Oct/090
Baron von Winckler flattens park hill?
My Aunt in America has written a book of local history which I can't wait to read. This is what she has to say about it;
My book is a 100 year history of a Denver suburb called Park Hill. The first development began in the 1890s. Before that it was prairie land. For perspective, Park Hill is closer to Denver than where I live about 7 miles further east. We need histories of suburbs because Americans are too quick to bulldoze everything after 50 years and simply loose the information that has gone before.
Park Hill was platted by a german possibly related to the "Red Baron" of WWI. His name was Baron ...von Winckler. He had a very sad life and committed suicide here but left us what became a beautiful suburb with architect-designed homes and tree-lined streets.
Then, in the 1970s, the school busing laws began to be enforced here. That was a complicated process where public school boundaries were redrawn to include lower economic areas so that blacks would be bused into the white schools.
This happened all around the country. "White flight" followed, meaning that white families sold their houses quickly and moved further outside of Denver to avoid busing their kids.
But in Park Hill, a core group of residents and churches decided to embrace the changes. The problems they had and the law suits that followed hopefully will be my next book.
How about that for a summary?
Jul/090
More congratulations
While I'm on the subject, I'd like to congratulate my sister and her lovely boyfriend who have just announced their engagement. They're both living in New Zealand at the moment, but will be heading back to the civilized half of the planet towards the end of the year and plan to get married - err..... sometime after that I guess.
But check out the bling ring. Nice huh?
Jun/090
Babies Babies, Babies
Everyone seems to be having babies. The Blyths went into labour over in Geneva at 3am this morning and my little sister is due before we'll know it. Here's a nice little film from vimeo. This french lady has posted more films of Capuchine's antics, some of which we've seen. I like the one when she tells the story about the hippopotamus.
Jun/090
Flickr Photostreams
Sometimes, if I don't feel like watching a movie on, I put some music through my TV and watch flickr photostreams. I like to watch my own, it's like going back in time, but you can watch anyone's stream as a slideshow. It's like going back in time through their lives too.
What I wanted to share was really my favourite flickr slideshow. It's of my sisters civil wedding and I wasn't even the photgrapher. I like this set the best of all my sets
May/090
A visit from the olds
I had a lovely visit from the olds this week. They were on a road trip, first visiting me here in Le Tour before heading up into Germany to visit my sister who is currently gestating a new member of the Dorward family. I'm very excited about becoming an uncle for the first time this year. I'm hoping she won't mind me mentioning it here, but it seems far enough along in the process to be public broadcast-able?
Anyhoo - the parents and I had a great time this week. It's probably the first time I've been living in a place large enough for us to stay all together without treading on each other's toes too much. I had enough activities planned to cover all weather eventualities but luckily the sun came out for their stay. A round of golf at the Chamonix Golf course kicked things off. Keen golfers, my folks and the pretty setting of the Chamonix course impressed them.
The next day was a really nice walk down to Vallorcine where we detoured off to a waterfall called the Cascade de Bérard which a bloke down the pub had told me about the night before. Well worth the detour it was too.
And lastly a trip down into Switzerland to the outdoor thermal Spa at Les Bains De Lavey which is exactly what I needed after having a cold for a while.
Added to that we all ate well and watched a few good films together, not to mention sharing a bit of gardening knowledge and generally catching up with the family news. It's a shame we didn't get time to go cyclying and that the weather wasn't quite right for my Dad to be able to do a tandem parapente flight, but there's always the next time.
Jan/090
A film about twins
for my mum & my sisters, really.
Human Mirror from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo.
flickr photos stats
Oct/080
Another year
So it's the 15th of October again. Another birthday. Looking back at my blog from this time last year, I'm in a far better mood about the whole getting older thing. So much so that I'm even going out to dinner tonight with a bunch of friends. 33 years old I am. Unmarried, no kids, long hair and living in ski resort. Maybe it's time to grow up? Nah.
But the best present I'm getting for my birthday this year is that my girlfriend is coming home and should be here this evening. All kinds of passport/visa issues have kept her from coming back to France, but this morning she finally had her passport in her hand again and is probably checking in as I write this.