Sunday 7/17/16

The Internet was down yesterday so will try to catch up on the posts today.  Will get pix on when I can.  The owners of the farmhouse (La Prade) were very nice.  Andrew works in the business district of London and Sally is a flight attendant for British Air, although she has a reduced schedule now - she works 6 days and then has 12 off.  She also only flies in Europe so she doesn't have any overnights.  They have two children, a boy, 16 and a girl, 15.  Their daughter was here with them as well as their dog Max who had an insatiable appetite for having you throw the ball and then running to fetch it and drop it at your feet.  He apparently can do this for hours.  The humans wear out well before he does.

Yesterday was another beautiful day.  We had breakfast and then drove a short distance to Camon, which is known as the most picturesque village in France.  It was quite lovely with a beautiful Abbey on the top of the hill (now an Inn and restaurant), narrow streets and great views of the surrounding countryside and the river.  The Abbey was built in the 10th century and supposedly started by Charlemagne.  Most of the town was built in the 12th through 14th centuries.   Camon is known as the city of a hundred roses and there are roses everywhere - in gardens, on trellises on the sides of the house - quite beautiful.  We had a nice time just walking around and poking into little alleyways.  We headed back and stopped at a ruin that we had seen from the road - Chateau de Lagarde.  This was started as one watchtower in the 12th century and grew into a major fortress by the 14th and 15th centuries.  In the late 16th century it was converted into a mansion and was inhabited by a series of dukes until the French Revolution.  The owners fled to Italy so the commune then deemed the castle a quarry and it was dismantled for its stone, ending in the ruinous state today.  If the owners had stayed, they would have been beheaded and the mansion saved.  Quite the choice!  We came back to La Prade and had lunch out by the pool.  Some of us chose to stay in and by the pool while others chose to nap.  We then went into Mirepoix for dinner at a restaurant on the square.  Nick and Dan are quite adventurous in sampling local fare so Dan had beef tongue and Nick had tripe.  After dinner we found an ice cream stand further along the square and those who wished had either a cone or a bowl.  I am not much of an ice cream eater, but Laura gave me a taste of her strawberry and it was like eating the fruit right out of the field - I may have to indulge next time.

7/16/16 Mirepoix, France

We have arrived safely, but the Internet is very slow so am not sure about putting pictures on.  I will try tomorrow.  We landed in Paris and had to run from terminal A to terminal F to get our next flight. With the help of a lovely airport worker who expedited our baggage handling, we made it to our gate just as they were boarding.  Our flight to Toulouse was only an hour long and we were met by Laura and family.  We had lunch in the beautiful square in Mirepoix and then drove to our wonderful secluded farmhouse.  Andrew and Sally, the owners, will leave for London (their home) tomorrow morning.  The house is lovely and we took advantage of the pool right away.  Lots more to say, but the keyboard just ran out of battery juice so I will continue tomorrow.

3/23/16. Home Again

As promised, I put the pictures of our last, amazing night in Alamosa.  The moon was almost full, the sunset was lovely and we saw the porcupine and a great horned owl - what a send-off!

Our journey home was a long one.  We got to the airport very early as we heard about the bombings in Brussels and wanted to be prepared for the extra security, which, as it turned out, did not exist, but better safe than sorry.  We did have a delay on the second flight from Philly to Providence so we didn't get home until about 9:30.  We are always glad to come home from wherever we have been - the snow from Monday has melted and the daffodils and crocuses are in bloom.  It feels like Spring - hoorah!

3/21/16 Monday

We got up this morning and said our good-byes to Mike and Louise.  Louise started to get a little teary-eyed, but she will be in Mystic in July and then again for Thanksgiving so we will see her soon.    We decided to take the smaller roads through the mountains to get up to Denver.  It was a very pretty ride - one which you would not want to take during bad weather, but was prefect today.  We turned in the car and made our way to the hotel.  We have just come back from walking to a nearby restaurant for an early dinner (we didn't have lunch).  We are all set for our flight tomorrow.

Last night, after dinner, we took a walk and we had a bonus.  Not only did we finally see Spike (although I only got a picture of his backside - must be camera shy), but we also spotted a great horned owl atop a telephone pole!  I just tried to put the pictures onto the computer, but there seems to be some resistance.  I will try again when we get home.  I did download pictures of the cats, however, last night.  In order, there is Ollie, Leo, and Sadie Sue.

and will put them on today's blog.

We had a wonderful time in Alamosa, both in our volunteer work and spending time with Louise, but we are both ready to go home - there is no place like it.

3/19/16 Saturday

We did get to go out for dinner last night as Louise got home at 5:45.  We ate at the Brewery again - good food.  This morning we decided to have breakfast in town at the coffee shop next to the Brewery - eggs and wonderful homemade wheat toast.  We stopped at the Animal Pound to see the dog that Louise has found Thursday morning, but it didn't open until 10 so we continued on our way. Our destination was Penitente Canyon out near La Garita (north of Monte Vista).  The canyon is on BLM land (Bureau of Land Management) and was formed 20 to 30 million years ago from volcanic eruptions of the San Juan mountains.  The rock formations were lovely and we found a neat rock art painting from early Inidans near the entrance to our hike.  We had a lovely long hike along the canyon and came across deep ruts in the rock from Carreras (two-wheeled wooden ox carts).  They were used as early as the 1850's to carry firewood and other items.  The views from the top were amazing and we finally wound our way back to the parking lot.  On our way out, we saw some prairie dogs curiously watching as our car went by.  On the way back home, we stopped by the dog pound and saw the rescue pup.  They have named him Dundee and he will be available for adoption on Wednesday.  The lady at the pound said there has already been some interest in adopting him.  Louise fell in love with him, but we tried to persuade her that she had enough to do with her work, the two dogs and the three cats.  He is very cute and I have no doubt that he will find a good home.  A little bit ago, Louise took Monte for a walk and saw something strange on the ground behind a tree off the road.  I went out with her to check it out and I thought it looked like a dead coyote to me, but we didn't get too close.  Dave came out with us later and we discovered that it was indeed a dead coyote and it had been shot.  Obviously, one of the neighbors is not fond of them.  We haven't made plans for tomorrow yet beyond packing and cleaning out the car.  We will leave for Denver on Monday morning.

3/20/16 Sunday

Today is our last full day with Louise so we packed up our suitcases after breakfast and then asked Louise what she wanted to do today.  We ended up taking a ride up to Crestone, a small town at the foot of the mountains known for having a free-spirited atmosphere.  There are many different religions, magical thinkers and just plain grown-up hippies living here.  We drove through the small town, but as it was Sunday morning, nothing was open.  We did discover a Buddhist shrine (Stupa of Enlightenment) and stopped to take a picture. On the way back we stopped at an odd looking place called the UFO tower.  Apparently, people pay ($20/person) to come out here (in the middle of nowhere) to look for UFO sightings - a sucker is born every minute.  We then stopped at the Colorado Gator Farm as Louise had never seen them in the wild.  The place started as a tilapia (fish) farm because there is a hot spring on the property.  Eventually, the owners bought some baby alligators to clean up the fish waste.  Now it is still a tilapia farm and the filtered water is used to grow plants in the greenhouses, but they are also an alligator rescue place.  Some of the alligators are from New York and California, where people were keeping them in bathtubs and backyard swimming pools!  They also have snakes, turtles, tortoises, lizards, emus, and peacocks on display.  They have two albino alligators, one of which is named Mr. Bomangles.  We came back into town and stopped at the grocery store.  Louise is cooking tonight - pork chops with spiced apples with roasted Brussels sprout and barley salad - yum!

3/18/16 Friday

Today was our last day at the ReStore and it was very slow today: about 80 people, but only $205.  The regular workers and volunteers signed a going away card and one of the volunteers that we worked with, Mary Susan, made us a lovely dragonfly in stained glass and that was our parting gift.  I can't wait to hang it in our sunroom - it is gorgeous.  We saw a lovely mountain bluebird this morning on the way to work.  After work, we went to the little airport in town to pick up Mike.  He will be here a week before he has to go back to work in Arizona.  He is an engineer at a copper mining facility.  We are waiting to see if Louise gets home at a reasonable time - if so, we will go out to dinner, if not, I have a Plan B dinner planned.