WWOOFing around...

Hey all

here is a little secret ( not really) for those of you who want to travel around the world without paying too much for it: wwoof,work worldwide on organic farms. In exchange for a 20 hour workweek on the farm you get a place to stay and one meal a day. Nice right? Well, I started wwoofing around last month and here is the trailer I am staying into ( I bought it for $1100 so it need a little tlc!) and that will hopefully take me all the way to Oregon next summer or fall via Guatemala and Canada (yes I do know my geography,I just dream big!)
Hope to see you on the road,and also on my new travel blog, (born to live) soon!

Why go to Agay?

Here is a travel writing post I put on trazzler.com,hope you enjoy it!


After a tortuous road on a hot day it is staring back at you. The magnificence of the red Esterel mountains against the azure sea is the perfect backdrop to the green palms that lined the road that led you to it. This little known secret of the French Riviera,lost on the coastal road between Cannes and Saint Tropez is the village of Agay. In the middle of the summer, when every other beach in the area is unapproachable,there is still hope that you will find a spot under the great big pines on Agay's beach. Nestled there, smiling at your secret with the mountains and the bay, armed with a Françoise Sagan novel, rocked by the subtle sound of the waves and the rythmic plea of the cicadas, you have found the refuge “par excellence.”

Photo alteration Picnik.com

For those of us who don't have the money to spend on photoshop I thought I would share this site called picnik.com where photo altering is made easy! You don't have to pay for the fancier option as you can see with my pictures here were altered enough with the free options!

So go on and enjoy spending the next 3 hours trying to alter all your pictures and don't thank me for this new time waster, I am here for you!

Trust the strawberries

Here is a picture taken in the Amish countryside this past month.
I enjoy the fact that there are people that still trust others to do the right thing,the Amish for example are one of those people! No one is standing alongside their strawberry stands to check if you are actually putting three dollars in the box for the half pound of fresh,juicy,sunny,May berries they picked for you that very morning!
I hope you all enjoyed strawberry season,it's almost over to be back a bit in August for "la remontee des fraises" as we say in France.
For now I will trust that you won't buy out of season fruits and vegetables,there is no way I can check anyway!

spring sugar cookies

Here are some nice sugar cookies from all recipes.com I made today. I found some good icing there too! I only made a quarter of the amount of icing though! Bon appetit a tous!

sugar cookies

INGREDIENTS

* 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
* 2 cups white sugar
* 4 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 5 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.


Icing:

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 4 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1/2 cup shortening
* 5 tablespoons milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* food coloring

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes.

Biking in Nowlins,the garden district

In need of a bike in Nola?

There is a great way to see the garden district in New Orleans and it is by bicycle. If you don't travel with your own, the prices to rent one in Nola are pretty much the same everywhere ($25 a day) but some shops offer different services that might be more what you need if you are staying a bit out of the French quarter where all the bike rental shops seem to be. Does everyone have to stay in the French quarter to have some fun? I say no. Try to stay in mid-city and you can enjoy some laid back neighborhood coffee shops and restaurants,and all that a street car ride away from the center and even a shorter cab ride. Browsing the different websites for bike rental I came across this one site that proposed to come to your house and drop off the bikes. The guy was really nice and helpful and even picked up the bikes somewhere else at the end of the day. It was the exact same price as having to use transportation to get to those shops in the French quarter and much more convenient. To ride in the garden district I would take some roads parallel to the main ones as some street can get busy,but Jeff from the Confederacy of Cruisers can tell you where to go to be safe and see what you want to see. Here is the website http://confederacyofcruisers.com/Rentals.php Enjoy the ride!

The truth speaks for itself

Is it always a good idea to speak the truth?
By that I mean your truth which is relative compared to your neighbor's truth. “Do I look fat in those jeans?” your roommate might ask after eating a few chocolate donuts and coming back from her beloved weight watchers meeting. “No you really don't,” you might reply after reflecting on whether or not it is a good idea to point out the truth. It might seem appropriate, especially if you run the risk of irritating someone who knows where you sleep, to tell an inoffensive white lie. While the instinct of self-preservation is admirable here, the truth that your friend might want to slow down on the donuts might be more beneficial to her, you and society as a whole in the long run.
In fact, being honest is a quality we need to develop, as many have forgotten the meaning of it altogether. Society tells us it's okay to tell “white lies,” but is it? Or as Amy Pohler and Seth Miers put it on Saturday Night Live, “Really! Really? Really!” Look where it has gotten our society by allowing people to tell white lies. It seems the problem facing our society is a lack of ethical conduct. What about all those crying CEOs asking for the candid tax payer to bail them out with one hand, while giving bonuses to their friends with the other.
So tell me, is it so innocent now to start off by lying to your roommate about her bottom? If she did not want an honest opinion she would not have asked you, and if she does not like the answer she can refrain from asking you next time. See how good it feels to tell the truth?
But there are harder truths to be told. Those that we need to face in order to keep humanity alive, for example. Can I tell my friend that he does not need the new iPhone, and that yes he can walk to the grocery store a quarter mile away? The truth is we all need to change our habits and do a little to change a lot. The truth is you should tell anyone whatever you want as long as you are respectful. In the olden days they used to call it tact. Associated with the truth it can be a powerful tool.
Your mission is not easy but you might just save your roommate from embarrassment.  If the truth you have to tell is a bit of a burning issue though, remember that tact can get you a long way.  If your issue is to tell your brother that his SUV is the reason we are in Iraq, you might want to phrase it so that he will listen to what you have to say.  Telling the truth is not easy but it will get you somewhere if you know how to package it.  So you could tell your Hummer-loving brother the following: “I guess someone as successful as you can afford 10 miles per gallon but I like my bicycle plus I get a work out.” And add “I know you would enjoy being part of the solution against global warming.” There are no lies here, may be a little sucking up but if your brother has a Hummer, he probably is successful at something!

Telling the truth feels good. It's as simple as that. Think how much better you would feel if you could tell your friends and family how you really feel. All that is possible,just use tact! No more hiding your opinions to keep someone happy. No more pretending.
Following this simple guide lines will put you and your loved ones in a better, less frustrating position. May be you will start a trend that will reach the most corrupted areas of the world and end world hunger and global warming.  After all as Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world.” So go ahead and be that change!

Jean Laffitte national park

Jean Lafitte national park, across from New Orleans, Louisiana:


When spending some time letting the good times roll in Nola, you might want to add to the activities list to check out the swamps,at least you can say you did something that did not involve drinking! There are plenty of touristy boat tours for the same swamps but if you are feeling a little more adventurous and you are a bit broke drive your car down to the Jean Lafitte national park and take the walking path along the swamps. The only recommendation we were given by the ranger was “not to pet the animals”. He probably thought “those god damn kids are probably dumb enough to think alligators are cute and fuzzy!”

While on the path stay alert though because you WILL see some big gators trying to catch a tan right along the very same narrow path you are walking on. If you hear a big splash don't get panicked,it's just a scared alligator that heard you coming. No need to be scared of those prehistorical creatures or as my friend Jimmy says if they let us go by ourselves it must be safe!???Right?” Right,sure... when do governmental organizations EVER put their own citizens at risk?