Wordless Wednesday…sentinel

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Silent Sunday…dropping by

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.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Structure times two

I’m back from a lovely vacation in the wilds of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains and ready for today’s WordPress photo challenge theme of “Structure“, although I’m not ready for it to be September day after tomorrow!

Here are two examples of structure, one manmade (although there’s natural structure in the wood), the other made by one of nature’s creatures.  I find them both beautiful.

A honey of a view

Finally!  It’s lunch time.  We’ll eat at Chalet-hôtel du Grand Ballon, (you can view this in English by clicking the box on the upper right), but first we have to make a stop at the Famille Riche store, filled aromatically and beautifully with all things honey-related.  The family raises the bees, using the honey in a variety of products.  My s-i-l gifted me with a jar of honey, almonds in honey, and a beeswax Christmas candle.  I bought several trios of honey-based soaps as gifts. If you have a minute, take a look at their website.  You’ll find beautiful things.  The almonds in honey taste wonderful on chèvre or foie gras.  You can take my word on that!  🙂

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.