Yesterday while harvesting a nicely developed cabbage from our garden I suddenly had a wonderful travel memory come flooding back. Several years ago while taking the train from Ljubljana, Slovenia to Zagreb, Croatia along the banks of the Sava River we began to pass these lovely small Slovenian farms which inevitably had small kitchen gardens situated adjacent to the houses. Without exception all of these gardens were replete with the largest heads of cabbage I had ever seen. I marveled at the abundance of produce, the elegantly simple architectural lines of these two and three-story farmhouses (all with flowerboxes prominently hanging from the windows), and the interesting farm implements, such as the corn-drying racks, scattered throughout the fields.

As our travels took us into Hungary along the shores of Lake Balaton and later into Moravia, Czech Republic we continued to see these wonderful kitchen gardens with their ubiquitous cabbage patches. Of course, cabbage was a side dish of every meal we ate. And now a wonderful benefit from this trip is something as simple as harvesting a head of cabbage can send me back in time and across oceans to bathe myself in the pleasant memories of travel.

I'm curious as to what simple daily tasks help evoke these wonderful momentary escapes to a more pleasant time and place.

John in San Diego