Weather in Toulouse?

I was recently told that this has been a very unusually wet winter for southern France. What a relief! With a light rain soaking everything yet another day, having had only two or three recently with some sunshine, I am glad to know this is not the normal state of things. The knowing doesn’t make it sunnier right now, though.

The little river behind my house is full, dark, and fast.

At least SOMEbody is appreciating the weather!

A neighboring ville’s little river is featured here by another expat blogger.

Even the snow here has been wet. We’ve had one real snow day. Or, well, snow morning, really. It was barely cold enough to give us snow overnight. (Sorry, frozen fellow Kansans).

Snowy jardin.

This stuff was soaking wet and heavy. Apparently some areas actually lost power because of it. Also, I am informed by my French teacher (I think. I was informed in French, so there is plenty of room for misunderstanding.) that snow isn’t called wet or dry here. She was dumbfounded that one would call snow wet when it is so obviously water. OF COURSE it’s wet! Trying to explain what one means by this phrase is nearly impossible with a limited vocabulary. But the fact that by 9 am it was already slushy mush on the pavement is testimony to its wetness. We have had many more dry snows in Wichita recently, where the snow is so dry you can’t even pack together a snowball. Here, snow is just snow apparently.

The weight of our dusting of snow pulling down the branches here.

By the time we left for church at 10 am, most of the snow had melted off the streets (especially good since they don’t much do anything about snow here). By the time we left church after noon, it was mostly gone. So there you go: snow in Toulouse. Most of the winter I have enjoyed temps above freezing; a really nice change from Wichita, which at least visited temps below 0 degrees FARENHEIT almost every year, and occasionally camped in that temperature-range for some time.

Maybe next year will be more like the sunny south of France.

A Whole Lotta Snow

Scenes from the out-of-sync snow Wednesday…

front patio

front steps, in there somewhere

Why out-of-sync? Because apparently this storm did not know that all snowstorms this year come on Tuesday, thus disrupting my older students’ day of art.  Coming soon, hopefully, my art begun on this Snowednesday.

What is it with Tuesdays?!

ANOTHER Snow Day Tuesday? The poor third through fifth grades will hardly ever get to make art at this rate. And with all these interruptions, their painting projects are taking all winter. Perhaps I can coordinate a make-up day with their teachers later in the quarter.

In the meantime, I get an extra painting day. I have some ideas! Not to mention that mug. And I want to examine my rough plans for the future and see if some weaving might work somewhere. I saw on someone’s blog a weaving project that started with burlap. I think that would be a GREAT intro project! And less prep for me. Lots to play with here!

Winter Remodeling

So I made a few seasonal changes to the site. Any thoughts? More readable? More confusing?

Yes, the photo is of my neighborhood, from my front porch. Wouldn’t it have been nice if the pickup hadn’t been there? Please press the like button at the bottom of the post (once you click on the post) if this set-up is working for you. I’m concerned about the readability of white on black.

Anybody really know what time it is….

anybody really care?  I hope not, because ALL of this post is going to be OLD NEWS. REALLY OLD, because I have been so stinking busy I couldn’t even sit down and pound out a really boring update, much less anything half interesting. But at least I made it at some point in April.

I’ll start with spring. Boy, has it been bouncy. I’d think it had sprung, and then frigid temps and snow would hit. And then it would spring again. ARGHH!  I have no doubt that the peaches are done for, but I still think I’ll get cherries.  And I now have proof that spring actually IS here:

my front garden

We have also had the Mil Ball:

Katie with her updo

in its full glory

and Junior/Senior Prom. I’ll post a photo of that later. But I am sure they all qualify as signs of spring. And they contribute to the other sign of spring: insane busy-ness. Which is why I have all those blank unblogged days. So on to other topics….

Flexibility

I have seen in the past weeks that I can work toward my goal successfully. I have a Plan, and I follow that plan, accountable to my DH and a friend, and Coach.

BUT…what if something happens to The Plan? Today River Running was rained out!! I felt quite abandoned. I know I have to get in that hour of exercise still, but everything else seemed boring and inadequate. However, something is better than nothing, so I guess I’ll change out of my swimsuit and head to the indoor track at the rec center. See my committment? It may be a grumpy, rather-blow-it-off committment, but it still counts.

Darn. That “Do everything without grumbling or complaining” verse just came to mind. Well, okay. I’ll grab my iPod, put on some fun music, and ENJOY it! So there! I CAN become more flexible in places other than my joints. Like my head. 🙂 OH! And I just remembered…T has a ceramics class at the rec center this afternoon. I can use that time.

It’s not gonna rain on my parade!

 

Blustery Day

The skies are looking rather heavy this morning. Weather professionals are saying they see “perfect storm” conditions in my area. DH is out of state on business, and my oldest daughter, M, is out of state at camp. Just me and the two youngers.

And God.

Psalm 5: 11-12  “But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You. For surely, O Lord, You bless the righteous ; You surround them with Your favor as a shield.”

My true refuge is not my basement. I’m watchful, but I choose not to be worried. T and K and I are going to enjoy a showing of Winnie the Pooh’s “Blustery Day!”