HODGEPODGE OCTOBER 1

 1. When you think of autumn what sounds come to mind? 

First I don't try to think of autumn I don't like this season, and as song I would think of "Ave Maria" which is a typical funeral song.  

2.  Is a trip to the mountains something you enjoy? What's your favorite mountain?

I love mountains and I have seen so many and so different. Rick's home was surrounded of mountains at the Garda Lake  

 

Garda lake, Italy

3. What's something that once felt like a mountain, but is now just a molehill? 

Before my parents moved to Brussels, we lived in Bonn which was the Capital of Germany until the fall of the wall and the capital became Berlin again. We lived just under a huge mountain, that's what I thought, I had never been in the mountains so for me these "mountains" along the Rhine were huge ! Today I must smile because they are rather hills.  

  

4. Let's play this or that-fall foods edition. Yes you have to choose. 

• pumpkin spice latte or chai latte 
• apple cider or hot chocolate  
• stew or chili
• sweet potato casserole or green bean casserole 
• butternut squash soup or creamy mushroom soup 
• cranberry sauce or gravy 

From all these "fall foods"  I would choose chili, and cranberry sauce ! I hate gravy, in the UK they put it over nearly all dishes ! 

5. Sum up your September in a sentence or two. 

 

First half of September was cool and rainy, second half sunny and very cheerful.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

 

 

 

 

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Sometimes in August there is a scarecrow exhibition on the Grand'Place in Brussels. It's interesting to see the creativity of the people.

 

 This is the Grand'Place in Brussels (Belgium)

 

more participants here 

 

 

 

 

AWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND SEPTEMBER 26

 

This is Spirou, a little Bichon, which my friend Isabel met in our shelter. He had been confiscated by the police along with other dogs because he belonged to Romanians who used them for begging. 

The little guy had never lived in a home before; instead, he had been kept in a cage. Isabel’s task was to get him accustomed to a normal dog's life. Naturally, she hadn't intended to keep him. But Spirou won her heart, and as soon as he was cleared for adoption, she adopted him herself ! He is so friendly, doesn't bark, is fine being left alone, and was in good health, apparently, he had been well-fed. The vet estimated his age to be two years at most. I also fell in love with Spirou, and bought him a stuffed animal. He has adopted it as his own little doll and carries it around everywhere with him. How lucky for Spirou that he was adopted by Isabel. The residents of our castle all fell in love with him too !

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS 

 

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WEEKEND 

 

 

 

 

We could sit outside, exchanged the last news and played Bingo. Unfortunately later, one resident who lives on the same floor as me, knocked at my door and came in. 

 

She was weeping and looked terrible. She stammered something and was hard to understand, but eventually I understood that she wanted me to go with her because she believed her husband had died.

 

Naturally, I went with her though perhaps it wasn't all that natural, but having seen several dead people  since Rick passed away, it didn't bother me anymore. I have changed. I looked at the man and initially thought he had passed away; his face already wore the mask of death, and his mouth was wide open.

 

 I stepped closer and saw that he was still breathing. Then I called a nurse, who took care of Ivette. 

We sat outside in the afternoon, and I went to bed early that evening because I wasn't feeling well. The next morning, I was informed that Ivette’s husband had died around 5 a.m. When I went to see her, the room had already been tidied up; I hadn't heard a thing—he had been taken away so discreetly.

 

We all agreed it was for the best; he had cancer, was over eighty, and didn't want any more chemotherapy. That’s just how it is here, people come and go, but such is life: you get used to everything, even the things you never wanted to get used to.