Small town humanitarian aid

The first time I remember ever hearing the word tsunami was with the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004, now ten years ago.  (The day it happened was also our very first visit to our current church.)  It ended up being the deadliest tsunami in recorded history.

Our little village created a humanitarian relief organization, and we just had an exposition to show the results.  I thought you might enjoy seeing humanity at work all over the world.

Another trip around the Sun

Since I started blogging last year, I've introduced all the members of our family and paid tribute to them on their birthdays.  Except for the patriarch of the clan. 

While Doc Leo has the earliest calendar date birthday each year, he's ended up having the last birthday on my blog.  Today we shall rectify that!

Alpine rain

Winter rain in our region often changes the appearance of the landscape.  Yesterday, we got rain.  A fair amount of it.

So I thought you might enjoy the beautiful view we had from our balcony this morning.

A project to start the new year

After completing my Christmas project, I was enticed to continue with a New Year's project, especially considering how perfect our weather has been for such concepts. 

Apparently, all the November rain we had (five times normal) is supposed to be holding us over the rest of the winter, and all the heat we did not have in summer is trying to manifest itself in the middle of winter.

Both conditions create a perfect environment for some serious earth rearranging.  So I took advantage!

Our mayor's best wishes for 2015

January is always fun in France in general, our village in particular for us.  The town sponsors an open invitation to everybody to participate together in sharing the Galette des Roi, or King's Cake in English, as part of the New Year's and Epiphany celebrations. 

The French eat it all month long; our night out with the village was last Friday.  You might enjoy how it works, at least in our current world.

Bring on 2015!

I would like to wish everybody both near and dear to me, as well as those I may not ever have met, a wonderful beginning to another year. 

No matter what we may have faced in the past, we are all still here with a promise for the future.

So, Happy New Year, version 2015!

My Christmas gift to myself

I was unexpectedly able to both start and complete a little outside project that I've been wanting to do for months, just in time for Christmas.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out I thought I'd show you, too.

With a little help from my friend partner, I was able to transform a dead corner of our driveway into a bit of a showplace, despite its continuing rusticity.

Merry Christmas from us to you

Christmas 2014 is upon us, although some of us have been celebrating all month long.  I love the Christmas season and everything it represents.  I love decorating my own house but also seeing what is done everywhere else.

I thought I'd share with you some of the things about the Season that I'm enjoying in my own life.

Having a country Christmas

Our village has an annual Christmas market; and ever since the country dance class got started, they always do a little demo during the market.  It actually was in watching them one year that we got interested in that being an activity for us to try.  Too bad we hadn't started when they did originally, as we'd be a lot more advanced now. 

We had a party instead of a lesson our next class time after the demo, and I thought I'd share how we try to have fun sometimes!

Christmas season kick-off

Having finished our Thanksgiving celebrations of three separate dinners, it was finally time to get into the Christmas spirit of things going on everywhere else around us, as the French don't have to wait until after Thanksgiving themselves. 

So what did we do?  We had another dinner, of course!  Which meant we had to get one holiday packed up and another one set up rather quickly.