Passage of time

Anybody who ever visited us in Paris has had the pleasure of meeting our next door neighbors, who have become our dearest friends over all the years we've lived in France.  While we don't get up to Paris much anymore, they have a vacation home just a couple of hours away from us down here; thus, we still manage to see them from time to time.

Recently, we celebrated his birthday, and I thought you'd like to both see our old friends again plus see a simple little French celebration.

The Frenchie and the Yank

While I've made things for her and their house, I've never really made anything for him.  Now that I'm involved in sewing again, I thought it was about time to get more personal.  So I made him a T-shirt.

We've been celebrating his birthday ever since his 50th.  Some milestone ones have been big garden parties in their beautiful Paris yard, some have just been simple little get-togethers.  All have been quite pleasurable, as was this one.

Celebrating 74 years young

It doesn't matter how many candles are on the cake, there aren't too many different ways to blow out those candles! 

Playing American

They were being held by a nice lemon cake, served with bowls of strawberries and cream.  What more could anybody want?

Well, this very French couple had fun serving us a bona fide California wine, bought locally, sweet enough to serve with dessert.  They actually found it quite nice despite being on the sweet side.

Over the years, I've learned a lot from this couple.  While I puttered around in whatever yards I've had ever since our first abode, I never really knew what I was doing.  Moving from South Florida to Paris involved a totally different style of gardening.  Before we could even communicate, she showed me how to plant bulbs in my little garden. 

Building even in his birthday shirt

He started out as a teenager doing masonry, and I've watched him over the years doing things here and there, never dreaming one day I'd be actively using what I learned from him.

He's still building and adding onto his vacation home, I don't think he will ever stop, and that's where he wanted to take his birthday picture!  Quite appropriate, as that's how I'll probably always remember him.

I thought I'd leave you with what they've accomplished in their lovely garden.  Their house is located much closer to the Med and thus stays much warmer, so they already have flowers before we do.  It's also much flatter property and isn't loaded with the same kind of nasty weeds we are plagued with.

She takes care of the plants

He builds the garden walls

I love these people, I love visiting them, I love being inspired by what they actually accomplish while I just dream and pretend to copy.  I hope you've enjoyed meeting them a little if you haven't already gotten to know them in person.