Happy Thanksgiving 2013

I am grateful for so many things in my life, not the least of which is the fabulous Thanksgiving weekend that has just passed.  I am grateful for being able to spend the weekend with my mom and my sister at the cottage, as my recent trip to France meant that I missed the best of the fall colours this season. Luckily, there were still a few trees dressed in their autumnal glory for me to admire!

Here's a few other things I'm grateful for:

The beautiful, warm, sunny day we had on Saturday and the first 8 bags of leaves we got filled (only 72 left to go if past years' totals are any indication!)

and the delicious turkey dinner (and dessert!) my sister Janine cooked.

The indigo twilight that follows a fall sunset:

For the talented photographer on the other side of the world who took my coloured photo of our property:

and turned it into this black and white delight:

Post production editing by Tim Fisher

For the quiet, relaxing, rainy day we had inside yesterday, cozied up by the fireplace, the friends who dropped in to visit and turkey leftovers...

For the misty Monday morning

that turned into a sunny afternoon today that was perfect for raking and bagging 20 more bags of leaves - no wind, not too hot, not too cold.  Yesterday's rain meant the leaves were still wet, which makes them just right for bagging.  Here I am, hard at work.

Photo by Janine Fawcett

Also extremely grateful that our neighbours with the annoyingly loud leaf blower that intruded on the enjoyment of Saturday afternoon's late in the cottage season quiet weren't using it today!

For being able to get the freezer in the vintage cottage fridge defrosted quickly and easily.

Before

After

Last but not least, for the beautiful sunset on my drive home.

A Walk to Utopia

Actually, the name of the small village we walked to one day in France last week was Oupia but it was quite idyllic. Except for the fact that it was raining.  It had been raining all morning and we'd reluctantly cancelled our plans to drive to the Mediterranean that day as a result. By the time lunch was over, we were all ready to get out for some fresh air so when the rain trickled off to a fine mist, we headed out.

We wanted to walk to the village we could see out our windows, just across the valley.

Accordingly to Google Maps, it was only 1.4 km away so it wouldn't take long.  In reality, it took about 40 minutes, much longer than necessary but only because we stopped to take pictures every few feet! Everything was camera worthy, from the grapes on the vine

(which we examined quite closely)

to the view of the chateau behind us,

and the stretch of road ahead of us.

There was also a rusty old gate,

a very unique fence

and a slightly aggressive rooster.

We came across this bench as we arrived at the outskirts of the village.  At first we thought the sign said "reserved seating", which seemed pretty funny since we appeared to be smack dab in the middle of nowhere.  We realized later, with the help of a French/English dictionary, that it meant "hunting reserve", although I don't know why a bench would be required for that?

When we arrived at Oupia, there was lots to see.  The architecture was quite picturesque, especially this building:

In spite of the grey day, there was still colour to be found.

I wonder how many grapes have sat in this metal bucket to make it turn this particular shade of purple?

It was while I was standing under a tree taking this photo of the village church

that I realized the rain had started to come down even harder.  As a result, we didn't linger too much longer.  We only found one retail shop and it was closed.  The post office was open so we popped in to buy stamps, much to the surprise of the postmistress, who looked quite startled when we walked in from the rain (clearly, the locals knew it was better to stay indoors in such weather!).

We headed back to our home away from home

and arrived there soaked through to the skin (except for my top half, which had been quite adequately protected by my waterproof jacket, which I can now heartily endorse for its effectiveness!) but happy from our little adventure in the French countryside.

A Visit to Strawberry Fields

Since today would have been John Lennon's 73rd birthday, I thought you might like to see this little video I filmed when I was in New York City about 6 weeks ago.  My friend Debbie and I visited Central Park and stopped by Strawberry Fields, the memorial to Lennon.



As you can (somewhat faintly) hear in the video, this guy was singing the chorus of the Beatles song, "She Loves You" (listen for "yeah, yeah, yeah").

As you can also hear, he wasn't that good.  He wasn't all bad but he wasn't that good.  Sadly, he hadn't read the sign advising that this was a "quiet zone", and no musical instruments were permitted:

I guess songwriters have to learn to accept that people will play and perform their songs badly from time to time.  Although I can't imagine that is an easy lesson to learn.

The End of a Rainy Day

We had rain off and on all day today but it was all worth it (at least to me) when I was lucky enough to see this at the end of the day, just as the sun was going down:

I was busy admiring the arch

When I realized there were actually two rainbows

Apparently the pot of gold is hidden in Michaels!

I even got a closeup picture of the full spectrum:

What a lovely way to end this rainy back-to-reality/work-after-vacation Monday!

A Rainy Day in France

I wrote a post yesterday about a walk in the rain to a nearby village here in the south of France but I got distracted just as I was finishing up and it vanished from my phone. I'm hoping I will find it saved in the drafts folder when I get home to my laptop. In the meantime, here are some other rainy day pictures.

The skies have cleared and we are leaving this picturesque village, headed for an overnight in the big city of Toulouse. 

Bonjour from France

We rented a house in the south of France, arrived here last Saturday. 

Quite a different pace here in this small village, population 168. 

Much more relaxed. Everything is very picturesque, photo ops everywhere you turn. 

There is a 12th century chateau/castle just down the street that is quite spectacular, but sadly, it appears to be abandoned. 

The neighbours are friendly. 

It will be hard to leave this lovely spot when our time is up on Saturday. We've seen a few "for sale" signs about, I 'm wondering if I can recreate "Under the Tuscan Sun"?!