Travels around the world.

Here are a couple photos taken at the end of the day yesterday. They are tucking insulation behind the metal bars they put up. Here’s the view out the skylight. I think I climbed up on the lower rung of the ladder to take this. You can see what a nice day it was yesterday. We had some rain this morning, but the sun is out now. I spent some time in the garden yesterday. It was quite cool in the shade, but quite warm in the sun.  I got overheated after a short time working in the sun.  Here are a few shots from the garden. A few of the pots that Alice planted on the corner near the house. I think there’s something charming about the profusion of forget-me-nots in front of the old outhouse door.  The picture would have come out better on an overcast day, but we seem to have sunshine or rain. I snapped this photo of a bird at the feeder that Alice put up. I think this is a Rouge Gorge familier, or a European Robin. And finally the drapes that I ord...

We went back to Normandy for a few weeks in March. We wanted to do a few more things to the house before another of our co-owners, Jim's sister, Alice arrived. And Jim continued working on his book. He went to Munich for 3 days, but I stayed in Normandy. I had planted a few bulbs in the fall. When I bought them I asked for ones that would bloom in April, so I wasn't sure there would be much in bloom in March. I was therefore surprised to find the garden looking like this. I didn't plant any of these. The ones I planted are in a small group just to the right of the photo. They were blooming too. By the end of our three weeks the forget-me-nots were in full bloom in the back half of the garden. They're just weeds, but are pretty in the spring. I thought that in order to make better use of the garden, it needed some stepping stones.  I wanted round ones, but couldn't find any, so we settled for these square ones that match the ones in the pathway. On the insid...

We have been turning this new place into our own.  It’s been a lot of fun.  The house was furnished with the bare necessities when we took ownership, so fortunately we could move right in.  But we have been adding lots of comforts, conveniences, doing some repairs, etc. and adding a few decorative touches. Here is the living room today.  I should do some kind of “hover over the objects to learn more about them,” but I’m not going to.  The print over the mantel is one Jim and Marta, our sister-in-law bought in July in Utrecht. Marta managed to stash it there until last weekend, when we stopped to visit her and picked it up to bring it back here. We bought the Delft vase in an antique shop in Utrecht, possibly the same one where they bought the print in July. The Danish Christmas plate is one Marta brought when she came to visit in October. The lithograph on the left is one given us in Wrocław in September. It is of the old university building, one we’ve been in...