Last year, my mother-in-law started toying with the idea of getting a couple of egg-laying chickens. This summer, we helped her make that a reality.

First there was much cleaning of the site, a bit of land under some pine trees that was overrun by brambles, ivy, and pokeweed. The MIL and I were alone for this bit:


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I kind of cheated this week ( Read more... )

I wanted to post a snippet last night, but we had an electrical storm, which kept me offline.

I was going to post earlier today and then learned about our car being stolen. That kind of knocked the wind out of my posting sails ( Read more... )

I know we (well, the kids and I) have a long break ahead of us, but it seems like time has caught us up and is flinging us madly about since we got back to France. This is going to sound like a list of complaints, but it really isn't. It's just busyness and things.

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When we arrived in France last week, I was struck by all the flowers in bloom. My first thought was of how different places have different spring colors. The very next day, asakiyume posted about the very same thing.

Here is a sampling of spring on this side of the Black Mountains:


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Sprout and I arrived safely in France on Friday, after a long delay in Paris due to suspect baggage (not on our flight) and baggage that needed to be unloaded because of no-show passengers (our flight).  Sprout was an angel and a joy to travel with, so no worries there ( Read more... )

Today, I got to make up for yesterday's frustrating mushroom incident.

Between a day of telephone calls, vet visits, administrative errands, and shopping, I got to take an hour to go a-mushrooming. This time I went just in front of my mil's house, looking for Marasmius oreades (aka "scotch bonnets" or fairy ring mushrooms/caps). The public lawn is ( Read more... )

Something very different today.  This Sunday, you get the joy of a glimpse of the week I just had.  I have been sketching and could show you a snippet of that, but I don't feel like photographing, down- and uploading, so...

Monday: Moved house. Did etat des lieux, which went all right, but I did something stupid, stupid, stupid:  Signed the document ( Read more... )

Back home again. We had a really lovely visit at my mil's house this time around. We went on a couple of hikes (16km one day and 4km the next), which I'll share photos of later, and I feel motivated to get into shape again the better to enjoy the fantastic outdoors.

For months now, I've been meaning to get back to my art journaling, and a LJ friend' ( Read more... )

Our Aussie friends left today, so I'll be back online again, but maybe more so once we leave my mil's house at the end of the coming week.  Yep, here again because we came with S and S to enjoy the Bastille Day fireworks at Carcassonne.  Photos of that coming tomorrow ( Read more... )