Eclipsed!

During last night, we were treated to a marvelous celestial exhibition.  It required us to set an alarm for about 4:00 a.m., then stand out in the cold constantly trying to snap photos, but what a show!

This photo is an official one taken with massive equipment we obviously don't have, but it shows how it really looked.  You can find more photos online if you are interested.

Another camp fall work week

Once again, we just spent another week up in the mountains volunteering at a children's camp facility to do whatever upkeep was necessary to keep everything in workable condition.  Both the Doc and I have developed our areas of personal interest or expertise, and we tend to do the same things every year, but each time does bring its own version of challenges and experiences.

One of my favorite current views is from the fire pit I rebuilt last year looking over the grounds I've personally done my fair share of reclaiming from wild nature.

Winners and losers

As Doc Leo doesn't like to stray very far from his internet connection and his kitty cats, we don't seem to ever take vacations now that he's retired.  Thus I get stuck having all my obligations around the property staring me in the face with no break. 

To combat that, in order to have a bit more personal time, I apparently have ended up throwing myself into my sewing site with more participation than I really should dedicate. 

Here is a recap of some of the ups and downs I've experienced recently.  The recent ups are particularly rewarding!

Becoming a teenage sleuth

Contests can be fun.  Sewing contests that stretch creativity can be fun.  Provided one can reach inside and pull out some semblance of creativity.   The current contest I am attempting really involves some imagination, and I didn't know if I was up to it.  However, succeeding at a challenge is rewarding, so I really put on my thinking cap.  But just how does a book provide inspiration for creating a wearable garment?  Not a costume, not a period piece, but something appropriate for wearing currently, yet reflecting a particular literary work.

While some contestants were considering abstract themes, I needed something more concrete.  And suddenly, the inspiration arrived.  I'm going back in my own world about 55 years to a favorite character who I'm taking back about 15 years earlier than that.  I'm turning myself into a 1940's Nancy Drew!

25 years later after Destination: Paris

Once upon a time, we were a totally typical American family of two parents and three offspring, all born in different states and regions of the country.  While we entertained the unreachable dream of "going abroad" since we were young marrieds, we occupied ourselves with the world we did live in.  While Doc Leo started traveling all over the US and into Canada (it was so exotic to get an emergency help phone call from Vancouver!) in the first half of the 1980's, he started spending more time in Europe than at home in the second half.  Not being Florida natives in the first place, it became quite interesting contemplating living where all the current business was.  When the company finally agreed, and gave us the choice of where to locate ourselves, the Doc picked Paris, as he thought he knew the language and it was quite centrally located with a major airport to everywhere.

Thus began an experiment on this date that actually continues until this day and probably for the rest of our lives.

A very cold princess

Having close friends who are the same ages as my own insanely old middle aged kids, I sometimes get to participate in a totally different lifestyle than my own. One of my friends has a life that really closely parallels mine 30 years ago, and I really enjoy watching her be involved in her three kids' lives.

Recently, her youngest had her fifth birthday, and it's becoming standard now for us to help her out with the birthday parties.  This particular one was quite an affair.

Embracing Age

Time marches on, and once again the earth has orbited the sun on the day I was born.  While I'm not too excited to reach the halfway point of my 60s, as that seems like a real turning point in life to me, it's better than the alternative.  So I decided to make a bigger effort to appreciate the positives of where I am in life rather than the negatives of where I'm not.

Helping me out over the whole weekend were a number of small pleasurable moments as well as a few larger ones.  I thought you might like to share a few of them with me!

On being featured

As anybody who knows me is aware, I've been sewing my whole adult life.  I really don't know how that evolved.  My grandma hand sewed me a dress she cut from a pattern out of newspaper when I was about four, but otherwise she was only known to me for crocheting.  My mother could sew and went through a spell of making us girls a lot of gathered skirts, but she must have done it while I was in school, because I don't really have memories of her doing it.  She did teach me a few basics when I was nine, but that was about it.

So what made me think as an adult that I was just going to make all my own clothes?  And who would ever have guessed back then that it would become a lifetime involvement?

A Provençal lunch

I seem to be sharing a lot about life in Provence at the moment.  As I am actually in the French Riviera area of the south, and Provence is more towards the west, I should be showing our more coastal/Alpine world.  However, both regions do get lumped together as a lifestyle, and that's what I'm currently trying to give you a glimpse into. 

While we've experienced some rather specific functions lately, we just had a quite simple afternoon barbecue with a few French friends, totally laid back, and I thought you might enjoy some of the very typical elements we managed to incorporate.  I was able to create a very local ambiance rather than some specific theme, and that was rather fun.

As Romea of course wasn't about to miss anything involving people and food, she also sends you her greetings.

A Bastille Day outing

"Play ball!" is a common US expression heard all summer long.  It usually is referring to the American game of baseball.  Here in France, the concept of playing ball is something completely different, especially down in the south.  I'm sure you've all seen the Provençal images of French men (and women) standing around throwing little metal balls at a little red wooden ball.  The game of Boules (balls) is a common sight all over France when the weather is balmy, or in the south perhaps all year round.

We just spent Bastille Day, the French national holiday, with a Boules club.