Posts by Rick Juliusson
Slow Circling in Montevideo, Uruguay
Four months ago we left the smooth rhythms of Bali and komodo dragons of Indonesia, replaced with the merry messiness of family and the long slog of Sarah’s knee replacement. We arrive here in Montevideo like a tired but well-fed wolf, readying the den for a long nap. Montevideo is the Spanish word for “hunker…
Read MoreGetting High in Bogotá
Three days of hanging out in Bogotá Colombia (not Columbia – tough for us BC boys) is breathtaking – literally. At 2,640 meters (8,660 feet) above sea level, Bogotá is the third highest capital in the world (peering up only at nearby La Paz, Bolivia and Quito, Ecuador.) The hip, upscale Parque 93 area around…
Read MoreNewfoundland – The Finest Kind
Would we retire in Newfoundland without Killick Ecovillage? That’s the key question a keen friend asked after my last eager post about our week of connection in our future cohousing home. Sarah and I stopped, looked quizzically at each other like we’d been asked why we like peanut butter, and eventually came up with three…
Read MoreKillick Ecovillage Connection Week
I should be nervous. Last summer we discovered Killick Ecovillage, the Newfoundland cohousing development where 51 families will (about two years from now) live in housing clusters and share life on 57 acres of farm, woods and wetland. After a single land walk and one group meeting/potluck, we unreservedly lowered our anchor (“Killick” is a…
Read MoreMonth-full of Moncton
A month in Bali inspired six (6) blog posts; a month in Moncton New Brunswick merits one (1). But a good one. We’re not here to see many Great Sites (that’s the whole skyline in the photo above). Atlas Obscura lists a whopping two (2) cool and unusual things to do within city limits. We…
Read More4 Steps to a Healthy Father-Son Relationship
What Joy I feel to have two grown boys who not only love me, but LIKE me. We like spending time together, enjoy old routines and new adventures, want to talk and play and hang. I fly into Philadelphia for a quick weekend with our youngest, and he drops everything to be with me. On…
Read MoreParis, One Patisserie at a Time
We seem to keep coming back to Paris, so how to keep her fresh and exciting? You can only marvel at the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur so many times. Our solution – pick a new neighbourhood, draw a 3-block radius around it and don’t go beyond. We randomly choose Levallouis-Perret, partly because it’s on…
Read MoreFragmented – Life of a Caregiver After Knee Replacement
Caring for my warrior wife after knee replacement surgery was never meant to be easy. I was prepared for medicine chart tracking, pain management, emotional counseling, rehab exercises, special food requests, disrupted sleep – it’s what we both signed on for. What I didn’t anticipate was how her shiny new titanium joint would leave me…
Read More3 Weeks in Scotland – Lowlands
As I relate my great-grandmother’s colourful history to a local guide, I add in the detail that the younger lad she married on the train to BC was in fact a Lowlander. “Not a Sassanach?!” he gasps. Thanks to my extensive Outlander education, I know what that means and quickly reassure him that it’s not…
Read More3 Weeks in Scotland – Northern Highlands
When young Anne McGilvery refused a marriage being forced on her, she was kicked out of the family home on the fair Isle of Mull and sailed for Canada to work as a nanny. After a decade, the itch returned and she was once again high-tailing it – this time aboard a west-bound train, where…
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