Yes, having chronic tooth ache is not fun. Although I’m not sure if you could call it chronic, but it was painful! I sat home yesterday indecisive about whether or not I should call a dentist. In the end I walked across the road to the pharmacy because the pain was killing me, although not enough to sit in the chair. The pharmacist gave me a box of paracetamol and the thing worked wonders! The last time I was handed pain killers was after the birth of our youngest child for the after birth contractions (which, I am told, hurt double when one breast feeds) and even then I didn’t take it. “I can handle the pain,” I said to myself. “If I can handle giving birth, I can handle this!” So brave I was. Maybe why I only had three children. Come time to visit the dentist, I shrivel. But we’ll be in Austin in a fortnight and I plan on seeing my dentist, unless my teeth feel like they’re stuck in a block of ice again. In which case I will need to sit in the chair sooner.

The Dentist by Gerrit van Honthorst

Which reminds me: it’s Art Shelf Challenge time! Care to join? The painting I have chosen has nothing to do with this month’s theme on New Years Resolutions (I’ve been thinking of not following a monthly theme). I saw a similar painting like the one above by another Dutch painter when we visited the Art Museum in Dallas Forth-Worth a couple years ago. Looking at that painting was the highlight of our visit. We couldn’t help but laugh out loud. I so wish I could remember the name of that artist! But I love this painting too. I’m so glad my dentist doesn’t get his assistant to hold a candle up for him to see my teeth, but just look at the pain on that patient’s face! And the hand that’s holding his right hand from thwacking the dentist! Oh the horror of dentistry back in the days when there were no pain killers! I can hear his cries from here: “A wan ma mum!”

North Shore—Canon EOS 30D

Still Life With is a website I visit often. It gives excellent ideas and advice on food photography (not that I’ve always put them into practice) with monthly challenges for those who like photographing food. This month’s challenge is white and there’s just a couple more days until the challenge ends. I always thought white was a beautiful colour, but I never knew just how much. More white here and here.

Sur la route—Canon EOS 30D

Il faisait beau hier toute la journée. La neige tombait beaucoup. Il faisait très froid aussi. Mais c’étais incroyable parce-qu’il ne neige pas à Biarritz. Donc, j’ai essayé de prendre des photos de la neige qui tombait contre la lumière du matin, mais chaque fois que j’ai essayé, les lumières se sont éteintes. Je pense que les gens, qui travaillent pour la ville, ont su que j’ai voulu prendre des photos! A la place, j’ai pris cette photo, et d’autres, quand j’étais dans la voiture. Je n’ai pas été très satisfaite du resultat, mais j’essaye de comprendre le mécanisme de ma nouvelle caméra. On verra!

Blanche Neige—Canon EOS 30D

Côte des Basques (taken last week)—Canon EOS 30D

For the last week or so we have been enjoying twenty degree weather (that’s celsius). That all changed today when we woke shivering under our covers. The Pyrenées is covered with snow. Snow is forecasted for the Aquitaine area tomorrow.