We’ve done some traveling this month and this week so for our final photo, let’s hop back to the lovely village of Plombières-les-Bains. If you’ve been following my blog for some years, you’ve seen and read about this but just a brief review. Les Bains means “the baths”, referring to the hot water springs discovered by the Romans. We didn’t try the baths (really, really hot water just doesn’t sound exciting in the middle of a hot summer), but we returned a number of times to enjoy the various things to see and eat. This is a glimpse of a garden we saw while climbing one set of the steep steps leading from the main commercial part of the city to where our vehicle was parked on a much higher street. With great exercise comes great beauty, Grasshopper.
Becky and Jude, thanks for hostessing these two challenges once again. It’s been fun.
What happens in Costa Rica stays in Costa Rica and unfortunately, this pool stayed at our hotel when we came home. However, the memories of a wonderful adventure came back with us. The pink bricks around the pool contrasted beautifully with the blue water while the trees provided shade from the bright sun. In another pool, we stood cooling off while sipping a drink. Nice work if you can get it. We did and it was.
It was an excellent visit but like all good things, it came to an end and I’m driving home today. It’s good to get away and it’s good to go home and thankfully I have people I love at both ends of the trip. Thanks for sticking with me while I was gone. I’ll have some doors for tomorrow and be back visiting.
While exploring places to visit in Costa Rica near Manuel Antonio, I found Rainforest Spices, a sustainable spice farm that uses companion planting. The person who arrived at our hotel to drive us to the farm was the owner, Henry Karczynski. On the trip, he told us how he took the farm from devastation to productivity, from a monoculture of vanilla to one of diversity with vanilla, cocoa,cinnamon, and other spices. It’s a fascinating story and I strongly suggest you spend some time on the website reading about it.
At the farm, we took the tour, which you can see a bit online. When we arrived spices, including tumeric, were drying in the sun. We were introduced to chocolate by the tour guide showing us the inside of a cocao bean, which you can see if you go here and scroll down a bit. Look at the top right. The inside looks a lot like the inside of the sci-fi slimy pod and then…then the tour guide told us to try it. Big pause. There were only four of us and no one moved. Then I decided to bite the bullet (so to speak) and tried it. What a relief! It tasted fine.
Anyway, none of this is pink. But as we walked through the verdant farm, we saw growing pineapples. That’s something else I’d never seen and I certainly never imagined they’d look like this. Yeah, now the pink part. 🙂 However, I’m compelled to add that the chocolate bar they gave us made from their own chocolate was the best I’ve ever eaten. If you’re ever in Costa Rica, this farm comes highly recommended by us!
My time away’s coming to an end but even though I’m writing this in advance of my trip, I’m sure I’ll be having a good time. Thank goodness for books on CD that will make the drive home less boring!!
Although I’m on the other side of the US from where this photo was taken, I might be seeing a beach sunset tonight. For Saturday, San Diego is on the agenda.
We’ve all had a rough year, so let’s sit down at a table in France to enjoy this delicious yet light dessert which just happens to have bright pink sauce and fits beautifully into a square. It may look small, but don’t be fooled. It’s a magical dessert that will be just enough for everyone.
One of our favorite groups is Pink Martini, a group that can do all types of music in all sorts of languages on all kinds of instruments and all superbly. I’ve been privileged to hear them more than once, this time with my husband in Chicago where they also brought along the Von Trapp grandchildren. It was marvelous and naturally the stage was lighted in bright pink.
(I’ll be road tripping today so excuse late responses and visits. I’m off to Tucson to meet another blogger named Lisa, We’re going to visit Sweetwater Wetlands, have tea at a new-to-me tea house, and lunch somewhere so I’m sure thesre will be some photos to share. I hope all your weekends are off to a grand start.)
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