It's a New Year!!!! Come See Your World

Of all places, I found these pictures

at

Weather.com - (Top 50 Environment Photos of 2014 - click this link)

Gorgeous.

Adorable?

Informative.

Stunning.

STUNNING!

(Stunning!!!)  O.K.?  What time is it?

Time to give your world a little love?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Merry Christmas Everybody

(Victoria and Albert Museum.  London 2013)

I wish you health and peace and LOVE.


See you in 2015. xoxo

Christmas Cheer

Some pre-Christmas nostalgia for you:

O.K. I Stole All This Stuff From Poppytalk - Best Christmassy Ideas?

You still have

time to make your very last

run to

the shops for supplies.  Then.

Gather all your kiddies in.  Lock up the doors and turn off the phone.

Make something delicious

and beautiful.

The Happiness Experts tell us

it's not the THINGS that make us happy and that we remember for: maybe, forever......

or what bonds us to each other......

But the time spent.  Experiencing silence.  Or laughter.

Discovery.  Accomplishment.  Joy.

Pleasure.

Surprise.

DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR LOVED ONES.  (Besides shopping.)  IT'S THE BEST CHRISTMAS IDEA OF ALL.

Then come back and tell me all about it?    Thank you Poppytalk!

The Best Part of Christmas

I think I found most of these pictures from the Guardian and the LA Times.


HaPPY WEEkEnD!
********

Christmas in L.A.

Here's how the weeks gone so far:

Making tamales with my friend Susie.  Of course I ate lots of 'em right away.

 Tending to the little ones.

 It's been so mild here, the roses are early.

Yup.  I'm making cookies.  More on that soon.

I still haven't sent any cards or finished my shopping!  You?  Really?

You Have A Voice - What Are You Going to Do With It?

Is it a good thing or a bad thing?  Most of these pictures

(New York anti-police violence march, via USUncut)

 (L.A. Garner/Brown/Racism protests)

are from the LA Times  (I wish it was easier to go back and find the link for these things but no....)

 (India - Bhopal protest)

"Week in Pictures"

 (Hong Kong - Democracy protesters)

They come from all around the Globe.

 (Grand Central Station, NYC - Garner/Brown/Racism protests)

Depending on which side of an issue you are on

 (Mexican protests - Missing students)

these are people exercising their human and civil rights.  To others, they are "Enemies of the State".

 (U.S.: Garner/Brown/Racism/Police Brutality protests)

It's hard to say that any of these people have achieved gains by their actions.  So far.

 (Hong Kong Democracy protests)

Should they continue to bother?

 (France - Anti-Development protest)

What would you go out into the streets to defend?

(London - Loss of Affordable Housing Protest)

 (NYC - Garner/Brown/Racism/Police Brutality Protests also below)

What would be your slogan?

A very loved cousin un-friended me on Facebook last weekend.  He also doesn't want to talk to me anymore.  Ever.  He says that I obviously hate everything that he stands for.  If what people believe or endorse is diametrically opposed to what you believe, does that make you enemies for life?  Should you stay silent about your beliefs because you don't want to offend people you love?

I don't think so.  Life is messy, isn't it?  At what point does disagreement become war?  I don't want to know.  But more and more people are finding out.  It's a terrible truth.

It's nearly Christmas.  Wishing you a peaceful Holiday Season.  xoxoxo 

Carouge, Switzerland - Nearly Geneva, Part One

Well, Mr. Paradis has sworn

that we will never

set foot in Switzerland again.

Our holiday planned for Switzerland last September

fell apart in a very expensive way.

Bookings that were not honored.  Long elaborate fantasies that were spun by a certain travel accommodations booking agency.  And a great deal of my time wasted on the phone with dishonest people.  It happens, I guess, doesn't it?  But it's discouraging.  It makes you very distrustful.

Train passes had to be cancelled and were not fully refunded.

I had had a lovely image of Switzerland.  A nation that loves its chocolate and its cows  (Two of my favorite things!)  What's not to like?

I had really wanted to see its mountains in all their glory.  Something I hadn't done since college.

When I was half asleep on a night train at Christmas.

Our travel book did not really even cover Geneva.  The writers seem to think it's uninteresting.

But since we were only 40 minutes away.  We felt we had to visit.

We went on a Friday, so missed the Carouge Saturday market.  Which is supposed

to be one of the biggest flea markets in Europe.

I did think that Carouge was a lovely place.  The kind that is ever more disappearing these days.

It's a village which seems to have become a suburb just to the Southeast of Geneva.  If you want to see more, do come back for Part Two!  Would you go to Geneva just to see this?  I might.  I would visit Carouge again.  But I would have a different plan for the rest of Switzerland.  You know what?  Even the Lindt chocolate let me down!  It's so sad to have to say that.

But Carouge Part Two?  You'll see.......