Tag: hiking
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Je suis toujours ici
Fall is here and I still have much to learn. Too many spaces unexplored, too many lessons left undone to leave now. My contract beckons and I must listen. There is more of the journey ahead as I twist and turn. I hear the call of something more than me, something that hovers just over…
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La Boule Azurée
I will state for the record that I love purple. There was a time in my early teens when I was trying to be grown-up and thought that purple was too childish. In my quest for maturity, I swapped purple for navy blue and burgundy. These seemed more respectable. But as my 10-year-old asked me…
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Rando affreuse
Today Bobby and I took an ugly hike. I’m not exaggerating. The Peygros-Grasse trail was overgrown, not well-marked, foul-smelling in parts, and really ugly. We walked down an old road for well over a kilometer before we reached the trail head. As I gazed down this narrow side trail, I felt like we had gone…
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Harmonie
I am told that there is a waterfall at the end of this trail in Vescagne. Although I am slowly picking my way through overgrowth and wiping spider webs from my sweaty face, I am determined to discover it. Faint murmurs of the waterfall appear and disappear as we twist along this riverside trail. Its…
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Au bord de la rivière
The rush of the river mutes any attempt at conversation. So, we fix our gazes forward and pick our way along the overgrown trail that skirts along the riverside. Our feet graze the edge of the river and then climb a good ten meters above it. Rising and falling, twisting and turning as we make…
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L’emergence du printemps
She emerges from absolute nothingness. Bleak, brown, hard-edged. From this she hides her delicate face until she simply can’t stay in the substrate any longer. She has no choice. She must break free. The edges of her tiny petals radiate a passionate violet at the tips. It is a defiant refusal to submit to her…
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Ce que nous laissons derrière
We hiked in silence today. 35 degrees and gusting winds will do that to a person. Better to tuck your ruddy cheeks into your scarf, pull your hat down a bit lower on your head, and lean into the trail. Hiking in silence does more than conserve your precious heat. It also expands your senses. …
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Guardien sur la colline
We hear him from afar.He is uncertain of us perhaps, or perhaps it is I of him. Snow lays all around – bunched around rocks and bushes;Tucked in sloppily like a duvet roused by a fitful night’s sleep. His cry a lonely echo against the boulders – where are you in this isolated space? We walk…
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Glisser en arrière
Snow is slowly adorning the foothills behind our village, delicately decorating the summits white and creating a tantalizing sight from our hilltop. Mounts that were recently verdant and colorful are now salt and pepper with wisps of soft clouds winding among the folds and valleys. Freshly baked gingerbread wreaths dusted with powder and pearled sugar. …
40 Weeks in France 