Three days ago, we had temps of 20˚C (68˚F) and today the high is expected to be 7˚C (44˚F)… so although Spring is officially several weeks away, we’ve gotten our lips whet and it feels wonderful. With so much still either on lockdown or impossible to do after a 6pm curfew, having warmer days and ever lengthening evenings has made things a bit more bearable.

Daffodils and crocus are up, the mimosa trees are in full, mustard-yellow bloom and even a few camelias are already brightening up yards with various shades of pink, salmon and white.

And… as you can see from today’s feature photo… the bees are busy gathering pollen, but that’s not all. Let me share the week in four pictures.

Online Bible Quizzing

The nationnal Bible quizzing program has been in swing for several months already, but today is the first ‘tournament’ of the season.

If I italicize ‘tournament’, it’s because it will look vastly different for you in North America where many a quizzing tournament is taking place in seemingly more normal ways: in-person.

Here, as was the case last summer, quizzing tournaments / quiz-offs are taking place virtually. So each of the kids are set up on laptops, in their own rooms (Sophie as a coach & the boys as quizzers) for an escape-room activity to begin the day. The idea is that each participant has to use elements from the selected study-verses to get clues that will allow them to open doors and make their escape.

After lunch, the matches will begin in earnest. Dominic is quizzing in the senior division, Timo in the beginner division, and Sophie will float between the two, depending on who’s competing at any given time.

Church Instagram

One of the ways that I’ve been trying to get the church out there a little bit more, in the community is via an Instagram profile. The idea is that as people are scrolling through municipality-specific hashtags or the location feed, they’ll come across our posts. Photos are all ones that I’ve taken here in town and generally have a single Biblical reference with a short explanation / illustration in the description.

Want to help? If you’re an instagrammer, you can help us in two ways:

• You can help increase visibility and social proof by following the account and liking photos.
• Use it as an opportunity to pray God’s word over our city. (Even if you don’t speak French, you’ll likely be able to identify the English reference, read it in your own Bible, and pray that verse over our city)

Spring Bees

Well I’ve got to say… the warm weather earlier in the week has been wonderful for the bees. I went into the winter with four colonies and came out with only two. Winter losses are not uncommon, but I think these two were my fault. I usually do a mid-winter varroa-mite treatment and put winter food patties on just-in-case. But my intervention came too late for the two colonies in question. The smaller of which, I think, had had too much varroa-pressure and the other of which did not have enough honey-stores (& I hadn’t even taken any honey from that hive).

So… to see bees from the remaining two hives flying vigorously and bringing in pollen, was a good sign and a great relief! It means that the queen has successfully wintered and is laying the next generation of bees.

Thanks…

… for stopping by today.
God bless you and thank you for your continued prayers for us and for France.

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the Footnote:

As comfortable as I am with some things, like blogging, Instagram, etc., anyone who knows me well will know that I am equally as UN-comfortable with all things technically useful around the house. So it was no small feat this week when I did what for many of you would be child’s play: changing the heating element in the stove (which involved removing the back cover and tinkering with the wires found there).

This Sunday won’t be like two Sunday’s ago, when we came home to what should’ve been a piping hot dinner in a pre-programmed oven and was, instead, still uncooked. This Sunday, as is our custom, thanks to Liz, we should be able to come home to a hot dinner.

And THAT… is the footnote!