The steep streets of Teyran - one of our local villagesThis is probably not the sort of opening sentence that my English readers wish to see, (or my hurricane hassled friends in Florida), but we fell asleep last night to the wonderful sound of rain cascading down into the courtyard. It is desperately needed and we have only seen a couple of showers since we arrived back in mid July, and I could just about hear the vegetables growing.
We had been over to visit Priscilla and celebrated her 21st birthday. I watched as she cuddled her new son and said that he must have been the best birthday present ever. She heartily agreed and dropped yet another kiss onto the top of his brush cut hairdo. His Dad came in having stopped off for a short back and sides, and we all laughed because his two week old son now had more hair than he did.
Their house is quite extraordinary. The kitchen and living area were once part of what must have been cellars. Solid stone walls and ancient beams curve in an arched ceiling and the soft lighting reflects off the sandstone colours to create a peaceful setting for the little family. Priscilla handles her baby like a potter moulding clay and her calm unruffled approach to motherhood is producing a little one who quickly curls up and goes to sleep once he has had his fill. The upper level of the house boasts a small balcony and the interior is as modern as the structure is old. We wish them great happiness and I was glad to see that Sapho the Boxer dog had a nice courtyard to romp around in.
We drove home, quickly sorted out the emails and then went outside to watch the amazing light show that was being put on. Almost constant sheet lightening threw the old trees and our neat irrigated vegetable rows into a psychedelic blaze and the rumbles of thunder began to boom and crack overhead. Although there was no sign of fork lightening, we decided that it might be best to enjoy the show from inside the house, and my last waking moments were spent wishing that I had opened the compost bin lid so that the recently added heap of horse manure could have a good soaking. Of such thoughts dreams are made!
It is now 10.30 in the morning and the sun is making every effort to pierce through the intermittent cloud. Jean assures me that we will be awash with mushrooms if the heat can get onto the soil, so I am prowling the garden looking for any signs. I suppose this will mean another flurry of snails as well, but they are perfectly safe as far as I and my frying pan are concerned.
We have heard that we can collect the new car tomorrow midday which is exciting, but we can’t drive it until we have got the insurance sorted out – which is not! This means that next week we will have both the new car and our shipment arriving. Definitely a week to look forward to.
Tonight we are going to nip into Montpellier and see “Mama Mia”. Thanks to the excellent Anglo Languedoc website, we know which films are being shown in the original English soundtrack and I have been longing to see this one. I spent many years astride my horse, ranging through the Lesotho mountains singing various hits from ABBA at the top of my voice and any film starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth will always get my attention.
We had been over to visit Priscilla and celebrated her 21st birthday. I watched as she cuddled her new son and said that he must have been the best birthday present ever. She heartily agreed and dropped yet another kiss onto the top of his brush cut hairdo. His Dad came in having stopped off for a short back and sides, and we all laughed because his two week old son now had more hair than he did.
Their house is quite extraordinary. The kitchen and living area were once part of what must have been cellars. Solid stone walls and ancient beams curve in an arched ceiling and the soft lighting reflects off the sandstone colours to create a peaceful setting for the little family. Priscilla handles her baby like a potter moulding clay and her calm unruffled approach to motherhood is producing a little one who quickly curls up and goes to sleep once he has had his fill. The upper level of the house boasts a small balcony and the interior is as modern as the structure is old. We wish them great happiness and I was glad to see that Sapho the Boxer dog had a nice courtyard to romp around in.
We drove home, quickly sorted out the emails and then went outside to watch the amazing light show that was being put on. Almost constant sheet lightening threw the old trees and our neat irrigated vegetable rows into a psychedelic blaze and the rumbles of thunder began to boom and crack overhead. Although there was no sign of fork lightening, we decided that it might be best to enjoy the show from inside the house, and my last waking moments were spent wishing that I had opened the compost bin lid so that the recently added heap of horse manure could have a good soaking. Of such thoughts dreams are made!
It is now 10.30 in the morning and the sun is making every effort to pierce through the intermittent cloud. Jean assures me that we will be awash with mushrooms if the heat can get onto the soil, so I am prowling the garden looking for any signs. I suppose this will mean another flurry of snails as well, but they are perfectly safe as far as I and my frying pan are concerned.
We have heard that we can collect the new car tomorrow midday which is exciting, but we can’t drive it until we have got the insurance sorted out – which is not! This means that next week we will have both the new car and our shipment arriving. Definitely a week to look forward to.
Tonight we are going to nip into Montpellier and see “Mama Mia”. Thanks to the excellent Anglo Languedoc website, we know which films are being shown in the original English soundtrack and I have been longing to see this one. I spent many years astride my horse, ranging through the Lesotho mountains singing various hits from ABBA at the top of my voice and any film starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth will always get my attention.
We had a lucky break this afternoon. We spent part of the morning clearing the garage to make space for all the boxes arriving next week, and rather mourned the loss of the wheelbarrow which has been returned to Michelle. We happened to be at the Le Clerc building section this afternoon looking for fixtures and fittings for the garden hose system, and almost fell over a final offer on wheelbarrows at the princely sum of 12.40 euros. They were also just about giving away the last of their garden plants and I scooped up a nice variegated ground cover and a little pot of thyme. We had pinched some from the countryside but I don’t think it is happy being domesticated, so in time, this thyme will be just in time to be added to our roast leg of lamb on a spit. And on that happy note, we are off to the movies!
1 comment:
Enjoy reading your daily activities-so well written that I feel I am there enjoying the beautiful scenery and interesting landscape!
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