We’re in the midst of final preparations for tomorrow’s Christmas service at church so I won’t go into too much detail about the past week which, primarily for the kids, has continued to be heavily impacted by strikes in the transportation sector.

They go to school 30km from where we live and depend on the train. Due to strikes, their transport time has just about doubled daily making for very long days. Needless to say they’re very glad to be on vacation.

I’ll share more in detail in the coming days, but for now, we’d appreciate your prayers for tomorrow’s service as we are expecting a number of first time guests.

To tide you over… here are a few pics from this week… Christmas is definitely in the air!

Talk to you soon….
God bless you & Merry almost Christmas!

Today’s title will sound familiar if you’ve ever seen or heard of the 1966 western “The Good, the Bad & the Ugly” … or as it was in Italian “Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo”.

Why do I bring up the Italian title?

Because, in case it wasn’t clear what I was holding in my hand, in today’s feature pic… it’s my Italian passport; only 5.5 years in the making! …

Last weekend, I had to pop out to a little community about a 1/2 hour from here to pick up Dominic who had been celebrating a friend’s birthday. That drive took me to the heart of a teeny-tiny little French village, about as typical as they come, along the Vienne River…. (the same river that runs through Châtellerault). Today’s feature picture is from that village. Welcome to Bonneuil Matours!

Good morning from our backyard to yours!

Word on the street has it that some of you there in North America had to deal with snow this week. Thankfully, we haven’t had to go there just yet. In fact, today’s feature pic is one that I took Sunday morning as we were headed out the door to church.

Whereas snow is a sure sign that ‘winter is here’ back home, here… it’s mist. The further we get into winter, the more likely we are to see a cool mist hanging in the air.

It’s lovely and gives a bit of a magical feel to the surroundings… but I digress. Let me tell you a bit about this week…

If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen a post this week that mentions “Moss Season”. It’s another term I use to affectionately refer to the lead-up to winter and late Spring.

As much as the summer was drought-dry…. the last two months have seen us receive just under 2x the average amount of rain for this time of year. Besides gradually refilling the water table, the abundance of moisture – combined with cool temperatures – means that moss grows like a bad weed!

(Below you’ll see a pic of moss beginning to flourish on a tar & gravel roof at the university.)

At least that’s what it’s felt like…

Since last Saturday, our little Peugeot 407 wagon has clocked nearly 2,000km (1,200 miles), and have gone from the deep south, to the near-north of the country.

I generally love to drive and don’t mind letting the others relax, but when I got to sit back in a non-moving armchair for part of the day Thursday, I wasn’t disappointed! 🙂

Here’s a quick run down of the cool things that happened this week.

Mornings, of late, are down in the 9-12 degrees centigrade and the days are notably shorter – Wednesday, I even started teaching while the sky was still dark, although we “fall back” this weekend, so that should help the daylight situation a little bit.

The season is not just changing in the physical realm… but it feels like something is stirring spiritually as well…

There was a time not so long ago (…or was it?) when Liz’s Doctor asked her if she often felt tired or fatigued. Laughing, she responded “Fatigue is my constant companion.”

That pretty much sums up life for the Long family this week. Fortunately, in our weakness, He is strong!