Birthdays past (3)

Yes, today is the day. Birthday present... well, that's ambiguous, isn't it. In this case, "present" means "now" not "gift". As for a birthday past, here's one from 2009. March 5, 2009, precisely. I took these pictures. And I turned 60. Those were the good old days, I guess. Today, I turn 75. That's 3 x 25. When I was 25, I was living and working in Paris. Actually, I had turned 25 in Urbana, Illinois. That was in 1974. When I turned 50, I was in California, commuting and working. I was pretty unhappy. Now I'm 75.  And I'm in France. With Walt and Tasha. No complaints

Maybe I can complain just a little bit about the weather. We have a 20 to 30 percent chance of rain this morning. And the we have a 50 to 70 percent chance of rain this afternoon. I probably won't be able to have a long walk with Tasha this afternoon. Unless I want to get wet. The one I took with Callie in 2009 looks pretty nice. In the second photo above, that blue spot is the Cher River seen from the vineyard near our house. That's crazy Callie on the right.

This was my birthday dessert in March 2009. Walt made it. Here's his post about it from March 2009. He'll be making the same thing for my birthday today. It's one of my favorite desserts, a tart made with pears in an almond cream custard. It's called an amandine aux poires. My birthday white beans are cooked, by the way. They spent to night in the slow cooker on low, along with the duck legs and Toulouse sausages. It smells good in here this morning.

Since the afternoon will be rainy, we'll probably have a fire in the woodstove. We still have some firewood left. That's our house and yard in 2009 in the middle, and on the right a picture to show you what our late winter woods looked like back then. They look pretty much the same these days.