Retirement Musings and Everyday Delights
When we used to rent a cottage with friends, Ray would take Boo (our chocolate lab) for a long morning walk around the lake. She'd come back, tired and happy, and curl up in front of the fire. Ten minutes later, someone would head out for a cross-country ski and Boo would jump up, full … Continue reading Hiking and Biking
Writing these posts from France feels a bit as though I've abandoned a sinking ship and am sending "Wish you were here" postcards back to the people still on board. We left Ottawa after a long, hard winter, with seemingly constant weather warnings - extreme cold warning, freezing rain warning, heavy snowfall warning, winter storm … Continue reading Please Don’t Hate Us, Ottawa Peeps
But not the kind you'd find in a second-hand store. Berets are usually associated with Basque culture, but Béarn was actually the birthplace of the beret. In the Middle Ages, Béarnais shepherds used the wool from their sheep to knit themselves these circular caps. At one time, all men in this region wore berets and … Continue reading She wore a raspberry beret…
Before leaving Canada, I read about a French village with a long-standing tradition of making a giant omelette every Easter. The residents of Haux gather in the town square and cook a 5,000-egg omelette in a humongous frying pan over an open fire. The story is that Napoleon and his army passed through Haux on … Continue reading The Giant Omelette That Wasn’t
Sitting on the patio of a private chateau in the south of France, drinking wine produced from grapes grown in the surrounding vineyards, I looked out at the Pyrenées and pondered the peaks and valleys of life. It occurred to me that life is a lot like the stock market. You really have no idea … Continue reading Chateau in the south of France?
We've been in France a week now so we're in the adjustment phase, discovering how things work. Like door locks, for example. At our apartment in Bordeaux, we managed to lock ourselves in, which is a mildly disconcerting feeling (we eventually escaped). At the grocery store, we had trouble finding milk and eggs because they're kept on … Continue reading Medieval Villages
Ray and I normally travel carry-on only because we know what it's like to stand in a deserted baggage claim area, watching an empty luggage carousel, in the faint hope that one more bag will drop: the business trip to Wellington where my bag arrived on the final day of the conference; the kayaking trip … Continue reading Bordeaux break
"All our bags are packed, we're ready to go...cause we're leavin' on a jet plane..." I'm writing this from Gate 24 at the Ottawa airport, as we await our flight. We're off on a new adventure, pet-sitting in the south of France for a couple months. We'll be living in a small village looking after … Continue reading A New Adventure
Our final housesit of the trip was in a flat in south London looking after Tigger, a cute, playful, and very low-maintenance kitty. Despite having lived in England for four years, we didn't spent much time in London. I went a few times for work and Ray and I each took Nick in once, but … Continue reading The Cat in the Flat
“Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” ~ Benjamin Franklin We finished our farm housesit with all 95 animals alive and seemingly well so a resounding success as far as we were concerned. We’ve been staying with friends since then – a 3-night stay in Cheltenham and one night in Cranham – no pet […]
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