October visits in the Jura, 2009

Dwight Peck's personal website

Winter 2009-2010

Our first full year of Obama disappointments

The hysterical adventures and embarrassments of the Summer of 2009 have probably drawn to a discreet close, so now we're getting a good running start on Winter 2009-2010. We've got visits coming up, people looking in to say hi! and go for a walk in the Jura mountains with us and distract us from the daily labors of an environmental bureaucracy gone seriously awry.

An early start

One day, we're cowering in the basement to escape the brain-melting heat and the next, we throw open the shutters to a crisp breeze and a good view of the clouds across the lake.

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Whoops, Mont Blanc pops up from nowhere and our friend Kristin should be arriving tomorrow. Oops, pardon, our wife Kristin -- we'll get used to saying that.

Kristin's here and we're up in the Jura looking for monster limestone holes in the forest floor, and Kristin's found a good one. 11 October 2009 near the Combe des Begnines.

There is a strange fascination, almost a compulsion, that some people feel when hovering over a deep hole in the Jura mountainside. (Not me: I fetch out the camera and back away vigorously.)

And some people seem to spend their lives wandering all over the countryside seeking still more limestone irregularities. Here comes one of them now.

Ah, as I suspected, that's Kristin.

We've popped out onto the northeastern end of the Combe des Begnines, a four-kilometre stretch of nearly symmetrical loveliness.

So naturally Kristin climbs into a tree.

And then wants help getting down again.

Another visit: now Alison's here, too, skipped out from professional meetings near Munich for an autumn weekend of frolics in the Jura. That's her Sony digital monster camera held out front. And Kristin's got Joe, her water-bottle, prancing out in front as well.

It's 16 October, and friend Kristin (sorry, wife Kristin) is giving up on trying to chop drinking water out of the ice for the calves with her ski-pole. They seem to be begging her to persist, but Jura cows don't speak English well enough to be understood.

Friend Kristin is looking for new worlds to conquer. (BTW, there are no new worlds to conquer.)

Friend Kristin and Daughter Alison anticipating tomorrow's flight to the Préalps and a comforting weekend at the Petite Auberge on Lac de Taney.

Joe is hanging out in front.

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