Who Knew?

 

For over two months I have enjoyed looking out my front window at the hearty ever-blooming Chrysanthemums in pots which I had placed in my window sill.  When the huge purple one began to look like it belonged to Morticia Adams, with brown flowers instead of purple, I couldn't stand to just throw it away and gave it to a friend to plant in her yard.  Since that time, the two smaller yellow pots have braved the cooler temperatures and oft-times brutal winds to continue to display cheering yellow flowers.  I must admit today, however, that they may not be up to the dusting of snow which we received yesterday and the night-time temperatures that are below freezing.  Still, I watch as they rock, buffeted by the chill wind, and yet look fairly healthy. 

I have not seen too many, if any, Chrysanthemums on window ledges.  Sometime in the past couple of weeks I read that one should never take Chrysanthemums to someone as a gift because they are associated with funerals and death.  Hmmm--I wonder how many people here have either chuckled at our cultural ignorance or thought that we had suffered a loss. 

Interesting--Chrysanthemums being associated with funerals and death when in reality they are the essence of longevity, hardiness and can be depended upon to rise back up out of the ground to flower again next year.  Maybe they should be thought of in terms of resurrection rather death.  I still will remember not to take them to someone as a hostess gift.

Heading in a Different Direction

The hills that we look out on from our front window are called the Jura.  We had never gone into the Jura nor seen what lay beyond--that is until last Saturday.  The deciduous trees had all lost their leaves, but there are plenty of pines.  Also, we left a semi-clouded over Geneva, with hazy skies and drove into bright sunshine and brilliant blue skies. Nice change.  Steve took this photo outside of the little village of Morez.  We only have to drive 15 minutes in the North-West direction from our home to cross into France.  We spent the day in France.  We thought we might head to Dijon, where I have never been, but as we traveled in that direction we became ensconced in heavy fog.  We changed plans and drove back in an Easterly direction, having picked out the town of Besancon on the map as a town to explore.  It turned out to be an excellent choice--the weather stayed clear and the areas we drove through as well as Besancon itself were very interesting.  I love little French villages!

 

 

As we approached Besacon the view is of the ancient Citadel and wall on the hill and of part of the river which flows all the way around the city.  (By the way, the "c" in Besancon is pronounced as an "s" which would show up on a French keyboard and a little comma under the c.)

 This shows the mosaic tiled roofs that are common to this area.  The old buildings even in the little villages often have this type of roof. 

We saw this type of turret on the corner of buildings often throughout the city.

 

 

 

Row houses along the river

Church on the square

Great Carousel.  It's quite old.

I've aged a bit since you last saw me.

Love to you all--

Moving Through Autumn

I have often heard the saying, "Till the cows come home" in reference to doing something for a long time--until the cows come home.  Here is the picture to go with the saying.  We were traveling along a road near Gruyere when a farmer got off his tractor which he had been driving down the road and placed two "cones" -- one on each side of the road to indicate a cow crossing.  He then proceeded into the field and urged the cows into a line to begin their walk "home".  Such a simple sight to view and yet for some reason it filled me with contentment to being able to take the time to enjoy watching cows return to their barn in the evening.

On the hill is the Gruyere Castle.  Just some beautiful scenery on our way back to Geneva.

As Autumn pushes onward, I am getting more anxious each day to get home to North Carolina.  I have discovered that I'm good for about two and a half months before I start counting the days until I come home.  I find that I'm less tolerant of the crowds of people,  the cigarette smoke being blown in my face, the dirty bus seats and the even dirtier streets.  Yep--it's definitely time for a break from here for a little while.  City life is fine in small doses.  We plan to get out of town next Saturday--we haven't decided where, but it'll probably end up in my next blog.

Love to you all--

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