Flo Bluethunder Sewing During April 09 Visit

I have enjoyed learning from traditional Lakota people about the traditions over the years. Florentine Bluethunder is a special friend I met near St Francis South Dakota back in 1990, when I first visited the Rosebud Reservation. Over the years, he has been a valuable teacher and friend, from whom I have learned songs, language and stories of the people. He stopped by this April here in St Louis Park, and I was able to share my apartment with him and with his friend from Valentine SD. His young friend went to Yale undergraduate school during the same time as my neice, Val Weaver and her husband Chris Grosso. Small world indeed! Here Flo is sewing a traditional pow-wow dress after we shared breakfast in my space.

Jean Luc Chapelier - Sharing Genealogical Laptops in St Germain

Here Jean-Luc uses his lap top. He knows where to find the Chapelier and other french connections and has helped with the Arnauds of near La Rochelle. He introduced me to the archivist in Uzes who connected me through Chris Chappelear of Ohio to Steve who lives in Columbus OH. We trace our connection to Elias and Zachariah in Maryland and Virginia to OH. Perhaps we can all meet and share sea food for a Chappelear-Chapelier reunion some time. Merci and bon chance Jean- Luc. The white Mac is the one I am writing on today.

Cevennes France St Germain de Calbert Chapelier 2008

Well, back to the August 2008 adventure to the roots of my Chapelier Huguenot ancestors in Languedoc France. Here is a view from the mountain retreat of Jean Luc Chapelier, in St Germain, who was kind enough to introduce me to the "desert" where my pro-test ant ancestors hung out when the dominant French Catholics (think Cardinal Richeleau and all) persecuted our people back in the day of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Robert Lewis Stevenson visited here in 1879 and wrote in his Travels With a Donkey "“That these continual stirs were once busy in St Germain de Calbert, the imagination with difficulty receives; all is now so quiet, the pulse of human life now beats so low and still in this hamlet of the mountains Boys followed me a great way off, like a timid sort of lion-hunters; and people turned round to have a second look, or came out of their houses, as I went by. My passage was the first event, you would have fancied, since the Camisards.”
“I took refuge on the terraces, which are here greenly carpeted with sward, and tried to imitate with a pencil the inimitable attitudes of the chestnuts as they bear up their canopy of leaves. Ever and again a little wind went by, and the nuts dropped all around me, with a light and dull sound, upon the sward. The noise was a of a thin fall of great hailstones; but there wet with it a cheerful human sentiment of an approaching harvest and farmers rejoicing in their gains. Looking up, I could see the brown nut peering through the husk, which was already gaping; and between the stems the eye embraced an amphitheater of hill, sunlit and green with leaves. I have not often enjoyed a place more deeply. I moved in an atmosphere of pleasure, and felt light and quiet and content. But perhaps it was not the place alone that so disposed my spirit." I too felt a deep peace in these mountains. Merci Jean Luc

Pay it Forward Day in Atlanta Heartsfield Airport April 20

Here is a couple from Bloomington Indiana that I snapped in Hoolihan's on the A Concourse where I had breakfast and a lunch ($7 of which was covered by Delta). When the gate person announced they were overbooked for the 8:30 AM flight and a person needed to get to an 11 AM meeting in the Twin Cities, I decided to leave the flight and do a pay it forward moment. It was fun to strike up conversations here in the airport. Folks from Poland and all over at the Delta Crossroads. Well, we'll see what leg room is like in 1st class on the 5:15. Bon chance.

Defeat Autism Now Atlanta with Master Supplementeur' Jeff Thurston

I had the honor of presenting the Master Supplement cadre of four products with Jeff Thurston, one of the owners, pictured here generously sharing products with families of autistic children at the recent DAN Conference in Atlanta. Recent scientific work has found that there is a strong link being gut, intestinal health and eubiosis (in short a good ecology) with balanced immunity. It seems some 70% of the human immune system is around the gut and having quality allies, eg Lactobaccili in the small intestine and Bifidobaccili in the large interetine seem to support the T cells (immune cells) that regulate immunity throughout the body.
Leading credence to "a gut feeling" being our second brain. Thanks Jeff for sharing your big heart with the folks over the years at the DAN Conferences...and likely more to come.

Pont du Gare 2008 Aquaduct over the Gare River

Jean Luc photographed me with the massive aquaduct backlite. In the background is the river Gare with many locals enjoying a refreshing swim.

Uzes Vallee Gare East View from Dukes Tower

Here is the landscape to the east of Uzes as seen from the Dukes Tower. Jean Luc and I climbed the stairs here to get the view. In the shadows to the east is the Pont du Gare, which we then visited. It is the world famous Roman aquaduct that carried spring water from Uzes to the Roman City of Nimes, "back in the day."