Silent Sunday…dropping by

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End of day

I can’t believe we only have a few days left. Where’s the time gone?  We’ve had lots of great rides, seen moose and deer, reveled in all the flowers, hiked, watched the horse, and sat on the porch relaxing.  That’s what I was planning to do tonight, but it looks like it might be a pretty sunset.  Let’s head up to the top of the hill and see what it looks like.

Phew, the air at 7,000′ has a lot less oxygen than where I live! I’m huffing and puffing like the horses do when we ride up these steep slopes, but now we’re doing the work of the horses.  Thankfully, we don’t have saddles and people on our backs!

Oh, my goodness! Look at that!  It was worth the climb. Look at the colors in the sky.

The sky is grey and white and cloudy.

We’d dried off a bit, had our cafè to warm us, and were off exploring.  Flying under the radar clouds, we absorbed quite a lot of beauty before stopping for lunch.  As we drove, the clouds began to lift, allowing us better views of this stunning area covered with wildflowers.

And now, to the mountains!

We’ve had a lot of fun in the forests of the Vosges.  But not far away, there are mountains, the highest in this part of France.  Last year, we enjoyed the Grand Ballon.  That’s not a mis-typing of Balloon.  The name means “Great (round-topped) mountain”, “ballon” meaning a mountain with a round top. This year, we were in a different part of the mountain range.  The weather wasn’t the best, but we were prepared.

French forest fungi

Finally, fundamentally fabulous, fantastic French forest fungus.  Fun!  🙂

Yes, alliteration has struck again.  If you’ve been following my blog for some time, you know that where I go in France, I’m deep in the Vosges forest.  This is where we walk the dogs each day.

Although we love to hunt for (edible) mushrooms, much of what we find is, although fun to see, not edible and might even be poisonous.  Despite not being edible, fungi can be eye-catching, as I think you can tell from these photos.

France…a walk in the woods

The road leading off the main road continues past the “driveway” to my s-i-l’s house, past another house, and into the forest where, however, it becomes a trail rather than a road.  It’s the perfect place for a walk: past piles of cut trees, ant hills, another house, alongside the meadow, flowers everywhere, ancient stones covered with moss.  Perhaps there’s a bit of Celtic magic somewhere as well.

Friday Flowers…French meadow

Most of my time in France is spent either in the country or small towns, so I have lots of photos of flowers, plants, and landscapes.  This beautiful bit of meadow was not far from my s-i-l and b-i-l’s house.