Saturday

My suitcase decided to have a fling with Paris, partying there for the third day now, showing no intention of hopping on a plane to return home. The beleaguered airline personnel, like parents of a petulant child, offer apologies and even financial payment (all of $100) for their charge's malfeasance, but that does little to bring the kid home where she belongs. I'm hoping that the French will have enough of her defiant stance and send her on her way. I'll keep you posted!

In the meantime, I know I am entitled to additional compensation for articles that I need in the days before our reconciliation and reunion. Of course, I don't really need anything. We none of us really need fresh pairs of pants and shirts every day, but might this be an opportunity to replace some stuff and charge the airline for it? So often in life we are faced with these choices: do we follow the path laid out for us, do we take what's handed out freely, even though we know that we don't actually need the gifted items?  Sigh... I guess I'll stick with my old underwear and ratty corduroy pants when they finally decide they've had enough of the good life in Paris.

Waking up to a weekend, I got hungry for a baked goods breakfast. I asked Ed if I should maybe head out to our old favorite for baguettes and croissants. No, dont bother driving out... But, but... Why dont you bake something?

There's an idea. After feeding the animals...

... and experiencing that joy of a special bird sighting...

... I take out a book I purchased 3 or 4 years ago and never used. This one:

It's a beautiful compilation of stories, photos and recipes and yes, it does have a good number of pages on Savoie cooking. And I see there's a recipe for a Savoie cake. With a suggestion to sprinkle it with blueberries. Well that sounds good!

I'll say this much: it took forever to bake (twice as long as called for, though this may be the fault of using Bresse chicken eggs, which are very very large!), and in the end, it looked way better than it tasted. 

A definite Meh.... Not terrible, but not worth the effort. I'd be better off baking a traditional bundt cake, and yes, I did see bundt cakes -- both in Chamonix and Morzine. I'm sure they were delicious. This one was about as indifferent as you could imagine. (I am a harsh baked goods critic. I'm way too old to put up with indifferent pastries and breads.)

And now the sun comes out and I am reminded of... Chamonix! Sunshine, icy surfaces, temps rising to just above freezing -- the most perfect weather to put yourself outside.

We go for a walk.

The wind picks up a bit, but still, it really is beautiful outside. Lake Waubesa is not completely frozen and we climb onto the pedestrian bridge to watch the swans do their graceful sail across the river that links one lake with the next. Trumpeters probably. Migrating now to Minnesota. 

We hike a bigger loop than usual, just because it feels so good to be walking in this pre-spring weather! I dont know how many dozens, possibly hundreds of times we've walked the trails of this park of ours. It never gets old.

Pre-spring, but nippy out over the lake! We turn in and walk briskly back to the car. 

I'm telling myself that it may be lusciously sunny and bright, but it's still winter. A good day to cook up a pot of soup. All our winter veggies -- onion, carrots and spinach from our winter farmers, squash and tomatoes from our garden, garlic, and the world's best local corn. For dessert? A split chocolate from our Valentine's Day box. 

Who says February doesn't deliver perfect days?!