Saturday Snapshot -- Experiments

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On Wednesday, as I was dashing between classes from building to building, I passed this balloon experiment. I didn't get to stay long enough to see what happened, but did enjoy seeing the students beginning to surround the professor wondering what was going on.

I imagine the experiment had something to do with physics or chemistry. Since the balloon was floating it obviously was filled with helium.

Hope something piqued your curiosity this week too.

Dreaming of France -- Clear Skies at Mont St. Michel

Thank you for joining this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

As my daughter Grace prepares for another trip in Europe, this time to Ireland, England and Wales, I dug into some photos from a previous trip to France.
The skies were unbelievable clear when she and my husband ventured to Normandy.
She captured a shot of this hot air balloon.

Then she took this picture of Mont St. Michel, the abbey that is sometimes on an island when the tide comes in.

And here's a detail shot of Mont St. Michel with a plane flying overhead.

I hope your weather is as clear and beautiful as it is here and that you are having some beautiful dreams of France.
Thanks so much for playing along with Dreaming of France today. Please leave your name and blog address in Mr. Linky below, and leave a comment letting me know what  you think about my love affair with France, or your own passion for the country and its people and cultures. Also consider visiting the blogs of others who play along so we can all share the love.

Saturday Snapshots -- Interesting Things

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I'm always looking for interesting things. When I parked at work on Friday, I loved seeing these tiny piles of stacked stones. Apparently, they're meant to imitate cairns, which is Gaelic and the stones were balanced to memorialize loved ones. Now stacked stones might be anywhere, even in parking lots.

After a sleepless night because of family worries, I cancelled my run and instead went for a walk this morning. Our little city was preparing for a race with flags marking the routes, and I saw this elaborate colorful drawing. 

And finally, as I neared the end of my walk on this gloomy sky day, I noticed this delightfully pink tree. And I couldn't resist taking a picture.

I hope everyone else is finding joy today, wherever you can. 

Grace and the Wolf

How is it possible that I never wrote about Grace's picture shoot with a wolf?

I searched my blog history and couldn't find it. I think sometimes I share a post on Facebook and think I included it on my blog. 

So, here goes:

Last fall, one of Grace's photographer friends wanted to do a photo shoot with a wolf rescue foundation. Grace, her boyfriend Jack, and two of their other friends dressed up in Victorian clothes and showed up to pose.

You can see that the wolf was fairly tame. 

Here are Grace and Jack posing with the wolf. That wolf must be used to having his picture taken cause he knows how to strike a pose. Of course, Grace and Jack look good too. Grace's eyes are very intense in this picture and the next one too. 

Here, Little Red Riding Hood has no fear of the wolf. I'm sure they're both out looking for Grandma. 

I decided to share this post after reading a blog post by Corey at Tongue in Cheek. She wrote about how she is overcoming her fear of dogs -- slowly. 

Saturday Snapshot -- April Snow

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We woke up this morning to find that Spring has abandoned us and winter returned in full force.
I tried to go for a run but stinging nettles of icy pellets attacked my face, so I came home. My husband agreed to go for a walk with me, so we could be bundled up.
The weather continued to be cold and blustery, but we paused to take some pictures of the snow on the freshly bloomed flowers.

We also took a tulip selfie. This woman always has gorgeous tulips every spring. It feels like Holland.

The snow also looked picturesque on the creeping phlox.

The weather should return to the Spring later this week. Hope you're having a lovely weekend, bad weather or no.

Dreaming of France -- The Sun on the Water

Thank you for joining this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

Isn't it funny that when we dream of a place, we always imagine beautiful weather? I know that my dreams of France usually include sunshine, which makes for such a better photo anyway.
Here's a shot of the west coast of France along the Atlantic Ocean. Our friends in Nantes take us there for walks.

Then here's another sunny shot, this one along the Mediterranean in the Calanques between Cassis and Marseille.

This little harbor looks lovely. I could spend a week or so floating on one of those boats. 

Hope there's sunshine in your dreams of France this week. 

Saturday Snapshot -- Cats and Runs and Chocolate

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Today I started off my day with a 10-mile run through my small city and on into the next suburb. For some reasons, there's a cornfield in the middle of the city, and a paved path going through it.

So I took the opportunity to run along the path and found a small brook. Probably, the brook isn't there except in the spring time as the snow melts -- a vernal pool.

I texted my husband around mile 7 and asked if he wanted to meet me at the coffee shop where I would end my run. So we met and bought hot drinks. As we walked home, me sweaty and worn out, we stopped at the salon, and they had time to give him a haircut, so I walked home alone.
When he arrived home later, he deposited a boy of chocolates on the table. "It's your birthday week," he reminded me.

Hope it's going to be a good one.

I made the bed the other morning, and the cat, who isn't allowed to sleep with us at night anymore because he disturbs me, had curled up on the pillows. He refused to move and was still there at noon.

So, my running is going well, my writing is going well, and my family is loving and supportive. Those are the things I'll hold onto as I enter my birthday week.

Saturday Snapshots -- Friends

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In spite of the hectic holiday season in December, we managed to gather as friends on a couple different nights.
This is a picture of us at Italian Market in Italian Village. These friends were the parents in my homeschooling group. They were my village that helped raise my children, assuring me, cautioning me, loving me.
Only one of these couples has a child they still homeschool, but that hasn't broken the bond of friendship.
It's so great that so many of us could enjoy each other the week after Christmas.

I hope everyone has an equally supportive group of friends that they see, if only occasionally, as we do. 

Then and Now

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This week, I spent a lot of time scanning in negatives of photos when the kids were little. 

Each picture was more adorable than the next. I posted a bunch on Facebook to oohs and ahhs.

Today, I planned to post some on my blog, showing how Grace has been an actress since the day she was old enough to choose her own clothes, but instead, I got hijacked by Spencer.

Spencer came home from college yesterday, and after eating dinner with us, Earl dropped him off at a friend's house on the campus of Ohio State. 

This morning, he called and through highly slurred words, asked if I'd pick him up. 

"Did you sleep at all?" I asked.

"No, not yet," he said.

So I traveled through the pre-football traffic to pick him up. But when I got there, he had fallen asleep and I had a hard time rousing him. I texted. I phoned. I got out of the car and walked up to what I hoped was the right door. No one answered.

As I got in my car to leave, a  young man opened the door and he must have woken Spencer because he came out and got in the car. 

On the 15-minute drive home, he fell asleep.

So why is it that this sleeping Spencer at two,

is so darn much cuter than this sleeping, tipsy Spencer at 21?

Hope you all have a splendid weekend. 

Saturday Snapshot -- Sunrise

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Friday evening, I went to the first same-sex marriage that I've attended. The Supreme Court ruling in June made same-sex marriage legal in Ohio.

This morning on my run, I spotted a lovely sunrise. 

How many times a year will it peek through at this exact spot? 

Of course, the picture is never as good as the real thing. You'll have to take my word for it. 

Maybe I'll get a picture of the full moon tonight so I can juxtapose them. 

Dreaming of France -- Twilight in Paris

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it

I know that Woody Allen convinced everyone that Midnight in Paris is a magical time, but I think the most beautiful time is at twilight.
We went for a walk on the last evening before we flew home this spring.
The lights and the buildings are so golden and warm.

Here we are walking along the Tuileries

This sliver of moon and venus above the straight cut trees.

And here I am posing in front of the Seine with Musee d'Orsay behind me and the Eiffel Tower in the far background. But look at the warm golden color, the beautiful sky and the reflections in the river. 

Definitely magical.  

Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave a comment and visit each other's blogs, too, so you can get your fix of France dreams.

Dreaming of France -- Versailles

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Grace is still on a European adventure and this weekend, for the first time, she visited Versailles. She's been to France three other times, and the last time she visited, she really wanted to visit Versaille, but couldn't get anyone to go with her.
This time, she gathered her visiting friends and they took the train from Paris to Versaille. It was crowded, as it always is.

She says she nearly melted into tears when she found out the hall of mirrors was closed.  But luckily, her friends tempted her out into the gardens, where the sun had come out and she found, to her delight, that musicians played throughout the gardens.

Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave a comment and visit each other's blogs, too, so you can get your fix of France dreams.

Saturday Snapshot -- Adventures of My Daughter

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My daughter and some friends are in Paris this week. She's on a 5-week European adventure.
At the Louvre, they came up with a unique (to me) photo idea.

So it's a selfie with all four of them leaning over the camera and the ornate ceiling of the Louvre is above them. 

Genius.

Hope everyone else is having a terrific holiday weekend. 

Dreaming of France -- Dramatic Paris Evening

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There is something magical about the evening in Paris.
Earl and I didn't do a lot of touristy things in Paris during our last visit, but we made it a point to head down to the Louvre and the Seine as the sun was setting.
Luckily for me, my little iPhone caught some lovely pictures.
Here's the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which is just across the street from the Louvre pyramid.

I know that I posted a picture of the Louvre pyramid on Facebook, but I'm not sure if I posted it on my blog, so here's how it looked as the clouds gathered and the sun began to set that evening.

And we also have an evening shot of the Eiffel Tower in the distance with a tiny sickle of the moon above it. The photo may not show it, but Venus nestled close by to the moon too. A gorgeous sky that night. 

This picture must have definitely been taken during the blue hour. 

Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave a comment and visit each other's blogs to see how others are Dreaming of France too.

Dreaming of France -- The Ubiquitous Carousel

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
A French town just isn't complete without a carousel. I think the French must have a lot more carousels per capita than we do in the United States. What does that say about the French? About us?
This one was in Aix en Provence, aptly named the Carrousel Paul Cezanne since Cezanne had a studio in Aix and painted many scenes of the nearby mountain Mont Ste. Victoire.

Note the gorgeous blue sky behind the carousel and the intense red and gold on the carousel. There's even a second story that kids can go up to.

We saw another carousel in Marseille when we spent the day there. 

I wonder how big a town has to be to have a carousel. Maybe I should be asking how small it has to be so that it doesn't have a carousel. 

Hope everyone is having a splendid spring.

Thanks for playing along with Dreaming of France. Please leave a comment and visit each other's blogs so you can share you love for France.  

Dreaming of France -- Traveling With Kids

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

Traveling with kids is always a hit or miss experience, and most of the time both hit and miss. We had some brilliant moments and some excruciating ones last time we took all the kids to Europe. We always looked for things to entertain them.
One day, while staying in Bandol along the Mediterranean, Earl took the kids to a nearby zoo. In the US, we take our zoos seriously. They're a little more laid back in France. You can buy popcorn or caramel corn to feed the animals.

 So the animals were anxious to greet visitors.

But my favorite pictures from the zoo were of my children goofing around. 

I love that Tucker, my youngest, was such a joker here. He had just turned 10 and could be his true self. 

Today, he turns 19, and he has become a serious guy without much room for making a fool of himself.

But we'll always have these memories and hope the true Tucker reappears in a few years.

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