happy birthday Louise!

happy birthday indeed

We had hoped for sun, but a rainy day we got instead. I took a nice tramp in the drizzly woods on the morning of Lou's party to collect creature-making materials, which then dried till afternoon beside the wood stove. The kids picked out their bits and bobs, then visited the felt station where Nicole cut out customised capes and hats, and the glue station where Gilles helped them assemble their creatures one by one. Not sure who had more fun with this, kids or adults! One funny note: after the party, Mia noticed her pine cone mouse growing fatter every day as the pine cone opened more and more in our snug dry house, until the once-dainty little mouse was all puffed up and its little mouse feet no longer touched the ground.

happy as a lark...

back home with friends and family,music and the old chickens...

in your neigh-bor-hood

Sometimes it takes an outside eye to capture the everyday... Courtesy of Euny, here are some snapshots of our grocery shopping at the market, our village from the road, and a visit to our neighbor's wool studio. Sheep can produce some suprising fleeces. Who knew?

Romantic date...

...at the hospital café patio. Gilles had his kidney transplant one week ago and is up and around, doing great with his new kidney. He will stay at the hospital for another week or so, but the results are better and better each day. The girls are excited to soon be able to go swimming with their papa (once his dialysis catheters have been removed, eventually). It is all quite miraculous! What a blessing and gift.