On English and American Etiquette: What Courtesy Reveals About a Society
Emily Post, Eleanor Roosevelt & William Hanson
Category Books & Rituals
In Defense of Good Manners: Why Etiquette is the Secret to Modern Freedom
February Literary Mood Board • The Art of Good Manners, Part I
Fiction as Self-Care: 3 Comforting Books for a Relaxing Winter
Last Tuesday, I turned down an invitation to a gallery opening—the kind of event I usually love—and instead spent the evening with Bertie Wooster and a cup of Earl Grey. No apologies, no guilt, just the quiet satisfaction of knowing…
The Art of Re-Reading: 3 Books on Intent and Grounding
Returning to the Basics: Why I’m Re-reading My Bookshelf in 2026 January arrived this year not as a fresh start, but as exhaustion wearing a calendar date. The last three months of 2025 had been chaotic—the kind of chaos that…
January Literary Mood Board: Slow Reading & Bookish Self-Care
A Gentle January: Literature, Fireplaces and the Art of Slowing Down When the Christmas ornaments go back into storage and the festive menu has finally been cleared (let’s admit it, we had our fun, but deep down we’re all craving…
The Ritual of Reading: A 2025 Reflection on Slowness and Intention
When Creation Becomes Listening There’s a particular moment at the end of the year when I feel the need to take stock—not in numbers, not in lists, but in atmosphere. To ask myself not what did I produce, but what…
The Magic of Maurice Maeterlinck’s The Blue Bird
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 24 Do you remember what it felt like to believe in magic? Not the kind you had to work for or earn, but the kind that simply existed—shimmering at the edges of things, waiting to…
A Love Letter to Belgium’s White Gold: Endive Gratin
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 23 There are dishes that don’t just feed you—they tell you stories about place, about accident and adaptation, about the kind of stubborn regional pride that makes neighbors claim the same recipe as their own…
Chicons au Gratin: Belgian “White Gold”
There is something almost poetic about a vegetable that requires absolute darkness to find its sweetness. The chicon doesn’t seek the sun; it waits in the damp, quiet winter of a Belgian cellar, tightly furled and patient, until it is…
The Art of Presence: Celebrating the Everyday with Colette Nys-Mazure
Belgian Advent Calendar – Day 22 The ritual begins before the first sip—before the tea even touches the water. There’s the kettle, waiting for the right temperature. The leaves, measured carefully into the pot. The porcelain cup, chosen not for…