home again, home again

rose garden, Parc du Thabor, Rennes

Except it doesn't feel anything like a jig!   I'm bumbling around, having mood swings, unsure about what to do next.   The owls, the cuckoo birds calling, the bike rides and hours of painting in a trance, taking baths with rose soap and washing all my clothes by hand in the kitchen sink... that's all an old vacation, and now it's time to find my next path.  This time last year, I was trying to figure out how to apply to go to Dinan.  And now, I've gone and come back.  Until now, I hadn't given much thought to what would come next... I think Confucius said something like 'wherever you go, go with your whole heart.'  Usually I'm not too good at that.  But I think for the month of May, I did it.  And it brought me a lot of happiness.  Now I'm back on Gooch Lane and it's time for investigating and researching and scheming and dreaming until I find another exciting idea to pursue.  The trick will be to move forward wholeheartedly.  In the middle of a conversation last night, a really nice woman reminded me that 'everything begins with a dream'.  There's a whole bunch to look forward to in the mysterious (and sometimes unpredictable) evolution of imagination becoming reality.  I've got a lot of dreaming to do.  In the meantime, "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" is stuck in my head and I need to brush my hair!

Hayfield, Finistère

Finistère

Finistère

Finistère

Finistère

Finistère

aboard the ferry from Roscoff to L'Ile de Batz

ruins of Chapelle St-Anne, L'Ile de Batz
built in the 10th century in place of a monastery founded
by Pol Aurelien

Pol Aurelian, born in Great Britain at the beginning
of the 6th Century, otherwise known as Saint Pol
de Leon, who slayed the terrible dragon that was terrorizing the people of L'Ile de Batz.

L'Ile de Batz

Ile de Batz

L'Ile de Batz

L'Ile de Batz

St. Francis inside L'Eglise Notre Dame du Bon Secours,
the church which also houses St. Pol's scarf... 

L'Ile de Batz

Jardin Georges Delaselle.  Delaselle began the garden in 1897, and it now holds the roots of over 2000 species of plant (especially palms) from all the continents.  While Delasell was clearing the land for the garden, he uncovered a Bronze Age necropolis... you can see one of the stone tombs in the foreground!

Ferocious Jack Russell terrier guarding the wall near Eglise Notre Dame in Rennes

Parc du Thabor, Rennes

Les Amis de la Grande Vigne chose two of my paintings.  The sardine on the blue and white plate, and the painting of the wild foliage I collected in the woods.  Before leaving Brittany, I took a trip to Finistère for an 18 km walk and to visit L'Ile de Batz (http://www.iledebatz.com/decouvrir-l-ile-de-batz.htm), and then my last day I spent in Rennes.  The places put terrible spells on me.