Glorious Spring

Our greengage plum tree is in full bloom. There were bees buzzing all around it and I hope that means we'll have some plums this year. The other plum tree is also in bloom, pink blossoms. I've planted the radishes and started other seeds. I've cleared the raspberry patch of weeds and now that there is lots of empty space we'll be able to transplant the newer raspberry plants that have started in front of the patch back to the pack, but I think it's best to wait until they've produced their fruit for this season. 

Today, France and the rest of Europe went on to daylight savings time, called "Summer Time" here. We are back to 6 hours difference with North America.

Today is a perfect day to go to a ball game. PUC 1 is playing Pessac in a double-header (PUC 1 and PUC 2 are always Sunday double-headers with a picnic lunch break between games.) and it's the first home weekend. I'll probably go for the second game, after lunch. 

Eating at home is a bit of a challenge right now. The painters are going faster than anticipated, but we've had to put on the brakes; there's just no space to move the furniture. They have to finish the living room so that we can store in there. Right now, they've almost finished the living room, dining room, and hall entry. The furniture is upstairs and in the entry and access to the basement. We wiggle around it. There is dust everywhere, of course. We do manage to have lunch and dinner, but it's a dusty atmosphere. Luckily for us, we are not prone to allergies or asthma. The floors, at least on the ground floor, should be sanded and varnished at the beginning of the week. Then we can move back into the living room and they can do the stairwell and hall upstairs. The repair and painting should not take as long as it has downstairs, so all in all, they will be finished with this almost a whole week before we expected. That means they'll want to dismantle the kitchen and do the electrical installations before we are ready. The new kitchen will be delivered on April 10, not before.

Must be off now -- to the market, lunch, and the ballpark!

Spring is around the corner.

Everything is in bloom - well, almost everything. The lilacs are not out, yet. But many of the trees are blooming. It's too soon. They say that the next week is going to be really cold. I hope this doesn't wreck the fruit trees and make fruit even more expensive. In any case, it's lovely to see all the spring colors already. At the end of the month, we go back to summer time, too. I always love that.

I've been working hard on the trip to Australia. It's going to be a full month from mid-April to mid-May. It'll be fall, there, but it shouldn't be too chilly, yet. Emma says they've has lots of rain this year. They needed it. We're getting very excited about the trip. Bill Bryson's Down Under is a good introduction - very funny, as most of his books are. Many years ago I read Bruce Chatwin's The Songlines and I think that was the book that made me want to visit some day, although the trip we have organized is not at all influenced by it. For one thing, we can't see much of Australia in a month, so we're not trying to.

The STC France conference is coming up really soon - in just two weeks. Normally, I'd be looking forward to it, but this year, I don't think I'll be able to attend. I've got an operation coming up this week and am not sure exactly how soon after that I'll be very active.

What else? I saw my friend, Oriane, yesterday. She came up to Paris from Lyon for one of her linguistic workshops. It was canceled, but since she had her ticket, she came up anyway to celebrate her birthday with friends. We walked from the Gare de Lyon to les Halles and stopped on our way at the Pompidou museum. There was an exhibit called "Les Inquiets" (The Anxious) - photographs and video by Palestinian and Lebanese artists. The videos were disturbing - one was about the reality and fiction of martyrdom - how the suicide bombers spend so much time setting up and doing several takes of their video message, as if the video were more important than the act. Gruesome.

Next to that exhibit there was another exhibit of Richard Rogers 48 years of Architecture, including, of course, the Pompidou Center, itself. That was much more interesting to me. There was a model that showed you how the area south of Shanghai, Pudong, was supposed to work, the different transportation systems, the distribution of space for residential, office, commercial, leisure, and cultural uses. There was another model of central London as he thought of it. Interesting.

That's about all. It was nice to see Dan leave a comment on the blog and it's always nice to get your e-mail when you want to react to an entry privately.