L'ete arrive!

I feel the need to check in with my 'diary' to clarify and sort of quantify, perhaps
to reinforce a bit as well - my purpose in blogging: to add daily to my life by being more aware, more genuine, real, euro inspired in some ways. Blogging is time consuming!
I spend my days trying to 'get ahead' which right there sounds negative. The process is the real thing. Remember that Laura.
Alors, I am loving my potager so much. We have harvested exactly 27 haricot verts. The one sprouted onion I planted has rendered lots of greens for stir fry and roatsted red potatos with oregano and thyme. The tomatos are covered with blossoms and shiny, green balls - soon to be sugar sweet cherrys, and romas and early girls...and the zuchini! well, get your recipes ready. I just layed out some strips of rags lightly soaked in ammonia. Supposed to keep the critters away and a ground hog, I believe, was munching on a hungarian pepper plant. The watermelon vine is a runaway:)
A good day ends with lots of compost in the (tightly covered) pot by the kitchen sink. Starting with coffee grinds, eggshells and fruit ends and accumulating all
day long it's magical ingredients, the pot is emptyed after the evening meal into the compost pile behind the garage. This simple endeavor has been so satisfying over the years - providing wonderful soil for garden and potted plants AND providing a
place to recycle uneaten food.
Been cycling a lot. Today to the library to work, uninterrupted for 2 hours on the computer. Love it.
Soon the long awaited oil cleansing method experiment will start, I promise. I am working thru untold meager amounts of accumulated Vit E oil and Ponds Cold Cream etc
I do have a nice tan going. I am not an extremeist either way per the sun. But I need me some, especially on my legs.
La mode is doing pretty nicely this summer so far. Tomorrow my easy linen capris are
ready from the tailor. I'll drop my denim pencil skirt off. I'm going to repair my
Land's End red leather sandals with my wonderfully heavy weight sewing machine (I hope) - it's just a seam, but threatening their life. I can always hit the cobbler if I can't do it. Oh - had my eye exam and had my lenses put in some 'cheaters' that I had and loved. They are smashing - a light weight green metal conconction that always garners a 'love your glasses' - did the same with my Jackie O sunglasses, except specialized as bifocals - again terrific results.
bisous - I had a splendid birthday week, I'm a summer baby born on the longest day of the year and was wined and dined into not so sleek, but heavenly shape.
La

The Secret: How to Live Beyond Your Means

A book espoused long ago by some Chics was written by Margery Wilson. How to Live Beyond Your Means is her friendly, but stern, manifesto to 'having it all'. I have a copy, the copyright is 1945, the wording is touchingly old school. I thought maybe my daughters would read some of it (what was I thinking?) and when it sat untouched on the dining table, I reached for it. I had a bit of a shock as I realized that this was almost verbatim The Secret - circa 2006 or so via
Rhonda Byrnes et all. The first time around with Wilson's book I had not yet read Byrne's. Seems the Law of Attraction has been around, indeed. I am intrigued by the promise of the secret, and convinced that to smile and expect goodness is just the best way to live anyway. Is there any French connection to this? I don't know, but is seems to me that the Gallic shrug and attitude could be construed as more on the side of pessimism. Any luck employing The Secrect? Do share!

So very European.....

It seems to me a very Euro thing to do: make your own liqueur. And frugal to boot!
Here is a link to an interesting article with some recipes:
http://tinyurl.com/lkp6ag.
Marsi, I know you have made limoncello. Any tips?

Fleur Cowles has left the building......

Don't know if you are familiar with Fleur but she was a one of a kind lady and
I've always been rather fascinated with women who bucked the trend(s) of their times/lives. She passed away and here is a link to the NY Times article about her interesting life: http://tinyurl.com/lcn5p6

Your Money or your Life

Stephanie at Bonjour Madame has a recent post on 'your money or your life' which is
resonating with me. She uses the example of the movie A Good Year. Of course if any of us were in the situation where we could choose to inherit a vineyard I don't think there'd be much question!
I don't really care for the phrase 'in this economy' but there it is. 'In this economy' if you are struggling with work that you don't enjoy or doesn't reward you amply in some way, it fells peevish to complain: what about all those without any work at all? Despite 'the economy' - or any other factors - I believe it is
important to be rewarded properly for your work and to do something that you at least enjoy (if not love).
I've read/heard that many of the French (and perhaps other Europeans) with great social benefits and vacations mandated and a built in cultural more that everyone should enjoy life (or at least have the means via good food, wine, family/vacation time etc) don't care as much about loving their job. They look at work as a means to live. It feels as tho, maybe because we don't have the same political/social set up, Americans don't have that luxury.
Personally I am in that conundrum right now as well, Madame. I have spent the past 3 years learning a (new) profession. Now that I am working (for a management company) the work seems endless. I don't even want to calculate my hourly wage. With 3 teenagers to support I obviously have to maintain an income. The decision I have made is to team up with a wonderful friend who is also an appraiser. We are meeting this week to start the ball rolling on opening our own company. As women we both value our family time as much as our work and don't see this as a problem - both should get their proper due. I'd been avoiding working for myself because of the added work: finding clients, billing, taxes etc. I've changed my view - we are going to create an income stream OUR WAY - with balance, attention to the important details, great service and time left over for living.
I'd love to hear how others are coping with this.