HODGEPODGE JUNE 4

 1.What's something you find extremely difficult that most people would say is simple?

To calculate ! I am an absolute 0 when it comes to numbers. I would need a calculator to add 1 + 1. Rick calculated quicker as a machine, so he was my calculator ! Now it's my phone ! 

2.  "And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow fast in movies I  had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer." 

~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Does the season of summer make you feel this way? Elaborate. 

 

Yes, absolutely ! I return to life slowly in spring and absolutely in summer ! I am also born in summer I don't know if that has an influence. One thing is for sure I hate autumn and winter.  

3. Pickles. Love 'em or no thank you? What's your favorite type of pickle? What's something you eat that definitely needs a pickle added?

I don't eat pickles, I just don't like them, I wouldn't add them to nothing.  

4. This the season...do you know any June brides? Are there any weddings on your summer calendar? What's your favorite movie wedding? 

 

Weddings ? not at all it's more funerals in my age range. But I love the movie "Notting Hill"  I even visited the place where the film was made.

5. June 1st is/was National Say Something Nice Day...say something nice here. 

 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

For the moment as we are again singing sitting in the rain, I am very busy with restoring our old pictures from 1971 when we were for the first time in the USA visiting my aunt in Madison/Wisc.

To get our visa she sent us this letter, European tourists didn't exist in the USA at that time and apparently the government didn't need more immigrants to become Americans. We only wanted to discover beautiful places and certainly not become Americans. I got a visa for 10 years because I was German and my Italian husband only for 5 years, the Mafia was still hanging over the head of all Italians. 

I changed the black and white photos into color, and after a few trials I finally managed these ones and was very satisfied with the result as a beginner user of AI.  

 

 Yellowstone Park we as 2 years married couple and my uncle !

 

Montezuma with us three

 

Lake Mendota in Madison with my aunt. At that time we liked wearing the same clothes. (see our jeans)

 

Home sweet home in Madison/Wisc 

I think this was the day we took the bus to Chicago and then the flight back to Brussels. There was no direct flight, but I don't remember where we had to land before the final flight home. 

It was so nice to work on these photos and see the result, it kept me busy the whole mornings and evenings.

 

AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND MAY 30

 

Isn't he cute ? This should be the smallest dog in the world. It's a shame he barks at everything from a fly to a St. Bernard. Otherwise, I would like him as a little dog.

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS 

 

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WEEKEND

On Saturday the temperatures had dropped from 30 to 28°C and that was very nice ! More then 30 without wind and aircondition is difficult to support. 

The sun had disappeared and we didn't really need the antique parasol at all, but there it was, and we hoped that the next strong wind would finally break it completely. Unfortunately, it was still there the next morning. 

 

For our game we needed an umbrella in which we had to throw little plastic balls. You could get from 10 to 50 points if your ball landed in the right place.  I just throw my 5 balls 4 landed in the part which gave me 4 times 50 ! I became second. It was quite funny !

 

In the evening we had terrible thunderstorms, never had I lived such a strong storm like this time. The thunder came from all sides and the lightning, which came non-stop, made the room  almost as bright as daytime because I always had one curtain open so that cat Rosie could look out ! It lasted quite long from 9 to nearly 1 am with some interruptions. 

 On  

Sunday people discovered the damages it was quite extensive. Houses were destroyed, cars were submerged, and there was mud everywhere. Such a thunderstorm with so many lightening had never happened in Belgium. We, in our castle with its thick walls, were unaffected. Not even the antique parasol had moved, and no water had seeped in. Most of the residents hadn't heard or seen anything at all because they weren't wearing their hearing aids. I heard everything despite my earplugs.

We couldn't sit on the terrace and play basketball, it was very windy and humid, really unpleasant.

One of the castle cats had hidden in Pauline's room and was meowing when I visited her, she hadn't heard it at all ! I looked in all wardrobes, but I couldn't find her. In the afternoon, she was on the balcony, and Kim tried to catch her with a cardboard box. Suddenly, the poor cat jumped from the balcony onto the terrace but wasn't hurt because she ran away immediately! I was standing under the balcony looking up when I suddenly lost my balance and fell on my backside. They helped me up, but I was just like the cat, I didn't hurt myself !

 Rosie who doesn't fear thunder or lightening, this time she came and sat besides me making huge eyes 

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

Today marks four years since there is no longer a 'we' but only ' I '. Time flies so fast, I can hardly believe it, but unfortunately it's true.

1941 - 2022 

"When a husband dies, it's no longer us. It's just me. Not even death can steal the love I feel for you."

 *******

This week it was very hot, over 30°C, which we're not used to at all. It was also Pentecost, a long weekend. Half of Belgium went to the seaside, and despite the train strike, they ran 30 extra trains so everyone could get there. Naturally, the motorway was completely jammed.

We sat comfortably in our lovely park under a huge tree that must be over 200 years old, chatted and had drinks. We were not many outside, a lot stayed inside the cool Restaurant with air condition. 

 

The next day was exactly the same, but in the morning I went to Amandine (our manager) to tell her that chairs were broken and we didn't have enough, same with a table and  that we badly needed bins in the park. The visitors and children are sometimes not very well educated. 

 

To our surprise there was no activity at all the whole week except today. This game was funny ! I was given five plastic balls and had to throw them into an umbrella, one after the other. Inside the umbrella, points were written on a slip of paper, and depending on where the ball landed, you got 10 to 50 points. You couldn't really aim because you couldn't see the points. So I just threw my balls aimlessly into the umbrella, and the first time, four landed in the 50-point range! The other times, I got zero! Anyway, I came in second!

This is the last survivor ! I wonder how long it will last. 

We all had for the first time a meeting with our new manager ! I felt really sorry for her. Instead of admitting that she didn't really know yet how things worked here, she acted like she understood everything, but I didn't believe her. I had the feeling she was swimming in unknown waters, but she will learn.

We have a new couple. Honestly, they are getting on my nerves. He is constantly making jokes that no one understands except him, and then he laughs loudly and heartily! His wife looks like a 14-year-old little girl and must have been very pretty once. She's always smiling or laughing, and as soon as she sees a man, she runs up to him, hugs him, and tries to kiss him. As soon as our men see a man, who's quite tall, they know the little girl is clinging to his arm, and they "run" away or try to hide behind a table. She does the same thing with women. I only just managed to dodge her at the last minute,  otherwise, she would have "attacked" me too. But I jumped aside (it's still possible), and her husband caught her again. I don't know what they're suffering from, but neither of them is normal.

The rest of the time I worked on my pictures to make old once new and they really look now as if I had taken the picture yesterday. 

  

We are the couple of the right side together with my American uncle in 1971

and this is in the Yellowstone Park

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.