And now...

...for something completely different. The contrast between where we used to live and where we live now is striking when you look at these photos I've found in my archives. Just compare them to the ones I've posted over the past week.

I took this shot from about 20 miles south of San Francisco, in Belmont, California,

where I was working in January 2002. I had just acquired a Canon Pro90IS

digital camera with a long zoom. That's the Bay Bridge on the right.

Since Walt is showing pictures from New York, I thought I'd go across the country to San Francisco. We lived there from 1986 until 2003, when we packed up and moved to France.

I took this shot from the S.F. neighborhood where we lived from 1995 until 2003.

We didn't have this view from our windows, though — I had to walk a ways.

All these pictures were taken in December and January — some in the late 1990s, and others in the early 2000s. As you can see, the weather out there was often beautiful in wintertime. It was the windy, foggy, chilly summers you had to watch out for.

This one is a view of downtown San Francisco from Twin Peaks at sunset.

I got my first digital camera in 1998, I think it was, thanks to CHM and Walt. They went together and bought it for me as a Christmas present. Digital cameras were expensive back then.

Here's another shot from our S.F. neighborhood. Looks like it was a smoggy day.

That same Christmas, I bought Walt a new film camera and some lenses. He wasn't ready to go digital yet. Though that first digital camera is long gone, I still have the 2002 Canon digital camera and it works perfectly, but I never use it any more. It's too big and bulky. I probably couldn't give it away, much less sell it, at this point. I'm sure Walt couldn't sell that old film camera.

The Renaudie crew

Yesterday I changed my blog banner photo to match the season. January. Cold. The photo itself is not great, but it conveys the message.

Our house is visible in the distance.
As always, you can click on the picture to see it at a larger size.

Here's a photo of the vehicle the vineyard workers drive to work in. They've been driving the same little white van for at least 9 years now — or ten. This is our tenth January in Saint-Aignan.

A wide view of part of the vineyard — this was a much sun as we got all day long.

The Domaine de la Renaudie's vineyard crew is two men and a woman, all in — probably — their 30s. They work together in every seasons and through all kinds of weather. They like Callie, but Callie is a little afraid of them when they're all bundled up in their winter clothes.

Moon day — le jour de la lune

I'm not sure that I knew that Monday meant "the day of the moon." It's obviously the same thing in French: lundi, ou « le jour de la lune ».

If there's a moon these days, we wouldn't know it. Skies are gray, gray, gray. The news readers say a lot of people are experiencing symptoms attributable to a vitamin D deficiency, including douleurs musculaires and fatigue. And here I was thinking it was just old age...

They also say we might get a few snowflakes today or tomorrow. Paris and areas north of there are supposed to get some actual snow. The temperature here in Saint-Aignan is below freezing this morning, for the first time in a long time.

There was a big demonstration in Paris yesterday organized by people who are opponents of what is being called « le mariage pour tous », or "marriage equality." According to the news, it wasn't big enough to change the Hollande government's plan to introduce the bill in parliament this year. They have the votes to pass it. If there had been a million demonstrators in the streets yesterday, it could have been a turning point. It was half a million. That's what they are saying.

The pictures here show some trees around the vineyard.

Silent Sunday