Prague, my focus shifted back to my parents’ cottage garden. The Garden of Bohemia When I was five year old, my parents bought a small lot…
Cooking
My Cooking Story For me, cooking is just another form of creativity – a very tangible one. I learned the basics from Jim, who maintains that all American men can cook, even if they cook badly. Then during our ten years living in the mountains, I cooked practically every meal we ate and it was…
Travel
Childhood Travels Having parents who travel a lot, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t. My dad worked on international train routes, so he had an ability to speak ‘any language.’ By the time I was eighteen, I had a whole list of countries under my traveler’s belt: Eastern Germany (many times), Hungary,…