High Line was a Highlight

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One of the highlights of our stay in New York was the High Line Walkway.  This innovative 1.45 mile-long public park has been created by converting a section of the disused New York Central Railroad spur.  This elevated rail line was built in the early 1930s to eliminate street-level train crossings to improve both efficiency and public safety.  Continue reading

No Change, No Choice

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Once again on this trip I find myself in a church swaying and clapping in time to the rousing music and enthusiastic singing of the choir. Whites, blacks and Hispanics, young and old, well dressed and shabby are all here to experience the community of the Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. All are welcome and this is made clear when after the first, and only prayer, given ad-lib by a long-haired black transgender woman, she finishes with “Right on, Amen, Hallelujah, Shalom, Salaam, Namaste” Continue reading

If You Go Down to the Woods Today ……

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If a smell could be a colour then I would have been breathing a vibrant spring-like green. The fragrance was piney-resin with an underlayer of warm damp soil following the rain shower the night before. It was sparkling clean and fresh, a soothing balm for my lungs. This was just part of the experience as we hiked through the Sequoia National Park which lies in the southern Sierra Nevada range in California. Continue reading