Letters, We Get Letters...

We get lots and lots of letters! During the long, busy days of my Cursillo weekend, there was at least one break for 'letters.' While the facilitator read letters from literally all over the world written by other Cursillo communities in support of our weekend, personal letters were delivered to each of us. These are a sampling of what I received....letters of love and support from friends at St. Timothy's. The very first one I opened was from the young woman whom I mentored through her Confirmation process! She's spending her summer in Baltimore having surgery and doing physical therapy to lenghten one leg which is a bit shorter than the other. I received a card from her all three days! Do I need to tell you that each one brought tears to my eyes? Every card and note was personal and special to me. I feel truly blessed by care and friendship I received.

PS...unless you're as old as I am, you might not know that the title of this entry and its first sentence are from the Perry Como Show theme song. He got letters requesting songs; I got letters of love!

A Cursillo Weekend

This is where I spent my weekend...the University of St. Mary in Leavenworth, KS. Yes, that Leavenworth; we drove by the military base and the federal prison encircled with razor wire on our way to this beautiful site. I'll be blogging about my experiences of the weekend here and at Dona Nobis Pacem over the next few days. It was quite an experience, this Cursillo event! The University welcomed us with dorm rooms, shared bathrooms, and thankfully, air conditioning. The weekend was hot and steamy as only the Midwest can be. The public areas of the campus were beautiful, filled with lush plantings, beautiful statuary, great woodwork and old stained glass. The food was plentiful...almost too plentiful! When explaining to friends what this weekend was about, I used the word 'retreat.' Not exactly correct because although we were in retreat from the world with no TV, computers, watches, or phones, it was neither quiet nor restful! It was jam-packed with talks, discussions, activities, worship and singing. It was a weekend filled with love, with fellow pilgrims, with scripture, and with thoughts to ponder. I'm only just beginning to sort through it all and determine what it means for me.

Stop!

I will be away for the weekend at an Episcopal church workshop. I have received strict instructions to leave all electronic things that ring, beep, chime, chirp, buzz, and all other worldly distractions that command your attention at home. I think this means I won't have computer/laptop access! So, I'll be taking a bit of a 'stop' from blogging. See you next week.

Safe and Sound

I mailed off my 'babies' for Laury's end-of-August vernissage last week. Today she sent me this photo...they arrived, safe and sound! No broken glass, no bent frames. It looks like Dean, the Postmaster, used lots of cool stamps to send my package winging its way to France. Wonder if he knew somehow that Laury is a big stamp fan? I'm relieved to know they made it. Now Laury gets the fun of figuring out just how to hang them in her cave. My guess is she'll send me a photo of their final destination if I can't get there to take one myself. I'm still hopeful...

Addendum: Laury wrote a blogpost about my photos. Check it out at Soar-Dream-France.

Long Distance Therapy

You may remember this photo from a blog post I made back in June of 2008. Well...it flooded again, but not quite this badly. My creek overflowed its banks this morning. Only I wasn't here to take its picture. Here's the story: I awoke at 5am to thunder and rain...lots and lots of rain. At 6:30am it was still raining heavily, water was standing in most of my front yard and I could see the creek roaring just standing on my back porch. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't keep from pacing back and forth to the window, peering out watching the water rise. I kept having flashbacks to June 2008 when I found myself completely surrounded by running creek water. Enough! I showered, pulled on clothes, put Lucie in the car, and we left. Water was standing in my drive and in places on the road, but the creek was still in its banks as I rounded the corner and started the climb up to the top of the ridge. I spent the next 3 hours in Des Moines shopping, getting gas, and having a frappachino at Starbucks...waiting for the rain to stop. When I arrived home, I could see the creek had been up in my yard, but was now on its way back down. I emailed Laury about it, and I had barely pushed the 'Send' button when my phone rang. "Are you all right??" my friend drawled, "I'm worried about you!" We talked and laughed, I felt so silly, but it's an awful feeling to be at the mercy of the elements, powerless and trapped. She did her very best social worker therapy via phone...soothing and calming, validating that fears don't have to be rational to feel real. We laughed again...it's pretty amazing that I seek support from my friend who lives 5000 miles away! But it worked...well enough that I think I should pay her hourly therapy wage for our conversation!

BTW....I emptied 3 inches of rain out of my rain gauge!

Yummy!

I love to read cookbooks almost as much as I love to cook. So, when I heard this cookbook reviewed on NPR, I knew I had to have it. Judith Jones is a senior editor at Knopf and has written several books on her own, but my interest in her stems from the fact that she was Julia Child's cookbook editor. Anyone who can edit Julia Child has to be able to cook...and to tell a good story. And since I'm a single person, I thought this book about cooking for one would be useful as well. It's become one of my favorite sources for recipes. My dinner yesterday was this gratin of beef, mushrooms and breadcrumbs. Yummy! and just right for one person. (I actually made two, so I can have dinner ready another night this week.) I've tried recipes for all the meat dishes except those using veal; I draw the line at eating baby anything. There are also recipes for veggies, salads, and desserts...all portioned for a single diner with recipes for using left-overs if there happen to be any.  I won't tell you the ingredients for the gratin in the photograph as I use a recipe simply for suggestions...I always substitute according to my taste and to what's in the 'fridge. All I can say is it was yummy good!

Rest in Peace

A friend of mine lost the love of her life last week. I blogged a story about them recently referencing our shared time in Paris back in 2005. Between them there are over 50 years of memories. Between them are 3 marriages and several children...but not with each other. Between them are countless trips abroad...with each other on her dime. He shared the Eiffel Tower and street music with us; she shared her gentle spirit and her ability to unconditionally love someone whom the rest of us found unlovable. She wasn't there when he died; she is heartbroken.

Toilets

Early during my first trip to France in 2005, my friend, Mickey, brought a very curious thing to my attention: French toilets. Not the toilets exactly...those are pretty much same the world over...but rather the flushing apparatus. As she said, 'You never see two that are exactly the same. Who knew there were so many versions of toilets?' Once she said it, I couldn't help but pay attention to every toilet I saw. She's right! Very rarely did I flush exactly the same way. During my month in the Lot last September, I decided it was time to record this phenomena digitally; I took photos in every bathroom I could. Yes, I know that's kind of weird. There were times it even felt weird to me, so I'd bypass an opportunity because it just felt awkward carrying my camera into the 'loo. The past two days I've shared a few of the ways the French flush their toilets. Here are a couple more images I captured during trips to the WC....

Bidets and things...

My least favorite toilet of all...the infamous Turkish toilet still found many places in France...I even used one in Paris!

And let me leave you with this last photo taken in Roussillon on that first trip to France. It's in honor of Mickey who set me on this journey of toilet discovery! You can see her leaving the Turkish toilet stall and walking past two urinals open to all the world. I was desperate for a bathroom, but hesitated when she found this one. "What if some guy is taking a leak when I come out?"  I gasped. "Just look the other way," was her wise reply!

A Few More Clues

More clues....guess again!

Guess!

Guess?

Sepulchre

I recorded this panoramic sweep of the mountains of southwest France from atop Montsegur. The view was breath-taking; I felt as if I could see forever! I was surprised at how rugged and rural so much of France actually is. I thought of this view last week as I was reading a second Kate Mosse novel, "Sepulchre." Like "Labyrinth" this novel is also set in southwest France, in these very mountains. And like "Labyrinth, the stories in "Sepulchre" slip between two different time periods: France in 1891 and 2007. It's a melange of tarot, magic, and music, good and evil, and the universal search for family and love. While the novel can certainly be read on its own without reading 'Labyrinth," there are some threads that connect it with the other book that add richness to the story. Having seen the wildness of these mountains makes me appreciate how truly terrifying the battle against evil could be in the remote setting of Rennes-les-Bains and the fictional country estate of Domaine de la Cade. Perhaps the sleepy mountain town had stone buildings just like this one I photographed in the mountains outside of Collioure?

Color Update

It's been ten weeks since I put any color on my hair. As you know from my blog post of May 31st, I've decided to let it go natural, i.e. gray. I got it cut today and as I suspected, the sides are almost totally silver. So is the crown. My bangs and the back are pretty much salt & pepper. As I looked in the mirror while Jerry continued to snip and trim, I moaned to him, "I look just like my mother!" Which I actually don't mind all that much because I thought my mother was beautiful. And I really don't mind the gray all that much either. It looks a bit strange now, but I think once the brown is completely gone, it will be fine. BTW...do you know how hard it is to get  a picture of your own hair??

A Tiny Piece of Paris

I go for weeks receiving only bills and the occasional flyer offering me a discount on hearing aids in my mailbox. Then like magic fun things appear from far-away places. This tiny piece of Paris is from Laury. I admired the little music boxes she wrote about in one of her blog posts and voila...she sent me one! Okay...so maybe I whined a little. I love it. It's playing 'La vie en rose.' Can there be anything more quintessentially Parisian than that? It made me cry.

PS...I enlisted the help of my friend, Beth to shoot this video. I just didn't have enough hands to hold the tiny box, turn the crank and press the record button. I'm thinking I need a tripod!

"All the Better to See You With"

Did you figure out the clue?

The  label on the mailing envelope reads "one pair of glasses and one glasses case." Postmarked Aix-en-Provence, my package is a gift from a fellow blogger, Corey, who posted about these nifty stylish reading glasses that are the brainchild of her friend, Phillipe. Corey sponsored a contest on her blog to give Phillipe the best ideas for advertising photos of his new glasses...using Corey's yummy FH (French Husband) as a model. The prize for the best ideas...these reading glasses! And I won! Okay...some other people did too, but I thought my idea to photograph FH on his sexy motorcycle was the best...it appeals to women who would love to be on the back seat clutching FH tightly around his waist and to guys who would love to be FH hitting the road on this sexy bike to adventures unknown. The glasses are very chic trifocals... the bottom part of the lens is perfect for reading, the middle part makes reading the computer screen a breeze, and the top lets you see a bit in the distance. They are perfect for me when I have my contacts in and have great distance vision, but up close...it's all a blur. No more with this snazzy little number! And I'm thinking the red will look 'hot' when my hair grows out and is silvery gray. It'll be my new old lady look!

A Clue

How good is your French? Here's a clue about tomorrow's blog post. Can you read it? Can you guess what came in my mailbox yesterday?