I took myself off to Skylands yesterday for a check on how things were coming along. Things are not quite in gear yet for Spring, but almost. This weeping cherry is almost there. I imagine a few more days and it will burst forth in a froth of pink blossoms.

Buds were popping everywhere!

I did the entire three miles (both loops) yesterday and it got so warm that I had to shed my jacket about 3/4 of the way through. I did see Mr. Pileated Woodpecker again in the same spot as I took photos of him the last time, but no pics this time. He just flew right over my head and into the woods, all the while doing his laughing call. It's a nice walk because the terrain is varied. It's mostly level with a few hills thrown in for good measure.

I keep checking the FaceBook page for Branch Brook park every day and the cherry trees down there are coming along but they are slow too. Maybe tomorrow I'll head down there anyway even if they aren't quite in full bloom. If I wait much longer I probably won't get down there to capture the spectacle since we have some rainy days moving in at the end of the week.

P.S. I got impatient for the camera store to get my lens in so I ordered it from Amazon instead. I hate not supporting local business, but when I called them they had no idea when the lenses were shipping. It's a Tamron 18-270mm. It was the only lens I took to Skylands yesterday to give it a try. It's lighter than my other zoom lenses and it was nice to not have to carry multiple lenses or to switch them out.

While Rick was gone I indulged myself in a few old movies that I love to watch. One of them was French Kiss with Kevin Kline and Meg Ryan. I was spurred on to watch it by blogger friend Steve's recent visit to Paris. He showed photos of the La Tour Eiffel, or the Eiffel Tower, which made me think of the movie. 

Part of the movie takes place in Paris and Meg Ryan's character, Kate, wants so badly to see the Eiffel Tower. It's there in a lot of scenes but every time she turns to catch sight of it, either the lights are turned out on it for the night at the very moment she turns around or something blocks her view. She does finally see it on the train out of Paris headed to Nice but both Rick and I have taken the train out of Paris to the South and you don't get a view of the tower like she did. Nor is the tower able to seen from many of the places she was. Ah, the poetic license of the film industry! 

But that doesn't take away from the charm of this film. Not at all. The main premise is Kate is afraid to fly and doesn't accompany her fiancé to Paris as they had planned. While in Paris without her, he meets a gorgeous French woman and breaks off their engagement. Kate overcomes her fear of flying to get Charlie (Timothy Hutton) back and flies to Paris. She meets Kevin Kline on the plane and circumstances continue to throw them together. I won't tell you the whole plot but that's the gist of it.

I love Meg Ryan with her little girl innocence against Kevin Kline's worldliness. Kevin obviously speaks French very well and does so with a great French accent that is not over the top. He even has the French "phfff" down. The French have this habit of blowing air out through pursed lips which makes their cheeks puff out, making a sound like "phfff" only more drawn out than that. It's hard to describe but they do it all the time. It's the same kind of gesture like shrugging your shoulders and holding up your hands, or saying eh. Both he and Meg also say oui like a French person would, where it comes more from the back of the mouth with your mouth more closed than open, kind of like if you were trying to say the work quack. Again, hard to describe but they both nailed the pronunciation.

The whole soundtrack is wonderful with plenty of old French classics. If you sit through the closing credits you can even hear Kevin Kline sing "La Mer" en français. I love that song. 

Gorgeous scenery from both Paris and Nice and places in-between the two cities is worth watching this movie for alone, but the comedy is just as good with a little romance thrown in.

If you've never seen it I highly recommend it. If you have seen it, then watch it again!

Photo: Paris's little sister, Lyon, was not be outdone by their big sister so they erected their own small version of the Eiffel Tower which stands next to the Basilique Notre-Dame on top of Fourvière hill. Kind of funny! It used to have an elevator and a restaurant but now it's just used as a television tower. Photo taken on vacation in Lyon in 2010.

Yikes. Give me time by myself, alone with my thoughts, add in a couple of glasses of wine and beware. 

I've been pondering lots of things lately. It would seem I am surrounded by people re-inventing themselves. My neighbors joined Weight Watchers and lost a lot of weight and started working out at the gym. I checked out what was okay for WW and I tried some of things that were okay to eat.  Hmm. Okay to eat maybe for people who don't have any taste buds or who don't care what kind of stuff they put into their bodies. No fats whatsoever are allowed. Not even fats that are actually good for your body.  Somehow I don't think it is "healthy." Some of the breads taste like cardboard. Why bother for a few less fat calories? I guess I don't get it. Okay. I do, but I don't. Rick and I did the South Beach Diet things years ago and although it worked for me, I love food too much to get too bogged down in the what-to-eat vs the what-not-to-eats. Another friend drinks only whey shakes during the day. Yes, she's lost weight (and was not overweight at all to begin with) but really? I would love to lose three pounds. Maybe four, but life is too short to limit oneself to such extreme measures at my age. Moderation is the key. And accepting yourself for who you are, and accepting your body for what it is at any age is a good thing. Our society today places too much emphasis on what we look like.

Besides, I have my own diet: the 3 Dog Diet. If you haven't heard of it before this, well you have now. Take a handful of anything. It can be junk food, good food, whatever, it doesn't really matter. Take the portion you just took for yourself and divide it between yourself and three eager dogs. There you have it — the 3 Dog Diet. Another version is order a hamburger (or any other alternative nasty fast food object) and eat all but the last three bites, thereby dividing it between three dogs' mouths. Voilà: instant diet!

My sister shared with me yesterday that she is contemplating, well, something major for changing her life up.

And me? Nothing as lofty as either of the aforementioned things.          

And therein lies the question: is there something wrong with me that I have no goals to set, no burning desire to do or be something? Am I just complacent? Or am I just lazy?  Or even worse, afraid? I don't know the answer to that. I only know that I don't feel a need at this time in my life to "fix things" and hopefully that is okay.  Somehow it seems other than okay to just sit back and enjoy life without having some lofty goal in sight. Is it okay to be at a place in life where you don't feel the need to improve or reinvent while everyone around you seems to be doing just that?

Maybe it's because I've challenged myself a lot throughout my life so far. Living in three different European countries, where at the time English was not widely spoken, was a pretty good challenge. Not only linguistically, but just day to day life.  Heck, even moving to New Jersey from Colorado was challenging in the fact that it was different. Culturally speaking, I might as well be living in a different country with the additional perk of still speaking the same language. Well, at least most of the time. But that's a subject for a different blog entry in the future. But you get my drift here.

I've led a full life filled with plenty of travel and challenges and right now I feel like I don't mind coasting along with the flow. Will I regret the coasting? Maybe, but I don't think so. I'm just not that kind of person. Getting to know the "real" you and being comfortable with that, to me, is what it's all about. I might be wrong in someone else's eyes, but for now, I think I'm who I am supposed to be. Am I perfect? No. But I think I can live with that.

But should I? Am I missing something?

Photo: Broken: A dejected chair on the porch of one of the old houses at Long Pond Ironworks.

Last night as I opened the door to let the dogs outside for a final visit to yard, I heard them. Finally, our spring peepers singing in their froggy chorus!  What a  welcome and lovely sound that was. I did hear peepers at Duck Pond while on my walk at Skylands the other day but only for a minute as I first walked up to the pond and then they became silent. I opened the window when I went to bed so I could hear them and be "peeped" to sleep.

Through my open window this morning I was awakened by the repetitive robin and numerous woodpeckers drilling away on the trees. There was so much drilling going on that it sounded like a construction site! My goodness, I think Spring might just be around the corner! The warm temperatures that we are expecting over the next few days might just encourage the trees to pop.

(Photo: Cardinal at Skylands that was singing such a pretty song for me.)

 Now for rent in Skylands

Botanical Gardens!

This 4.5 bedroom penthouse apartment with expansive views

in the "high" rent district is now available

for the spring nesting season.

Unfurnished.

Please bring your own twigs and

any other necessary nesting materials.

Price: 50 worms for the season

Linked to Rurality Blog hop #10