Thursday, 25 October 2012

...and the vixens fall down

We went to Salon-la-Tour today, where the remains of a castle keep still look quite impressive:


Later on, the vixens tried to go upstairs and this was the result:


It's slightly out of focus, which makes me suspect that even the photographer was plastered...

Austin's generosity shows...

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Hen party update


Peter is enjoying the hen party immensely. I thought he was going to do himself an injury last night he was laughing so much! He drove TW and Irishgirl back to the hotel at 2:30am and left them propping each other up in the car park, giggling uncontrollably. But they found their way to the room, eventually. Peter had visions of going to pick them up this morning and finding them on the exact same spot, still giggling...

We had a picnic in the garden today. The weather was very nice, but it started turning chilly so we came inside to resume the drinking in the warm kitchen (thanks for the wine, Austin... your money is going a fecking long way!).

I have to start cooking soon, so this is just a short post to keep the conversation going.

Life is good!


Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Traffic diversion

Today's post is somewhere else... Irishgirl is busy writing about today's exploits, so I'm not going to repeat everything here. This is where we went today:


Now, back to drinking wine. Thanks, Austin.

Monday, 22 October 2012

Paris! And some deep France

CC and Tumbleweed have just arrived here. Irishgirl arrived earlier and we had a lovely day together. Now everybody is having some wine (courtesy of our friend Austin), laughing and exchanging stories.

Here's a photo of an iconic Parisian sight CC took this morning.


PS - Dinner is Boeuf Bourguignon...

Thursday, 18 October 2012

Bon voyage

Hey Tumbleweed, this is for you, in anticipation of the start of your trip tomorrow.



Perhaps you could help rescue these poor guys:



I hope you leave your cats in good company...



Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Hanging out with friends

View_From_Here sent me some photos of friends hanging out together (I added some extra pictures), which show how social interactions have "evolved" in our modern times...

Thank you, View.

At home




Outdoors





At the diner



Having a cup of coffee



Sharing a meal



At the museum



At the movies



Watching a game



Having fun at the beach



Going for a drive




On a date




Monday, 15 October 2012

Trompe l'oeil

Trompe l'oeil is French for "deceive the eye."

When I first saw the photo below, I saw a picture of creeping, pretty blue flowers on a tree trunk.

Please click on the image and perhaps you'll be as surprised as I was!


Sunday, 14 October 2012

In vino veritas

Grammy97 sent me a bunch of "inspirationals" that go very well with a recurring theme here on the blog.

Thank you, Grammy.












These pictures reminded me of the birthday cards I made for Tumbleweed:





Friday, 12 October 2012

Unfriendly clouds

I took this photo from my kitchen window yesterday. Needless to say, it soon became very noisy and wet!

(Please click on image to see it really large)

Thursday, 11 October 2012

A legend from Bolivia

I came across a photo of an unusual tree on Facebook. I was intrigued and after a bit of googling, I discovered this interesting legend from Bolivia:

A long time ago, when gods lived on earth as people, the dark spirits (Añas) haunted the early Guarani people, killing the men and stealing their women.


In a small village lived a beautiful young woman named Araverá (Sparkle in the sky), the daughter of the grand chief Ururutï (White Condor). She recently married the hummingbird god, Colibrí (Chinu tumpa), and hoped to soon have a son, who would grow up to be the best Shaman (Paye) of the area, capable of destroying all of the evil spirits.


The Añas got wind of her plans and schemed to kill her. They mounted their fire-breathing winged horses and pointed them to her small town. But Araverá saw the danger and escaped, flying to the ultimate ends of the universe in a tiny flying chair that her husband Colibrí gave her.


The Añas pursued her everywhere, the the depths of the waters, under the earth and higher than the stars. When her tiny flying chair finally couldn't support the weight of her and her growing baby anymore, they descended to earth and hid inside a Toborochi tree (Samou).



The Añas passed them by and never found her. Inside the tree, Araverá bore her son. The boy grew and took revenge upon the evil Añas, but his mother remained in the trunk of the Torobochi, as she does to this day. Sometimes, when she does go outside, she becomes the tree's beautiful flower, so that the hummingbirds can come and enjoy her nectar.