I love Paris in the Springtime!

Yesterday was a stunningly beautiful day in Paris -- we had enjoyed a glorious sleep-in, our first good sleep since arriving at Heathrow on Wednesday, facilitated by the quiet in our apartment, and so didn't get going 'til 10:30-ish, so the line-up was already snaking all the way up the plaza in front of the Pompidou Centre. Still, we persevered, knowing there was only one day left for the

Battening down the hatches -- Mater worries like a Mater!

In 2006, some of you might remember hearing, hurricane-force winds took down one thousand (yes, 1000!) trees in Vancouver's Stanley Park. The devastation was visually and emotionally stunning to us on the West Coast. In the same storm, over 240,000 were without power at one point.Yesterday, warnings went out all along the BC Coast and Vancouver Island that we should expect another storm

Vancouver snow and Running over 50

Magnolia buds against a background of snowThese poor croci seem both bedraggled and affronted . . . And here's an example of why Vancouver's pretense at being a palm-growing locale is somewhat ridiculous. Somewhat? I'm trying out Blogger's new-and-improved editor, which is supposed to be easier for uploading photos -- not sure I'm a convert yet, but it's probably my failing rather than

Snow, Sun, Wind, Blooms. . . It's all Here

It's been a week for weather! We had some of the white stuff above -- twice snowfall warnings were issued and then canceled, with only this quickly-disappearing near-miss to remind us of February's potential.Then we had clear, windy, cold . . . and colder -- the goldfish are safely tucked away under a skin of ice. . . .And in all that cold, bright, February sunshine, everything sparkles,