Friday, November 29, 2013

A French Parcel

This week in our mailbox we found a small package postmarked from France.

Our Belgian Connection friends who live in France sent us a souvenir photo book filled with many pictures of our adventures and times spent together in France this year. 

What a wonderful surprise ... a thoughtful and treasured souvenir.

It now has pride of place on our coffee table in the living room.

Each photo tells a story and has a special memory.



Merci beaucoup Madame M and Monsieur Guy!

P.s. See my other blog "Postcards from the Lot" for many stories and photos about our encore trip to France earlier this year.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Winter Morning Walk

"Walking in the morning takes you to beautiful places where light and shade make love"... 
Prof. Mohamed Shareef


It was a brisk morning with temperatures recorded at -2 Celsius and with the wind chill factor the weather station stated it felt like -8 Celsius.

I only felt the cold when the wind was blowing directly in my face. 

My body was quite warm dressed in layers.

I have not taken the time yet to shop for the proper winter walking gear, so I borrowed pieces of Msr. Honey's clothing.

I wore his pair of red thermal long johns, sweat pants and his wind pants and paired them with my long sleeve t-shirt, my socks, my hooded red winter jacket, a toque, gloves and winter boots.
 
Oh my how attractive that sounds!

Today, I had the company of my walking buddy Susie Q.

The sidewalks and streets in our neighbourhood sparkled and glistened with ice, so we ventured into the nearby forest for today's walk.

It was pristine and quiet, you could hear the trees creeking when the wind blew.


There were many beautiful photographic opportunities but apparently my camera does not like the cold temperatures either and I didn't dress it in proper winter layers.

The shutter would open and close just as quickly without allowing me to take the pictures I wanted to capture.

 So use your imagination to visualize the trees the beavers had been busily chewing to make their dams, the fast flowing stream, and along the path leading back to the streets I saw something flicker and felt like someone was watching us ...there camouflaged amidst the browns and greys of the barren trees and shrubs was a deer waiting silently for us to leave.




My walking partner was lucky to get a shot in her phone of the deer...

   Can you see "Waldo" the deer?

Thursday, November 21, 2013

The Road Home

With mixed feelings we are starting our journey home today.
The sun has been in hiding since yesterday, with heavy rain and thunderstorms most of our last day.

Msr. Honey took this photo late in the day, the flower is still wet from it's shower.


We headed out this morning in hot, humid conditions ...and then the heavens opened pouring buckets of water on us...almost like driving thru an automatic car wash for almost two hours.


The sun trying to come out...


Day two on the road... 


The shot tower...

A runaway truck ramp on I-77...

Our day ended with rain ... an overnight stay near Pittsburgh and our final leg of travel tomorrow.

The photos represent the ever changing landscape along the roads and highways as we travel.