It's Officially Autumn...

Today is the first day of Autumn on 

Everafter Farm

f a r m  f e n c e  a c r o s s  t h e  r o a d

o l d  b a s k e t, o l d  t r o w e l, o l d  s q u a s h

m u s h r o o m  i n  t h e  w o o d s

s u n f l o w e r s  a t  t h e i r  p e a k

t h e  s e p t e m b e r  g a r d e n

a s t e r s, m u m s, a n d  o r n a m e n t a l  c a b b a g e

Do you all love autumn as much as I do? 

Especially the month of September.  Oh, October is more dramatic, with all of the flaming Reds and Oranges, but September has my heart.  Sweet memories of Back-to-School Days,red plaid dresses, new red shoes; fond memories of being a young bride [ our wedding day was on an August 30], wonderful memories of my own teaching days,of new students whom I would come to love; of Harvests and Heartbreaks [9/11], of a September 19 so many years ago when our daughter came to live with us and made our family complete.

September. The end of the summer. A bittersweet month.  And this song always makes me cry.

September blessings to you all,

dawne

Honfleur, la mer, et les amoureux

h o n f l e u r   i n   t h e   r a i n

La mer.  The seashore.  The Coast Of Normandy. A little French fishing village.  Those are phrases that have enticed me ever since I was a child.  And the next stop on our trip, the tiny coastal village of Honfleur, did not disappoint us.  It poured with rain while we were there, but, really, that only added to the charm.

o u r  b r o t h e r  b o b  a n d  h i s  n e w  u m b r e l l a

We ducked into a charming bookstore, and I could have stayed there all day looking at gorgeous books like this, the French version of 

The New 18th Century Home

[which I bought in English, as soon as I got home.  But not with this pretty cover:(]

haha!  I'm looking at this picture now and seeing the book under it:"365 Games to play on the Toilet!"  I did NOT buy that book!! But it does sound intriguing... :))

The rain did let up, eventually.

As we walked around the tiny bay I spied the sweetest couple, young lovers,les amoureux, sharing a delicious concoction of cream and fruit.

"Would you mind If I took your picture". I asked, in my best tourist Franglish. [Something like "Bonjour. Voulez vous permettez moi por takee votre picture, s'il vous plais?"

And, sweet things that they were,not only did they let me take their picture, in minutes we were playing iPhone games and becoming Facebook buddies.  In fact, the young man is using this very photo as his Fb profile picture right now!




Off to the next sweet seaside town of Trouville.  While it rained too hard to entice us to get out of the car at Deauville, it was quite lovely in Trouville. Wonderful shops there!

I would have loved to have taken everything in this shop home to Everafter Farm.  [Except for that adorable little French boy. I don't think his maman would part with him.]  Don't you just love that screen? 

 

There was a branch of the wonderful Parisian store, MERCI,


And across the way from that shop there was an  enchanting window display.  No store, actually.  Just this romantic scene.

Only in France!




Bisous, mes amies
dawne

Safe from the Storm...but not all were...

p a y s  d e  l y o n s - a n d e l l e

I shot this peaceful scene in the French countryside last month.  How different it is from the devastation that Irene wreaked on beautiful Vermont last week-end.

Here is a video shot by my friend and former teaching colleague, Bill Muench, showing just a small portion of the flooding in Manchester , Vermont

Aug. 28, 2011 Irene hits Manchester, Vermont from Bill Muench on Vimeo.

We,here on Everafter Farm, just across the border from Vermont, were not touched by the hurricane, thank God.  But our hearts, prayers, and support go out to those who were.

...and now we wait for Lee.

Have a safe, and restful Labor Day weekend

Dawne