Christmas 2015: Angles sur L’Anglin

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2015 as I've sent no cards or gifts this year. 

But I DO send a gift of LOVE, CARE, HOPE for better times! 

HOPE that Family and Friends relate kindly!

HOPE that displaced people find safety, warmth, shelter, food, purpose, income and an expression of their own talents, skills and intelligence.

Two Poems: Two birds: Five Photos: Two February months of a French Wintry World

Les Petits Oiseaux: SweetpeainFrance copyright December 2015

I have no photo of a blackbird, no poem of robin.

Yet on my roofs 'des petits oiseaux' stand and sing:

“Bon Noël”- we bring for you “une année heureuse,”

whilst Sweetpea sings Peace for Earth, Sky, Universe

Jewels for a Blackbird, returning summer and spring,

here is my poem to ring ding a ling.

Hope, Health, Happiness – All is Everything.

​Robin February 2015 copyright

Jewels for a Blackbird: SweetpeainFrance  copyright February 2012

Today I was singing and dancing 
as I stepped through the snowy hedged woodland 
where the angled branches of the trees criss-crossed each other 
as the patterns highlighted by white snow

rested on the tops of the lines of the branches. 

I had no camera. 

Today I was singing and dancing 
along the snow-packed lane feeling the joy of living 
to witness such regal majesty

of the wintry phenomena of frozen water 
and the prints imprinted of animals, humans, wheeled vehicles,

skis and toboggans; 
all had been there before me with tracks to places known and unknown. 

Today I was singing and dancing 
to let the bright light into my eyes and heart 
and let it make me tired and content.

Today I was singing and dancing

as blackbird hungrily ate the beautiful red jewelled pendants

hanging in a garden not far from the river.  

Jewels for a blackbird.  Will he sing and dance for me?

​The Chateau Angles sur L'Anglin: February 2015 

The End of the End of Year Message! 

Roof 1 Oiseau 1

Best wishes for 2016 

Roof 2 Oiseau 2

Yesterday's roses for a 7th birthday

La Vie en Rose

Bon Noel and Happy New Year

To you all. To all of you.
I hope that Pére Noël brought you kindness, peace, hope, shelter, food, warmth, love.  It is a wonderful thing to be cared for, to have friends, to live and to love, to gift whatever we can.
Thank you all.

I can understand why an island is a wonderful place. However, I didn't do the Christmas Day picnic. I succumbed to a wonderful meal after a walk which was enough.  I wished my legs could have walked further along the sands...but it is quite hard work and one is never sure how far from base one has wandered!

I started this post on 25th but am publishing on New Year's Eve. I didn't have the mental energy or time to post using the ipad whilst on the island.  Since then, having returned home, it took me almost two days to prepare for a pretty table dinner for guests, then there was the clearing up, then there has been going out with friends over this festive season -  a sharp contrast to last year, when I continued to nurse my bunion, biceps tendonitis, woodburner and jigsaw!
I am sure you are glad for me that this year I am happy!
There will, I hope, be some postings about my island holiday and a few other pics.
Meanwhile I am trying to write a fact or fiction piece for a writing competition!

01012014 Five chimes

Five chimes
Five chimes from a French cloche sound the hour.
Repeated a few moments later
to remind those within hearing distance,
in case one has not heard,
nor counted, that it is the TIME.
White clouds skitter about a blue sky skirting our world.
Pink and blue hues press grey woodsmoke to the village valley.
As I descend from walking the plateau above that vale
where houses hunker down around the church tower recently renovated,
where people snuggle down around the brass bell recently repaired,
now more sonorous to tell the hour and the half hour,
I smell the hazy, smoky woodiness of a garden bonfire in late autumn,
not many days before the winter solstice.
I see the curling woodsmoke spiralling towards the sky,
to be pressed down around the field in which it is.
A most beautiful village with smells so sweet and smoky
to mark a changing season towards the changing end of year.

With all my very best wishes for a wonderfully exciting 2014.
Love from  RestlessinFrance

Copyright. Please do not reproduce without permission 
Photo November 2013 from my rooftop: Poem December 2013

Phew! Nearly at the end....never to be repeated...

Well... what a blur was the year that was!   To sum up:
January - worked indoors on floor and walls, whilst wintry snow challenged warmth and progress on bedroom, other windows and doors until May when a close encounter with tarmac caused me to wake up and FACE the grim reaper who did not succeed! That was lucky! Summer arrived as I wrote copious letters for the insurance company. Badinter's Law came to the rescue but I'm still awaiting the final outcome. Maybe all will wake up again in 2014. Other interesting experiences occurred whilst helping 'a friend', then another friend shared unexpected joy and sunshine whilst camping and cycling on the Ile de Ré followed by a trek to UK for family celebrations and the longest distance walking I have ever done.  August arrived with mixed weather where sunny days allowed cycling, walking, gardening, painting and in September not only did I get to revisit Ile de Ré, this time by myself but also Cornwall was an unexpected gift for cycling and camping. Fantastic! October removed bunion number 2 and the hat of my house.  November was rather a shaky start as I learned to walk again and sighed relief when the roof was finished to my greatest pleasure.  I booked a flight to UK not thinking whether the foot would walk or drive.  It had to work. JUST IN TIME it passed the test!  December was a reunion with friends and family in various places, culminating in meeting someone from 40 years ago.  It was as if there had been no years intervening except we are somewhat more grey!  The year has had some lovely moments and recent mild weather is kind!   It ends.  I am optimistic for a better year.
I wish you all peace at the end of the year and peace to come. 

I will leave with the lyrics from Kashmir by Led Zeppelin:

Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed.
Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace,whose sounds caress my ear,But not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear, Oh, oh, Oh, I been flying... mama, there aint no denyin'
Ive been flying, aint no denyin', no denyin'

All I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground
And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land
Trying to find, trying to find where I've been.
Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream, Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream
My shangri-la beneath the summer moon, I will return again,
Sure as the dust that floats high in June, when movin' through Kashmir.
Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years
With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear. Ohh.

When I'm on, when I'm on my way, yeah
When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeahOoh, yeah-yeah, 
ooh, yeah-yeah, when I'm down...
Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well I'm down, so down
Ooh, my baby, ooooh, my baby, let me take you there,Let me take you there,let me take you there.

LOVELY....one day I'll go there!!! to Kashmir!!!!! my 2014 dream! 

Being a Mother

Ooh... it's Christmas and the Great Google God has allowed me to upload or download, a photo!

And so in this wonderful wintry season 

I wish my readers

wherever they may be,

the very best of wishes from Restless in France

for happiness, good health, adventure and opportunity, self-development and fulfilment

in 2013

Welcome to Year 2012

From September 2011, describing as delicately as possible, the changes in life

when previously shedded tears, over years,

moved frustration into an unperceived scenario,
for I had been an adult but not grown up,
I had been childish instead of childlike
and so contributed to the drama.

I tried to understand my inner self, and the inner being of another

and all that went right and all that went wrong.

In a simplistic and naive fashion,
I had over-expectations.
The pain when there should have been joy
wasted emotional energies and time
BUT

....all things come to pass....

.....wherever there is a Hello, there is a Goodbye....

.....when one door closes another opens....

....every cloud has a silver lining....

....my glass is half full, not half empty....

....I am a lucky woman and still have precious life...

etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
As I can't make sense of any of it,
 LIVING
must be got on with to re-discover the joy and happiness in ourselves.

I count myself privileged in that my friend is still a friend,

and other Friends including my Family
have attempted to understand my reasoning.

Though they are few, 

they are good, decent, honourable people

whom I truly value.

I count my self privileged because I meet 

wonderful people in the world.

 I learn a little something from everyone if I open my eyes and ears

and I thank those who persist in reading my literary efforts. 

There are things I wish to do and improve 

whilst fighting hard to instil motivation in my soul. 

Perhaps it has something to do with 

winter,
having bought this house,

not having a bathroom, 

having French shutters closed against the cold and not letting in the light,
living in a village where the shutters closed, one knows not who is there,

my age,
not being 100% well,
being potentially lazy,
THINKING too much,

or absolute emotional exhaustion experienced,

 and have been paying for,
for a long time

causing the current message:
take advantage of winter, hibernate and sleep.
YET
I still know how to laugh on many a day and moment
even if the tears arrive before the laughter.

Despite knocks, setbacks, and barb-wired fences to jump
I know it'll be alright and 

I'M GOING TO TURN IT AROUND.

I wish to meet new people, see places, do things I haven't done,

fulfil the promise of more than seven years ago 

and whilst some has come true 

it is my belief that I am
RestlessinFrance
and
RestlesswhereverIam

because I need to travel,

like my ancestral forebears travelled.

However, challenges have to be completed

and so my NEW YEAR MESSAGE, even for my inner self, is:

JUST DO IT!

With love 

from whoever I am

to whoever you are

wherever you may be.

Whatever you do, and wherever you are, enjoy being who you are, with whoever you are with, even if it is your very self, life is truth itself.

To add for good measure 

I stole some words from Caroline. 

I know her not but her sentiment seems to have become a mantra for me.

"A home is where a heart is and my heart is in France as well as near the sea and the East Anglian coast. When I love two or more places, I can enjoy being wherever I am, and when I go from one place to the other I can always look forward to going home!"

 I hope to find my goal by loving so that new doors will open and let in the dream.

May your dreams and wishes become truth.