Back walking again

Date: 23 January 2011 14:19:43

Last Sunday I went for a walk - it was really mild. Unlike today, which is beautifully bright and shiny, but blummin'ummer it's cold! All the way over to church, and back again, Danielle (different Danielle to Danièle...!) kept looking at the temperature guage and reporting "Minus 8.5....Minus 10...Getting warmer...Minus 5...Minus 1..." I don't think we got any higher than -1°.

Here are some photos. I started by taking a photo every 500 steps, but I got bored counting. Then, as I found that 1,5000 steps took me to a wayside cross, I decided to take photos of all the crosses I came across. Four in a fairly short walk isn't bad! I find that when I'm walking I have to watch where I'm walking, as I'm a little unsteady on my feet and fall over quite a lot; it's even worse at the moment with my dodgy ankle. So taking photos is a good excuse to stop and look around at the beautiful scenery. We are so lucky to live here.

Here are the four crosses that I came across:

I thoroughly enjoyed the walk and I'm beginning to look forward to Spring when I can re-do some of the walks that I did last year around Clermont. Mum's coming at the beginning of March: I hope it will be nice enough to do a couple of my favourite walks. There's one around Volvic that I really like: I think if I can do it, Mum shouldn't have too many problems. She's 82 but is fitter than me (shame...!)

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I've finished the box for Danièle to keep Paul's mementoes. I'm really pleased with it:

[caption id="attachment_670" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="showing inside the lid"][/caption]

The quotations I put inside are, in French, part of the reading from Habakuk that was read at Paul's burial, and, from Revelation 21: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

And in English "Do not stay sad that he has gone, only be glad he ever was". This is something someone wrote to me when my dad died (except it said "Do not be sad..." I changed it, because I think it's unrealistic and unhelpful to say don't be sad, because of course one is sad. But do not stay sad is a different thing...) And the lines I quoted in an earlier post, that I think are very moving.

The little bead on the ribbon for opening is faux amber, which I thought quite appropriate for the geologist in Paul.

[caption id="attachment_671" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="...and here's the front."][/caption]