Chinon and the Loire Valley

Achingly beautiful and tranquil, the gite (or farmhouse) where we stayed outside of Chinon. The food was impossibly delicious, the wine free-flowing, the Loire valley evocative of long-past eras of kings and queens, intrigue, the foundations of stories and the history our civilization is built upon.

Summertime

Spring passed by in a jetlagged blur, renting on the river in Marine on St. Croix, then housesitting again at the graceful mansion in Kenwood. . . feeling vulnerable and rootless, the desire for a place of our own became irresistible -- we found ourselves renting a condo in Minneapolis with a view of all the bridges on the Mississippi. Amazingly grounding to see our old stuff emerge from the depths of our storage locker, and then, zoom, off to France to meet David and Barbara, Mark's brother and sister-in-law, for another adventure.
The view from our balcony -- Elizabeth's watercolors of summer still life