Soar-Dream-France

Lumberjack or...

 

...Jill, Jane, Joan, Jean etc?

Dad and I had a laugh yesterday when I told him my 4 estaires of wood that I had been waiting on had been delivered that morning. I told him I was feeling like one of those lumberjacks. He said: Or more like a lumberjane! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was good to "giggle!" He also reminded me how I had a similar conversation with my friend Vann. When I told Vann I was feeling like Paul Bunyan, he very quickly said: you mean Paulette Bunyan!

 

I didn't think I'd have to order more wood this season since I had so much left over from last year.

Here I was, a few weeks away from the end of the year and I was almost out.

My four estaires are in their usual place. It's always a race to get thrown, sorted, stacked, and covered with plastic before it rains.

 

 

It's a lot of work, but I'm going to do a little bit each day here.

In the past, I'd haul it up to the covered terrace. This year, I just go down each day and get what I need. It doesn't feel like such a big job when I'm not hauling it all up the 10 stone steps at once.

 

 

I better get busy. I leave for Paris and then on to the states two weeks from yesterday.

I've teased that with the new poele au bois, double glazed windows, and roof insulation; the Chatette is warmer than it has been in 800 years. 

I'm not sure if I want to be a Jane or a Paulette today! I can tell you that I'm putting on my Grandpa Pidgeon's red long-johns, my overalls and my hiking boots to see how big of a dent I can make this morning!

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

Katrina and Overalls

 

 

During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the tumbling of the levees, my overalls were essential! I did seem to live in them during those times.

The shot above was taken in Armstrong Park, shortly before Dali and Sammie Cat and I were going to be heading out to France. Wynton Marsalis was playing and a friend and I decided to take a break from working around our places and head down to hear him. Armstrong Park is always a fun focal point for events and music, even though it is a location that had a horrid history of slave sales and uprisings within.

 

 

I often had conversations with friends post Katrina about how we survived. We could point to the support of friends and family, neighbors, and that sometimes getting away from the devastation helped.

We often needed to know that there were other places in the world that were still "normal"...or at least the normal we used to know. I got tired of hearing about the "new normal," and even more tired trying to live it 24 hours of every day. 

During a particularly bad spell for me, I went off for a weekend or so with my friends Keith Landry and David Zielinski. Keith had this fabulous place that I'd fallen in love with in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

 

 

 

Going there was always a treat. 

After being wrapped in the nurturing arms of my friends in Cajun country, I'd return to Columbus Street in a better place to continue to attack problems or new crisises.

The aura didn't last long.

In no time, I was back and moving and trying to fight the good fight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, it was a fight.

 

Through life's celebrations and challenges, my overalls have been with me every step of the way.

 

 

Happy International Overalls Weekend.

Happy Sunday!

 

Me and Dali and Overalls

 

What a girl my Dali was. She lived with me in overalls most all of her life. She and Sammie Cat became French Girls with me here in Cadrieu back in 2006, and when we had to return in 2013 our overalls saga continued. We lost her in New Orleans in 2013. I lost Sam last year in the fire.

 

Actually, I've come to the conclusion that Dali's perfection has ruined me for other dogs. I miss Dali and Sammie Cat desperately! Both were a perfect fit with me!

 

 

Dali was even at our first International Overalls Party here in Cadrieu. I did put her in overalls for the event...somewhere I have the photos! She was a tolerant and patient girl who enriched every moment of my life. Ah, here's a collage...I've teased she looked much better in them than I did.

 

 

 

Happy International Overalls Weekend in heaven to

Dali and Sammie Cat. 

 

Happy Saturday!

 

From the Canyon to Cadrieu and Cajarc

 

 

Yesterday I posted this shot of me in my overalls after a hike in the Grand Canyon back in 1978.

It evoked a lot of comments from friends and family.

It also gave me pause to reflect on those times and how they impacted the last 40 years that brought me here to this spot.

In many ways, the canyon brought me to Cadrieu and Cajarc.

 

 

 

I learned a lot about myself on this trip. I love to travel. In that love of travel, I learned that I prefer to travel alone and truly explore the places I go and the people I meet along the way. Even though I travel alone, I am rarely alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On this particular trip, I met 3 women on the bus to Flagstaff. Two were Australian and one was Swiss. We got a hotel together in Flagstaff and then took another bus to hike the Canyon together.

 

While we were reserving the van to the top of the South Kaibab Trail, there was a group of guys from Philly who were going too. We ended up taking the van and hiking together.

 

 

My friends and I only went down to the five mile mark and then returned. The guys went on to the bottom of the canyon.

 

Before we parted, Ed (sitting on the ledge in the photo above) and I agreed to meet at the bus station in LA on Saturday night at 6pm. I went on to Las Vegas and then LA.

And, yes...I was at the bus station early.

I'll never forget how happy I was to see Ed running down the staircase to get me.

We spent a little LA time together but then they headed back to Philly and I headed on to visit a friend in San Francisco.

 

There's something to be said for falling in love at first sight in the Grand Canyon, even if it can't last forever.

We managed to do long distance between Philly, St. Louis and New Orleans for almost a year. I guess I should have known that when I chose New Orleans over Philly during the summer of '78, that was the kiss of death.

 

 

I am convinced that I am here today because I reach out and talk to people. We get to know each other. Relationships develop. We end up staying in touch...sometimes ending up in interesting places all over the world.

 

This last one, just happened to become home.

 

 

Even in 1978, I was celebrating the beginning of a truly international life in overalls. Don't forget to begin celebrating today!

 

Happy Friday!

 

# One Overalls Guy

 

 

 

While most of my sentimental things did NOT survive the huge fire at the Chatette last November, I was very grateful that ALL of my dolls made it out alive.

That doesn't mean that they weren't the worse for wear.

Many required:

 

 

trips to their bleach spa and hot tub; clothes soaking; hard scrubbing; and, sometimes body repair and reassembling. It was quite a site around here in the early days of my return to the Chatette at the end of April this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buddy Lee was one of the survivors.

You can see the soot on his wrist and elsewhere.

I believe that he had been a sample doll for Lee Overalls. He'd be taken around to show people an example of Lee Overalls.

 

 

Buddy's been here with me since 2006. I've brought him out for all of the International Overalls celebrations that I have had here.

 

 

He cleaned up well, but he had to run around naked for a while because it took so long for his overalls to dry!

He makes me smile.

Celebrating life in overalls with Buddy Lee.

A girl couldn't ask for a more perfect overalls mascot!

 

 

 

Today, he holds a place of honor in the new enclosed bonneterie between the two girls formerly known as the "Smokey Girls!"

Happy Thursday!

 

It's Coming...International Overalls Weekend

 

I can't believe that it's already time for International Overalls Weekend this coming weekend. I'd pondered party, but have decided that a small get together chez moi is going to have to do this year. That said, I've been thinking about what I can do to join in the fun and celebrate! 

So from today through the end of the weekend, I'll be sharing some of my history in overalls through photos. I have my favorites over the years, even though some of you may have seen them before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also committed to wearing my overalls every day this week.

 

 

Which I confess to not doing as much as usual.

How do you plan to celebrate? 

I'm starting off today with a couple of the earliest photos I could find of me in overalls (as you can see I had a very early start) and the invitation I sent out for our first International Overalls Day and party in Cadrieu.

Happy Tuesday!

 

Hubert Henry Bohland-Our Hero

 

 

Our Papa was an amazing man. We loved him to the moon and back.

These are two of my favorite shots of Papa and me and Papa with me and Jim.

He deserves even more love, kudos, and special attention today on this 100 year anniversary of Armistice Day.

Hubert Henry Bohland fought for us in France in WWI.

I continue to marvel and what did and didn't survive last year's fire here at the Chatette.

It is the mementos that are priceless.

Most of the photos (but not all) had been saved to the computer.

Everything else in today's post was in an envelope in the upstairs bedroom, hanging from a collage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can tell from this photo of the envelope, it was a pretty close call.

 

While the antique postcards are my favorites, they managed to capture something even more special.

One must have been a "carte postale" that Papa had written to Nannie. He calls her "Funny" and tells her about what actually happened in this particular postcard. 

 

 

On one of the photos that I don't think survived, Nannie wrote "My Hero" on the back. Every time I looked at that photo, it made me grateful that "Our" Hero made it home.

 

 

Who'd have thought that on the 100 year anniversary of the end of WWI, I would  be living in France.

It is an honor and a privilege to be able to live here. 

HUGE MERCI to our Papa, and all those who fought and died during WWI.

I will be walking up the hill to the church today, to honor these men and say thank you to the strains of our village of Cadrieu singing the Marseilles.

 

 

 

Armistice Day 11/11/1918 to 11/11/2018!

 

International Overalls Weekend 11/16-18, 2018

 

It's hard for me to believe that it's actually been 10 years since we had our first international overalls celebration. Prior to this first celebration in 2009, Niels Windfeld Lund, Susan Bella Dahlmen, and Kelly Sedlinger came into my life as comrades in overalls.

But the best part aside from all this overalls stuff, is that Niels and Bodil have become life-long friends and chosen family as a result.

 

 

It's been quite an overalls history. Celebrations began for me that first year in Cadrieu. What fun we had! Even Dali joined in the fun. What a four-legged overalls trouper she was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depending on where I was in the world...

 

...we celebrated in St. Louis at 411, in New Orleans on Columbus Street, and Mike and John hosted us one year at Mahogany Oaks in Covington. 

 

 

Some years when I was working and I was on my own in Stuttgart or Brunssum, I may not have had a party but I did wear my overalls! 

 

 

This year seems like a year that I should celebrate in Cadrieu again.

That New Orleans celebration of overalls during 2013 was the first real party I'd had on Columbus Street since Hurricane Katrina.

Maybe it's time to have our first real party at the Chatette after the fire.The Chatette is coming together nicely. We are coming into the home stretch and I do have my new poele au bois.

 

We should be much warmer than that first year when I was hauling meter long logs up the steps to put in the fireplace.

As I write, I realize that the big weekend is not very far away. Maybe a small apero is doable! We shall see.

There is a magic in the recapturing of the spirit! I will keep you posted.

 

 

Celebrate life in Overalls in November!

Happy Wednesday!

 

Strangeness

 

Trying to get back in to writing here again, for some reason this particular photo file popped up without even a click.

This was the first photo.

Once again, strangeness strikes for me when I realize that none of the things in that picture remain.

 

Strangeness strikes at the (ha-ha) strangest times. 

It happens frequently when I finish a book. I may be coming in from the terrace. I may have just gotten up from my comfy new chair by the fireplace. I close the cover of my latest adventure and I inevitably think, "I'll just go upstairs and get another book off the beam." There are NO books upstairs. There are NO books left that were on the beams.

Of course I stop myself mid-thought and step.

 

 

There is obviously a former flow to my life here that is so ingrained that it just pops up naturally when I've finished a book. 

i'm learning again. I'm moving on.

 

Even if sometimes I feel like this little guy who is on the inside looking out through the bars at the world.

 

 

I'm not a prisoner. I am free. I am letting go.

Happy Tuesday!

 

Feeling Friends and Family

 

I am blessed with amazing friends all over the world. From time to time, I am smacked by the size of this very large and cosmopolitan life of mine. Last week confirmed that for me once more. Oh, there is always some kind of ebb and flow. But then, there are the hard-cores.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With birthday coming soon, I was thrilled earlier in the week when a package arrived from the states.

 

I immediately let Mike and John know and asked if I could open it BEFORE, but of course. I am now making and draining my pasta in style with this gorgeous colander and spaghetti grabber/spoon. It also lends itself well for adorning the newly appointed Chatette...naturally-playing to the piece of art that this place is.

No more black plastic pot planter drainer for me!

 

 

My friends also know how much I love to get snail mail here. Yesterday, there was a postcard in my mailbox. My brother Jim sends postcards regularly, on which he draws something spectacular to add to the sentiments, or humorously integrates the family!

I always look forward to them, but this one was a surprise. It wasn't signed, but came from Montmartre, in Paris. It took me a minute and then I remembered, my friend Niels (The Bibprofessor) had been in Paris last week soaking up the healing spirit and ambiance of Montmartre Cafe life while Bodil was spending time with their grandchildren. What a treat!

 

NIels wrote: "I know you like to get postcards, so here it comes from Montmartre..."

 

 

And then, there are the times when we meet and all manage to get together in one place...in our overalls no less!

Even though we are all still in touch through FB, email, and the phone; there will always be something that seems to bring these friends and our friendships closer when I open my mailbox to special surprises. I feel them. I cherish them. They are with me.

 

Happy Sunday!