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Monet's Gardens at Giverny

December 2018


At the end of the year we often look back on events and reflect on our lives. This year I am reflecting on a trip I was blessed to have taken to France in the summer of 2015. It was the trip of a lifetime to Nice and Paris and a cruise through Southern France (Provence) with stops in Lyons and Avignon and several other towns. The photos in this blog entry are photos I took at Monet's Gardens at Giverny, one of my favorite parts of the tour. Giverny is outside of Paris and is where Monet painted some of his works. 

My sister Barbara Ponce, who died in the summer of 2013, and whom I still miss terribly, gave me the money that made this tour of France possible. I use these photos as a screensaver on my computer so I never forget the beauty I saw that summer. 

I had always wanted to see Paris, and I know now why people love to go there. It is a beautiful city. We went to see the palace of Versailles and its gardens also, which were entirely different from these.  


Monet's Gardens at Giverny


With the recent violence in France, I am  grateful that I traveled when I did. The year I went was only one year after becoming a Master Gardener of St. Johns County, so I appreciated the work required for the beauty I saw at Giverny. They have volunteers who maintain the gardens there.  




Monet's Gardens at Giverny

What will be the thing you most remember about 2018? Where did you see God in your everyday life? These final days of the year are a good time to reflect and give thanks for what has been 
and to look forward to what is yet to come. 

The love of family and friends and my Sisters of St. Joseph are what I am most grateful for in my life. May the gardens of our lives be enriched by the variety of persons we encounter just as these lovely gardens are enriched by the variety of flowers in them. 

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