Almost Springtime in Paris

I was recently in Europe for work (Geneva and Amsterdam), and decided to stay a little longer and take the train down to Paris for the weekend.  Arriving in the Gare du Nord is like emerging into some sort of old world state of grace.  To me, everything just feels right in Paris--the food, the art, the parks, the architecture, the streets--I found myself moving more slowly, breathing more deeply, looking at my surroundings with dreamy eyes.  Paris is like an antidote for the hurry and unpoetic details of day to day life.  It is a balm made up of pain au chocolat, beautiful boulevards, sidewalk cafes, french wine, teeny shops, late dinners and the art of Rodin, Seurat, Matisse and Monet.  

Here is some of the loveliness found in a weekend of wandering and lingering...

{Montmartre}

{Notre Dame}

{Sculpture at the Louvre}

{Paris Architecture}

{Rodin Sculpture Garden with Les Invalides}

{Street Lamp Detail}

{Shakespeare & Company Bookstore}

{Secondhand Books Upstairs}

{Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss at Louvre}

{Metro Entrance}

{View from my Little Hotel Balcony}

{Sacre Couer}

{Pont des Arts with Love Locks}

{Moulin Rouge}

I took all the above photos using Instagram (see all my photos here).  I did not want to burden myself with hauling around my usual camera, so I just carried my iPhone and used Instagram to edit my photos and Postale to create and send off virtual postcards to family and friends (love that app--allows you to even customize your stamp and automatically post stamps the card with your location and date--you can also have them print and send a physical postcard of your design).    

I bought little, but upon returning I wanted to do something with my collection of Instagram photos so I sent them away to Origami (an Instagram photo printing site) to have them printed into one of their charming photo packets.  I will share the results once those arrive...until then, au revoir and wishing you a bit of Paris balm in your life...

Is It Really July Already?

On the Way to South Dakota

Cathedral Spire Formations in the Black Hills

Mule Deer at Custer

Sylvan Lake in Custer

Wild Burro Greeting at the Car Window

Beeper Moment at Mount Rushmore

Mountain Meadow in the Rockies

Rocky Mountain Overlook

Elk in the Mountains

Hike to The Loch

The Loch

Hi.  Here I am.  Back again with my fully functioning camera--see?   Is it really already mid-July?  I feel like I fell into a very humid, very hot hole over here in this place we call summer in Minnesota.  I missed you, dear blog and lovely blog-readers, but it has just been curiously difficult to find my way back here.  Want to know what I have been doing all this time?  Well, we painted almost the whole of our downstairs in various shades of slate and heavy-cream, put chalkboard paint all over the ugly half-bathroom door to encourage bathroom-stall style graffiti, framed some prints that have been lurking in their poster tubes for months (years?), planted some veggies (chard, couple kinds of melon, and all the other usual suspects of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini), got real cozy with my iPad, and then headed out for a 10-day summer road trip to The Rocky Mountains via the Black Hills.

I really, really fell hard for Custer State Park--the free-range wild life everywhere (buffalo shuffling through our camp site during the night, burros greeting us at out car window, stopping for pronghorn lazily crossing back into waving prairie grass), swimming in the breath-takingly gigantic boulder strewn lakes, the various resorts that put me in mind of 1950's-style summer camps.  Then we drove onto the larger-than-life Rockies where we hiked, swam, ate homemade ice cream, slept, then did it again the next day.  You can see more photos of the Black Hills, here, and the Rockies, here (including my Instagram photos which I uploaded to my Flickr--I have become very sweet on the immediacy of whipping out your phone to grab a photo out the car window of the passing landscape and the snappy photo editing all right there).

I tell myself that my plan is to ease into blogging this month--sort of like how you slither down into a really hot bath.  But who knows, maybe I will just take a running jump off the dock, right into the deep end....it does feel good to be here again.  Little bit like coming home.

Belated Post Ahead: The Great Pumpkin Patch

File this spot away for next year--that is, if it happens to be October and you happen to be in central Illinois, right smack in the middle of an Amish community, lots of soybean fields, and small town America.  It is called The Great Pumpkin Patch and is located in a Arthur, Illinois, down just about a million intersecting dirt roads, just past 100 or so farms, and take care not to hit the Amish teenagers driving that buggy there.  It also happens to be just down the road a spell from where my in-laws live.  There's lots to do--it's sort of like the Disneyland of Squash--check it out...

...learn your ABCs via squash...

...visit an old time school house...

...become a pumpkinhead--variety of your choosing...

...admire the rainbow o' squash...

...eat a freshly made caramel apple or 12...

...get lost in  corn maze...

...admire the variety of presentations of squash...

Unfortunately, the actual Great Pumpkin Patch was closed the day we visited due to MUD, but it's not like there are any shortage of pumpkins to choose from...

Yeah, we took home a trunk full.  I wish I had taken a photo of all the brilliant jack o' lanterns Mr. Beeper and I designed and carved--the one with two faces was my favorite...but, you'll just have to imagine what that looked like.

You can see more photos--but only if you really want to--because there was lots more to see and do--find it here.  

Madeline Island

Cliffs of Madeline Island

Old Fishing Cabin on Manitou Island

Lake Superior Rocks

Canoe near the Lagoon on Madeline Island

Mr Beeper and Beeper Exploring Manitou Island

Old Fishing Camp

Cabinet Remains in Fishing Camp

Lagoon on Madeline Island

Rocks and Drift Wood

Tim Naps on the Dock

Sailboat through the Grass off Manitou Island

Tom's Burned Down Bar

Mr Beeper's Favorite Sign at Tom's

Mad Island Style at Tom's

Hammock in the Yard of the Mad Island Public Library

Little Miss Lily Leaps into Lake Superior

Beeper Fearlessly Hops In

Canoes on Mad Island

As a rule, given the inhospitality of the weather around here most of the year, we deliberately make our vacation plans for near locales and try to make the most of the what is right here while the weather is lovely--you may have noticed this.  Thus, we have been away in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior, staying at a friend's wonderful new home on Madeline Island--and then saved a few days on the back end for a short trip to Ludlow's Island for our annual summer's end visit.  I had never been to the  Islands before and as you can see, the beauty is pretty staggering.  For me, few things can compete the with the rocky shorelines, fresh water lake-swimming, boreal forests, and that rustic-feel of Lake Superior.  Having grown up in northern Minnesota, those red cliffs and cold waters feel like coming home and I can shuck off whatever else may be preoccupying me and just be right there, right then.


And for future reference: when it would seem I have disappeared off the face of my blog, you can probably safely assume I was on vacation.  I always have the best intentions of dropping in here to say hello, let you know where I am,  squeeze a post in here or there about whatever we are up to--but somehow, I just fall into my vacation headfirst, forgetting everything else.  I hope you understand.

I will be back tomorrow to announce the winner of the Tea gift certificate--I pinky-swear.