Family Fun Time

 

Last Sunday we took a beautiful autumn ride up towards Mount Blanc, turned down toward Albertville, drove over to the bottom of Lake Annecy, around the Lake to St. Bernard de Menthod, and finished at the town of Annecy.  It was a brilliant day with spectacular fall colors everywhere.  We love it when visitors give us all the reason we need to go exploring.  Every time we reached a "pull-out" on the side of the road we would stop to take more pictures.  We hope Chad and Danielle had as much fun as we did.

 

One of Danielle's requests was to see a castle.  This is the Castle St. Bernard de Menthod across the lake from the town of Annecy.

 

We ended the day in the town of Annecy.  Danielle said that Annecy was her "favorite" of their whole vacation here.  It certainly is picturesque and was the perfect ending to a beautiful day.

 

 

An Autumn Afternoon

The weather will always make a liar out of you. After last week's post when I talked about how cold it had gotten here all of a sudden, we have had a very moderate week, temperature wise. The snow on the Jura is melted, but I'm sure it will be back soon. I felt like taking a walk this afternoon and taking some pictures of Autumn in Geneva. What won't show up on pictures is the fairly dense fog which shrouds everything each morning. I told Steve today, that I feel like I live in San Francisco or something. I'm content as long as I get at least some sunshine every few days. Enjoy the scenes from our walk.

This vine grows on walls all over around here, but it becomes spectacular during the Fall.






On a different theme--This huge three-legged chair stands across the street from the United Nations building. It represents all the children of the world who have lost limbs or been killed by land mines and cluster bombs. It is quite a statement. This square is also the site of many demonstrations by various groups with different agendas. I have just finished reading the book, Three Cups of Tea --A true account by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. I would encourage everyone I know to read this inspiring account.

FALL CAME FAST

It seems like only two weeks ago that all the trees were still green with no color and then, as if overnight, the colors appeared and some trees have dropped all their leaves. It snowed already on the Jura (the low mountain range that I see from our front window). Wow! Everything changed quickly. I'm more used to the rich colors that develop slowly in North Carolina and stay till almost Thanksgiving. It's not that way here. This morning when we got up the temperature was in the low 30's. (Fahrenheit, not Celsius) It did warm up to the mid 50's, but coat-less days are gone. As we approach our one year mark here in Switzerland I can see some progress in the communication area. Our "only-French-speaking" neighbor feels like she can talk to us in simple phrases now and knows we will understand and respond in rudimentary French, but she seems to understand. A lady on the bus next to me told me something in French and I knew exactly what she said. It would be so easy here in Geneva to just depend on our English to get by, but then I would not feel like I had taken advantage of a real opportunity to learn something new. We have met many wonderful people at our church and are enjoying more social activities with some of them. Our experience here, so far, has validated my view that you can learn to adjust and be happy anywhere. There are still holes that only children, grandchildren, dear friends and perhaps a dog can fill. Aside from that we consider ourselves very fortunate for the experience we are having.

I've Been Tagged

Apparently, I've been "Tagged".

A. Attached or single?--attached
B. Best Friend(s)?--Steve
C. Cake or Pie?-- Cake (chocolate of course)
D. Day of Choice? -- Thursday has always been my favorite
E. Essential? -- A project to work on, preferably hand quilting
F. Favorite Color?--Green
G. Gummy Bears or Worms? -- Bears (only red ones)
H. Hometown? -- Berkeley Ca.
I. Indulgence? -- Chocolate
J. January or July? -- July. Who likes January?
K. Kids? -- Five (Troy, Chad, Lara, Ben & Emily) There's no need to include ages here.
L. Life is not complete without? -- Family
M. Marriage Date? -- June 11
N. Number of Brothers and Sisters? -- One brother, three sisters
O. Oranges or Apples? -- Apples. I eat an apple everyday.
P. Phobias? --(just one?) Snakes, dirty things run a close second.
Q. Quotes? -- Happiness is a choice.
R. Reason to Smile? -- too many to name, but let's start with the natural beauty of the world
S. Season of Choice? -- Fall
T. Tag Someone -- Lara, this is for you.
U. Unknown Fact? -- Where I'll be a year from now.
V. Vegetable? -- Red Cabbage
W. Worst Habit? -- (only one?) Procrastination, I guess
X. X-Ray or Ultrasound? -- Neither, it might mean I'd be sick
Y. Your favorite food? -- Fresh-baked bread
Z. Zodiac sign? -- Cancer