While walking the dogs on the beach this morning we came across this shoe. Can’t help but wonder if the damage was from a small shark. Sure do hope that there wasn’t a foot in it when it happened! We have never seen a shark ourselves, but last summer one was caught in St. Cyprien, just a few kilometers north of us, so we know they’re out there.
January 7 marked the third anniversary of Alan’s retirement. It is hard to believe that it’s been that long already, time seems to fly right by. There are some people who believe that retirement will lead to boredom . . . we wonder how we ever had time for a job!
Being party animals (not) we are celebrated with a day of cuddles from the pups (at least until the fight breaks out between Sami and Lou over who gets Daddy’s lap) and a home-made lemon cake!
Happy Anniversary Husband . . . so glad we made this change!
BTW . . . has anyone else noticed that Lou looks a little devilish in all his photos?? He always seems to have something devious in mind!
Each year as Christmas nears I make something for the season’s decor. This year I decided to knit stockings for each of us for Christmas. I only recently learned to knit. Learning to knit was a Retirement Goal for 2013 and I’m quite pleased with the results. Sami and Lou’s stockings were made from a pattern I found on Ravelry.com; Alan and my stockings were my own adaptations to that pattern.
The small tree we’ve had since our first Christmas in France. The lights we picked up last year. The first year we only found a 10-light string of white lights with mesh hearts . . . not as Christmas-y as we liked.
For this Christmas we added a beach theme with shells and glass collected on our morning walks, a tree skirt is actually a scarf that I knit earlier this year, the ornaments were crocheted with cotton thread last year (there a few left to stiffen for next year), the shell ornaments are actually our Camino shells from various treks through Spain.
When the kids were younger we had a forest of trees in the house for Christmas, each decorated in a different theme. Perhaps for next year, I’ll come up with a different theme . . . something fun, like miniature knit stockings and mittens or miniature ornaments made from sea glass and a crocheted garland!
Each morning when we head to the beach we never know exactly what we’ll find. The waves change the face of the beach each day. Some days it’s rocky, some days it’s sandy, some days there will be an enormous log, some days the beach is filled with shells, other days sea glass is everywhere.
Sami is always a bit wary when a new log or stump shows up where there wasn’t one the day before.
Today we found two rainbow hued roses someone had left as a memorial.
Sami loved them; Lou snuck up on them like he was hunting and barked . . . I think he was expecting them to fly away as if they were birds. He was a bit confused when they continued to stand there on the beach and growled at them the whole time I was taking photos.
An Italian Point Of View 