I had a wonderful week at a chateau in the countryside near Lautrec (9/18-23) with 9 other friends of Catherine Carr, to celebrate her birthday. Catherine & I met in nursing school, then became midwives & dear friends.
Mornings at the Chateau D’Aragon began with a trip into the village for fresh croissants & pain aux raisins or citron. Then over our coffee or tea & pastries we’d decide who was going where with whom. I saw some of Toulouse, Castres, Carcassone, & Albi, & hiked “The Crests” tour around Lautrec. Each evening we had a fabulous dinner cooked by Cousin John, one of the party who’s a professional chef from San Francisco.
The actual birthday celebration featured a chocolate mousse cake from the local patisserie & the surprise announcement to Catherine that we had established a scholarship in her name through the American College of Nurse Midwives.
Many thanks to Nicole for taking good care of all our clients while I was having such a great time!
Catherine and Barbara hiking around Lautrec
We made crowns out of sparkly pipe cleaners for the party – here’s my royal look!
Here is Barbara sharpening her eye-hand coordination at the Silverball Arcade.
Barbara, her sister, & grandkids after a round of mini-golf
Wow, I can’t believe it is already August! Some summer highlights include our annual Fire Island week where Eleanor was big enough (and brave enough) this year to swim in the ocean with her daddy, cousins, aunts, uncles and Nonna. What a delight to listen to squeals of joy as she jumped over the crashing waves. We also had a fantastic time, again, at the Newport Folk festival. A bit harder this year since Eleanor is on the move, and much of our time was spent chasing her through throngs of festival-goers, but as always, she made lots of people smile. We had a great time with our friends and we had the added treat of my in-laws joining in the fun. In July we welcomed the newest member of our family, my niece, baby Jessie who is absolutely darling. Summer in our new house has been incredible. We’ve spent countless days at the town pool and in our backyard picking blackberries and tomatoes, making new friends, swinging in the hammock and playing with the garden hose. We even cleaned out our backyard pond and got our very first pets–fish! Looking forward to many more BBQs before the summer comes to an end.
Just got back from a wonderful week in London with my youngest granddaughter, Clementine, who is 12. Lovely weather for boating on the Thames, which she loved. We went by water to the Tower of London one day, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich the next, and to Kew Gardens the day after that. We saw “Billy Elliot” and “Wicked”. But her favorite experience of the whole trip was the exhibit at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank, which involved shooting down a helical slide 3 stories high on the outside of the building. I did it too! (and did not have a heart attack!). Thanks to Nicole for taking care of everyone so well while I was away – she spent a LOT of time at the hospital!
CBS Midwifery was established in 1982. The last delivery was the 3,711th, on May 16, 2018.