1989 Nuits Saint Georges

1989 was the year Britt and Valerie were married.
It was also a good year for wines.
On a recent trip to Paris, Valerie picked up a bottle of 1989 Nuits Saint Georges and brought it back to Lima.
They drank it recently in honor of 23 years of happy marriage - and before the movers came to pack up all the kitchen and other items in their Lima apartment.
Good friends were on hand to help celebrate and take the photo.
It was great!
Cheers!

African animals up close

On their recent trip to Kenya, Britt and Valerie spent a Sunday on Crescent Island in Lake Naivasha.
It is a remarkable spot - a bit like the Garden of Eden. It is here that much of the movie Out of Africa was filmed. To add authenticity, the movie creators brought in all sorts of giraffes, gazelles, gnus, and such. Though the animals could leave the island (attached to land part of the year) many of them stay. The area is free of predators (no carnivores) and offers plenty of water and feed.
For humans, it's a unique place that offers the chance to walk among the animals, free of the fear of being pounced on or trampled upon by a lion, leopard, water buffalo, elephant, rhino, or such. There are some hippos in the lake, but they seem content enough to stick to themselves.

 Britt and Valerie arriving on Crescent Island

 Pink pelicans

 Dik diks, they are very small and shy

 Valerie and giraffe

 Giraffes and impalas

 Colobus monkey

 Lake Naivasha

 Gazelles

 Zebra family

 Running wildebeest

 Waterbuck, zebra, and wildebeest

 lone wildebeest and gazelles

 Pink pelicans

 Waterbuck

 Vervet monkey and her baby

 Heron in the water hyacinths

 restaurant where we had lunch

on the road by the lake, a reminder that this is a land of herders

Uganda market

Valerie had a work meeting in Uganda. It took place in a lovely resort on Lake Victoria. Britt tagged along and worked from the very large room they were assigned.
The meeting featured impressive experts, re-connections with colleagues and work acquaintances, and interesting site visits.

These are portraits of some of the farmers we visited:

 We were visiting a cassava fields, and I couldn't resist taking a photo of the impressive termite mounds you see all over the East African countryside

 Shy child on a farm

 These school children performed songs and dances for us during an afternoon celebration

 These children were eating raw cassava and mugging for the photo

 These photos are from a visit to a potato wholesale market in Kampala

 The potatoes are sorted and placed in 130 kg bags to be trucked to other parts of Uganda, Rwanda, and South Sudan.

 The smaller potatoes are sold on the retail market in smaller quantities

 This  boy is 3 years old and made friends with our photographer/writer colleague, Neil, who is Welsh and was drawn by this little guy's shirt.

 They got along so well, Neil let our new buddy try out his camera

 It was impressive to see  spindly men hoist and carry the 130 kg bags of potatoes

 Then we went to the retail market:
Here a woman was selling green bananas. In Uganda there are hundreds of different varieties of bananas, ranging from red and yellow to green and blue.

 These are yams (not sweetpotato or cassava).

 Lovely beans for sale at the market

 and here is the woman who was selling the colorful beans

Our colleague, Sarah, with a cassava vendor

 A group shot in the retail market

 This woman's smile, and orange scarf, were irresistible

 as was the gentle smile of this young girl

Rain and Sun in Paris

Valerie and Britt recently flew to Kenya, to look for housing in Nairobi.
The flight went through Paris, where Valerie also had a one-day work meeting.
Though the trip was just a quick pass through, it did provide an opportunity for some great walks, quick visits with relatives, and dinner in a classic Left Bank eatery.
It was June, and the weather was predictably mixed.

 There was rain

 There were delicious pastries

 and surprises

 including these people, dressed in period costume

 The Pont des Arts is now totally covered with love lockets/locks

 and edges of the Seine covered with loving couples

 and then, the sun came out

 which inspired local painters

 and early morning runners

 The fire brigade stopped to pose

 and Eiffel Tower vendors did their best

 as did this dancing lady

 Dinner at Le Polidor

 with long days and late sunsets