Daze Three in December

What a challenge...  this time it is...
Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards)

To be picking a moment when I really felt alive on the day that I have spent all day in bed because I've got a cold! I haven't had a cold in I don't know how long...whoever gave it to me you can have it back now.

A time this year when I really felt alive was on our trip down the canals in France. A very short trip (this time) but filled with feeling alive. The frisson of fear as we (Michele) took on the challenge getting the boat into and out of locks, the unadulterated joy of getting that boat tied up and secure and not making too be a gaff of it. On the return journey we used all our newly acquired skills to pull into a peaceful spot where there was a bollard- bounding gazelle like and confident that we knew what we were doing- the feeling of accomplishment. The place was quiet amongst trees where we set up our picnic and watched the world on the water.  To feel at one with Rat in Wind in the Willows when he says "There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." We sat and chatted idly feeling content. It was warm and lazy and a great sense of freedom. 

Another quote from Wind in the Willows..

"After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working."

So much for the Christmas photo for the day... I am not going to have a photograph of the my bed or my crumpled jammies... or the rubbish bin.... the empty cough mixture bottle is not going to feature either.