« March 2021 | Main | May 2021 »
At the start of a fresh week, I try to be grateful. It's difficult to NOT be grateful when you wake up to the sunrise over the Lot River, surround sound birdsong, double sets of church bell chimes on the hour and the half.
Then, there is the coffee, cookies and cat...my Lola, as I read and maybe watch some news from the states the day before.
She is the queen of my morning!
Happy Monday!
I like to try to do things different on Sundays to help me remember what day it is.
I have a friend I call every Sunday at the same time that I used to call Dad everyday.
There are no MSNBC favorites from the night before to be seen on Sunday mornings (or Monday for that matter).
Sometimes I make a nicer meal than usual and sometimes I decide to put on a pretty dress so I can feel more dressed up.
I often think about Sundays from my childhood.
I also give myself permission to lounge around in bed!
Lounging this morning, I stumbled on a Dolly Parton video where she was talking about the story of writing her song: I'll Always Love You. Even though I love the Whitney Houston rendition, it's different. It always seemed "more" Dolly's.
Discovering the story this morning, made it even more so. Turns out, she had been singing with Porter Wagoner for five years. It was the end of her contract and she was ready to move on. She talked to him about it many times, with no success.
So, she decided to write a song to him that she believed he would understand.
That song was I'll Always Love You, and it worked.
Most people forget (or ignore) the fact that the opening line of the song is: "If I should stay, I will only be in your way."
Sitting down to play piano this morning, I remembered that I had the I'll Always Love You sheet music.
I sat down to play my usual first tune, Moon River, whose sheet music I'd lost somewhere in the house over a month ago. Fortunately, I mentioned it to Christiane, et voila! Turns out I'd made a copy for her ages ago and so the other day she made a copy for me. I was back in business.
That lost piece of sheet music has been carried all over the world with me since my childhood.
Its pages were ragged and it was scorched and hosed in the fire of 2017, but I could still play it.
It felt strange to have this fresh, new copy, but I was thrilled.
After I finished, I went to my "music cabinet" to find Dolly's song so I could read the words and maybe decide to finally learn it on the piano after all these years.
Of course, this meant going through stacks of sheet music, but I found it.
And, combing through page by page at the very bottom of the last stack there was my old childhood original copy of Moon River!
I knew it had to be here, but once again...when you stop looking and move on, the lost/misplaced item seems to somehow magically appear on its own.
I'd bet it's all those angels on my shoulders.
Here I was searching for I'll Always Love You and it led me to my own Moon River.
Happy Sunday!
Yesterday I was "moved" outside. It was another pretty day, although rain had been forecasted. We had NONE! I've taken the approach of doing only what I feel like doing, especially when I'm over on the land by the barn, lavoir and wagon. It is very uneven, there are stones everywhere, hunky roots and hills that are also uneven.
I had left a little patch unfinished from my last cut so I went back to attack it.
I was heartened because where I had second cut it down to the nubs, not much had grown back.
Up the hill beside the barn that had only one cut...I could barely see the path I had cut and everything beside the barn looked as high as when I'd cut it. As disheartening as that was...all I could think is imagine how high it would have been if you hadn't cut it at all.
You can see the differences in some of the photos of one cut, two cuts, and then the NO cuts due to height and rocks or the heavy crumpled wagon that I can't move on my own.
I kept moving and cutting.
All that yellow cheered me on.
Once I got away from my "monster land," the surfaces were more even, not so high, and a breeze to cut by comparison.
I was able to cut around a couple of mystery spots and then hauled the mower over to the terrace and the rose garden that had already run-a-muck.
All that yellow was beautiful, even if it was a little difficult to capture in fields on film.
I tried.
It needed some kind of an interesting backdrop to highlight it nicely.
I made one pass over the rose garden and will do another shortly, before I haul the lawn mower over to its next location. I'm not sure when that will be.
One thing I am sure of though.
This is going to be an amazing season for my roses in both the garden and the front of the Chatette.
The new growth is bountiful and some already have buds on them.
I'm so pleased because now I'm in a much better place to be able to keep everything up on my own.
Once again, the being here is important.
Happy Saturday!
Wishing you a beautiful spring day, as I lust for my roses that will be arriving this season.
Happy Friday!
I have run across many people, or maybe I should say "writers," who detest tendencies in some to turn nouns into verbs.
Sometimes making a noun into a verb says it all, at least for me.
How much easier and accurate to say "coffee-ing my days," than to say "drinking coffee all day long everywhere I go?"
From France, I coffee my days!
I began "coffee-ing" my days when I wrote about Madam Vera and I.
I haven't yet taken it to the next level of wine and maybe even whiskey, but they both could be on my horizon.
Any thoughts?
Happy Thursday!
Coming up on 2 in the afternoon here, I am much later than usual in getting around to the blog. Today was a venture into Cajarc morning with Christiane, so I found myself easing into this day and actually contemplating NOT writing at all. I had so much success this morning though, that I thought I'd give a little update here.
Getting the vaccine and getting photos for my US Passport renewal are at the top of my list.
This morning I got on the list at the pharmacie for the next delivery of the J&J vaccine. They are expecting it next week and will call me when it arrives so I can make an appointment to have it done.
Before everyone starts, I'm aware that the J&J has been paused in the states due to blood clots in women in an age group much younger than me.
All the experts and scientists seem to say, risk is one in a million according to their figures and have provided guidance on what to look for and to be aware that treatment for a blood clot related to this would be different than normal.
Then there is the eternal photo challenge for passport renewal. Ah, that it were as easy as that first one! Last time I needed to renew my American passport I was working on contract with the military. Luckily, I was able to get the last photo on base to the required specifications. On our way home this morning, we stopped at the Presse and "oui" they have a machine that will tailor my photo to the country dimensions required-
Hooray!
I feel like I'm on the road to getting lots of things taken care of. Pretty soon, there will be two less things dangling in my life! That always feels good! Almost as good as seeing everyone in the market masking up this morning!
Happy Wednesday!
From just this spot, it is easy for me to pay attention to the flow, focus and be in the moment...the NOW!
Whether it's my Lola or the views out my many windows on the Lot; I realized this morning that I am living my life in "real time!"
The first time I heard that term "real time," it meant that bosses and colleagues wanted whatever you were working on immediately.
From letters, to faxes, to emails, to scans, etc...our lives sped up tremendously. You could never really let down and wait for a reply. Just go, go go, and move, move, move; with all those very high expectations from those on high.
It resulted in more stress on those of us "below!"
Or, at least more stress on those of us who remembered earlier days! Oh, you adjusted to those real time expectations, but at a cost.
My journey to here has taught me to live in the NOW.
I would say that my journey began in '98 from Wendy's place in Tour de Faure. The 2002 purchase of this place and the gifting of the book: The Power of NOW by Eckhardt Tollle from my friend Pauline at Christmas of 2003; added strength and focus to my journey.
Ten years before the aforementioned gift, my friend Ron Mancoske gifted me with the Robert Grudin book: Time and the Art of Living for my 40th birthday as I was heading into major surgery and a month off of work the following week.
Both of these books had a major impact on my life and how I saw the world.
Both went the way of the 2017 fire, but they are an amazing tool for dealing with the craziness of the concept and definition of time during this pandemic.
This may be a huger discussion for another time (ha-ha), but my frustration with the "real time" of old rose to the surface while my sister and I struggled on the phone as we tried to put past and future into context of these lives we have during the pandemic.
What I came to is that there are so many unknowns at the moment it is difficult to look ahead to the future.
Then, even in the "profoundness" of our memories from the past, that infrastructure is gone to the point of looking back and thinking you might be able to recreate those loved and treasured experiences isn't really possible either.
Everything is in "real-time!"
Is this a cruel joke?
As much as I know that all we have is NOW, there was always a comfort in being able to plan ahead and look back to enjoy my memories and/or learn from past mistakes.
And so, as I hover here in Cadrieu in "real time," I am grateful for this journey that has served me well during these times and keeps on giving. I couldn't be in a better place to continue to pay attention and learn something new...AGAIN!
Happy Tuesday!
I learned the hard way after Hurricane Katrina, that just because things were getting better in my neighborhood didn't mean things were moving in other areas of the City.
We'd hear things on the news and I'd made some inaccurate assumptions.
Once I saw for myself in February of 2006, reality struck.
We were also hearing things about the French Quarter and the rest of the City during the early days of the pandemic. One Sunday, I finally decided to go to the Quarter and see for myself. From my bike, I shot these photos.
It was every bit as sad, lonely and empty as it had been portrayed on the news. Even so, there was some other feeling about it all that I just couldn't put my finger on and still can't today.
Today, it's more than a year later and I am questioning again? I know what I see on the news. I hear the decisions made by Governor Edwards and Mayor Cantrell, but I still wonder.
Does the French Market still look like this today?
I won't be hopping on my bike, or even the bus, train, plane and myriad of tests and hoops to be jumped through to check it out. It doesn't stop me from wondering though.
For the moment, I wish for a quick recovery for the City of New Orleans, the rest of the states, and (while I'm at it) the world!
I don't expect to travel any time soon, maybe not until 2022. I do hope by the time I am comfortable and able to travel, the French Market may be open and running again.
That would be two years since the start of the pandemic...dare I hold out hope?
We shall see.
Happy Monday!
On this rainy Sunday morning in Cadrieu, it should probably come as no surprise that I might find faith!
There's: faith of the religious kind; faith in humanity kind; faith in ourselves; and, then there are people named: "Faith!"
The last two came to me with this morning's rain.
Even with the tree, stars, and other twinkie lights on, it was still a little dark to be writing in my journal. Ah, it was candle time.
During my past pre-pandemic times, almost every day was a candle or "candles" days.
I'm not sure why, but my candle habit seemed to have come to a halt since my return. I did light some at Christmas, but in the past, candles were the rule, not the exception.
This morning's one candle felt good. I was reminded that besides the soft, magic, light that I love; the difference in photos and moods can be quite spectacular.
I've noticed for myself, that the emotional fog and low energy means that there are things that I've loved and used to do that I just don't do anymore. I confess, sometimes anything extra has felt like way too much trouble; leading to undone, pushed aside, or not even tried. My candles were in that last category.
Finally dealing with uncluttering my beautiful table of the "pushed asides" and now feeling the candle light again; I am on the road to resurrecting things I love doing and maybe even set-aside parts of myself.
And then there is Faith Ringgold. Her "Dancing at the Louvre" arrived in my mailbox this week from my sister, along with some other goodies. Ringgold's books and story quilts have been a staple in both my personal and professional life.
This story quilt is part of her French Collection Part I. I particularly love the quote that accompanies this card:
"Marcia and her three little girls took me dancing at the Louvre...never mind Mona Lisa...Marcia and her three girls were the show."
It's a wonderful rainy Sunday for sure, when you find lost and/or forgotten "Faiths!"
Happy Sunday!
You just can't get the full effect of these guys while they are sitting inside of their plastic Easter bags on their pedestals!
These two were part of my chocolate stash that I treated myself to after my sojourn into Cahors.
In addition to these guys, I'd also bought a variety sack of molded chocolates and a fish that ended up being a gift!
Like Lola, they are a little hard to capture on film because of their coloring.
I had to work at it a bit, and finally had some success when I took them upstairs.
Little did I know that there was a surprise waiting for me!
I hadn't taken them out of their "houses!"
When I did, I was surprised to hear something inside of our big mouse with the cheese.
I hated to damage him, but opened a hole on the bottom. There inside were small molded milk chocolate fish, turtles and snails!
It was fun to discover.
All, such works of art!
Happy Saturday!