Incongruous, or…

Park the mechanical wheelbarrow and have coffee in the elegant tearoom.

 

I really had to laugh this morning when in our village in front of the small grocers and elegant tearoom, a mechanical wheelbarrow truck pulled up, parked (correctly and only taking one space albeit rather large) and the two workers in their orange uniforms hopped off and proceeded to enter the coffee shop. They sat down, but then had to go back outside when the owner asked for their sanitary passes, but had their breakfasts before getting back on the truck and going on to whatever construction site they had left earlier.

 

Getty Images

 

He’s back

I was so excited this morning when out the window I saw on a far branch my winter friend robin redbreast!  Too far for a picture, but just knowing that he – or his offspring – have returned was enough.

 

It also is the day my dad was born – a day for remembering what was: as a friend said, it’s in the past and we can’t go back, to which I replied, “yes, but it’s our past that made us what we are and that allows us to go on”.

 

Look for the bright spots in this winter dark and you’ll find them.

 

iStock image Andrea_Hill | Crédits : Getty Images

 

 

Space

“You only have 17.51 GB of storage”…. My computer regularly tells me that I am lacking in space and must do something about it. Got down once even to only 6,51GB. This mostly has to do with the fact that I have close to 50’000 photos on said computer. Yes, I do sometimes go back and eliminate imperfect photos, but how to decide? And if I get rid of 10 photos you can be sure that the day after I’ll add 20.

 

Seeing this though got me to thinking about the second part of the phrase “Save space by optimizing storage” and how that would relate to other areas of my life, in particular to friendships, people relationships.

 

If I had to “save space” by giving up some relationships, how would I chose, how could I? I think that at this point I’ll simply be grateful that there isn’t a computer clock in my head telling me that I have to, because, frankly, I would be incapable of it. If my “computer” has to blow up due to too many photos, that’s one thing, if my life or head on the other hand does so due to too many relationships, it will simply have to happen: I can’t offhand think of any one that I would cut out of my life. They are all precious in their own manner and necessary to my well-being.

 

Storage in my head and heart for friends, family and even new friends is unlimited!

 

empty space can be beautiful

 

Birthdays

 Earlier in life I had birthdays mainly in the summer, then I married and my husband and a lot of our inner circle fell between February 20 and March 5, two even sharing the 28^th of February. The other two of us in a group of 7 actually shared the same day and month if not the year so we always felt equal to the “fish”. And parties there were.

Then the children started coming and we enlarged our horizon’s, but again with my in-laws it was interesting to note that one of the nephews on my husband’s side shared my own mother’s day and month. My sister-in-law (as in my husband’s sister as opposed to his brother’s wives) almost shared my dad’s birthday and there was many a year when we got them switched around. Wishing my dad a Happy Birthday two days before wasn’t such a problem, forgetting my sister-in-law’s for two days, not so nice.  Then my dad died on my sister-in-law’s birthday complicating things even more.

 

And now, although I perhaps will never reach my goal of having someone on each day of the year, all of the months have filled in quite nicely.

 

As we are apparently 20 million (yes, you read right) on this earth who share each birthday, happy birthday to all of you, who along with my dear sister-in-law, share this particular day.

 

Clipart library

 

Inspiration, or lack thereof.

I have friends who can simply sit down and write, anything, nothing, and it always makes sense, is entertaining or educative. This is not a particular gift of my, but inspiration can be found in so many places: today it was the weather and the miracle of my second grandson.

 

I woke up to 10 cm. of snow on the car, my older son sent a message to say that in light of the road conditions perhaps I shouldn’t come to which I replied, the meal is ready, I’ll be careful and might be a bit late.

 

The main roads in the villages were not too pretty, funnily enough the outlying ones where one didn’t expect it, were great and I was actually on time. And my two-week-old grandson was passed over to me for a moment of pure joy. There is nothing as precious as holding a new-born baby! The older grandson benefitted as well as he could go for a walk with his mother.

 

Blessed am I even if uninspired.

 

 

The end of a frustrating day….

 

Or administration is simply way too time-consuming!

I won’t go into my problems, but this morning I set out to solve two separate admin problems. After two hours, neither was entirely put to rest.

 

This afternoon was spent taking things to the recycling center, getting minimal groceries, picking up a couple of magazines: there had been at least 5 weeks of nothing. No one quite sure what had happened, but nice to see things perhaps back in order!

 

Then I took some toys up to the neighbor that have been here way too long, made another small carton of Duplo bricks for my grandchildren, spoke to my sister and my sister-in-law and all of a sudden the day is done, and so am I.

 

Some days are like that. 

 

Depositphotos.com

 

Escalade in Geneva or...

 

Scaling the walls and running for fun.

 

Last year due to the pandemic neither the race (the largest one in Switzerland) nor the parade took place. This year they were able to run the race, over two days and with half the participants of normal years, ie “only” 26’000 instead of the 43’000 of 2019!

There are categories from the 4 and 5 year-olds who run with a parent, through all the ages and up to the Elite.

This year I did watch part of it on Sunday, the atmosphere is such fun that one forgot that we were wearing masks even outside. The children were so enthusiastic and even I found myself cheering them on, I who had no one running!

 

The Elite saw mostly Kenyans winning, but even they, although happy to win, were in it more for the pleasure than anything.

 

This is the 43^rd edition of the run, the celebrations about Escalade having been going on much longer.

 

But what is “Escalade”?

In1602, Geneva, a rich and prosperous republic, attracted the attention and jealousy of the Savoyards. Charles-Emmanuel 1er, wanted to make Geneva his capitol to the North of the Alps and intended to combat Calvinism with the support of Pope Clement VIII, in spite of a “peace, sworn to and re-sworn to”.  So during the night of the 11^th to the 12^th of December (the longest night) 1602 a troop of 2000 soldiers tried to take the town by surprise. They came from the plains and mercenaries started climbing the walls, which surrounded the city (thus the name Escalade). The alarm was sounded, the cathedral’s bells (never mind that it was now a protestant church, we still call it the cathedral), in particular the Clémence (still exists), were rung. Citizens armed with whatever they found to hand and their courage joined the fray and come morning 54 of the enemy had died and only 18 of the Genevans and the Savoyards gave up. One figure of note was the Mère Royaume who was known to have killed one climbing soldier by pouring her hot vegetable soup on him. Still today we have chocolate cauldrons filled with marzipan vegetables to celebrate this fact!

 

In any case always good fun, great hot wine, chocolates and the like.

 

spectators of the race in Old Town Geneva

Runners, probably the 9-year olds

Hot wine... best part of the day!