Soar-Dream-France

Poppy-ing All Over

Pulling my poppy pictures together for yesterday's post, I remembered this overalls shot of me that a friend took in a stunning nearby poppy field. It wasn't with the rest of the photos, so I had to hunt for it. Once I found it, I went to hell with myself. I played around with some different treatments below, but ended up just using the original as a new profile picture on Facebook. Lots of Lot fun!

Surprises and Smiles

Yesterday, I wrote about all that has come to us here in wonderful ways. I believe in part because we live here all the time now. The barn became part of our "we" in May of 2010, along with all of its contents, 3 parcels of land and apparently the strip of land along the train tracks too. Since then: the spring/summer of 2010 I worked on the barn and the land behind it; spring/summer of 2011 I worked on the barn, the farm equipment and the land to the right of the lavoir; and this season I've begun to work on the circular piece of land surrounded by this beautiful old stone wall. The photo above should give you some idea of where we started.

I am constantly amazed at what I find covered up by weeds, vines, brambles and dead trees. This parcel of land is at least twice the size it appeared when it was totally overgrown. I try to do a little bit every day when it's not raining. I love seeing progress, even when it is petit à petit. But then, all I have to do is compare the new shots to the old ones and the change is incredible! I do what I can with in my talents, skill set, and available equipment. (I never thought that I would ponder purchasing my very own chainsaw, or having someone teach me how to set a safe fire so I can burn all the overgrowth!) It can be slow going, but that's okay. I'm here to love this place. Me and my overalls might be damp, dirty, bleeding, torn, and sore-but I've done as much as I can with what I have to work with.Touching this place, listening to the lavoir, the basin and the birds; I am sure I feel what it might have been through the centuries. I believe that touching it, working it, and loving on it is important.

So, if you should drive up the road from Evelyn's some day, as you pass the Château, look to the left...that overalls clad woman, hanging from the tree, in her red St. Louis Cardinals Baseball cap would be me.

Lot Lesson: Finding joy in each step even when I don't know the way; brings new discoveries and surprises to make me smile.

 I leave you with some of my SMILES!

Easy to Please With Cheese

I opened this Rustique Camembert and screamed for joy! The last one I'd opened did NOT have the tiny "Rustique" sticker that you see on the cheese on the left. I'd feared they'd gone the way of some cost-cutting measure, never to be seen again. They are such a nice touch and make this wonderful camembert even more special for me. As you can see: I'm beginning my days with cheese, fruit and walnuts for petit dejeuner; I put these stickers in my journal to dress them up a bit; and when I'm finished with the cheese-the lids are thick enough to become great drink coasters or platforms for dripping memory bottle candles. I've even discovered that Jane and Yves use the bottoms with the sweet red and white checked papers as olive pit and nut shell holders at parties!

I sure hope they keep doing what they're doing over there at Le Rustique in Normandy. Their camembert is already my favorite, but with all these little perks it's become a regular part of my life in France. Having just rearranged the kitchen, I've been looking for something to cover the newly configured counter space. I'd sure love to have some oilcloth with every inch covered in graphics of these great stickers for my counter. Sounds like a great advertising scheme to me! Don't you think that Rustique oilcloth would blend in beautifully with the rest of my Babar and Buddy Lee motif? Happy Weekend!

A Place of Love, Fun, Memories and Very Good Times...

...that brings me back again to share the new information on Columbus Street with you. You can see from my photo-I'm not a professional real estate agent or property manager. I'm just a home owner who lived in this place and loved it for a very long time. And so, I'm back again to let you know what our status is.

At the moment, the property at 2617 Columbus Street (House 2617/Apartment 2617 A) is for sale at a new price: $139,900. If you or someone you know might be interested, they can contact my real estate agent, Toni Tanner at (504) 913-6888 or (504) 866-7733-the RE/MAX offices.

In the meantime, I am also listing it to lease. The apartment-2617 Columbus Street A is a newly renovated one-bedroom apartment, living room, bath, fully furnished kitchen, combination hard-wood/tile floors, ceiling fans, AC/heating combo units, shared laundry room with washer/dryer, large quiet and private fenced in back yard with ample off-street parking. $600/month, one month's security deposit. (See photo on left)

The house at 2617 Columbus Street is a spacious, newly renovated camel back, 2-3 bedrooms, 2 and 1/2 baths, huge fully furnished kitchen, hard wood/tile floors, ceiling fans, AC/Heating combo units, laundry room with a washer and dryer, large fenced in back yard and ample off street parking. $1000/month, one month's security deposit.

The property is located a half of block off of Broad Street on the Fairgrounds side. It is quiet, private, and near the Broad Street and Esplanade/Jackson bus lines. One mile from the French Quarter, in walking distance of City Park, Bayou St. John and the Jazz and Heritage Festival.

MUST SEE TO APPRECIATE...JUST IN TIME FOR THE JAZZ AND HERITAGE FESTIVAL. Contact John Von Hedemann at (504) 390-1438, or jonvon48@hotmail.com if you or someone you know may be interested in leasing either pieces. HUGE MERCI for any help you can give! Happy Weekend!-Laury, Dali and Sam

Always Overalls

Even though I was an overalls girl before, I became MORE of an overalls girl the day Niels Winfeld-Lund found my blog. On June 20, 2009, I posted this picture on the right and wroteabout being a woman of pearls and overalls. By the 22nd, Niels had left a comment for me and we were on the road to almost daily celebrations of overalls and life. He introduced me to other lovers of overalls, and then there were other lovers of overalls who found me. Although we don't communicate as much as Niels and I do, both Maya Paretti and Kelly Sedinger have enriched my life in overalls...really-just my life in general. How wonderful to surround yourself with blogging buddies who love overalls as much as you do, support you, commiserate with you when people are rude about your overalls, consult with you, and celebrate overalls always.

We had our first International Overalls Day here at the Chatette on November 20, 2009. Irish coffee, cookies, and friends in overalls-we really had fun. Year two I was in Holland working and year three we celebrated in St. Louis. I now have patterned pairs of custom made overalls and my shocking pink ones, but I must confess to loving the old, worn, traditional versions best.

It's been fun to share my love of overalls with Niels, along with our outlooks on life, and many of the dilemmas we all face. We talk about getting together. Both of us have been traveling a lot for work and such. But now, it looks like it's really going to happen. Niels just told me that he and Bodil will be coming this way at the end of August! Another blogging buddy that I'll get to meet face-to-face! I'm already looking forward to meeting Niels and Bodil at the train station in Cahors and showing off our beautiful valley as we come home along the river on the bus.

Once again...no blog-no Niels. Celebrating overalls and life with Niels has been priceless! Because of Niels, I am MORE of an overalls girl than ever before...and some of my friends and family are too! Hooray for Overalls and Niels!

Igniting Past Mardi Gras

Gaze into my fire. It's better than television. I'm present. I ponder. I reflect and seize the moment. And, it keeps me warm. (Who cares if I smell like a pork steak all winter long!) I'm realizing that Mardi Gras is wrapping up in New Orleans at the moment. It won't be midnight for another 20 minutes or so there. How many times did I stand on Bourbon Street and watch them shut it down? You find Police, Sheriffs, walking, on motorcycles, on horseback, in automobiles, all in formation, with flashing lights and loud speakers announcing: "Mardi Gras is over... it's time to go home." My last Mardi Gras was in 2006. Dali, Sam and I moved here in May of that year. I leave you with a shot from my last Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

A Christmas Last Hurrah

Since I've been taking everything a step at a time and trying to get things done that I know I can have success with; getting Christmas put away was at the top of my list. Especially, since "Christmas" was sitting down on Evelyn's porch half dead. I loaded up the ornament bag and other boxes and wheelbarrowed them over. I have a system, so it went pretty easily. I'd forgotten that I  had these festive headbands in the bottom of one of the boxes. We needed some laughs-why not? I put mine on. Evelyn couldn't resist a shot or two. What you don't know and won't see is Evelyn in her headband with green velvet reindeer antlers! I didn't have my camera since I'd left it at a friend's. Next time she won't escape so easily-my camera has returned!

Happy Weekend!

Patio Peeing to...

I'm grateful for a lot of things today. First, I'm grateful that I'm NOT a total girlie girl. Living with no water and fireplace heat requires a much stronger stock than that...no make-up, barely able to comb your hair, layer upon layer of clothes, with that easy access for calls of nature that overalls don't even afford. It's panty hose and dresses for peeing if you please! Sam just stays under the covers, but Dali and I are bonding even more. We head outside together when we get up in the morning. We both have our spots. She finishes first and always comes over to me. The other morning she kissed my nose. This morning it was as if she was standing guard just in case some wayward neighbor was wandering around out in the dark and spied me in a rather compromising position on my terrace. Considering an old boyfriend actually turned the headlights on me once when I was in the act, it would take a lot to get me riled up. I guess Dali is more protective than I realize. She wasn't there to protect me when SAUR, our water company, arrived yesterday. I teased in my pitiful French, that I am living like I'm camping-peeing on the terrace, peeing in the garden...and the sweet, handsome young French man with a blow torch to my pipes in the cave said: "Perhaps you can pee on the pipes tomorrow!" I am also grateful for my wonderful friends and the HUMOR of the French.

Enquiring minds want to know-these photos are all from a previous winter, but I think you get the "drift".

Retail Angst or Retail Therapy?

As much as I love living in the country and spending most of my time in my overalls, I have very painful moments when I'm out clothes shopping. You see, I still want the pretty stiletto boots and high heels along with the swishy, short, dancing sequined numbers. I'm the one you see standing/twirling at the mirror in Dillards wearing the tres chic, fur-lined, very high-heeled winter boots, saying to Kat: "Oh, I want these...but I'm going to buy those." Those, being the very sensible, short, black, well-made, heavy soled, slightly heeled ECCO boots, that come with a WARRANTY. If you had seen the pair of shoes I bought in Figeac that I left at Dillards after my purchase, you would understand. The sales-woman turned to Kat and said: "You let her go out of the house in those?" (Little did she know that I had traveled all the way from France in them.) We had a good laugh, but they truly were a total wreck. I'd only purchased them for a not small price (100 euros) at the beginning of August-this was early November and they were crumbling around my feet. I've had to ask myself if it's that: I'm hard on shoes; I live a life of walking on railroad tracks, country roads, rocks, farms and mountains, or, maybe the shoes I get in France are just not made very well.  Not one pair of the shoes/boots that I have purchased since I moved to France has lasted me to the following season...3-6 months at the most. (I do, however, have high hopes for the winter boots I purchased here in Holland.)

Yesterday, I returned to a shop I had first visited with colleagues. Most of the clothes were way out of my price and practicality ranges, but I did find a beautifully made gray jacket on the budget rack for 30 euros. I tried it on and imagined how pretty it would be with a fancy scarf and my overalls this winter. It was large enough to fit over my long-johns, huge black cowl-neck cable knit sweater, and my overalls. I was ready to buy it, but the saleslady and my colleagues kept telling me that it was too big and bringing me other things to try that were way more expensive and didn't fit my lifestyle. Frustration set in. I bought nothing.

My jacket was still there on yesterday's return. I tried it on again and told my story to a different saleswoman. She seemed to understand. She cared about what I had to say and listened to my customer needs, even though English is not her first language. She brought over 2 other jackets off the budget rack, now for 25 euros. One was military-style, double-breasted, and a deep blue/grey-crinkled material with silver metal buttons on the front and on the sleeves. The minute I put it on, I could see it over my overalls and could wear it to work the remainder of my time here. What a deal! Two, beautiful, finely made, formerly expensive, jackets that I can wear for work and at the Chatette, for only 25 euros a piece. Now, that's my kind of retail therapy!

Looking at these terrains of my life and knowing me, as m any of you do...how would you assess my shoe/boot dilemma?

I Am My OVERALLS!

Seriously needing to feel like "ME" this morning, I woke with a drive to put my overalls on and just go to work in them. I know that is impossible for a lot of reasons...work for one and not having this particular pair even with me for two. But, this is me. As I've said before, I am my overalls. So, I put on my tights and my boots and my dress and head out once more...pining for the day when I'm back at the Chatette, in my overalls, in front of the fireplace, with Dali and Sam.