Resolutions

Since I shared my blog address in all my holiday letters, it occurred to me that a good resolution would be to blog a bit more often. Maybe then my friends would get in the habit of checking in on me frequently in 2011. So here's a new post to keep you coming back!

After our return home from Florida, there was a "flurry" of activity with pre-Christmas social events and then the things I needed to do so that our Christmas would happen... getting the holiday letters and packages put in the mail and doing a little holiday grocery shopping and cooking.

And then there was the real "flurry" on Christmas morning... as in snow flurry. The snow started at daybreak and then it just continued, relentlessly, until we had 9 inches of it! I did NOT move south to have a white Christmas! Well, we are now 5 days past that storm and a lot of the snow is gone. Hooray!

One of the things I did while I was housebound was to work on some pincushions I am making for an event I'm going to in January, so I thought I'd show those to you. They are made of felt and they're fun to embellish with embroidery. They are much more cheerful than the winter scene I could have photographed out my front door on Christmas day!

Happy 2011!!!

Things are heating up!

We're not exactly sweating, but the Florida temperatures have turned more seasonal for the second half of our week here. Russ is used to hearing me say, "I love the 70's!" He's never sure if I'm talking about the decade or the temperature range, but in reality, I like both!

On Wednesday, we met our friends Nancy and David at Dixie Crossroads in Titusville for a great seafood lunch and a few hours of equally delightful conversation. Together we went to the Enchanted Forest preserve for a stroll along an abandoned and grown over canal. We didn't see much wildlife, but along the trail were these

interesting "Swiss cheese" rocks that were unearthed when they dug the canal. The holes were made by naturally occurring carbonic acid eating away the limestone over tens of thousands of years. Or at least I think that's what the interpretive sign said.

Yesterday we went golfing at the Kissimmee Golf Club. I didn't shoot any birdies with my golf clubs, but I did shoot some with my camera. The course was filled with lots of interesting birds, many of them pretty tame and willing to pose. It skirts an airport that has a "war bird" collection and so in addition to the real birdlife, there were lots of vintage planes flying overhead! It was an interesting spot! In fact we liked it so much, we made tee times to play again today.

On Tuesday we spent a few hours in Winter Park, a nice, upscale community. We visited the Morse Museum which was just spectacular. It houses the largest collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany art in the world. The collection is magnificent and the story of how it was acquired is equally fascinating. What a treasure! Thank you to my bee friend, Carolyn, for suggesting that. We had also hoped to take the scenic boat cruise there, but the cold weather on that day had closed it down. Perhaps we'll get back now that it's warmer.

Last night we went to Celebration, FL, a Disney planned community near Lake Buena Vista. During December they have hourly snowfalls in the town square, and last night it was finally warm enough to enjoy that. I expected cold, snow machine snow, but this snow was more like shaving cream. They also have an "ice" rink, but the surface was some kind of solid other than ice. It was really pretty and festive and the kids were enjoying rolling around in the shaving cream snow that accumulated on the street.

Florida... where all the orange juice is frozen this morning!

I really need to get back to blogging, so here's a post from Sunny Florida.

You might know... we make the decision to make a December trip south and last night there was record cold here in Orlando! Temps dipped into the teens and even with the sunshine, the wind yesterday made it feel downright chilly.

Don't feel too sorry for me, though. We are staying at a beautiful Hilton resort (thanks, Ed and Carol!) and our accommodations and the

amenities here are amazing... so it's not really an inconvenience to have to stay inside more than we'd planned. Here are a couple of shots showing our apartment.

And thanks to my "bee ladies" I have a list of indoor attractions to explore in the area.

Yesterday we had a nice day. After battling downtown Orlando traffic to get to a Radio Shack so I could replace the camera battery charger I forgot (why do I keep forgetting things?), we headed to Edgewater to see Russ' cousin's recently purchased house and spend the afternoon and early evening with them. It was really nice to see their beautiful home, catch up with their family news, and Russ and Bruce spent a couple hours going through some geneological stuff that Russ has collected and shared lots of old family stories. We had a nice dinner at McKenna's before heading back to Orlando.

Blue Ridge Parkway Quilt

I'm just back from my final visit to the Asheville Quilt Show. From my point of view, it seems like it has been a great success, as usual.

A highlight for me was the showing of the now completed Blue Ridge Parkway 75th Anniversary Quilt. You might remember an earlier blog where I showed you the lady slipper block that I made for the quilt, using some silk fabrics that I hand-dyed when I went to John C. Campbell Folk School this spring. Well, it was an honor for me to be part of this Asheville Quilt Guild project. The quilt will be donated to the BRP Folk Art Center this September and, though I may be just a tad prejudiced, I think that the completed quilt turned out really, really well. I hope you enjoy this sneak preview!

Our Final Day in Paris

I have been away from my blog for quite a while. As usual, I have lots of excuses. I ran into some frustrating sessions trying to move my photos onto disks, I had to make an unscheduled trip to Buffalo, then I came home to all the activities of summer, including a big construction project at our house... well, more about that later. The calendar page has now turned to August, so I had better finish up our May trip so I can move on to other things!!!

For the final day, we were docked in Paris. The evening before we had stayed on the sun deck until after dark so that we could see the Eiffel Tower illuminated in the distance as we returned to the city. During our approach, we went under some bridges that were so close to us that we could reach up and touch them!

Our morning excursion was an excellent city tour that was mostly by bus, but allowed a photo stop with a nice view of the tower and a wonderful, relaxing stroll through Luxembourg Gardens. We had gotten our bearings last week with our sight-seeing along the Seine, but it was great to revisit those areas once more and also get to some iconic areas a bit away from the river. As usual, our guide was excellent and the bus driver was skillful in negotiating the crazy weekend city traffic.

The afternoon was ours to explore where we liked. We set out by train to go just three stops to get us to the area where we could easily walk to Les Invalides (Napoleon's Tomb) and the Rodin Museum. As luck would have it, the train made an unscheduled stop about halfway there and then wouldn't start up again! After about 15 minutes of waiting, listening to garbled messages in French and discussing the meaning of them with equally bewildered fellow passengers from Australia, we decided to just head out on foot. So we got to see more of the Paris neighborhoods around the Eiffel Tower, but we had less time to sight-see at our destinations. We decided that we could forgo seeing Napoleon's actual tomb, because the grounds of Les Invalides were spectacle enough and we opted to spend our time at the Rodin Museum. Many of the large sculptures are outside on the grounds, arranged among nicely sculpted gardens, but there is also an extensive indoor museum housed in an elegant old chateau.

Our return trip to the cruise ship was equally adventurous. Apparently the train still wasn't running and so we were directed to a Metro line that would supposedly get us to the same station, however when we emerged on the street we were totally disoriented... nothing looked familiar. We finally got pointed in the right direction, but had a very long walk back to the ship. (I think in retrospect, we could have more easily just walked back from the museum!) Oh, well, we appreciated the extra exercise, because we had a long flight the next day... and most importantly we made it back in time for an excellent final dinner on board!

River cruising is definitely an great way to travel and I would highly recommend Uniworld, http://www.uniworld.com/. Everything was excellent!

Monet's Giverny

A real highlight for me was our Friday morning visit to Monet's chateau at Giverny. It has all been lovingly restored and is a delight for the senses! We strolled through his Japanese water lily garden (the lilies were not in bloom), stood on the famous green arched bridge that is featured in many of his paintings, and enjoyed viewing his colorful front yard garden from his studio window. Instead of talking about it, here are a few pictures.

We are now (Thursday, May 20) docked in Caudebec, a nice little town which has been rebuilt since World War II. The buildings are very 1950ish and there is virtually nothing that survived from before the war. This is a bit closer to the coast and a very pretty bus ride to Honfleur, a picturesque artsy/touristy harbor town. We took a beautiful route through the Normandy countryside for the hour trip to Honfleur on a road that our guide called the “way of the thatched roofs.” We went through several little settlements that were almost entirely the little homes with thatched roofs and lots of fields of cows and sheep and poultry… definitely seemed to be a trip back in time to a very idyllic pastoral time. Flowers overflowed from window boxes and every town had the requisite butcher shop, pastry shop, and small grocery. Very, very quaint… but I guess I didn’t take any pictures out the bus window.
Honfleur has a harbor basin which reflects the cafes that border it and the masted vessels that are docked there. Since it is so picturesque, it is a common subject for artists, both in the past and presently, and apparently also for photographers!

Our tour included an unusual wooden church with twin sanctuaries and a plaque and monument noting the fact that it was the site where Samuel de Champlain left for his voyage of discovery to present Quebec.

We could have stayed to have lunch at one of those harbor

side cafes, but opted instead to return to Caudebec to do a little exploring. We needed to be back at the boat later in the afternoon, as we were starting our rather long journey back toward Paris. It was pleasant to sit on the sun deck and watch the scenery go by.

Joan of Arc and Monet

Okay, I'm writing this on June 24th, but I'm going to be talking about our day in Rouen, which was Wednesday, May 19th. Apparently Rouen is a large industrial city, but our boat was docked on the north shore of the Seine near the restored historic area of the city and it was easy to walk to a variety of sites. We started with a guided tour that took us to the Rouen Notre Dame Cathedral, which Monet painted repeatedly in different light.

We had seen a half dozen of these paintings when we visited the D'Orsay Museum in Paris.

Surrounding the cathedral were many medieval structures including a secluded courtyard where the bodies of plague victims were gathered for burial. Skulls and crossbones were carved into the beams of these buildings as a kind of macabre reminder.

The cathedral was an important resting place for Richard Lionheart's heart and also was the site where Joan of Arc was declared a heretic and ordered to be burned at the stake in 1431. It is also a good example of Gothic Flamboyant architecture, and the nearby Palace of Justice is an even prettier display of this architectural style, as it has been recently cleaned. Many historic sites in France are covered with

hundreds of years of grime, and it is a treat to see one that has been restored so nicely.

An easy walk brought us to this medieval great clock and the historic market place which has a treasure of fine half-timbered buildings housing stores and quaint restaurants.

This area is also the site of a more modern church built in honor of Joan of Arc on the site where she died.

We had a very relaxed day, with plenty of time to wander and explore on our own. One charming thing that we saw was this dog who was babysitting this bunny who was leashed to his paw.

The longest day...

Tuesday, May 18th, was our only full day "field trip" to the Normandy coast and the sites of the D-Day invasion of WW II. Our ship was docked at Rouen and we were transported on the 1 1/2 hour trip to the Normandy coast. It was a pretty trip through lots of rolling farmland... many golden fields of canola, green wheat fields, and lots of grazing Normandy cows. I guess I didn't really take any pictures of the countryside...

Our first stop was Golden Beach (Arromanches), one of the allied landing sites, then on to Bayeux where we viewed the 11th century tapestries which graphically portrayed the history surrounding the Battle of Hastings (1066... William the Conqueror). Since I am a fan of fabric and needlework, I was really captivated by this huge embroidery which is in amazingly great condition. It is 230 feet long and contains 58 panels and tells a dramatic story with interesting detail and even some humor. We had an audio device which helped us to pick up on some of the details and follow the story, which is presented in manner similar to a comic strip with each panel adding to the what has come before. Bayeux itself is a pretty little medieval town and of course it has an impressive looking cathedral and it also has lots of cute little restaurants and creperies, so we were able to take some time to wander and eat lunch there.

Then on to the landing site at Omaha Beach. There was a guide on each bus who recalled the relevant history. The woman who was our guide was a French woman from the region who was born in 1944, just after the Allied landing, and she had lots of family stories about incidents just before and after her birth. As always, the guides were an excellent source of information and added so much to our experience.

Our final stop was at the American Cemetery at Colleville sur Mer. We had time to wander the gravesites... nearly 10,000 crosses and stars of David... marking the soldiers who were buried there. There was also an excellent interpretive center with very moving films and displays.

Our cruise line, Uniworld, participates in a charity to place flowers of remembrance on graves, so we were each given a rose to place by a grave of our choice. It was numbing to walk among the markers, read names, dates and home states. I ended up chosing to place my rose on a marker signifying an "unknown." The marker reads: Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God.

It was a long day, but followed by a wonderful dinner on board and a second night docked at Rouen, which was our city to explore tomorrow.

Back to the 12th Century...

We left Paris as we ate our first dinner on board and cruised along the Seine, going through several locks. It was pleasant to sit on the sun deck for a while in the evening and when we awoke, we could see the white cliffs of Normandy as we docked in Les Andelys on Monday morning. I believe we were about 50 miles from Paris. I had not realized it, but the Seine is not a straight river, it snakes back and forth a lot between Paris and the Normandy coast.

Les Andelys is a quaint medieval town with the remains of Richard Lionheart's castle, Chateau Gaillard, looming on a promontory above. There is also a church in the village that dates to 1199, the year that Gaillard was completed.

Our outing for the morning was a walk up to the castle remains with a wonderful guide who was able to recreate the era of Richard Lionheart and the knights of the crusades and help us imagine what the castle looked like back then. He was also very knowledgeable about the geology, architecture, and just about any other topic that people had questions about. He also took us through the historic church in the village.

This is a view looking down toward the river from the castle. Notice our boat docked on the bank to the right. You can also see the white chalk cliffs that are characteristic of this region.

We had a fair amount of free time to explore and we even took the bikes out for a little ride before it was time to set sail again.

This is another nice view of the castle ruins.

Another day in Paris...

Okay, back to the trip to France. This is day three, Sunday, May 16th. I have to admit, after our whirlwind day of sight-seeing the day before, we sort of overslept! In fact, we may still be sleeping, except for the fact that someone accidentally called our hotel room and woke us up!

Never fear. We had plenty of time to enjoy the wonderful breakfast buffet and then do a little local sight seeing before the noontime bus that took us to our boat.

In Montparnasse, just a short walk from our hotel, there is a 58 story building with a roof top observation deck. Since we were discouraged by the reports of long waits to go up the Eiffel Tower and we were blessed with a nice clear morning, we decided to go to the top of the Montparnasse Tower to check out the views.

We could see in all directions, but I'm including some scenes that show the skyline of Paris and the Eiffel Tower, since that's the most recognized symbol of the city.

Up on the roof, we had some fun with the tower!

Then we were transported by bus to our boat, the River Baroness, which was docked just down (or is it up?)river from the Eiffel Tower.

From the bridge over the Seine that was right near where our boat was docked, I took this picture which juxtaposes the Eiffel Tower with the Statue of Liberty. That was a pretty sight!

Segway adventure!

I'm going to interrupt my story about our trip to France in order to share a couple of photos from today's segway adventure at the Biltmore Estate.

My friend and I have been talking about using the segways for a

l-o-n-g time and today was finally "the day." After signing our lives away, our group of 6 got some patient instruction. Here's my friend getting oriented. There are two practice areas where maneuvers are learned and practiced at a conservative speed of 6 MPH. Note that our segways have wide "off road" tires. We learned that there are segways with narrower tires that are used on city sidewalk conditions... kind of like mountain bikes vs. road bikes.

Once we got comfortable with the vehicles, our leader reset them to go 12.5 MPH for our exploration of some of the trails on the estate. Here we are near the lagoon with the Biltmore House in the distance.

It was tons of fun!

A Day in Paris

Saturday, May 15th, was our day to explore Paris. Refreshed by a good night's sleep and fortified with an excellent breakfast at our hotel, our first stop was the d'Orsay museum. As part of our "package" we were taken by bus to the museum and we had an excellent guide who was able to bring us into the group entrance just as the building was opening.

The rhino is one of the sculptures outside, but inside we were given a crash course on the history of impressionism. Housed in a former hotel and train station, this museum has a wonderful collection of art from 1848-1914. Additionally, the original ballroom and restaurant from the hotel are intact and very opulent.

Across from the d'Orsay, we were able to get on the Batobus, a water taxi that makes a continuous circular journey and allows you to hop on and off to get to various sites along the Seine. Since we had a limited time, this seemed like a good way to see quite a bit.

This is a view of Notre Dame Cathedral taken from the Batobus. We got off the boat to tour the inside of this magnificent structure. As an added bonus, in the courtyard in front of the church there was a festival tent set up that turned out to be a bakers' competition. We were able to walk through the area and see the competitors at work.

Here are some of the baguettes ready for judging!

While in the neighborhood, we did some shopping and also had lunch at a patisserie.

Back on the Batobus, we stopped at the Louvre. We didn't have time to tour the museum, but we got to peek into one of the sculpture galleries and walked around the courtyard. We strolled through Tuileries gardens.

Another stop brought us to the area by the Grand and Petit Palaces and for a walk on the Champs Elysees toward the Arc de Triomphe.

Our final stop was the Eiffel Tower and a lovely restaurant, Au Bon Accueil, where we had dinner reservations. Wined and dined, we emerged from the restaurant after dark to see the tower illuminated! What a sight!