Briancon, France

A friend of mine knew a friend of a friend who could get him a week's stay in a chalet on the French-Italian border where I learned to ski, after a fashion.

Our stay in the chalet was one night short of our time in Briancon, so we had to find a hotel in town for one more night. The town was a medieval walled city perched on the edge of a cliff.

I was a twenty-five-year-old from Spotweld, Wisconsin. I'd never been any place so exotic before in my life.

I remember as if it were yesterday ...

A view from the top of Malham Cove so gradiose it reduces me to cliche. Sorry about that.

As I was digging through a box of old photos I found this and other snapshots of a hiking trip I took through Yorkshire. I spent the night before this photo was taken in the yard of the farm in the center distance.

Malham Cove is a sheer wall of rock that's a favorite destination for climbers. I didn't climb the face of the escarpment, but instead followed a trail that went around and up to the top.

And it really does seem like only yesterday, or maybe a week ago at the very most. But it was, in fact, 1986. Tempus fugit.

... only yesterday

One end of Malham Cove ... from inside the cove, before I hiked to the top.

The escarpment rose out of the hillside with a lot more drama that I knew how to capture in a photo.

And I doubt you can make out the climbers on the rock face.

Which is why this is less than a photograph and more of a snapshot. Still, it gives you some idea how the cliff face slashed the hillside like a wound.

Too Much Fun Not To Share Right Now

Souper Bowl XI

It's Souper Bowl Saturday!

Yes, Saturday.

The local chapter of Habitat for Humanity hosts a yearly fund-raiser they call the Souper Bowl. For fifteen dollars, we can each pick out a hand-thrown bowl from those on display. My Darling B is having some trouble making a decision ...

Souper Bowl XI

High school students throw lumps of clay into graceful pottery, some for next year's Souper Bowl.

Souper Bowl XI

Your faithful reporter shows off our catch. Darling B's bowl is on the left, and my pick's on the right (your right, not mine).

Evening Geometry

A downtown parking ramp catches the last rays of the setting sun.

At the Antiques Mall

Sometimes they dig stuff up out of the midden heap that ignites a flicker of nostalgia or catches the imagination ...

... and sometimes it's just garbage. A Gulfspray aerosol bomb? Would somebody actually decorate with that?

Spotted at the antiques mall on Cottage Grove Road yesterday morning ...

An Odd Fish

On a stroll through an antique mall on Cottage Grove Road, I ran across this contraption, advertised as a German-made "folding boat."

The strange boat's skeletal nature made it quite eye-catching. I'd never seen anything like it before.

A clever system of hinges and hooks allowed the boat to be broken up and stowed into five canvas bags, according to the sign.

Barbie wants a new dish washer

So, with no small amount of trepidation, I took the doors off some cupboard space, grabbed a saw, a wrecking bar and a BFH and made some space for it.

After lunch I'll wire a circuit for it and sweat a three-way valve to the hot water feed under the sink.

Then, some time just before dinner, the good people at Sears have promised to deliver said dish washing machine to our door.

If the gods smile upon us, this evening's dinner dishes will be washed through the miracle of modern technology.

If the gremlins are instead out and about, there may be a short delay ...

Defoliated

I'll come back in six months when the leaves have turned all this stonework into a lost temple.

Kimonos with a fish theme

On display at Whole Foods on University. Many more there; worth a look.

Gratuitous Winter Snapshot

I don't normally approve of grafitti ...

I can't help but nod and grin at this, though.

The Coffee Shop Ground Zero Sunday Night

About fifty or so people gathered for an anti-war rally.