06 March 2012

Un anniversaire bien arrosé

Wow, I should have birthdays more often. Thanks to all of you who sent greetings and good wishes. It was a fun day, despite some iffy weather. Actually, most of the day was pretty nice. Then late in the afternoon, just when Callie was getting antsy to go outside, the bottom fell out.

Yesterday afternoon at walk time...

Callie and I went out anyway, me in a hooded jacket and Callie in her fur coat. It was damp but we're equipped. Doing this walking every day is what keeps me as healthy as I am, I'm sure. It's almost time for me to go out there again. No rain this morning, but it's chilly.

Simon and Susan of Days on the Claise stopped by Sunday afternoon. They came bearing gifts, and of the best kind: food and drink. One item they brought was a bottle of Touraine sparkling wine from the Château de l'Aulée, which is at Azay-le-Rideau. We opened it yesterday and had a toast to S & S, to the day, and to all of you.

Happy Birthday in a typical Loire Valley way

Bertie came in and spent the morning with us yesterday. It was cold outside. Maybe he knew it was a special day. He settled in and slept by the radiator in the den for four or five hours. Sometimes he settles down like that, and sometimes he just wanders restlessly around the house meowing. That gets the dog worked up, but when he just curls up and sleeps all is well.

Bertie when he woke up after a long, warm nap

Madame le maire came by Sunday at noon. She says she is going to use some of our pictures on the village web site. I'll post a link to it after we see the pictures up there. Our village has a small château, and in the château there are three furnished vacation rentals — gîtes. Two of the units can accommodate eight overnight guests each, and one is a smaller apartment for a group of four. The mayor wants to have some of our sunset and sunrise pictures printed and framed so that she can hang them in the gîtes as part of the décor.

14 comments:

  1. Sorry Ken... much of the deleted post was missing... don't know how... try again:

    Ken... getting your pictures used that way is the start of a business! It is how my brother got started... he had some of his pictures put up as decoration in a café... then he printed out some blank greetings cards...and sold those... and now does a Friday indoor craft market, commissions [including an hotel that used some of his pix as wall decoration and screens] and the local council. As you are starting with the latter the sky's the limit... why don't you and Walt start up as a joint venture. It is a nice leisurely occupation for the "third age".

    When you look at brother's site you will see that the pix you and Walt post are just as good and, therefore, as saleable!
    Bonne chance in a new career!

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  2. Glad the celebrations went well and we hope you enjoyed the goodies.

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  3. Glad you had a good celebration with friends. If you are hearing on the news that the RER B traffic was "perturbé" yesterday, it doesn't quite tell the story. Our tickets were stamped in the turnstile at the airport at 20:38 and we arrived at the Gare du Nord at about 23:10! http://ellenlebelle.blogspot.com/2012/03/short-visit-to-england.html

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  4. Pleased you had a great birthday Ken. As you may know, the reason for this year's trip is to celebrate Sue's 60th as she did for me in 2010.
    Hope we can share a belated bubbly for your birthday and hers in May.

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  5. Awww, gee, this was a nice post :) I'm glad you enjoyed good feline and human companionship, along with great bubbly and food for you special day.

    How cool that your photos will be in the gîtes!

    Judy

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  6. I notice that 'apéritif' time came early: 11.10 and I guess that was a.m.!? But then again, it was your birthday, which is a perfectly good excuse!! :))I'm glad you had a great time and how kind of S&S to come bearing gifts. Martine

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  7. Bertie just wanted to be there to help you celebrate - he wrote me and told me!

    Champagne makes for very good birthdays - n'est-ce pas?

    Please tell us how the Mayor knew about your photographical skills. Does she read your blog, too? Smart woman.

    Mary in Oregon

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  8. Rats, sorry I missed your birthday, but a happy belated wish anyway.

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  9. happy birthday! i missed the whole thing. drat... but happy birthday and one day!!! yay!
    :-)

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  10. That's so cool that the mayor wants to use your photos. They're wonderful!

    I'm so glad you had a nice birthday. Sorry about the downpour during the walk, but you're right, the walks keep you healthy.

    Love that Bertie can come in and hang out sometimes. He looks content.

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  11. Happy Belated Birthday. I've enjoyed following your life via this blog. May you have many more happy years.
    Fondly,
    Barb in Minnesota

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  12. Tim, thanks for the ideas. Not sure I want to go back to work, however. I've learned too much about laziness over the past 10 years.

    Ellen, have you recovered?

    Leon and Sue, we will definitely do that in May.

    Martine, I'm going to have to start doing so Photoshop work on the clocks in my picture if you are going to look that closely! LOL.

    Susan, thanks again. Good stuff.

    Judy, we'll see.

    Mary, the mayor said she remembered seeing one of us out with a camera one afternoon, and said one of us had told her that we took pictures of beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

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  13. Starman, OFG, Ginny, Barb, it's a good life here if you manage it carefully. The walking is crucial. I know how hard it is to motivate yourself to get out and take both air and exercise. The dog does the motivating for us, along with providing entertainment and affection.

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  14. That sounds like quite an honour, to have your photos used "officially" like that. Presumably that will satisfy Sarko that you are "bien intégrés"!

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