Love you Dad...

Things that made me smile lately......

Looking down into my cake batter 

and seeing someone smiling back at me.

We don't have suicide bombers

...just Barbi belts. 

Nouvelles d'Ardèche

 Here's the big man eagerly awaiting his weeklong trip 

with 53 of his nearest and dearest classmates. 

                                                  

7 days of climbing, cave exploring, kayak and hiking. 

Oh, and let's not forget a bit of studying Mediterranean flora and fauna.

       

Calvados is on top and Ardèche is the bottom map. 

About a 12 hour bus ride. No WIFI no SIM card...deconnection total.

      

Their "camp"..... complete with swimming pool and covered cabins for the night. 

I believe it 's been in the 70's and sunny up until today. Perfect weather.

                                           

 Ready for " Where's Waldo? "

More "Where's Waldo ?" or should we say " Where's the only wierdo with his hood up?"

By the way, the super happy, smiling lady with the super short blond hair is one of their school administrators. 

Yeah, I'd be super smiling happy too if I got paid to go kayaking.....

A sunny Sunday.....

 Banksy was over.

Oh, no, just Seb on his last visit to the country getting crazy with some spray paint.

 I think he was secretly inspired by our stroll through Caen the weekend before.

 That's one heck of a big door.

A kind of creepy cat refuge we stumbled upon.  

We didn't see one single cat by the way.

One of my favorite staircases....

Can you spot the two fake windows?

  (The boarded up one the ground floor doesn't count.)

Spring has sprung

My lovely flower box from the end of February. 

We had some freakishly warm weather. 

The daffodils  here have been finished for weeks. 

Yes, there's actually a garden hiding somewhere up there. Down below the fruits of two afternoons of hand digging and pulling. That will teach me to put a tarp on it over winter.

 

 What does Seb do when he hits Chenedouit? 

Puts on his fuzzy bathrobe, headphones, boots and makes a sandwich of course.

 What else. No listening for the coucou bird for him.

Above, Seb was 3 years old.

And here he is at 14.

Hey, somebody had to dig the hole for the apple tree a few months ago. 

( Note that trusty blue tool is still with us. It came with the house... )

 And how's that for tall, lucious green grass. 

Next time we show up we won't be able to open the door to the shed. 

Yikes.....