Paris: ooh la la.

"The Mona Lisa" ... "The Kiss" ... "The Thinker" ... etc. (Pinch me.)

We spent a fair bit of time on the Metro, thus I'm including a photo. Musicians playing violins, accordians, guitars, etc. in the Metro, on the bridges, in lanes. Loved that.

Bet you can guess.

Napolean's coronotation took place here.

Wow ... only 7 prisoners were freed when their mates stormed the Bastille.

In a secret garden during the cycling tour.

Louvre-ing.

Montmarte.

Small place, big hospitality.

Statue park in Paris.

Sacre Couer (The White Church) in Montmarte.

Liz, Ron and Shell with Eiffel.

First things first: shopping at a market in Belleview.

Ron and Liz at the Louvre.

Moulin Rouge. Note the queue to get in.

The Eiffel Tower is stunning. The Rodin Museum superb. Montmartre, Le Marais, The Latin Quarter, St. Germaine de Pris ... all exceptional. Sacre Couer, The Louvre, Champ Elysses, Notre Dame, the Seine (so many bridges) ... fantastique. One runs out of adjectives in Paris ...

Venus de Milo.

People: My brother Ron Meetoos, his fiancee Elisabeth, et moi. Famous sites speak for themselves; art's from the Rodin Museum and the Louvre. I walked and cycled all over, so there are also many street shots.

Only thing I didn't like about Paris: the temperature. Same thing with Montreal, and, come to think of it, Granada, where I am now ... sitting in a hostel in the Albaicin. I've been shivering since I left Canada ...

Liz, below, is from Riga, Latvia. She's fluent in four languages, and uses them all in Paris.

Oh! The photo of Ron and I wearing strange\dirty clothes in his tiny apartment (located on the island, spitting distance from Notre Dame and the Seine) is post-catacombs. That was a story ... we went down illegally (through a sewer grate) and got lost beneath the city ... long, scary,
certain I would die down there. Tell you more if\when I see you.

Oh again! Saw Jesus's Crown of Thorns (and got in line with the Catholics to kiss it) in Notre Dame. They only exhibit it one day a year, and we were there.

Montreal, March 2009.

No time to write while travelling, but here are a few of the important people and places: Johnny and Olga, Angela and Jacob (in Montreal).

Another Friday night watching the sun set and drinking wine.

A little crimson fire above the treeline.

The wine is compliments of Felix, in Pilger. It's Sea Buckthorn, also known as Haskap berry, which is being researched by U of S Plant Sciences guy Bob Bors, whom I was in touch with not long ago. (Someone I know well told me that Haskap berries taste like "a more interesting blueberry".)

It's strong wine; I'm getting a buzz. And for this I am thankful.

Friday night. My dog's foot is mending. I am mending.

It melts, it melts.

And what about "ER"! I've been a fan over the last several years, wish I could catch the final episode but shucks ... I'll be in Spain.

Hey, don't you love being the only vehicle on a country road in the dead of winter on one of the
coldest nights of the year? I do. The photo was taken south of Maple Creek. I loved the effect of the headlights.


Today I wrestled with a gate that had fallen off its hinges and the eavestroughing that's to blame.
(Thanks for helping me, Jerry).

Three days ago I painted a wall "Smartie brown." (It was either paint or cut off my long hair).

My house is very quiet.

I am very quiet.

Big hugs to my friend Mark Krasko, whom I dearly love. Kiddo, you've made my day.

No longer a virgin.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090227.wbkhawley28/BNStory/globebooks/home/

This appeared in the Feb. 27th, 2009 Globe and Mail.

(yippee)

Middle Lake Manana

Morning through the woods ... no better way to begin my day.

And off we go to see my favourite postal\liquor board\Sears catalogue outlet guy ... the one, the only .... Roger Zimmer!

(Hey, Roger wants to sell his business and retire, so if you or anyone you know is interested in checking into this -- and living a laidback, country lifestyle in our gorgeous village beside Lucien Lake -- let me know.)

Time to cheque the mail ... could there possibly be anything but bills?

(Bingo ... there was ... thank you Public Lending Right)

The all-important bulletin board ...
always loads of events in the village.

Then back home through the woods.
(It's frost, people, not white hair).



Ever more snow-admiration.

And I'm back at Ye Olde Homestead ...

where it's high time I got to work.
___________________

Ciao.

Winter is a big stick.

-32 or some such nonsense this morning, but hey, the sun's shining, and that's all I need.

I want to say something about friends: they are hugely important to me. Always have been, always will be. I'm the girl from Meadow Lake's Carpenter High School, class of 1981, who still keeps in touch with the old gang, scattered now, as they are, across the country.

I'm still on a "call anytime" basis with my first love, Robbie Hayashi. Hi Rob! Hope the hand's healing.

I still connect with travellers met in the Dominican Republic in 1987 (hello Martens family, in Massachusetts), and in Venezuela in 1993 (howdy to Ron and Jean Koopman in Ottawa), and those met just recently (selamat pagi to Donna Conrad in Sanur, Bali ... and Mowgli in Kuta, Bali ... Sami Rashidi in East Malaysia .... and the BC'ers (ie: Flo in Sechelt ... a crazy-funny body piercer).

Did I meet you at a writers\artists' retreat? Work in retail with you in the 1980s or early 1990s?
Meet you in a church, in a bar, on a beach, in some small town I lived in as a kid (Kyle, Turtleford, Wilkie, Meadow Lake), on a volleyball court, or in university? Did we live on the same block once upon a time? Hey, I still think about you.

Similarly, I try to keep track of my family (hello Ron Meetoos, and hugs to Susanna and Kyara, in Aarau, Switzerland; hey sisters Crystal Herrod and Heather Rutz in Meadow Lake, SK; hi brother Kirby and lovely Laurel in High River, AB; and hello to my parents, Jim and Helen Herr, in Watrous,SK, a mere 1.5 hours down the highway.

It's a big job. It eats up time. I'm not one to let an e-mail sit unanswered. And it's damn straight one of the most important things I do.

Today I want to say hola to a few friends in particular:

Hello, Jeff Reid in Fort McMurray, AB. Can't wait to go for a few runs again this summer.

Hiya to Lynn Cecil in St. Catherine's, ON. Thanks for catching me up on your life.

Hi five to Jeanne Marie deMoissac, in Biggar, SK. I see they've charged the killer.

Rosemary Nixon, in Calgary, how's it going? You work too hard, girlfriend.

Lonnie Starnes, in Saskatoon; it's getting to be too long, my friend (since we were five).

Olga Montes, in Montreal. Beautiful actress and mother, I look forward to raising a glass with you and Johnny soon.

And I'm looking forward to meeting a whole whack of new friends at the Fundacion Valparaiso retreat in Mojacar, Almeria, Spain.

Greetings, American filmmaker Corrie Francis.
Salaam, Hagit Bodankin, Israeli playwright.

Ah, dear friends. You're better than bowl of fresh berries
on a cold winter day.

(These ones are from mein own garden and the local woods:
I'm working on a berry picking\production article for
the Western Producer .. . spent a good hour photographing these beauties yesterday)


To borrow a phrase from a bad American movie: Friends ... "you complete me."

Over and outside (in numerous layers).

xo

Sucks To Be Me: A Dog Tale (As told to Shelley A. Leedahl by Jackson Leedahl)