Isn't that what we all want? Peace and quiet? Maybe it's just my age. Earlier in life, I wanted hustle and bustle, excitement, and surprises. Paris and San Francisco. Now I can do without all that (though I still enjoy the occasional visit to Paris).
I keep re-assessing life. It's strange to be 65 years old and to be living in a vineyard in France. Nobody would ever have predicted this turn of events — though "the turn" happened 11 years ago. Now it seems real and permanent. Some days I feel a certain amount of restlessness, and then I realize how lucky I am, or we are, to be living here and still enjoying life day by day, calmly.
Yesterday's view of the vineyard from our house near Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher in the Loire Valley
I'm off to the hustle and bustle of Blois this morning for a medical appointment. Who would ever have thought my life would be centered on the old town called Blois? Paris, maybe, or Rouen... a big city. [BLWAH] is not a major city. Then tomorrow we'll be going over to Bourges for lunch and a stroll, weather permitting, about the old town, including a few minutes in and around the magnificent cathedral there. Lunch in Bourges... how unlikely.
Today's storm is moving north-northeast along the southeast U.S. coast, aimed at Morehead City.
Ten million people live in North Carolina, and about five million in South Carolina.
Maybe I'm thinking about serenity because today and tomorrow a hurricane is bearing down on my home town in America, which is Morehead City in North Carolina. It doesn't look like an especially destructive storm, but you can never be sure. Now I've got to get busy.
Hope the storm goes out to sea.
ReplyDeletemandatory evacuation of the outer banks beginning at 5a; I too am hoping for a non-destructive arthur,
ReplyDeleteand yes, you DO have a good comfortable life compared to many.
I just listened to Wilmington's weather and they say it should be gone by Friday. I hope that means it will not hang around for long. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteYour photo is a little slice of heaven.
Madonna
MakeMineLemon
I don,t think you lead a strange life in my point of view is a perfect life. In our life there are different stages and each stage is different and as we grow older our point of view is different but suitable one. France is a good place to live,....
ReplyDeletei know what you mean.....if you had told me when I was 30 or 40 that I'd end up living here in the woods I wouldn't have believed it. Now I love the quiet after the "summer people" have left the lake......
ReplyDeleteLove the peaceful feeling of the first photo, the second is scary! I hope the storm heads out to sea. I never dreamed of spending the majority of my life in Alabama, but life is full of surprises and that makes the memories fun to churn over in our later years.
ReplyDeleteHope Arthur will be kind on your mum and the rest of your family and friends in NC.
ReplyDeleteThat view out of your window is sheer heaven to me. But then you know how much I love la Touraine, its culture, its wine and - most of all -its inhabitants.
My caring wishes go out to your Mother (how is her wrist healing?) and the rest of your family/friends who are in N.C.
ReplyDeleteYour location is very desirable to me, but I think it is the way you and Walt have chosen to enjoy your environment (living off the land, enjoying the vineyard behind you without the work, making many friends that you socialize with, and of course, enjoying the "fruits of your labor" by preparing those wonderful recipes) and then being willing to enlighten the rest of us by continuing to write your blogs! Nothing is perfect, but when everything seems to be going well, it often appears to me to "be paradise!"
Mary in OR
Ken, what a beautiful photo. It is interesting how life and time changes us and our priorities. You and Walt have a wonderful life, and I am glad for you both.
ReplyDeleteOh, Mary, you are so good to remember to ask about Ken's mother's wrist! Ken, how IS she doing? Has it been difficult for her getting along? I remember that, for my mom, she couldn't wash her own hair, it was hard to change clothes (like zipping, or pulling on pants)-- we just don't realize how much we use all of the parts of our body.
ReplyDeleteI was just reading more on the expected strength of the storm as it heads to the NC coast. Hope everyone stays well!