En Vacanza

A few evocative corners of a place we like to stay, an 18th-century mill in the Umbrian hills.

The main room in morning light

Door to the mill room

View from the laundry room

Il Molino, with Piper in the window

Ran out of doors and windows but here's another square.

After the swim in the creek

BritRail Abstract

York 2009

Urbino Interiors

In February 2007 we visited the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino, Umbria. We were there in the off season, so it was fairly deserted, and the huge, silent, empty rooms were terrific studies in form and relationship. I could nearly feel the ghosts following us around.

Can't resist leaving this one in color, it's so nicely subtle.

Space

Brought up on the West Coast I have always loved being at the very edge of things. There's just so much space around you when you're at the sea. Plus, can never forget that as I stare out at the horizon I am really looking out into Space - and my head is sticking out into it!

Sunset over Carrowholly, County Mayo

Between Belfast and Glasgow

Vesuvius from Sorrento

Grey Day at Bolton Abbey

Ah to be a teenager again!  It was a misty day in Yorkshire but the boys had no worries about getting wet.

No fears about getting stepped on by a cow, either.

Books New and Old

From the collection of herbals in the Aboca museum of herbal medicine in Sansepolcro, Tuscany, 2007.

Book sale on the Thames embankment, London 2005.

Hirsute self-portrait, the room we stayed in, in the ancient seminary in Volterra, Tuscany, 2007. The closet was full of the monks' accounting books from the 18th century.

Disreputable self-portrait, Seattle Public Library, 2010.

Good Time

Morning at Keel, a tiny beach town on remote Achill Island, County Mayo. It's summer, and the time for carnivals is upon us. Soon while the adults sling back Guinnesses in the IRA-friendly pub across the road, the kids will be screaming and laughing on the rides. Probably a few sheep will be milling amongst them as well, peeved that their beach grass is being taken up by humans. And up the hill on the slopes of Slievemore, the deserted ruins of a village destroyed by the Famine watch over all.

Pub

I don't see enough pheasants in American bars.

Achill, Mayo, Ireland