All Saints' Day.

The new tradition has been to visit the Frenchie's parents out in the neighborhood of Gien and to give them either chrysanthemums or heather.

Am feeling kind of weird to not be there, but kind of had to follow The Market's Dictation.

Wanted to post some pictures from a recent Urban Expedition. Also wanted to talk about another added bit of fuel to my neurotic fire about returning to France in the near future. All this is getting put on the back burner, because Harry's back from Africa, safe and sound, and that trumps all.

I'm feeling a bit down today because, probably due to the strikes in France, a round trip flight is averaging something like three times what it would normally cost around this time. Spring break was messed up because of the volcano in Iceland. It's kind of a rough year, travel-wise.

Trapped.

Flight's already delayed for three hours - will be delayed for an undetermined further length, according to the folks in charge of taking care of us / penning us in at CDG. As much as I'm feeling sorry for myself, I feel worse for them. No breaks, constant individual searches and patdowns if we go to the toilet or to get a coffee...dealing calmly with our frustrations.

Maybe I'll get home tonight; we'll see.

Back Again.

Was actually a good, constructive visit. Will probably be returning around Christmastime. Hopefully by then we'll have some more stuff chipped away at from this side of things.

As for being back stateside, am glad to be back in Boston. Not so pleased at what awaits in the Heimatstadt. Need to play it really careful, as family's involved (large part of the reason why I'm here and not there).

Bags packed, house cleaned, cat cuddled. I'm off. (Tired and jet lagged already.)

Tomorrow, leave again for France. Am not feeling particularly excited or happy about it, though. Just feels like I'm trying to run away from life/obligations/the future here. Am not really sure that I'd find a much better life over there, either, with the cost of living, the perpetually depressed society, the problems of government there that make things look like positively rosy here...

We'll see what sort of luck we have looking at schools, sorting out visa and money stuff, etc. Feels kind of daunting.

Hubs.

Sallied forth from the home port for a little serendipitous adventure this afternoon. Picked a route at random and ended up at the geographic center of the state. After dinner, while stargazing, found Sagittarius and from there, Milky Way's center.

Onward! Upward! Ever Forward!

T minus 17 hours and counting.

All packed and ready to go. Tomorrow - just need to get some $ exchanged and to pick out something to knit on the airplane needles. I think I'm going to go read a bit to calm down the brain some and hopefully to forget a bit the miserable heat.

From what I can see - the heatwave's broken over there; should be like here a couple weeks ago. We'll see. (A girl can hope).

T minus TWO days and counting.

T minus four days and counting.

The Frenchie was here for nearly a month, and for nearly a month, we were almost constantly on the go. Only just started to take a look at the pictures from our rambles.



Lunch with the Mayor in Keene, NH. Reminds me a bit of the town hall on my Alp - small, functional, not taking up a lot of space or taxpayer money.



My mom used to always talk about "little liver pills." Thought they were a purgative; guess not. Brattleboro, VT.



The view from The Other Florida.



View from the Bridge of Flowers.



Nightfall, Shelburne Falls.

Lots more photo documentation here. More narrative as I make my way through the pictures.

Surfaces to catch breath, then will be off again. Am looking forward to the week of quiet.

Very bad news.

Whatever happened, I hope it was so fast that no one had time to realize what was going on.

Well, yesterday I managed to force the house mate into going on a death march with me in New Hampshire. For a number of reasons, it's been a while since I'd been to Monadnock. Was very glad to return, though.

We started off on the Cascade trail with the intention of taking Pumpelley to the summit. However, since we got a late start, didn't make it all the way to the top. Got pretty close, though.



Between 1/4 and 1/2 mi to the summit, we hit this marker indicating the intersection between Pumpelley and Red Dot trails. Since it was very late, decided to rest and eat something there, then start our descent.



"Alpine" meadow.

Ended up taking the Smith connector to White Cross and following that down to the base. This was a big deal for me, as I'd had a bad experience on White Cross. Wanted to get past that and the idea that I couldn't navigate this place without someone more experienced than me. Both I and the knee did fine. In fact, was amazed at how sure-footed I was. Believe me, I'm not overconfident or anything, there's just some body memory involved now that I didn't know I had. Also have a lot more sense than I'd allowed myself to believe I had.



Still don't like getting close to ledges. Even ledges with short drops, like this one.

Now that I'm the one wielding the camera, found myself having a hard time tearing myself away from the beauty in bloom and of decay to admire the panoramic views.



Trillium. These were endangered species in NYS when I was living there. Was amazed to see their profusion here.



Weird focus. Sorry for that. Was an amazing lichen, though.



Moosewood, aka Striped Maple, in bloom.



Lady Slippers, the only orchid indigenous to the Northeast of the United States, has a symbiotic relationship with oaks and maples. Guess one could say that it blooms on decay. Sorry about the poor quality of the image - have such bad luck in low light settings and I hate the flash.



Was bowled over by the luminosity of the bark of some felled yellow birches.

Next time we go back (and I think that'll be fairly soon), want to take the house mate up to Monta Rosa. It's a shorter (and less demanding) climb with two peaks for the price of one.

(More pictures here if you're interested.)

Since the weather's so nice, am going to go up north for a couple days. Will be back soon.

The Frenchie is slated to arrive sometime this afternoon. Unfortunately, there was some sort of delay at Roissy because (of all things) a truck hit the airplane and repairs needed to be done.

Made a ratatouille and a pork loin pour casser la croute, as I think that both the Frenchie and Pavel (who went back to visit family) are going to be wiped out when they eventually get home.

Recent Stuff.

Pavel's valentine this year was a little cardinal.



He's sitting in his knitted nest in the kitchen window looking out on the yew tree. Maybe he's even daydreaming about finding a girl cardinal to cuddle with. (One of our regulars is a gorgeous, olive-plumed supermodel of a female. Don't blame the knitted boy if he's a bit smitten with her. I know I am.)

After I finished the Frenchie's scarf (and a hat from the leftover yarn), decided to pay a visit to my favorite market stall in Versailles for another treat. This time around, I got two skeins (at less than five euro a piece! For Alpaca, for crying out loud!) of Katia Andes Alpaca in a cool silver color. Told the lady that, since it was Spring, I wanted to do a bit of lace.



Ultimate Airplane Knitting. This lace pattern is so simple and so, well, gratifying, that it's practically knitting itself. The yarn worked out well with the airplane needle - an size seven plastic circular that I received one Christmas with a bunch of other old knitting accessories.

This really caught the eye of a few of the flight attendants. Received lots of compliments, both on the pattern and the yarn. Can't wait till it's done, blocked and ready-to-wear. Am keeping it for myself (for a change).

Back Again.

Am still a bit woozy. Travel was pretty hellish yesterday, though not as bad as it could have been. Have a lot of sleep to catch up on, as was up for nearly 30 hours straight.

Having a hard time reconciling the fact that just a couple days ago, I was out sunbathing, too. Oh well.