...and happy mid-year (almost.)

Tonight I checked on a blog I used to read regularly - in fact, it was one of the ones that inspired me to begin.

Last post from the author was in December - of 2010. I'm only a few ahead of her, happy to find out I had at least made one post in 2012.

Oddly, although I was back in Paris in March, for nearly a month, I never blogged. On that trip I had no company, and decided that being alone in Paris is over-rated. Thank goodness for the occasional meet-up open to all comers - Patricia LaPlante Collins' dinners, Adrian Leeds' "Parler Paris Apres-midi" and the like.

But the weather was lovely - an early spring that had more warmth and sunshine than we've experienced in Seattle all year. Exploring on the bus system got me to some previously unknown corners of the city, and I'm ready to go back for my next month at Villa Monceau - in June 2013. (A couple of guests have already requested accommodation.)

In Seattle we are nearly at the solstice, which means daylight continues until well after 9 p.m., whether the days are sunny or gray. We are all tired of wearing fleece.

Reading: Volume I of a 3-volume history of the Hundred Years War (author: Jonathan Sumption.) Just a few pages into the book, I'm astonished at how little has changed since 1328 - causes for dissent and major disturbances included (in no particular order) deficit financing, vast income inequality, unfunded wars, climate change, food shortages, and conflicts over the role of central vs. regional government.