Yesterday was a long day… I was out of the house for about 17hours, and oh the things I saw.

On the way up to Angers I got a passing glimpse of the Zavatta Circus, which was set up just outside of the city. A good old fashioned circus tent, surrounded by tractor trailers and camels (of course there were camels).

On the way home last night, under cover of darkness, I saw four deer, a badger, a hedgehog and an owl. I’d never seen a large badger in the wild before, my headlights scared him back off the roadway. The owls, on the other hand, are not entirely uncommon when driving in smaller villages. It’s cool, because you only see them at night or in the early morning; something big & light-coloured, generally ‘swooping’.

I’ve had a thing for owls ever since Owls in the Family, Farley Mowat’s great Canadian classic.

I’m sitting down to write this on Friday night, while I wait for traffic to die down heading out of Angers.

This morning, there must’ve been an accident on the highway into the city. The traffic was backed up on the regional road, about 2.5km before I even arrived at the highway. Thinking I’d be clever, I quickly veered off and took a “short-cut” through the vineyards and into one of the neighbouring villages, figuring I’d come into Angers ‘the back way.’

No luck. Not only did some others have the same idea, but that road tends to be busy at the best of times during peak traffic hours. In the end, I was about an extra 35mins getting to the school.

After 7 contact hours with students, the last thing I want to do is jump right back into the heavy, supper-hour traffic. Sitting in the school library (empty of students who’ve returned home for the weekend), ‘talking to you’ is way better than playing start-stop-leapfrog in traffic. I’ll let things cool down & head back a little later.

As I sit writing this I’m somewhat amazed to say that it’s still raining.

While it seems like an odd thing to say, it’s even more odd to experience given the incredible lack of rain that we’ve experienced since about the month of June. We’ve had the odd rain shower here and there, but what we’ve had over the last two weeks takes the cake! All in all that’s a good thing though… it will replenish ground stocks.

So last week, Canada invaded the southwestern capital of France…

A few good things to bring you this week, and just enough energy to bring them to you.

Can’t remember who it was I was mentioning this too, but I’m more or less exhausted truth be told.

I remember one time, Liz went to see our family doctor, back in Canada. Liz was still working, we has small kids at home and we were homeschooling them. The doctor asked Liz if she ever felt tired or run down.

Liz’s answer…. “Fatigue is my constant companion.”

That’s kind of where I’m at. In the midst of all that however, there are bright spots …

Well…. that’s the end of trying to squeeze just a few more days out of summer!

– Timo returned to school this week.
– Dominic started the new Bible School year.
– … and I start teaching on Monday.

September is officially in full swing, and there’s lots going on!

Since the last time we visited, Western France had its 4-5 days of blistering hot weather.

Many parts of the world, and many parts of southern France have struggled with abnormally hot temperatures for much of the summer, but honestly, we can’t complain. Temperatures for most of July & August likely averaged in the 23-26˚C range (quite reasonable), but we did have a spell of 36-37˚C weather the week before last.

It means sleeping above the covers, with the fan running all night, and keeping the shutters closed for most of the day. It’s remarkable what a difference it makes.

The one thing I miss about home at times like that is the absence of standardized screens on all the windows, allowing a cool breeze to come through all night. We have makeshift screens on some of the windows, but they’re not entirely bug-proof!

Why – pray tell – is Timo standing in a big empty space, holding the Albanian flag you might ask?

If you promise to keep reading…
I promise to tell you…
😉

These past few weeks have been a blur… and then some!

Fortunately for us though, the blisteringly hot summer temperatures that you’re hearing a lot about on the news are much further south and are not currently affecting us.

This week, our temps will range between 24-26˚C (75-79˚F)… while parts of the southern coast, Italy and over East toward Turkey are all seeing temps in the low to high forties (105-118˚F)!! … Just. Un-Real!! Thank you Lord that it’s not us!

Lots of good things, so let’s jump right in!