Lindsey Davis is one of the best British novelists, indeed one of the best novelists anywhere.  And if we narrow it down to novelists who write about ancient Rome, and in particular the first century A.D. she has few peers.  And none of those peers has her gift of both comedy and tragedy, of both humor and pathos.   The series started almost a decade ago, and has now grown to ten volumes with an eleventh one promised. Like John Grisham,... Read more

Seeing the world from above, even above many balloons is a revelation.  The problem with things like hang gliding is you are too busy working the glider to really relax and enjoy the scenery.  Not so in a balloon ably captained by someone else.  Here’s my favorite shot of balloons below… No I did not fall out of the balloon to take this shot.  Then suddenly you see the cave houses and more…. The surprise of surprises was we crashed... Read more

Not to be missed is the balloon ride at dawn over the caves and cliffs of Cappadocia.  It really is an experience of a lifetime, even more than the balloon ride over the Nile, because there is so much to see.  And yes it is expensive, but it’s one of those things that is really worth it. There are now many balloon companies in this part of Turkey, but this is one of the older ones.  They come and get... Read more

The problem these days is they don’t allow photographs of any of the still beautiful paintings in some of the churches, which are pictured here… The plainer wall paintings  and carvings you can take pictures of … The monasteries in these caves had dining rooms for the monks… This practice of carving out large residences and hotels in the tufa rock is still going on, even today… for example in Mustafapasa… But we need to also consider another valley called... Read more

Hebrews 11 reminds of how often God’s people have suffered. Near the end of the Hall of Faith in that chapter we hear this starting at vs. 35— “There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted... Read more

Cappadocia is a good place for a new year’s vacation… but these pictures come from late July last year….   Here’s where we stayed in Cappadocia, in a little village called Mustapasha….. which was quaint to say the least.  We stayed in a villa/hotel called Cappadocia Estates… Yes it’s a floral paradise….. with olde world lodgings…. One fun thing to do is to go to a ceramics factory and see how they make the beautiful Turkish ceramics… Those are what I... Read more

John Donne has always been my favorite metaphysical poet.. Full marks to the NY Times for publishing the following— What John Donne Knew About Death Can Teach Us a Lot About Life Sept. 10, 2022 Credit…Getty Images   By Katherine Rundell Ms. Rundell is the author, most recently, of “Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne,” from which this essay has been adapted. The power of John Donne’s words nearly killed a man. It was the spring of 1623, on the morning... Read more

This Fall has involved many things, including lots and lots of concerts….. my sister and I, and my wife too, are the music mavens…. we’ve gone to concerts by the Lexington Lab Band which brought 2,500 to the Ichthus grounds in Wilmore  to  hear  the  best   cover  band  in  the  land. Even the heavens were enjoying this one the day before Labor Day.   Then two Thursdays later…. we got to go see Christopher Cross in the Lexington Opera House. What... Read more