winter 1974 and winter 1977 (by which time we'd graduated from cardboard and a bit of string to a proper sled)
i have to remind myself of winters like these when i find it too chilly and grey here this winter…it's all a matter of degrees. no complaints here today! at least it's not minus 20 (F) windchill with six inches of snow on the ground like it is in parts of the American Midwest.
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Miss Jack the cat went on heat yesterday..not fun. Miss Ruby seems to think she can do the duty. great–i have a cross-species lesbian dog. did i mention she's fixed? good grief. -
well, here starts 2004! this past year has been a wonder. and i'm still here, living in the south of France. go figure. i arrived one year ago today with two suitcases, a trembling dog in a crate and twenty bucks to my name. jobless, homeless, scared out of my wits with nothing but dog biscuit crumbs in my pocket. what a way to start an adventure!
and here i am a year later, sketching and painting most every week day, speaking passable French and learning more everyday, taking up pottery and sailing, having a blast getting to know my mom as an adult, having enough good friends to have TWO New Year's Eve parties to attend, and having more good friends kind enough to trust me to care for their apt. and cat (and in the process giving me a place to live and a way to extend my stay!), and having just met a very likely candidate for the previously unoccupied position of Boyfriend. a good year! -
Midwestern Landscape Study I
Midwestern Landscape Study II
i got quite a few holiday cards from Wisconsin this year…and with all this cold and rain we've been having no wonder i'm thinking about scenes like these… -
Christmas Day, sunny, in Menton
Mom and Bert sailed (motored) to Menton for lunch with Aunt Peg and Uncle Natale…Ruby and i took the warmer (though slower!) train over. -
me and my sister, Christmas 1977, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, wearing our new Sesame Street Big Bird winter stocking caps–one of which came to a disasterous and somewhat violent end a few years later whilst atop my little brother's noggin. bad dog. very bad dog. -
to me, Christmas will always be Tea at The Drake, munching Frango Mints til you're sick, window displays down the Magnificent Mile, peeling obscene amounts of potatoes for mom's famous dish-to-pass, staying in Mies Van der Rohe apartment buildings, clothespin angels on the tree, shopping at Water Tower Place (and pretty much ignoring the actual Water Tower), taxi cab rides, lunch at The Athenian Room, new pajamas for Christmas morning photos, visiting with Grandma for a bowl of left-over soup (it's not soup left over, it's soup MADE from left-overs and always delicous), breakfast at Nookies, picking up a few "vintage" finds at the White Elephant resale shop, visiting the penguins and the diving polar bear in Lincoln Park Zoo and trying to keep track of all the family's comings and goings (there are so many of them!)….Christmas to me will always be in Chicago.
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had my first outing last night as a result of last week's speed dating experience. had a very good time! turns out the fellow's roommate is a gal i'd met when i first arrived and she had a friend in town so we all four went out for drinks and dinner in Antibes. the gal's friend is from Louisianna! ha! small world. the "Fellow" (funny, gracious, charming and sooo gentlemanly) is an airplane pilot–mom's comment as i walked out the door–"Ask him if his landings are smoooooth!" you can imagine the hand gesture. god help any man i bring home.
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i've finally finished the portrait of my brother-in-law and his sister for my sister Margaret (a Christmas gift to her in-laws). i must confess, i'm not crazy about it–working only from photos is not fun, and i'm not a portraitist. i'm taking another weeks course at the art house in La Colle sur Loup in February however–an intensive week focused on portraiture so maybe there's hope. i'm just so much better at drawing naked people.
