Revisiting the past

Update 3/14/09: I've edited the photograph to get rid of the blue. Here is the before and after picture if you are interested. Let me know what you think, if you like. I'm learning! :)

Tool Shack, Photographed in Sonoma County, March 2009.

Since we had our first nice week-end in a while, I decided it would be a good time to break away from everything, so I jumped in my car and drove out to the Wine Country where I used to live, a long time ago.

Comme il a enfin fait beau ce week-end, j'ai décidé que ce serait une bonne idée de m' éloigner un peu de tout, alors j'ai sauté dans la voiture et suis allée faire un petit tour à la campagne, dans le "Pays des vins" comme on l'appelle ici, ou j'ai habité il y a bien longtemps.

Everything looked really green, thanks to the rain we've had in the past couple of weeks.
Tout avait l'air bien vert à cause de la pluie qui est tombée depuis 2 semaines

When I lived there, I didn't realize how pretty the area really is. Sometimes you have to get away from something to really appreciate its positive points.

Quand j'y habitais, je ne voyais pas vraiment combien l'endroit est joli. Des fois il faut s'éloigner des choses pour mieux les voir.

The California Wine Country is often compared to Provence, this cute area in the South of France. If you drive up there in the Spring when everything is blooming, you will see why.

Le "Pays des Vins" est souvent comparé à la Provence. Si vous y allez au printemps, quand tout est en fleurs, vous verrez pourquoi.

For some reason, most of the pictures I took that day did not come out very well, but I like this shot of a tool shed, taken towards the end of the day. It was photographed a few hundred yards from the Jack London State Park up in Glen Ellen. I guess I could have framed the shot a little better, but as I recall, there used to be a spirited and unpredictable dog living around these parts and roaming free, so I didn't spend a lot of time hanging around for a better picture, even if part of me knows the dog can no longer be alive...

La plupart des photos que j'ai prises ce jour là ne sont pas bien sorties, mais celle ci m'a plu. C'est un hangar à outils que j'ai photographié à quelques centaines de metres du parc Jack London, à Glen Ellen. C'est vrai que j'aurais pu le cadrer un peu mieux, mais je n'étais pas tres rassurée car il me semble me souvenir qu'il y avait un chien pas commode qui vivait dans le coin et se promenait librement, alors je ne me suis pas trop attardée, meme si je me doute bien que ce chien n'est probablement plus en vie ...

Probably a good idea, too, since I ran into this lot of wild turkeys only a few minutes later. Sorry about the quality of the picture, but these birds are huge, not particularly friendly, and scare me 1/2 to death to tell the truth; plus I've seen them before, they usually travel by group of 10 or more up there, so I snapped as quickly as I could and ran out of there FAST! ;)

C'était sans doute une bonne idée, car quelques minutes plus tard, j'ai rencontré ces messieurs... Désolée pour la qualité de la photo mais ces oiseaux la sont énormes, pas tres sympas, et me font une peur bleue pour dire vra. De plus je les ai déja vus se promener en famille, tout une bande de 10 ou plus, alors j'ai pris ma photo en vitesse avant de prendre les jambes à mon cou! ;)

The excursion out to the country was beneficial, since it allowed me to relax a little and take a break from my silly, stressed-out city life. But came back somewhat nostalgic because it can be difficult to revisit the past.

Ca m'a fait du bien ce petit tour à la campagne, car cela m'a permis de me relaxer un peu et d'oublier le stress de la ville, mais cela m'a aussi rendue quelque peu nostalgique car il est quelque fois difficile de regarder le passé dans les yeux.

Escaping to the country

(Click on photographs to enlarge)

While some of my friends are very busy trying to find their inner French woman (???) I am striving to find my inner red-neck...



I don't know about you, but I'm a lot happier when I can break away from city life now and then. A matter of balance, I suppose?



So, a couple of weeks ago, I drove up with a friend to Chanslor Ranch, in Bodega Bay (about 1H15 to 1h30 north of San Francisco), where we had reservations for a guided horseback ride along the beach.



Marin County was nice and sunny (as usual) but the closer we got to Bodega Bay, the thicker the fog was.



They didn't allow anyone to take any kind of camera equipment during the ride, so I couldn't get you a shot of the spectacular view of the beach, but take my word for it, it was really pretty cool.



The horses were friendly and everything went pretty smoothly. We gave them tiny carrots and they really liked that.



My only regret is that we couldn't get the horses away from the beaten path but I guess the rules are pretty strict as to where they can or cannot go for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the trail goes through a State Park and they have limited access there to protect certain endangered species.



It was still a great deal of fun and I'd gladly do it again. Maybe next time, we can get the sun to show up! ;)