Tongue in Cheek

Yesterday the sky was clear though an overcast hung over me.

I carried Julie with me while walking

in and out of here and there over and under around and around

Came home after walking for several hours

made dinner of two bowls of Coco Puffs with blueberries to feel healthy,

binged watched on the British series on Netflix "Sex...

grief has a roadmap of its own

my heart has traveled that tumultuous path

more than once

and it is markably the same with its

unexpected turns

going into the jungle

of memories and regrets

uprooting what 

was paved with worn steps 

with echoing voices of why and ifs

and how can this be?

my cousin Julie who I have...

 

A wonderful video as why we collect and what it means to us...

by Alex Vervoordt.

My friend Barbara sent this video to me saying she thought of of me when she watched it.

ah lovely, to be thought of by this video.

I love everything he says xxx little did she know how much I admire his style.

If I could be as wise and as...

The inside of this box took me by surprise, because of it I had to buy it then I sold it that is how it goes as a brocante buyer. In one hand and out by the other. 1800 hand embroidery piece tucked into a small case. It probably was used to hold a rosary or relic… I have seen plenty of curious and beautiful antiques many ask me how I can...

In my mind’s eye my cousin Julie and I are riding bicycles again on county road P we are about 13 years old.

The sky is blue,

 the  rice fields are waving that brilliant green,

our long brown hair wiping around our faces as the wind is at our backs …

we let go if the handle bars throwing our arms into the air,

we look...

The plant identifier app that I use claimed it King Protea which I knew wasn't right.

The photos the app shared were nothing like the flower in my photo. 

Thank you for the suggestions Leonie was the first to tell me it’s name it is a spider 

My friend Mary (we were in a monastery together) sent me this article...

...

Where were we that moment still fresh in our minds?

Where are we now and have we learned?

What peace do we have, do we offer

 to those who died that day

to their families

and to those in Afghanistan the millions who died after the towers went down?

Tragedy ...

hate offers a brutal response

and somehow makes some of us have...

Calling it pretty isn’t enough.

Do you know more about it!

Water and being outside are two things most children love.

The fountain at the park was hard to turn on for most of the little hands there so Yann decided to hold it on for them.

Gabriel, as you can see doesn't like wet clothes, hence he was in his diaper.

Once the children knew that someone was holding the water on the lineup was continuous...

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Sent to me by Patricia xx

The thought above reminded me of  

Saint Francis and his teachings-

… though when the bee stings me

the idea of being a flower fades.

Ah to be able to hold good thoughts about another when they sting you, to seek understanding in the face of adversity.

That was Saint Francis.

Finally at the end of summer the warm weather has arrived in Provence, driving everyone either inside or to the beach.

Luckily, for us our maison du village (house in the village) has stone walls that are over three feet thick. Our maison's wall butts up against the neighbor's maison's wall creating a six foot thick stone wall. Insulation at...

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Walking along in Paris two women in front of me caught my attention. Now I am not a fashionista, nor buy fashion magazines so who am I to judges, but I did. The mother and her thirty something year old daughter could not have been more dowdy if they tried from head to toe they looked like a throw back to 1970s and not in that hip cool sense but...

Birthday lunch for Yann with Chelsea, Martin, Gabriel, (not in the photo) Tatiana (Yann's great-niece) Juliette (Yann's niece) and Stephane (Juliette's partner). I love this photo so much! They are cracking up because Stephane and Yann were being funny. I was so in the moment that I took only a handful of photos, which are posted here....

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Paris after sunset.

Walking from one end of Paris to the other,

or walking from my daughter's apartment in the 10th by Saint Martin Canal

to our apartment in the 14th by Montparnasse

it is about a five mile walk 

unless you do what I do which is weaving, mingling, poking in

and out of courtyards and favorite...

In a perfect world everything is perfect. Everyone is happy. Life offers geniune kindness and plenty to eat. Nobody suffers or dies, children grow up with only good memories of their families. Everyone has what they need. There isn't any waste. And if I wanted long legs and a little nose I would have it. But in a perfect world it...

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When we went to Barcelona to surprise Sacha for his birthday back in June

I noticed that women were not wearing bras,

but it didn't register that it might be a trend or movement like it was in the sixties instead it was

something I noticed without equation ... 

Until I came to Paris this week. Oh, braless-ness is a thing-

If...

graffiti in Paris

Got out if the stroller to check it out

Gabriel repeating after me 

dog, cat, mouse, duck… 

pink mouse

blue duck…

soooo many

beaucoup!

Simple pleasure

A long the sidewalk.

"Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her,

still, she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings."

Victor Hugo

 

"The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart."

George Sand

 

 

...

A child’s collar in an old box

Art without effort or thought 

Two pieces traveling together through time 

captured together haphazardly  

…

Where would you go first?
I know where I would go!

Gabriel likes to kiss me I cannot complain.

Sweet little Boy Boy.

Cherish childhood.

Text by Adrian Michael Green on Instagram.

photos taken on our way to Normandy.



“…turn everything into light… into holy love…”

a seed underground with its elements of soil, water, & light has the best chance to sprout through the darkness and grow.

Like the seed we need our soil, water, & light to help guide us through...

They both won but didn’t know it.

Hanging out with this bunch

wishing Sacha was here too.

(Diogenes, we won't know the name until the birth.)

We asked Gabriel what the baby's name is and he calls her

"Papillote"

and he calls himself, "Babou".

I love when he says,

"Maman, Daddy, Babou, Papillote, Grandpapa, O.E. (that's me) and then smiles

as if to say, "We are all here...

Utter joy being with this little boy boy.

photographs from Gabriel’s Daddy Martin x

thankful

xxx

I thought this vacation going to see Yann's family I would create a travel log of our road trip, add photos, tips,

and places to see... addresses. I thought of the delightful fodder for my blog.

I was looking forward to adding my photos -thoughts at the end of each day that would highlight the happy side. 

...

As far as my eye could see the beach went further

my feet longing to walk and walk

but first, we will visit Yann's family

and then my desire to walk will run along this beach.

Sorry for the lack of photos, but between a slow internet and full days of traveling

my eyes long to surrender to sleep.

The open space enters inside me and expands

the passages that need me to breathe.

A cloud passes by,

I take hold of a wisp of it,

as strong as any current I know,

and I fly.

Over open fields of harvested lavender fields

bales of fresh hay

dancing wheat fields

pear orchards

vineyards

and rivers snaking along.

Driving from Marseille

to 

the Normandy coastline 

to see Yann’s family 

16 hours in a car with anyone is a proof of love, right?

We are taking the backroads…

I want to stop every two inches to take a photo.

But that hasn’t happened - we are not driving straight through

That was the compromise!

...

When going out for dinner I usually eat less during the day as I know it isn't polite to offend the hostess by asking for a small portion

and not finishing my plate.

Hence, I did not heed my own advice when going out to dinner at Pierre Jean and Sylvie's home.

Double hence, the button on my pants was undone.

In their town, there is a...

Within each of us, there is a dream wanting to wake up and become real, tangible, whole, and complete.

Within each of us, there is a past, present, and future in collaboration with the scribe of our script. 

Within each of us, there is a history buried, wanting to be born anew.

Within each of...

Thank you Rebecca for posting this I had to share it.

Looking up 


Flowers growing around and about windows

Green thumbs in a limited space.

Adding life to facades, narrow streets, and dry Provence.

Where do I add life, light, love especially in areas where it is needed?

The wonder never ceases when I see a flower growing in some impossible place its...

FRENCH BREAD. The endless world of French bread. Baguettes... God, after thirty-some years in France you would think I could walk into a bakery and not drool on myself.

At the market a woman walked by carrying three baguettes, they looked the same at a glance, but look at the ends-

Each one has a slightly different end... Different...

We spent the day wandering around Arles.

As any of you who have had children know that when you go anywhere with a toddler you spend

most your time wandering after them.

We knew that

and the day went as planned.

Wandering.

Chelsea took this photo.

Ask me how many...

Great guess and a wonderful collection of names. Some of you guessed more than one time and that is okay. The baby's name was mentioned but I am not allowed to reveal it until the baby's birth.

I cannot say much about the names you sent me because if I do it would be giving you clues to the name. Does that make sense? I cannot...

Chelsea and Martin are having a baby girl towards the end of October.

When a woman is pregnant the questions center around:

Is it a boy or a girl?

Do you have a name picked out?

I thought you might like to know what they plan to name her... but they are not telling.

Though they gave us some clues as to what they think they will name her....

Via Christine_More on instagram

Feel your feelings

My son-in-law asked me, "How are you feeling?"

Without hesitation I gave the classic response, "I'm fine."

He persisted, "No, really how are you?"

and he paused to listen.

I answered more truthfully.

I knew he wanted to know how I was...

how loving, how loved I felt.

(Thank you Patricia for the quote)

How to make French bread and tomato salad.

In the land of baguettes, where a bakery is on every corner and bread is baked in a wood oven at least twice a day,

where buying a baguette is as natural as breathing, having a day-old baguette around is common.

Hence French Toast, or as they say in France, "Pain Perdu," a direct...

Gabriel grabbed a rock to put it in his toy car

and as he did it he said, « One. »

He grabbed another rock, « Two. »

I had only heard him count to two so when he took the third rock and said, « Three. » I smiled!

When he reached for a fourth rock I wondered what he would say as he put it in the toy car he said,

“Quatre!”

Four...