Hear Ye, Hear Ye, See All About It –

2008 at La Boissière

(Feel free to click on any image to enlarge it)

January– Windshield cracks - needs replacing. Valucci & Valenquie think they are hood ornaments. A trip to the coast. The Atlantic is rising; WWII bunkers are engulfed by the sea. Three days at Cap Feret – sun, surf, games and fresh seafood with friends at their coastal cabin. A Scottish night honoring Robert Burns – A week of skiing at Saint Lary in the Pyrenees– free lift tickets for anyone over 70; Ron finally qualifies. Joins "downhill" Olympic team.

February – Dinner guests in, dinners out, nightly board games between just the two of us, Darrell winning most of them; a new way to strengthen the mind if not character. Quiet days, cocooned nights, visits from friends from Glasgow and Amsterdam.


March – Two hospitalizations for Ron; blocked coronary artery opened with a shiny new stent, discovery of a hiatal hernia, putting the heart before the course, vive the French health care system; 150 Euros for all the meds (free for life) all procedures, and a private room. Another lesson in the sanctity and brevity of life as we salute nurses and doctors everywhere.


April – The season begins. 4 groups of visitors from the USA. A new weekly writer’s group, new eye glasses for both of us, discovery of cataracts (guess whose); still more lessons on the preciousness of vision and the vicissitudes of age. Youthful beauty evolves into wonderful wackiness.

April is not the cruelest month, how can it be for that’s when everything begins to blossom?

It is wonderful to see friends Paul and Steve again this year. They have a secondary home nearby and trust us to look after it. We always look forward to seeing them; they know how to laugh, and they have a powerfully positive attitude toward life. They're an inspiration to us.

Keep scrolling, we’re not yet half way through the year; the fun parts are yet to come...

May – Spring is sprung. Intense gardening and house maintenance keep La Boissière looking good. In a rare moment Darling Darrell grabs Ron's camera and proves that it is not only the young whose pants are sagging . Who’s flashin' whom?

There’s still more of May…Visits from Oregonians renew friendships.

Sculpting, cooking, painting, and weeding; nothing like the lusty month of May.

And one more little project: building a new tap dance platform now used daily recalls early tap days 55 years ago and a TV debut. Some things never change, but if it feels that good and doesn’t harm anyone, then why not?
The month ends on a wonderful “note;” our composer friend Georges Lifermann comes for a short visit. We miss Marilyn, but it adds harmony to our lives to spend time with Georges. He is a true French gentleman in every sense of the word. He eagerly snaps pictures of our lush countryside and poses among the fledgling tomato plants:

June – A friend’s annual picnic for which we always provide the entertainment results this year in a white party with “white elephant” gifts.

Previous entertainments were “Name the Statue,” “Paint the Tablecloth,” and “Hat Parade.” We introduce an American tradition to local French friends: The Potluck. They take it as a competition; would you believe foie gras at a "pique-nique"?

We're always excited every summer when our dear, dear friends the Burrells come to spend time at their secondary home here in France. They indulge us in our passion for fun and games, good food, great wine, and loving times together. Our theme song is “We are family.” We just wish they were here more often.


Later in the month local friends have another “theme” dinner – Arabian Nights. Aladdin's genie makes the costumes then shaves his head and paints himself blue. Some people go to any length to win first prize, and yes we do.

Way too much rain for June, but heck, we’re alive and obviously still kicking so why complain?

July – We're blessed at the beginning of the month with a loving fourth visit from Melissa Li who is like a daughter to us. She cycles in our hilly countryside looking like a high fashion model.

She helps us discover the Château de Hautefort, we visit Bergerac, the Château de Biron, Eymet’s open air market, and Soumensac’s weekly outdoor luncheon producers’ market. We buy books at Plum Village, our local Buddhist monastery/spiritual retreat center. Melissa indulges us in our favorite board games.

She also takes and downloads some naughty candid photos which we find on our computer after she returns to Oregon.

We miss Antonio who promises to come next year, but Melissa continues to nourish us with vegetarian fare and generous portions of laughter and love. She is truly a gem of a daughter.

Mid-July - Bastille Day in Paris to meet Jan and Larry Small, their daughter, and granddaughter who sings with the gloriously talented Heart of the Valley Choir from Corvallis performing in Notre Dame and the Madeleine where we meet other Corvallians we haven’t seen for seven years. Magic time. The Smalls return to La Boissière with us where they graciously help us work at a property we manage, Jan teaches us still more about cooking, Larry fills us in on climate change and the oceans, we swim together, eat, drink, rest, and play board games. What devoted friends; they are part of our family. We're blessed men to know such warm, supportive, generous, sensitive, and loving folks. We miss them when they are not here.

Later in the July we attend a dance concert by the Béjart Ballet in the courtyard of the 15th-16th century Château de Biron, about 40 minutes from home.

It's a stunning and unforgettable representation of classic and modern choreography honored with a twenty minute standing ovation for the teary eyed dancers who, in their final performance, knew they would never dance together again.

The last week of July we have a splendid but bittersweet farewell visit from the Hockleys who, after three years with HP Barcelona must return to Corvallis. We’ve had great times for many years; Deb was a student of Ron's when in high school and she and Matt and the girls, Tessa and Paige, have always been there for us through thick and through thin. We miss them and hope they find their way back to La Boissière soon.

Beginning their dance of life together we host honeymooners Amanda and Brian from Corvallis.


August – Vintners worry over a non-summer summer, but never have sunflowers bloomed so very long, and right below our house no less.

And who could complain about 300 home grown tomatoes and a year's supply of basil for pesto?

A trip to Scotland as the most unbelievable late 70th birthday gift from our friend Jackie. Chauffered visits to Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Loch Lomond. Seats in the president’s box at a soccer match, preceded by cocktails, a five course dinner, a sterling silver bottle opener with the dates of the match and teams engraved, an elaborate dessert during half time and enough champagne to forget who was playing whom. Doesn't matter; neither team scores, but we certainly do. Soccer was never so much fun.

Jackie provides us a suite in a Scottish castle, a visit to the Burrell collection in Glasgow, two dance performances at the Edinburgh Festival, and tickets to the Military Tatoo; 40 kilted marching bands from around the world performing while playing bagpipes so spectacularly that we hardly notice the two hour non-stop downpour. The Scottish are anything but scotch. With friends like this who cares if it “rains on my parade”?

September – Ah, at last summer arrives in the Aquitaine just in time for visitors from the USA. Paul Neal, from Seattle, hosts a luncheon at Gibeau, his secondary home. Steve and Greg, San Francisco, visit us with friends of theirs. They don't bring Orion, their Great Dane, but we include him here simply because he is such a magnificent creature, as are his dads.

We visit Couronneau, our favorite winery, Biron, and are treated to a fine dinner at our favorite restaurant. Our west coast brothers cook, clean, play games, and treat us like royalty; they're a wonderfully centered, hard working pair of wizards who quickly and brilliantly solve all sorts of computer problems. We only wish they lived closer.

Then the long awaited visit from our friends Paul and Vreneli Farber who retired this summer from OSU. Oh what a pleasure to see them again. The perfect guests: they make breakfast every morning, they help garden at the home of our friends the Burrells. They make lunch, then indulge us in one of our favorite activities, playing games, not all that politely, however, because Paul generally wins. They even agree to join us for dinner at the home of some of our local friends. Paul and Ron attend a lecture at one of Plum Village's Buddhist retreat centers. Though moved by the message, they manage to slip away without donning traditional brown robes.

We laugh a lot, eat and drink sensibly (LOL), rest, and not only does Vreneli whip us at croquet, but she also breaks the world speed record for a single lap in a private 10 meter pool. See her below in her victory wave to the press photographers.

September brings even more good luck; Ron sells some paintings which allows him to buy us a hot-tub for which we build a shelter. That high school course in woodshop finally pays off.

October – Quieter moments find Darrell sculpting and Ron painting more productively than ever before preparing work for a show next April or May and another in June.


November – We're deeply honored by Meghna and Keith who come to us for the fourth time since we’ve lived in France. It's one of the most joyous visits ever because it comes immediately before their marriage a few days later in Boston. We're giddy and swimming in laughter every waking moment. If all families were lucky enough to have these “kids” there would be greater peace in the world. We've shared magical moments over the years; our stories could fill a book. These two always bring joy into our life, and we wish them great happiness; no one deserves it more.

In November Ron also ventures into abstract painting with a new paint medium: high gloss lacquer enamel, but his penchant for vivid colors remains.

December – It actually snows on Dec. 26th. It isn't deep but just enough to help us sympathize with all of our friends in Oregon who have been snowbound the last week or so.

December brings some welcome changes to our living room. Odd how one can add a table and make the room look more spacious than before:

We get creatively upside-down wacky this holiday building our “tree” using four skis topped by an inverted tree stand:

Our friends arrive from Paris on their way south to give us the keys to their apartment so we head to the city for New Year’s Eve. In all these 37 years we'd never been to the City of Lights during the holidays.

The year 2009 is shaping up: skiing in Andorra at the end of Janurary, then visitors in April, May, June, and July. Doesn’t anyone want to come in August?

To all of you who have slogged all through this long blog, may you have lovely holidays. We're trying to remember that joy should not depend on the economy. Our deepest wish for 2009 is that our new born hope will awaken all of us to our personal responsibility in creating social, economic, political and enviromental vigilance and guide us toward more sane ways of living harmoniously.

Blessings from La Boissière!

Love,

Ron and Darrell and the V V kitties