Wastin' Away Again in...

My cousin Kathy meets Estelle for the first time over a rain-date July 4th fireworks BBQ
Estelle meets asparagus for the first time
My twin sisters inaugurate Estelle to a pool swim


These same twin sisters spy on Estelle thru a window to see if she is in fact napping. Please allow me to say their giggling thru the window eventually woke her up. I should also note they each had 3 children.

To celebrate Estelle napping, one sister (if you know them, you can guess which one it was) brought out surprise margaritas at 3 pm!!!!

High chair goopiness

Leanne Handley, sister to my friend Craig over in France, comes for a visit to meet Estelle.

Wayne and Estelle go for a walk

Wayne at swimming lessons today at Shadow Lake here in Glover. We have a camp on this lake, in this distance from this shot which is at the public beach.

More 4th, More BBQ's

My husband thinks all we do in America is wave flags and eat hamburgers and hotdogs. Pretty much true this time of year.
Wayne and Wes marching in the parade on the 4th with the T-ball team.

The Shriners and their funny cars...

My traditional flag cake for the 4th

Aunt Cecile and Uncle Ernest with Estelle

Aunt Yolande out on the porch

Estelle discovers laundry baskets, and climbing into them as a new adventure
Last night's "pick-up" barbeque with 3 of my brothers and one sister
Heather and Estelle racing on the floor
Cousin Lillian enjoys both babies

4th of July!!!!!!!!!

Tractor Pull at the Fairgrounds:
Brother Wes and his boys in the grandstands. Estelle has finally warmed up to him.
Estelle's first maple creemee from the Maple Sugar Shack
Cole overcomes his fear of the inflatable bouncy house and makes a break for it
Strawberry Shortcake on sale for 3 bucks. And you can wear the funny hat!
The Parade in Barton: Antique cars...
World War II Veterans. The man driving the van is my Dad's best man at his wedding in 1951, Bob Clark.
Hi Ho Silver
Even Theatre makes its way to small town parades: publicity for the local show of "you're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"
Scooby Doo and the Mystery Machine?

Aunt Becky and the donuts

Estelle at the Busy Bee, happy with her new fetish, Cheerios.
Aunt Becky, about to make history....
Sometimes I just need to spend a few moments with my Aunt Becky, and it's like my Dad is back in the form of a woman.

Today Estelle had her baptism at the Busy Bee, the one and only eatery establishment here in Glover, Vermont. It's an icon, for reasons up and down. Recent new ownership has seen some changes which seem to be positive. At 8 am I got a call from one of my Dad's sister's, Elaine, to tell me to be at the Busy Bee at noon for a rendez-vous with another sister, Rebecca. Off we went at the appointed time. As we were waiting for our oh-so-luscious American summer snack-bar food, across the street up pulled the Koffee Kup bakery delivery truck, complete with huge photos on the sides of their products including my weakness, krullers (which p.s. I think I've already talked about on this blog in relation to the "bugnes" in Nice during Carnival).
The truck was making its delivery to Glover's focal point, Currier's Market. My sister Joan nudged me "Julie...." and she pointed to the giant Kruller-likenesses looming on the other side of the street. My mouth watered and I gave a sigh - despite the fact that I've had one for breakfast EVERY DAY since I got to the States!
My aunts looked me up and down, kind of down the side of one nostril, just like my Dad would have. I confessed that if stuck on a desert island, a lifetime supply of krullers would do me just fine.
And like a rocket shot, Becky was up out of the picnic table and clamouring down the slope of the Busy Bee's picnic area, with a determination belying her 78 years. She waited for the few cars on the road to go by, crossed, and we could just see her gesticulating and putting her hand on the shoulder of the young delivery driver who had just hopped down from the cab. Then they disappeared behind the truck, visible only by their feet. His boots went up and out of sight, then reappeared on the ground, and they came back around the back of the truck. She shook his hand, turned around, and came back across, package of krullers in hand. She climbed up the slope, and thumped the pack on the picnic table, to the shock and delight of my cousin (her son), Elaine and her husband, and my sister and I. Estelle looked on with little expression.
"There!" said Becky. "I told that boy I had a niece from France who wanted his krullers if she was stuck on a desert island. He wouldn't take a thing for 'em."
The Alexander brothers may all be up in heaven, but their impulsive fearlessness is alive and well in their sisters here on earth.
On the move...
Negotiations with the unsuspecting delivery man.
Triumpant return.

Uncles, Aunts, Cousins--oh My!

While changing to an English keyboard may be the death of me over the next few weeks, I am still in shockeroonie over my sister's highspeed internet on a dedicated line, plus her laptop has a dock for a photo memory card - no more hooking up a cable! Fabulous!
Here are some photos from the past few FRIGID days here in Vermont. Yesterday when we went to church it was 50-something degrees - which somebody told me is 16 Celcius. Can it be after our record-breaking heat on Wednesday of 95????? Welcome to Vermont: as the old saying goes here in New England..... "Don't like the weather? Just wait a minute."
Photos:
Uncle Paul plays with Estelle. She liked him immediately, since having seen Peter twice in the days prior, she thought it was the same guy and so was already broken in to him.

Alexandra running amuck with a baby.
Uncle Paul

My Aunt Elaine in West Glover:

Cousin Lauren - sorry can't figure out rotating this one!

Eureka!!!!!!!

The Times they have a changed..... my sister has high speed internet with a dedicated line!!!!
An uneventful and easy flight to Montreal finds Estelle and I enjoying ourselves in Vermont. A few snapsnots to document: Our camp on Shadow Lake:

My uncle Ricky puttered over for a visit...on his tractor. We climbed up and had ourselves a little party!:
Aunt Martha takes Estelle out to pick asparagus!
Estelle eats Cheerios for the first time and has a blast! This high chair was my sister's in 1959:

Balcony Bounty

Two months ago Thomas' mom bought us a tomato plant, and some kind of tree-plant thing that suddenly sprounted pretty flowers yesterday.
Proof:


Also off our balcony you can see "Chez Pipo", which makes the best socca in Nice. Socca (pronounced So-Kah) is a speciality of Nice and the surrounds, I have never seen it anywhere else. It is something cooked on huge extra-wide diameter pizza-style pans on wood fires. A liquid batter is ladled on the pans and cooked for 10 minutes or so. The batter is from a base of oil, chick pea flour, and probably milk or something. When they pull the huge pan out of the fire, they slice it up in strips and you eat it with your fingers, putting pepper on top first.
This is something that allegedly the fisherman thought up and would have in the mornings when they would come in from the morning fish. It is commonly consumed with rose wine. Technically it's not a meal, but it is.
Tonight I had my first socca of the season (photo below), on the eve of my departure to a land of hot dogs, rootbeer, bagels, and creemees. Hallelujah. Bring it on.

Fete de la Musique

"Faites de la musique, Fête de la Musique" Which means "Make music, celebrate Music".
Today is France's national celebration called the "Fete de la Musique". It happens every year on June 21st, the longest day of the year - summer solstice. And this is no "Memorial Day" that gets shifted to the convenient Monday for the long wkend in America - whatever day of the week is June 21st, be it Friday night or Monday, let the festivities be!
The story is such: In 1982, the Minister of Art and Culture (or something like that), a man named Jack Lang who is still alive, and a bit of an icon, decided that to celebrate music on the solstice would be appropriate. He said something like there should be "music everywhere, and concerts no where to be found" - or something profound like that. As a result, the whole dang country goes wild today.
My first year in France I left before June 21st and thus was oblivious to the whole thing. But Year #2, watch out. It was one long night, full of a sort of Greek Chorus Bacchae feeling. One huge outdoor party with music everywhere. I mean everywhere. There are massive stages set up, and just random people with guitars or drums scattered around. The old town of Nice become a maze of sounds, sort of like bouncing around from one speaker to another. The police look the other way on pretty much everything as long as no one is getting hurt. Probably what Woodstock was in '69. On some level what Bread and Puppet in Vermont used to be before it shut down.
But here in Europe, things are still loosey goosey, and this one day of the year to just let your hair down in public is a rite of passage.
Estelle and I walked the port today and watched the police barracading all the piers to stop any waywards from jumping into the water. I said to one "but you don't barricade the beaches? What's the difference?" I was told people could walk out of the water on the beach. And besides, there are private boats here (I'm sure THAT's the real reason).
Here are photos of Estelle having her own Fete de la Musique in our apt at dinner time, listening to an old American fave, Woody Guthrie's songs for children.