SPRING IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!

The last few weeks I'm afraid I've been a little boastful about how wonderful our weather was...perhaps a little prematurely!!!!  We had days (even weeks) of beautiful blue skies, mild temperatures and no rain.  Certainly we believed spring had come!!!   But, alas, as one of our friends said "it was just to tease us"!!!!  This week winter has returned with temps in the low 50's (F), cloudy and sometimes, rainy days and several nights of very strong winds.  Arrrggghhh!😖. What it is they say about pride?????

However, it's still nicer right now than it was one year ago when we moved here.  Yes, that's right.  We moved here on March 3, 2018, to begin our Paris adventure.  In many ways, I can't believe the year has passed so quickly.  On the other hand, the last month of our first year seemed to be so looooong.  I felt as though I kept saying "we've been here nearly a year" for months.   I have thought several times had we decided to return to the US, we'd be there now starting our life there.  But there are things to do here first.    We have family visiting in the next few months, an occasional friend here and there and we're directing Bloom again.  Too, we're planning a trip back to the US in, hopefully, August when everyone here (or so it seems) leaves for "vacances".

Remember my flower box geraniums from last spring?  Well, they're still alive though not nearly as thick and full.  We bought some fertilizer,  and they've already begun to green up.  I'm hopeful they will also fill out.  I suppose it's no surprise the one where we had baby birds is HUGE and beautiful!!!  Maybe birds need to live (short-term) in all the boxes!!!!!

Here's one we just started fertilizing-I have high hopes for it!

And here's where the baby birds were born!!!  Amazing what a little bird "fertilizer" will do!!

I had to show you my camellia bush-we bought it last year about this time and watched it bloom all spring.  It's been on the balcony since then and look at all the buds.  Every day I check it to see if I have any blossoms.  I think it may need a little sun!!!

As our visas expire, we have to do the necessary things to renew them in order to stay and in order to leave and return.  Because we couldn't get these appointments earlier, we had to get an "extension" that will serve as our official I.D. until our appointments (David's in late March and mine not until May).  I often wonder what paperwork formalities our internationals in the US have to go through to get to stay in our country.  Having worked with them through the ESL program at Hunter's Glen, it didn't seems nearly as tedious as what we're experiencing here but perhaps it was.

In the midst of all this, some friends called last week and spontaneously invited us to a jazz club in their neighborhood.  A friend had told them about this club so it was new to them too.  We had a light dinner at their apartment then proceeded to Le Bal Blomet.   It was fabulous!!!  This particular evening they were doing "Lumiere sur Broadway" (light on Broadway).   Le Bal Blomet is the oldest jazz club in Europe that is still entertaining people.  It got a major renovation in 2017 respecting its history.

Le Bal Blomet

 I thought it would just be a jazz band playing Broadway tunes.  But, even better, there were two performers, a man and a woman,  who were wonderful.  Both, but especially the woman, were very talented but also very warm and fun.  Most of the songs we knew (of course) and most were in English (to my surprise).  The place was full,  and we had great seats.  We got tickets online but then seats were first come.  Though there were floor seats, most were taken and we went upstairs where chairs and small tables were set up and we had great views.

This gives you an idea of the inside of the club-that's my head at the bottom of the picture so you can see how good our seats were

It was such a fun evening and we hope to go back another time.  But we might not enjoy another show as much as we enjoyed this one since it was not only music we know,  but it was in a language we understand!!!!  Sharing this with friends just made it more meaningful and fun.