fine-grained crosswire

Love

给树理发

春天来了，万物即将复苏，也是该给树理发的时候了。我不记得我在其它国家看到工人锯掉路两旁的树枝，除非树枝真的影响到交通了。可是在法国这似乎是每年一度开春儿必做的事情。工人们把锯掉的树枝放在搅碎机里，霎时机器的另一端喷出锯末，存在车上，然后被拉走，整个过程干净利落。抬头一看，一排树愣愣的，秃秃的，就剩下几枝粗树杈，傻傻地站在那里。记得刚来到法国的时候还挺为它们担心，不过在看到葱郁的新枝发出来后，就感到它们只不过被理了发。

可能法国人太讲究艺术气息了，随处可见各式各样发型的树。香榭大道，还有皇家庭院，到处是再创作。难道自然本身不是一种艺术吗？［不过我自己也该理发了。］

Art

Saturday morning, opened my eyes, I saw wall, wall, wall, plain walls around me. The good thing about having plain walls is that you can see mosquitoes easily if there is any. Now, it is winter, plain walls  lose their functionality. It would be nice to have some paintings on my wall.

Talking about paintings, it reminds me of my trip to Lake Annecy in 2009. Annecy is a beautiful town with many artists selling their work there. I used to watch some live painting for a hour struggling with whether I should buy one or not. The painting was beautiful, but after knowing how it was done, which seemed to be easy, the desire of buying one gradually disappeared. Of course, it also costs money.

Like many other children, I did some paintings when I was young. Parents were very happy to use them to decorate their house. Maybe it is time to do some paintings myself and hang them on my wall. I am in Paris!

Life is short -- only a few decades left. Once having a good idea, should carry it out immediately. So I shopped as an artist and bought many things: 12 pencils scaling from 6B to 5H, 12 colours for water painting, 2 painting brushes, 1 protractor, 1 triangle ruler, 1 normal ruler, 1 drawing board, 1 small drawing stand and many drawing papers for different purposes.

Since I have got myself well-equipped, I have no execuse not to start. So I spent the whole Sunday creating some art, from pencil sketching to water colour painting. Out of three pierces of work I did, only one is presentable. Not sure which part of muscles artists use for painting, my whole body starts to feel painful. Nothing is easy!

No pain, no gain. Overall, the experience is good. Not sure colours stimulate creativity or not, but they do relax my mind and motivate me to continue.

Warmth and Peace

When do you feel warmth and peace? When I see my grandma doing some sewing, I feel warmth. When I see my mother doing some reading, I feel peace.

Durian

Durian is a delicious tropical fruit with a distinct smell. Last month, I had a trip to Singapore. On my way back, I bought some durian chocolate at airport planning to share with my colleagues in France. Even if each chocolate ball is a small piece of dried durian wrapped with a layer of white chocolate followed by a layer of dark chocolate, you can still sense the durian smell after opening the packing.

Colleagues, who tried durian before, thanked me for the chocolate. Colleagues, who have never tried durian, either refused to try because of the smell or tried it and felt regret. I understand all their feelings as I remember that it used to take me at least half a year from disliking it to accepting it, enjoying it and loving it. My colleagues' reaction again justifies the saying, "Durian is a fruit that you may not like it initially, but the more you eat it, the more you like it".

Many things in life are like trying durian: before dawn, it is darkness; before spring, it is winter. So, if someone offers you durian next time, try it!

Trip to fairyland

I had a chateau-trip to Blois, Chambord and Cheverny last weekend. My main destination is Chambord, which is the most beautiful architecture in France in my eyes. Nowadays, with the google map, giving you the name of the place is enough, pictures worth thousands of words.

To have a relaxed trip, I chose to stay at Blois over night. In the evening, before sunset, I joined a horse carriage tour. It is quite a big carriage with about 15 seats, driven by two beautiful white horses. I sat on the first row waiting for the rest of the tourists to join. Suddenly, I saw one horse kissed the other. [You might ask, are you sure that was a kiss? Dana: Yes. I am sure.] Aha! One is taller than the other and the smaller one looks more gentle. They must be one female and one male. I looked around. There were four such carraiges and each was driven by two horses that one is taller than the other -- four couples. In the past, when a horse carriage was a main form of transport, a good horse carriage used two horses of the same height to achieve speed and better balancing. Now, these factors are not so important to tourists and I am happy that they take care of horses' welfare. It makes the carriage tour more romantic.

Trip started, we passed by ancient buildings, river and bridge; rode on ancient lanes as well as modern streets. When I was capturing these beautiful moments, the carriage stopped. I looked at the front. Oh, it was because of the red traffic light, [Yes. Horses also follow traffic light.], which took me from the fairyland back to the reality.

After my chateau-trip, my first feeling is that I do not want to live in any of them as it does not seem to be a place that gives you much privacy. But it is quite pleasant to walk in the royal gardens being companied by these nice architectures. My second feeling is that my French seems improving. Although I only know a few sentences, it seems that they are good enough for me to travel around in France. Local people are quite happy to meet a Chinese tourist speaking some French. Some of them also speak some Chinese back to me, quite a friendly atmosphere in general. My third feeling is ...  Must I have the third feeling? Maybe not.