Settling In

 

The name changed in February. The address stayed the same.

For those of you who have been here a while, you already know the story. For those who are newer, the short version is simply this: I changed, and eventually the name had to follow.

So here we are. A little quieter. A little more settled. Still curious.

March feels like the right month to begin again. Not January with its pressure and its promises, but March, when the light is actually changing and the year starts to feel real.

One morning recently I sat down and asked a very specific question. Not of a guru, not of a protocol, not of the particular certainty that drove me to Australia years ago. I asked Claude, the AI, what the science actually says about the healthiest way to eat for people in their seventies and eighties who intend to keep going.

The answer was plant heavy, not vegetarian. Increased protein. Anti-inflammatory. Practical.

So we are trying it. Four weeks of meals built on evidence rather than enthusiasm, with a Southern kitchen and a little French influence to keep it from feeling like medicine. Travis eats what I give him plus whatever else he can sneak in. Some things never change.

I will share more of what we are eating as the weeks go on. For now the spirit of it is enough. Nourish the body you actually have, with what the research actually shows, without drama. That feels like progress.

I also started the first Louise Penny novel, the Gamache series that everyone seems to love. It was a slow start. Then just as I began to settle into it I discovered there was a film. I watched the film. And now the book feels somehow unnecessary. I am not sure what that says about me. Probably nothing I want to examine too closely.

If you have a recommendation for a book with a strong woman at the center, intelligent, not too dark, the kind that resolves, I am genuinely looking. Leave it in the comments or find me on Facebook. I would love to know what you are reading.

In the evenings I have been watching Shetland. I recommend it without apology. The Scottish islands have that same quality I love about France, a place with deep roots and particular light, where the landscape shapes the people who live in it. And the crimes get solved. In a world that offers so few resolutions, I will take them where I find them.

More soon. There is a lot of spring ahead.

Janis at Maison Tranquille 

Still Curious. Still Growing. Still Grateful.