Author: Ms. R.

Around Valentine’s Day, my parents start watching the weather. They’re waiting for a stretch when the temperatures are above freezing during the day but fall below 32 degrees Fahrenheit at night. This shift in the weather signals the start of maple sugaring season. My family’s home in Northeast Ohio is squarely in the center of North America’s maple sugaring region. Sugar maples grow in a region that stretches from Québec in the North to Tennessee in the South; West……

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Winding through Ljubljana following a trail of Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik’s structures, like stars in a constellation, is a great way to explore the city. While Ljubljana began as an ancient Roman town called Emona, it was never of particular importance until the 20th century. In fact, Plečnik called his hometown a “cultural backwater” and made it the mission of his career to elevate it through architecture.  He lived during the Modernist era, when the idea was afloat that……

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Established in 1987 by the Mexican Society of Cartoonists, this museum celebrates the country’s rich cartooning tradition. Political cartoons have long been popular in Mexico, reflecting its tumultuous history and the people’s relationship with the authorities. Some of the oldest works here are by the famed José Guadalupe Posada, whose skeleton cartoons illustrated political and parodistic broadsides in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of these would become the Calavera Catrina (Female Dandy Skull), now an icon……

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The Fraser River played a critical role in the history of British Columbia. It was the site of the gold discoveries in the 1850s that led to the creation of the province, and became a transportation corridor to the rest of Canada. Steamboats could travel as far as Yale, a gold camp downstream from this point, and then a set of precarious roads continued upstream to the Cariboo gold fields. These roads were largely obliterated when the Canadian Pacific……

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Once upon a time in present-day Izumi, Osaka, there was a mystical forest called Shinoda-no-mori, home to many kitsune—mischievous, shapeshifting foxes of Japanese folklore. According to legend, these magical creatures lured a hunter named Akuemon to the forest. His wife was severely ill and he had been advised by his sorcerer brother Ashiya Douman to hunt a kitsune and collect its liver to make medicine for her. Akuemon was about to kill a white fox named Kuzunoha when Abe……

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The Tennessee Williams Home & Welcome Center in Columbus, Mississippi offers a glimpse into the early life of the iconic playwright. Now transformed into a charming visitor center, this beautifully restored Victorian home offers insight into the writer who gave us A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie. Period furnishings from the early 1900s, evocative photographs, and thoughtfully curated exhibits celebrate both the local heritage and the dramatic influences that shaped Williams’ storytelling. Whether you’re a devoted fan of Southern……

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Causland Memorial Park boasts an amphitheater, beautifully established ornamental vegetation and plenty of places to sit and have a nice picnic or a stroll. The unsual park sprawls over two acres in the center of the city of Anacortes, Washington. Originally designed and built in the 1920s by artist/architect John Baptiste LePage, it is a registered historic place featuring a great deal of stone mosaicwork. A good portion of the park is dedicated to local veterans who served the U.S…….

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Around 4 kilometers east of Old Goa, in the village of Gandaulim, India, on a hilltop, is an old church that has a fascinating connection with Croatia. The Church of Sao Bras (Saint Blaise) was a chapel built by Croatian sailors and traders in 1541 and was later elevated to the status of a parish church in 1563. The church is a replica of Sveti Vlaho (St. Blaise) Church in Dubrovnik. It is believed that Croatian traders from that……

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In 1836, missionary couples Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and Henry and Eliza Spalding accompanied a trapper caravan to what was then the Oregon country. Narcissa and Eliza were the first European-American women to make this trip. The Whitmans established a mission at Waiilatpu, on the Walla Walla River, about five miles west of the site of the eponymous modern city. They were initially welcomed by the Cayuse, the dominant Native American tribe where the mission lay. A daughter, Alice……

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