No worries Pipp, as heartbroken as I am (the cat and I are no longer on speaking or stroking terms) my little lost love has already been replaced! I presume with the squabbling other from earlier in the year!
Thanks again for sharing - Happy New Years Eve, I hope you have a wonderful evening planned - me, I’ll be in pyjamas by the fire reading! lots of love ♥️xxx
Those skeletal trees are incredible! I'm sorry you had a stressful beginning to the Christmas week. Better days ahead, is my wish for you. All this rain, it is everywhere. We have floods here (because we don't have better drainage) and it is the monsoon season, so everything is doubled, like the sadness it bears. Hope you and your beautiful family had a great Christmas.
I love the photograph of Toulouse, a far away city I will never step foot in and yet, your one photograph sets the mood for the day as well as the entire day’s movement captured in one photograph. Is there anything more beautiful than your daughter’s smile as she holds a ball of mistletoe on Christmas morning. I think maybe the reflection in her eyes of your answering smile.
“It is a colour that remains outside for the whole of the day, while we make a most beautiful rainbow indoors…”
Oh, and that copper pot, may I suggest looking inside , at the end of the rainbow …
There is an old saying in England, 'you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl' - I think that it may have been written for a girl just like me. I feel like a scruffy little mouse in big cities, dashing from place to place doing my best to hide in case someone suspects an imposter! If ever a photograph described a day, that was it! A blur of people and rain and lights and noise - all terrifyingly close!
Rosie always paints a lovely picture and a smile on my heart Lor, I miss her chatter, her face and our long long walks... she has exams coming up and a long stretch of MIA or revision at least.
That rainbow is a trickster! Every time I think it is still it moves again... so still the copper pot remains a mystery!
I wish you a happy few hours that remain of the year past Lor... (while I try to remain awake for the 15 minutes left here...) and 365 happy new days when they arrive. 💛x
Wait, wait just for a moment before you close your eyes ; wishing you a wonderful New Year, always to be enjoyed in good health. Ok, you can close your eyes now, sweet dreaming…
I had horrible conditions driving to Toulouse to pick one daughter up last week as well. Then taking her back today, we had very thick fog from Albi on, and on the way back it was pretty bad too. We were happy to get up and out of it once we neared Aveyron, at about Tanus.
I don't think I have ever driven in such dangerous conditions Betty, both journeys were terrifying and made worse by impatient drivers who were oblivious or just ignoring the dangers.
It seems no coincidence to me either that you had foggy conditions via Albi, from here there is little difference in distance if we take the road via Caylus and Caussade (now there are two towns worth visiting!) I use both but there is almost always fog via Albi and between Ripeyroux and Belcastel it just gets worse. Christmas 2018 it took me four hours to return from Toulouse using that road...
I’ve been to both Caylus and Caussade, and they are nice, albeit a bit small for France in Between. What I really need to do is get to Montauban, where I used to go for work meetings but where I have visited nothing! I have no idea what the historical town center looks like at all.
Montauban has a beautiful Square, but honestly I couldn’t tell you much more than that… I had some friends that rented an apartment there! I believe it has quite an art culture though or they wouldn’t have been there at all!
Thank you Jo, I hope your Christmas has been filled with love and laughter and more than a little fun too. Rosie and I walked and walked and walked and talked even more... it was perfect! I wish you a year of joy filled days - Happy 2025 🥂🎶💛xx
Oh Susie...I do worry for you venturing out in your car. I can just see you gripping the steering wheel as you negotiate the horrors of driving in a town!
Over here, the word 'quine' is a Scots word that means a girl or woman, mostly only used in the northeast these days.
I used to love driving Lynn, I was always the driver, no matter where we went and often it was far, Scotland and Wales, Cornwall and all over Europe but one gets out of the habit when it is no longer necessary and of course, here there is no traffic, no tail backs or congestion so I possibly don't pay as much attention to the road as I should... hedgerows and fields are far more interesting which means I hit a motorway or busy traffic and am immediately stressed, exhausted by the time I reach my destination, especially at Christmas when everyone is in a hurry and when the weather is shocking!
How interesting about the word Quine, I find it an odd word here for the game of bingo, especially as the closest other word is 'coquine' which is the feminine for cheeky and far closer to your meaning! I must look up the etymology!
Learned borrowing from Latin quīnī (“five at a time; five together”), a plural form of quīnus (“five at a time; five each”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe (“five; hand”).
I grieve for your fallen feathered companion Susie, and I rejoice in your rainbow. I am in awe that you navigated the Christmas rush on 24th in Toulouse and I’m glad your VW is surviving. Another week of freedom and (relative?) calm before it’s back to work. Sending love and wishes for a peace filled time xx
Thank you Emily, unbelievably, another feathered, red breasted treasure has already taken his place. He is still shy and though I would love to be friends I fear our jealous feline will take revenge again so I am not encouraging it.
The last two days have been calm(ish) and perfectly beautiful. Blue blue skies, frosty beginnings and almost springlike afternoons although short-lived. I have made the most of almost every second. I do hope you have too... xx
How wonderful that a new Robin has moved in, they are such delightful company, and I do so hope that he remains free of feline attentions. A storm is raging here, the winds are fierce and the birds are being blown before them. I am still in bed, at 9.48 am on New Year’s Day, having succumbed yesterday to the stomach bug that both my daughter and husband had a few days apart this last week. I am hopeful that today will be better than yesterday. The children are still sound asleep and my husband is working, so I am enjoying the solitude and the opportunity to read uninterrupted. I hope that the calm, bright and sunny weather remain for you xx
Copper pot, mistletoe, red feathers and the old girl still getting you to and from the places you need to travel. The weaving of practical human doings amidst tender nature notes is as beguiling as it has been all year. And yes, beautiful daughter. Gorgeous pictures, Susie. Happy Betwixtmas xx
The old girl needed a new battery today, she's beginning to be rather costly but still I can't quite let her go, I'm sure she has at least another year in her yet! And that copper pot... the mystery is still unsolved, its killing me!
Thank you Barrie, as always for your so generous reading and comments, I wish you a very wonderful last few moments of the year and hope the new one has a kaleidoscope of curiosities awaiting you both! xx
As are you beautiful soul, I hope this set of brand new days brings more rainbows with unimaginable colours and joy! Thank you for being here, thank you for your kindness and seeing so often in between the words... 💫xx
Forever powerful words, Susie. So delicate and moving and transporting.
You know, Jo and I lost something years ago in a hire car in Sicily. Such a confined space. Almost impossible for it to be lost. It remains a great mystery. No doubt the copper pot is in a similar place.
"though I wonder how ready they will be when they are so intent on looking at their mobile phone screens—they neither look up nor acknowledge me as I pass them. I’m grateful; I could have been the beast they were hunting!" -- this made me smile. I hope that they remained too engaged on their phones that no prey was shot at all!
Thank you Nathan, I enjoy a good mystery no matter the form it takes and usually, donning my Sherlock cap - or perhaps in France that might be Maigret - I solve it but the missing copper pot, like your lost item, remains lost. I am out of clues!
I have seen no evidence either of any hunter having any success, yesterday morning was a close thing judging by the fifty odd rounds of ammunition fired from the forest not 500 metres away - I felt like a bit part in a Western - but no bodies were dragged down the hill! Small mercy because they are relentless, although today has been quiet, so far!
My wishes for a wonderful new set of 365 days are winging their way to you as I type my friend - thank you so much for all your support over the last. 💛💫🥂
As I am yours Pamela, thank you so much for being here and sharing my words. I am hoping you’re well on the right road to recovery from the dreaded Covid now too 🤗
Good news! I’ve just heard a news report, the virus is spreading fast here again - I will be topping up my immune system before heading back to classes!
It is apparently everywhere because I think a lot of people let their guard down. I read not too long ago that people weren’t getting the booster, and I am one of the guilty. Do boost up. I am big on immune booster and I feel like that has at least helped some.
I have come down with Covid five times since the outbreak Pamela, the first two times were before the vaccination was even thought of (or not depending on belief and hype)! Each time has been less severe (and none were terrible thankfully) than the time before - working with young children it appears it is unavoidable with or without the vaccine so I haven’t bothered, I am hoping my body is building its own antibodies!! 🤞🏽
My daughter is teacher, it’s her first year of being a contracted teacher - 5th grade. Prior she was a long term sub. She’s also had it 5 times. I’ve been getting the vaccines and always got the flu vaccine too, especially when she was in school growing up. With it just being me to take care of us both I felt I needed it. Now as a long term smoker, I feel it is better to get the vaccines than not. Who knows what is right.
I had to skip the storm part because one is on the way. Hurricane Helene taught me I don’t have an inch of courage left for storm stories. I will recover. In time.
I deeply appreciate your work. Truly. There’s something so profound in your determination to write. You teach me that even when I think I can’t I can🌱💫💚
Thank you so much, I really really appreciate this comment Katharine… at 60 years old (I still can’t quite believe that number!) I have a very real fear of just falling into old age and losing brain cells so I force them to keep turning by writing and I think the more I do the easier it is becoming. I wish I could set aside time every day just for writing but I have the sort of chaotic life that doesn’t allow it and I am an absolute terror for promising something then really struggling to turn up with the goods so I end up with delays which are completely unavoidable but make me feel terrible anyway and with that comes the feeling of forcing words, different from forcing writing, and I look at the end and just want to delete the lot!
What Im trying, in a rather longwinded way, to say is its not easy, writing is a very concentrated pastime whether its for a book or a journal or a report, anything and there has to be a certain amount of personal discipline, not my forte - you can do it! 💚 xx
I don’t blame you for skipping past the storm Katharine, I think you’ve suffered quite enough already, thankfully this was nothing like Hurricane Helene though, not even a novice storm by comparison.
Thank you for the time you took to write your comment! Yes, the age is quite surprising — 69 over here. I am happy to report that I worked my last Monday at my Pilates studio this week. So no excuses, here…I made the space to write and I am 120% happier when I am publishing. The community here is just stunning. So much love, and all the best for peace in your new year.💙🌎
xox
Oh, rest is good, at least. Thank you Susie. Happy New Year to you and yours as well ❤️
I restacked this before I got to the bottom I was swept away!!
Sorry to hear about the Robin!!😔
No worries Pipp, as heartbroken as I am (the cat and I are no longer on speaking or stroking terms) my little lost love has already been replaced! I presume with the squabbling other from earlier in the year!
Thanks again for sharing - Happy New Years Eve, I hope you have a wonderful evening planned - me, I’ll be in pyjamas by the fire reading! lots of love ♥️xxx
Sounds perfect!!
Or writing! 😂
Those skeletal trees are incredible! I'm sorry you had a stressful beginning to the Christmas week. Better days ahead, is my wish for you. All this rain, it is everywhere. We have floods here (because we don't have better drainage) and it is the monsoon season, so everything is doubled, like the sadness it bears. Hope you and your beautiful family had a great Christmas.
We had a few days reprieve Sha, cold and frosty weather has been a glorious change but the grey will return and with it the rain!
I hope the monsoons are not too torrential for you, although I remember well that they can be... take care and I wish you Happy New days!💛x
I love the photograph of Toulouse, a far away city I will never step foot in and yet, your one photograph sets the mood for the day as well as the entire day’s movement captured in one photograph. Is there anything more beautiful than your daughter’s smile as she holds a ball of mistletoe on Christmas morning. I think maybe the reflection in her eyes of your answering smile.
“It is a colour that remains outside for the whole of the day, while we make a most beautiful rainbow indoors…”
Oh, and that copper pot, may I suggest looking inside , at the end of the rainbow …
There is an old saying in England, 'you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl' - I think that it may have been written for a girl just like me. I feel like a scruffy little mouse in big cities, dashing from place to place doing my best to hide in case someone suspects an imposter! If ever a photograph described a day, that was it! A blur of people and rain and lights and noise - all terrifyingly close!
Rosie always paints a lovely picture and a smile on my heart Lor, I miss her chatter, her face and our long long walks... she has exams coming up and a long stretch of MIA or revision at least.
That rainbow is a trickster! Every time I think it is still it moves again... so still the copper pot remains a mystery!
I wish you a happy few hours that remain of the year past Lor... (while I try to remain awake for the 15 minutes left here...) and 365 happy new days when they arrive. 💛x
Wait, wait just for a moment before you close your eyes ; wishing you a wonderful New Year, always to be enjoyed in good health. Ok, you can close your eyes now, sweet dreaming…
enjoy the time with your daughter x
Thank you Jan, she is already departed but our time together was special, it always is!
I hope you had a memorable Christmas for all the right reasons and that the new year brings you peace and calm in spirit and soul 💛x
I had horrible conditions driving to Toulouse to pick one daughter up last week as well. Then taking her back today, we had very thick fog from Albi on, and on the way back it was pretty bad too. We were happy to get up and out of it once we neared Aveyron, at about Tanus.
I don't think I have ever driven in such dangerous conditions Betty, both journeys were terrifying and made worse by impatient drivers who were oblivious or just ignoring the dangers.
It seems no coincidence to me either that you had foggy conditions via Albi, from here there is little difference in distance if we take the road via Caylus and Caussade (now there are two towns worth visiting!) I use both but there is almost always fog via Albi and between Ripeyroux and Belcastel it just gets worse. Christmas 2018 it took me four hours to return from Toulouse using that road...
Yikes!
I’ve been to both Caylus and Caussade, and they are nice, albeit a bit small for France in Between. What I really need to do is get to Montauban, where I used to go for work meetings but where I have visited nothing! I have no idea what the historical town center looks like at all.
Montauban has a beautiful Square, but honestly I couldn’t tell you much more than that… I had some friends that rented an apartment there! I believe it has quite an art culture though or they wouldn’t have been there at all!
Beautiful and whimsical Susie.
Love the photo of your daughter and imagining you two wandering the hills. Very special. xx
Thank you Jo, I hope your Christmas has been filled with love and laughter and more than a little fun too. Rosie and I walked and walked and walked and talked even more... it was perfect! I wish you a year of joy filled days - Happy 2025 🥂🎶💛xx
Oh Susie...I do worry for you venturing out in your car. I can just see you gripping the steering wheel as you negotiate the horrors of driving in a town!
Over here, the word 'quine' is a Scots word that means a girl or woman, mostly only used in the northeast these days.
I used to love driving Lynn, I was always the driver, no matter where we went and often it was far, Scotland and Wales, Cornwall and all over Europe but one gets out of the habit when it is no longer necessary and of course, here there is no traffic, no tail backs or congestion so I possibly don't pay as much attention to the road as I should... hedgerows and fields are far more interesting which means I hit a motorway or busy traffic and am immediately stressed, exhausted by the time I reach my destination, especially at Christmas when everyone is in a hurry and when the weather is shocking!
How interesting about the word Quine, I find it an odd word here for the game of bingo, especially as the closest other word is 'coquine' which is the feminine for cheeky and far closer to your meaning! I must look up the etymology!
Learned borrowing from Latin quīnī (“five at a time; five together”), a plural form of quīnus (“five at a time; five each”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe (“five; hand”).
Well that explains the Bingo!
I grieve for your fallen feathered companion Susie, and I rejoice in your rainbow. I am in awe that you navigated the Christmas rush on 24th in Toulouse and I’m glad your VW is surviving. Another week of freedom and (relative?) calm before it’s back to work. Sending love and wishes for a peace filled time xx
Thank you Emily, unbelievably, another feathered, red breasted treasure has already taken his place. He is still shy and though I would love to be friends I fear our jealous feline will take revenge again so I am not encouraging it.
The last two days have been calm(ish) and perfectly beautiful. Blue blue skies, frosty beginnings and almost springlike afternoons although short-lived. I have made the most of almost every second. I do hope you have too... xx
How wonderful that a new Robin has moved in, they are such delightful company, and I do so hope that he remains free of feline attentions. A storm is raging here, the winds are fierce and the birds are being blown before them. I am still in bed, at 9.48 am on New Year’s Day, having succumbed yesterday to the stomach bug that both my daughter and husband had a few days apart this last week. I am hopeful that today will be better than yesterday. The children are still sound asleep and my husband is working, so I am enjoying the solitude and the opportunity to read uninterrupted. I hope that the calm, bright and sunny weather remain for you xx
Copper pot, mistletoe, red feathers and the old girl still getting you to and from the places you need to travel. The weaving of practical human doings amidst tender nature notes is as beguiling as it has been all year. And yes, beautiful daughter. Gorgeous pictures, Susie. Happy Betwixtmas xx
The mystery of the copper pot. Very Agatha Christie. A trip into fiction for you?
Excited to see what 2025 has in store. We’ll be gathering up the positives and rippling them out. Keep those beautiful words flowing. X
The old girl needed a new battery today, she's beginning to be rather costly but still I can't quite let her go, I'm sure she has at least another year in her yet! And that copper pot... the mystery is still unsolved, its killing me!
Thank you Barrie, as always for your so generous reading and comments, I wish you a very wonderful last few moments of the year and hope the new one has a kaleidoscope of curiosities awaiting you both! xx
Thank you for sharing your rainbow. Your rain, your gray, your colour—you are a gift (with a bow.) 🌈
As are you beautiful soul, I hope this set of brand new days brings more rainbows with unimaginable colours and joy! Thank you for being here, thank you for your kindness and seeing so often in between the words... 💫xx
Forever powerful words, Susie. So delicate and moving and transporting.
You know, Jo and I lost something years ago in a hire car in Sicily. Such a confined space. Almost impossible for it to be lost. It remains a great mystery. No doubt the copper pot is in a similar place.
"though I wonder how ready they will be when they are so intent on looking at their mobile phone screens—they neither look up nor acknowledge me as I pass them. I’m grateful; I could have been the beast they were hunting!" -- this made me smile. I hope that they remained too engaged on their phones that no prey was shot at all!
Thank you Nathan, I enjoy a good mystery no matter the form it takes and usually, donning my Sherlock cap - or perhaps in France that might be Maigret - I solve it but the missing copper pot, like your lost item, remains lost. I am out of clues!
I have seen no evidence either of any hunter having any success, yesterday morning was a close thing judging by the fifty odd rounds of ammunition fired from the forest not 500 metres away - I felt like a bit part in a Western - but no bodies were dragged down the hill! Small mercy because they are relentless, although today has been quiet, so far!
My wishes for a wonderful new set of 365 days are winging their way to you as I type my friend - thank you so much for all your support over the last. 💛💫🥂
And the same to you Susie. Happy new year! 🎉
Susie, I am always transported reading your work. Thank you for reminding me of all the wonder, the beautiful and the fragile.
As I am yours Pamela, thank you so much for being here and sharing my words. I am hoping you’re well on the right road to recovery from the dreaded Covid now too 🤗
Thank you so much Susie. I am on the mend, I think. My symptoms have lessen and I hope to test negative in the next couple of days.
Good news! I’ve just heard a news report, the virus is spreading fast here again - I will be topping up my immune system before heading back to classes!
It is apparently everywhere because I think a lot of people let their guard down. I read not too long ago that people weren’t getting the booster, and I am one of the guilty. Do boost up. I am big on immune booster and I feel like that has at least helped some.
I have come down with Covid five times since the outbreak Pamela, the first two times were before the vaccination was even thought of (or not depending on belief and hype)! Each time has been less severe (and none were terrible thankfully) than the time before - working with young children it appears it is unavoidable with or without the vaccine so I haven’t bothered, I am hoping my body is building its own antibodies!! 🤞🏽
My daughter is teacher, it’s her first year of being a contracted teacher - 5th grade. Prior she was a long term sub. She’s also had it 5 times. I’ve been getting the vaccines and always got the flu vaccine too, especially when she was in school growing up. With it just being me to take care of us both I felt I needed it. Now as a long term smoker, I feel it is better to get the vaccines than not. Who knows what is right.
So perfect.
I had to skip the storm part because one is on the way. Hurricane Helene taught me I don’t have an inch of courage left for storm stories. I will recover. In time.
I deeply appreciate your work. Truly. There’s something so profound in your determination to write. You teach me that even when I think I can’t I can🌱💫💚
Thank you so much, I really really appreciate this comment Katharine… at 60 years old (I still can’t quite believe that number!) I have a very real fear of just falling into old age and losing brain cells so I force them to keep turning by writing and I think the more I do the easier it is becoming. I wish I could set aside time every day just for writing but I have the sort of chaotic life that doesn’t allow it and I am an absolute terror for promising something then really struggling to turn up with the goods so I end up with delays which are completely unavoidable but make me feel terrible anyway and with that comes the feeling of forcing words, different from forcing writing, and I look at the end and just want to delete the lot!
What Im trying, in a rather longwinded way, to say is its not easy, writing is a very concentrated pastime whether its for a book or a journal or a report, anything and there has to be a certain amount of personal discipline, not my forte - you can do it! 💚 xx
I don’t blame you for skipping past the storm Katharine, I think you’ve suffered quite enough already, thankfully this was nothing like Hurricane Helene though, not even a novice storm by comparison.
Thank you for the time you took to write your comment! Yes, the age is quite surprising — 69 over here. I am happy to report that I worked my last Monday at my Pilates studio this week. So no excuses, here…I made the space to write and I am 120% happier when I am publishing. The community here is just stunning. So much love, and all the best for peace in your new year.💙🌎