A potluck in France, and pancakes

Notes from Hélène McNeill just now. I had asked her whether we should try to do a shared meal. We don't know yet who will be camping, or staying in rentals in town, but she wrote:

Today: a wonderful friend and Englishman named Nick came over and showed me how to plant vegetables in the garden that (I felt ) had to be built out of the old ruined house, so I created a garden there.

Re: gathering, I think we should have a big potluck at least one night. There is always a snack and candy table at our house ( I learned that from you:). . .

Carolyn [her friend who manages rental cottages] was surprisingly right behind me at the market today and said "hey, I know what you're having for tea!" I told her we needed more gites and she said fine, there are four more available.

I will take you to the market! Holy smokes! Of course we will!

Pancakes, yes we should have a pancake morning. We have a massive stovetop so should be good. Nick brought over loads of eggs today. All the neighbors want to give each other fresh eggs. I swear to god I feel like i'm living in Hobbiton. No foolin. Love it.

So I think when we know more of who will be there, we can plan a couple (or more) communal meals, and if anyone here would rather rent a gite than camp, let me or Hélène know.

This is what Hélène looks like, all dressed up and holding a chicken. Inside the house. And the chicken matches her dress. Yes, she looks like that.

And here's a photo of the two of us, when she only had one child and I had little kids, dressed up differently, for some formal medievalesque thing in those days. We know each other through the Society for Creative Anachronism, in which she was my student/protegé. I promise not to wear all white and a veil and wimple to camp in France.

First planning, then pictures, then review

When I went to India, I kept a blog.  I still have some photos to add there.  And that made more sense to me than putting that all on my personal blog.

Sandra's Visit to India

The last time I was in the UK, I saw some beautiful, wonderful things, and I can't show you all of that in one place, because it was on my regular blog.

"best of" post
July 2009 archive

Some from August 2009:
Llanharan and Cardiff
More of Wales before I get confused
Windsor, changing of the guard

This blog will be an attempt at sharing what I see and learn with anyone who wants to follow it. I hope those I'm staying with, or meeting up with, will subscribe so I can notify people if I'm stuck somewhere or wounded in some picturesque ditch under a hedge near a mile marker. (If there's internet, I mean, for me to notify people, you know. Compared to New Mexico, I found the UK to be internet rich, perhaps because the towns aren't 100 miles apart.)

I welcome comments as the adventure unfolds, too!

For starters, this is where I'll be in France—with Leon and Hélène McNeill:



I'll be there June with Schuyler and David Waynforth, their children, the McNeill kids, and as many other families as want to come and camp in the spacious back yard near the little river, or stay in nearby Baud, June 14 through the 17th. There are gite opportunities. We're expecting families from the Netherlands, Switzerland and France already. More details are here: France

Working back from that, I'll be speaking in London on June 11, and in Edinburgh May 21, 22 and 23, in three different places. Details being gathered here: Edinburgh (still in draft form as I write this, but remember the link is here)