january 31, 2012

I woke up this morning to Jay singing the "it snowed last night" song. Then we both went around and had an informal photography contest taking pictures of the Château in the snow. Apparently he won, 'cause this one he took of our home was my fave.

january 30, 2012

I go to a gym class on Monday nights, which is kindof like calisthenics, French style. The French part being that every couple of months we celebrate birthdays after the class, and basically have a huge feast. I just love how that goes hand in hand with an exercise class, and doesn't seem strange to anyone but the American. These ladies (and one guy) know how to enjoy life---even the exercise is geared towards muscle relaxation and stress-reduction (we give each other back massages at the end of each class, for example) rather than burning calories or being able to fit into those jeans from back in 1998. It seems to be about quality of life and community, not guilt. I like that.

january 29, 2012

My Muse Nadia. I like this picture because it makes her look a little bit psycho, which she is---just the way a cat should be.

january 28, 2012

We found ourselves in Lyon again, as we dropped Curtis off at the airport in the wee hours, and then got to spend the day in the city with friends who live right downtown. We had breakfast at one of our favorite cafés, shopped for lunch in an outdoor market, and did more exploring of the streets in their neighborhood. They showed us one of the jewels they've found---this little antique shop that is absolutely stuffed with millions of trinkets and knick-knacks. It's like the lady poured the stuff in from the ceiling, it's that piled on top of each other---but strangely there seems to be an artful organization to the whole place. Truly amazing.

january 27, 2012

Our bedroom is finished! I can't tell you how much I love it---I feel like I'm living in a B&B or something. (and I love this picture 'cause of how Jay accidentally got into it).

january 26, 2012

Out on a bike ride in the hills above Cluny. This picture actually looks much better than it did in real life, (it was kindof a cold and cloudy day) thanks to Jay's awesome photoshop skeels.

january 25, 2012

We have the tough job of having to stock the Château's wine cellar. This is a new vineyard we hadn't been to before, at a castle we came across one day on a bike ride.

january 24, 2012

Out on a bike ride, and passed this church in a neighboring village. I like this church because of the layering on of styles and preferences throughout the centuries...Romanesque façade, the multi-colored roof tiles, the clock, rooster weather vane, and right up to last year's Christmas lights. (We only just took ours down yesterday, so who am I to talk?) I've been wondering about the rooster-topped churches, so I did a quick Google search and this is what came up:

Why Is There a Rooster On Top of Churches?

The rooster is a symbol for the Apostle Peter, the first Pope. The symbol refers to the cock (rooster) crowing during the Passion narrative, the incident that causes Peter to realise his betrayal of Christ. Christ told Peter during the Last Supper that He would be denied three times before 'the cock crows', Peter denied that he would ever foresake His Lord, yet out of fear, he did.

So the symbol of the rooster stands as a reminder to all of us not to give in to our human fear, to remain faithful to Christ always.

Here in Canada, some churches have crosses on top, some have roosters - the roosters are more common in Quebec which still has a stronger French tradition.

(from: domestic-church.com)

january 23, 2012

So this is my first day of "oh shoot, I forgot to take a picture today and it's almost midnight!" I'm pretty sure that whenever that happens I'll be taking a portrait of our cat, Nadia, 'cause she's the most photogenic one in our household. Especially at midnight.

january 22, 2012

We stopped in Lyon on our way home from the Alps, to drop Paul, Bekah, and Rose off at some other friends', who have a super sweet apartment right off the Place Bellecour. Dang, so cool to have a Ferris wheel a block from your front door.

january 21, 2012

We had several days of beautiful, clear weather...and then we received the gift of a snow storm. We had to sit out one day of skiing due to the weather (never mind our aching knees and leg muscles), but then had one more day of skiing in a winter wonderland of frosted trees (and the treacherous mix of thick fog and slopes that had turned into mogul-fields. It's one thing to try to navigate through moguls when you can see them...quite another when you might as well have your eyes closed...). Skiing is such a cool sport because even if you didn't ski and payed for a lift ticket just to ride the ski lift around through the mountains, it would totally be worth the money. It's just so beautiful and so good to be out in nature. What a wonderful week!

january 20, 2012

Cute sweet Frenchy things! Love love love them!

january 19, 2012

What can I say, I have such a cool husband.

january 18, 2012

I love this picture of myself getting some serious air on a jump. (both "serious air" and "jump" should be read with irony).  I just love the expression on my face like I'm about to go over a 20-foot cliff or something. Jesting aside, I have to say that learning to ski is one of the things I'm most proud of in life, because I didn't start til I was an adult, and I was SO SO SO bad at it for a long, long time. I have some incredibly patient people in my life who were kind enough to wait up for me on all those years of very slow and wobbly skiing. And look at me now, mastering the jumps. :)

january 17. 2012

College buddies. Computer nerds. Very cool guys.

january 16, 2012

This is the early-morning-can't-wait-to-get-on-the-slopes view out the kitchen window of the chalet...sigh of contentment. 

january 15, 2012

We get to spend a week skiing in the Alps and staying at some very kind and generous friends' cozy mountainside chalet. I feel like we're the luckiest people in the world right now! 

january 14, 2012

Out on a jog and came across this sweet car in the middle of a vineyard. I think I want one. (and maybe a vineyard, too).

january 13, 2012

The Saone river is in the middle of it's annual flooding; the rest of the year these trees are high and dry in the middle of a cow pasture. The water is just about lapping at the edges of a few of the houses in our village, but this is normal (although higher than we've seen it) and no one seems concerned. We've heard that one year back in the '90's they had to get around the streets in the lower part of the village by boat---hoping for those who live down there that doesn't happen again!

january 12, 2012

The room is almost finished! Oh my word I LOVE it!!! We're fixing up this house so that whoever takes over our job from us in a year will have a nice place to stay...and I'm pretty happy that we get to enjoy the results as well! 

january 11, 2012

This is me putting on the texture-finish on some of the drywall sections. I did about 1/100 of the work that Jay and Paul and many others did on this room (maybe 1/1000) throughout the past three years...but enough to take a picture and make it look like I did something.

january 10, 2012

Here are our crocuses. Usually I'm so excited to see the first crocuses poke up---they're like a getting a gold star for making it through winter, but this year we really haven't earned them, have we? I don't know much about plants and gardening...but I'm afraid that all of the bulb flowers that are starting up will get ruined if we finally get some good freezes...is this true, or are they generally pretty hardy?

january 9, 2012

Bekah and I spent some time this morning cleaning out the vegetable garden for winter...a little late, perhaps, but winter never really settled in this year---and we already have crocuses blooming. Yay for global climate change.

january 8, 2012

Cross-training day. (Glad to be off my feet for the day...soaked socks + 6 miles = unfriendly blister). I love that we can leave our house and be in places that look like this in about 2 minutes; darn I'm going to miss that.

january 7, 2012

Out on our half-marathon training "big run" of the week---a 6-miler. I can't remember the last time I ran six consecutive miles...but surely it was while under some kind of duress like track practice. We decided to run down by the river on the bike path, but soon ran out of path---it's all under water due to flooding. We ran through this little high-ground strip of cow pasture instead, and had welcomed breaks every few minutes to climb through barbed-wire fences. So I guess that I really can't claim to have run six straight miles after all. Maybe next week.

january 6, 2012

Bekah and I took a bike ride into Pont-de-Vaux, the closest town around that locals would definitely claim as a town, not a village...but just. There's a bike path almost the whole way there, along the Saone River and then along this beautiful canal.

january 5, 2012

This is our bedroom; we started work on it soon after we moved in to "the Gatehouse" in 2008, and things are looking very positive that Jay and Paul are going to get it finished up soon! (As long as they keep from ingesting too many toxic products). It's going to be beautiful!

january 4, 2012

We received a wonderful Christmas package in the mail today, full of yummy, beautiful, and hilarious goodies (well, just one funny one, see below); I'm a firm believer in gifts arriving late (need I mentioned I don't have all of mine sent---and maybe a few not quite purchased---yet? It helps prolong the Christmas joy, don't you think?)

I can't help but add a second picture to today's post: Jay dancing with his chocolate-covered ipod (seriously, a real-live, chocolate-encrusted ipod) which he received in the Christmas package as a prize from a five-year-long bet over whether or not MySpace would still be the "biggest thing" by the end of 2011. He doesn't mind a good gloat.

january 3, 2012

We were spoiled with a wonderful across-the-channel lunch with two of our favorite Brits (and two of our favorite Americans)---complete with English Christmas Pudding for dessert. Yummm!

january 2, 2012

New Year's Resolution: take a baby-step down the "locavore" path --- inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. We're setting out to buy our produce from our local farmers' outlet store this year (this basket o' goodies being our first attempt)...but I have to admit to already having a few exceptions in mind...so we'll see how we do!

january 1, 2012

Started off the new year in quite probably the best way possible, with a hike through the {amazingly quaint and beautiful French} countryside.