Celebrating Thanksgiving with new friends

 

Yikes that ice is hard mom!

Christopher and David,  two Georgian boys laced up for the first time

in Metz.  I was quite impressed with how quickly they 

learned.

Yaelle leads the ice train

A happy Canadian!

this isn't Canada but it's ice, eh?

After two hours of skating, sore bums and ankles,

we walked over to the Stoneman's apartment for

a fabulous Thanksgiving meal prepared by Tonya and

her boys.

the drumstick boys      

new friends

Gratitude and Thanksgiving

water lily on Cache Bay, Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada

Years ago, my spiritual director of the time,
Fr. Chet, once invited me
to practice what he considered
to be the highest form of prayer;
gratitude.

While other practices in my life
---Tai Qwon Do, Tai Chi,
Anthony de Mello meditation,
line dancing---have come and gone,
gratitude remains a daily companion.

One of the synonyms
for gratitude is  thanksgiving.


On this day of Thanksgiving,
  when many families and friends
gather to celebrate
in the United States,
  when the not so fortunate
eat their turkey and dressing
in food shelters
 and when the destitute
 perhaps do not eat,
 I practice gratitude for ~

an amazingly kind, creative, diverse,
 loyal and hysterically funny family

friends, new and old,
who bring richness
to my life each day

Piper and the temple of her familiar---
  our woods

clay and charcoal and a creative imagination

Qi Gong and the lovely french women who
  welcome me weekly into their circle

yoga with Piper pressed by my side

 a husband, who drove 12 hours
  to spend this day visiting a
  former student in prison

a son, who daily loves me back

and water

A therapist once told me,
Jude, the river flows by itself---
 a difficult concept to embrace for a
 do-by-self sort of person.

And so I stand in this river of gratitude,
grateful for each moment,
for each of you.

above Lessy on a Wednesday afternoon

"You sanctify whatever you are grateful for."
                            Anthony de Mello, SJ

The Birds and the Bees

It all begins here.

The Talk

                 1+ 1 =              

Before you know it.....

After approximately six months on Jean Paul's                          
meticulously kept farm, where the  animals are kept in
large pens and able to roam on his large, fenced-
farm, in very humane conditions....interesting
word choice when talking about animals...


the veal, (le veau) is taken to a facility,
stunned in the head and strung up by the feet,
after which  their throat is slit;  then it's back to the farm.


Two days later  Monsieur Munier,
the butcher, is ready to receive
Rachel, Gilles, Marianne, a neighbour and myself
to package the various parts of the veal.

packaging the veal

    

no this is not wine but hot coffee

All parts of expertly butchered including the feet and the tongue.

the tongue

the feet

What exactly do you do with the feet?

Ingredients for Pressée of duck Foie Gras Mi-Cuit and Veal feet with Herbs 

Steak Haché anyone?  Hamburger with veal.

Veal is not white!

After several hours of  packaging
Veal number 4972, who was born on
April 26, 2011 and weighed  143,6 kg,
we left.

Buying local takes on a whole new meaning.

two days old

t

Momma

Glasses and Lingerie?

Shopping for glasses in France
can be intimidating, like
shopping for lingerie.


 


Glasses are a fashion statement
here.  I wonder sometimes if
people don't actually need them
 but wear them as an accessory.








I have had a prescription for real glasses
for quite sometime;
not the dollar store readers
that I buy and break, but ones
that actually correct your vision.
Stepping into the store, I immediately                      
relaxed as the store owner's
assistant greeted me
enthusiastically. (I wonder if
I can take Piper to shop
for lingerie?)

Yaelle wanted me to try on every pair of glasses in the place.              

Gilles quickly picked out his new glasses, or
I should clarify, Rachel chose them.
I cannot imagine choosing any article of clothing
or accesory for Jeff. Actually I imagine this
all the time but I don't do it).   I tried once,
 while shopping in California
with my sister Pati who said "Jeff will love
 this" ----khaki jeans (not pants)  with a cool shirt
(not oxford) and a vest (not a solid colour).
Jeff did not love "this."

With my new frames picked out
I went to the one and only
source I trusted to approve
or disapprove of my choice.              






     

Uh, wait a minute,
the glasses are on my face!



Now for lingerie.

Happy Birthday Susan

Susan and Cookie with Czar not far away

I would like to dedicate this post
to our  friend Susan ;   
a fine woman who
continues to amaze me by her
willingness to grow each day.
Her shape-shifting self grows
more beautiful each day and
so we say,
Happy Birthday Susan,
we are grateful for your
presence in our lives.

Jeff  in his favourite  place

Susan, you will not be surprised
to know that your gift is here,
in France, bought but not sent.
One day, not on your birthday,
you will receive it, a nice
surprise, eh?

We love you.

Poppy Day

November 11th brings back Canada for
me and memories of poppies.




  On this day many veterans around
our small town sold poppies;  a small, red
velveteen flower with a black button center
attached to a long, straight pin.  
All around town, everyone,   young and old,
would pin a poppy to their suit coat
or military uniform or their small, winter
coat.

We would gather to remember those


who lost their lives in WW1 and WWII.  My


father and my Uncle fought in WW II but


thankfully survived.




In schools across Canada, children


learned and memorized the poem


In Flanders Fields, a poem written by


Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD.




As a child, with a red poppy pinned to my

St. Alexander's uniform--a mustard-coloured
short sleeve bouse under a green and brown
plaid uniform--in a sing-song voice I would
recite in a voice trained by the Sisters,
In Flanders Fields

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

I did not know then that the author
was a asurgeon attached to the
1st Field Artillery Brigade in Ypres Salient;
an area around Ypres in Belgium which
was the scene of some of the biggest
battles in WW1 (Wikipedia Ypres)
I also did not know that the word
Salient was not part  of the town's
name but part of a battlefield feature
that projects into enemy territory.
(Ypres Salient-Wikipedia)

During one of the most terrible
battles of WW I,  McCrae spent
17 days treating Canadians, British,
Indians, Frenc and Germans.

"I wish I could embody on paper
some of the varied sensations
of that seventeen days....
Seventeen
days of Hades!"
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

 John McCrae lost a young friend
on the battlefield.  Soon afterwards,  while sitting
in the back of an ambulance and looking
at poppies growing in ditches near Ypres, he wrote
   In Flanders Field.




Here in France we commemorate Armistice Day,
the day that the armistice was signed
between the Allies of World War 1 and Germany.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, Paris

At 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918 the
guns of the Western Front fell silent
after more than four years of
continuous warfare.


Warfare continues in many
corners of our world today.


John McCrae,  you left us
a legacy, never to forget,
always to remember
that tragedy and beauty
walk hand in hand.

We are the Dead,  Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset grow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

in Flanders fields.

Battlefield in Flanders

Progress,

Items hurl toward you,
a barrage of needs and wants
 propel along the sleek,
silvery surface.
If I don't stop  them,
some may implode upon contact
with the sharp steel edge,
Heart racing,
my hands
attack boxes and bottles,
a flurry of fingers
desperately attempt to slow
the onslaught.

 Finally,
the last item is whipped toward
me and I hear,

 "68 euros madame."

I have survived another encounter
in the trenches
of  shopping for groceries.

The end of les vacances.

The kids return to school after a
two week break.  While you in the
US of A may think, "wow,
two weeks off in the fall, how
great," remember that their
school days are very long and
they definitely earn this break.

Now, I want you to know,
I love my son.....however,
now that school begins again
it is fabulous to have ALONE
time.

We await our next break anxiously
as Jeff will join us for Christmas.

Off we go to the zoo.

Alec, Christopher, David, Ludo, Tonya

When visiting any zoo

 I always feel a conflict between

amazement at being in
the presence of these
magnificent wild animals
and  sadness in seeing the fences

and cages which enclose them.

When in conflict, gain knowledge.

The Zoo at Amnéville,
http://www.zoo-amneville.com
about 45 minutes from us,
is home to 2,000 animals
from five continents.

A quick search of the Zoo's
website informs us that
a modern, zoological park
                             has three functions;

Pedagogy:  the zoo is a place to get to know, love
                  and respect animals and to learn about
                 environmental issues, what we as humans do,
                 and how this affects these animals.
                  .   

Conservation of endangered species,  breeding plan;
This zoo is a member of WAZA, World Association
of Zoos and Aquariums whose motto is
"United for Conservation"
http://www.waza.org/en/site/home

The Amnéville Zoo participates in 60 Eoruopean
breeding plans;  Humbold penguin, hyacinth maca,
orangutan, African wild dog, snow leopard,
panther of Persia, Siberian tiger,
African Elephant, giraffe and more

.

The zoo's 3rd role is
Development of  Scientific Knowledge;
research is done in areas of reproduction,
diseases, and ethology.


Speaking of reproduction, each year at
the zoo 150 to 200 babies are born!

               While we didn't see many babies during our visit
                we did see and hear a nursing hippo loudy
                slurping and splattering milk from her
                 momma;  the three "momma's" in our
                 group groaned at the site!  Actually it
                 wasn't so much the nursing that illicited
                  the groans;  it was the thought of the
                  birthing of the baby hippo.

Swahili name:  Kiboko

Did you know that the hippopotamus is the third largest

living land mammal, after elephants and white rhinos?

After a gestation period of 240 days,

 newborn hippos weigh in  from 

55 to 120 lbs.  (ouch!)  The hippo's

predators?'  humans, lions, crocodiles

Inspired Art 

                   

   

 And the winner is?

       

The potamochère, a much more elegant name than

 "bush pig," is a mammal of the subfamily

Sunaie and is found in Africa and Madagascar

Does form truly follow function, 

As American architect Louis Sullivan decreed?;

Is is the pervading law of all things

organic and non organic.

Of all things physical and metaphysical.

Of all things human 

and all things super-human.

Of all true manifestations 

of the head,

of the heart

of the soul.

That the life is recognizable 

in its expression.

That form ever follows function.

This is the law."

Or does form follow inspiration?

Finally,  this photo illicits discussions of evolution, 

n'est pas?

.

King of the Jungle, he sleeps.

Puma, my totem animal