Quotes from the Masters: Hugo

This summer has sucked out the best of me and left only a stressed-out, irritated lump who is desperate for a nap.  My son returned from nine months of study in Beirut, my daughter just left for six months of study in Santiago, my husband and twins spent a week messing about in boats at a Boy Scout High Adventure trip in the Florida Keys and the boys are now preparing for a week of scout camp, and I am trying to keep everyone fed, organized, and in clean clothes.  Something had to go, and it’s been my blog and the blogosphere.  (So that’s why I haven’t posted much or visited you lately.)

But in the midst of all of the coming and going, my family members managed to collide long enough to take a vacation on the U.S. West Coast.  We went to the Neverland of Monterey and San Francisco, California, where (in a constant prowl for fodder for future posts) I searched for some European connections.  I found those connections in the form of Spanish influences, a Scottish bagpiper, and a Greek named restaurant (a stretch, to be sure, but the post will be worth it).  I learned that European immigrants transformed San Francisco with chocolate, cable cars, and sourdough bread.  I’ll be slowly eking out posts on those topics in the weeks to come, but for now I leave you with some scenes from the glorious Highway 1 and an accompanying quote.

At the urging of one of my twins, we pulled off the road and walked down the trails in the sand dunes to the beach below, where we had a welcome reprieve.

The landscape enveloped us; you can see the white of my husband’s hat as he and the kids disappear into the dunes.

Never before have I felt so nurtured and invigorated by the splendor of nature than on this particular walk.

“Nature, like a kind and smiling mother, lends herself to our dreams and cherishes our fancies.”  Victor Hugo

I’m offering this post as a blogging challenge.  I invite you to use the quote as an inspiration for your own post this week and interpret it as you like, using a photograph, a story, a reflection, a poem, a song, a recipe, a cup of tea –whatever!  Please title this one, “Quotes from the Masters: Hugo” and please add the link to this page on your post.  I’d be delighted to see a link to your post on the comments section of this page, too.

• Posted in: Quotes from the Masters
• Tagged: Big Sur, blogging challenge, blogging challenges, California, Highway One, Hugo, Monterey, Nature, Quotes from the Masters, San Francisco, sand dunes, U.S. West Coast, Victor Hugo