stories
I collect stories the way some people collect stamps. A good one is worth a detour, a bad meal, or a long walk back to the cabin.
Here are a few I've picked up.
![A lioness runs directly toward the camera, kicking up dust with intense focus in her eyes. The background is blurred, emphasizing her speed and power.]()
Not the actual lioness — but close enough
We were halfway up Mt. Kenya, setting up camp, when the ranger told us a lioness was hunting nearby and we’d have to rent a cabin for safety. It was dusk. I was gathering firewood in a meadow below the cabin when I heard her growl. I have never walked faster or looked over my shoulder more in my life. One of the camp cooks saw me moving and laughed — then he started moving fast too.
![Low-angle view of a person riding a motorcycle on a rural road, focusing on the rear wheel, exhaust, and taillight, with cloudy sky and open landscape in the background.]()
Two bags of cash rode with me
I was in Bali, invited to crew a yacht across the Indian Ocean, but I needed cash for food along the way. The American Consulate wired me the money — $2,000, which arrived as a brick of Indonesian rupiah. Hours before we sailed I was tearing down a highway on the back of a motorcycle, two paper bags of cash in my lap, hunting for a town that would change it back into dollars.
![A large, elegant sailboat with white sails and a dark blue hull floats on calm water near a shoreline with green trees under a clear blue sky.]()
A 65′ Cheoy Lee motor sailer, like the Libertad
Partway across the Indian Ocean, I jumped ship in the Seychelles to chef aboard the Libertad. One night the crew wanted pasta and we were out of everything but an industrial can of ketchup. I tried. I really did. Never again — though for the record, my cinnamon rolls were a hit.
![Four people, two adults and two children, sit together on a bench inside a train. The adults look at each other while the children sit quietly in between them, dressed in casual clothing.]()
Riding the train with the family in Japan
I spent five years living and teaching in Japan, the first three through the JET Programme. I interviewed in LA, where an elderly gentleman in a full suit assured me, with total seriousness, that Japanese teachers drink hard. Mine didn’t, as it turned out. I was busy raising babies.
![A man lies on a patterned blanket indoors, petting a gray and white cat resting on his chest. Another persons feet are visible nearby on a separate blanket.]()
Thai massage training. The kitten had other plans.
I’d taught yoga for five years before I went looking for where it came from. Thailand for massage, India for the study — months of learning to slow down and pay attention. This kitty found me mid-training and decided the lesson was nap time.
![A black and white Border Collie stands alert in front of a flock of sheep in a field, with green grass and blurred landscape in the background.]()
A working dog on a sheep farm
We came to New Zealand in spring to WWOOF — World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms — on a sheep farm up north. The spring rains made the grass grow fast, the sheep gorged, and the new growth gave all thousand of them diarrhea. That’s a problem, because it fouls the wool. Dagging is the job of shearing the mess off a sheep’s backside so the rest of the pelt stays clean. Three weeks. Over a thousand sheep.
![A recipe page for Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte from The Cake Bible, including ingredients, instructions, tips, and a small photo of the finished cake in a pan.]()
The recipe I follow to the letter
It’s just a recipe out of The Cake Bible, whose instructions I follow faithfully. Just chocolate, butter and eggs, cooked in a water bath. But, at various times, when I’ve served it at parties, I’ve had restaurateurs offer me work for it.
