Happy Birthday Mum! and cloudy Ecrins

Mum liked my birthday picture:

But should I be upset that she saw this as chard, orange, parsley and peas when it's obviously chard, tomato, green pepper and courgettes? I'd already given the clue, "vegetables", and orange is clearly not a vegetable. If I'd also said "smaller than you'd expect but that's how they come from our veggie patch right now" would I have scored four out of four instead of just one?

While mum marvelled at her daughter's talent, said daughter was stomping the Vallon de Lanchatra with Kelli and friend Scott, visiting from Boise, US (Olivier hospitalised by an allergic reaction to penecillin prescribed by his GP). It was a chance for Scott to get the flavour of the Ecrins - on a dour, cloudy day that would not normally have tempted me out. The semi-restored village was as quirkily charming as ever, especially when graced by a few rays of sun:

It was near this village in June that Juan and I saw Dracocephalum austriacum (included in redlist of protected species in France, Spain and Switzerland):

On this September day the cloud closed in and, just after lunch, we decided to head back.

Postscript: with Juan the previous day we floundered around in cloud between Roche Béranger and Lac Achard, the remains of Saturday's snow lingering on the Crête du Brouffier:

On the way home Juan and I stopped at Uriage park to catch a bit of "Uriage en Voix":

Not for the first time I'm happy to benefit from the entertainment budget of this wealthy neighbouring commune (whilst paying "poor relation" tax at Vaulnaveys-le-Bas).