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.