Family Visit
My daughter Nat, her husband Andy and their daughter Eilidh came to spend a fortnight with me and it went well. It was three years since I had seen them in the flesh because of COVID so a kind of renaissance as well as renewal of physical contact. Ironically they all had COVID when they came but without major symptoms. I was already well protected. They wanted a swimming pool so rented a gite 100 fards down the road from me. We met up each day for breakfast and planned the day. The agenda for Nat and Andy was to relax, apart from a four hour cycle trip that Andy did around, up and down Mt Ventoux in temperatures around 30 degree; but then he is a cycle enthusiast. The agenda for Eilidh, who has just reached the grand age of 5, did a good impersonation of a perpetual moton machine and, apart from having a good time, wanted to learn to cycle and swim. Both, I’m very happy to say, were achieved. The photos below say all the rest.
The
Village Awakes
Village activities have been curtailed as everywhere but a standard “knees up” 10 days ago broke the routine. A paella and music evening in front of the Bar du Pont had people singing and dancing, something that used to be normal at this time of year but hasn’t happened for three years because of COVID. That was definitely a renaissance, repeated on the 14th of July, Bastille Day. The village letting its hair down is a sight that warms my heart and always will. A hopefully temporary camera fault prevents me from posting photos. This weekend their is the Fête Votive, more singing and dancing and painters in the streets and, hopefully, a return to normal village festivities.
My Allotment.
The allotment is proving considerable work but not a burden. In fact I’d like to do more work on it but watering every day takes time and, in the current heat, only early mornings and evenings are realyl practicable. I’ve already had courgettes, aubergines, chills, lettuces and a cucumber from it plus a few ripened tomatoes. Eilidh had to chose a lettuce for lunch one day.
There are obviously a lot more of those to come, the borage is in flower as are all the sunflowers and the leeks and peppers are making good progress. I’ve managed to give away some of this and hope to give away a lot more; I’ve only one mouth to feed. I’ve sown more spinach beet, lettuces and green beans so that should be it for this year. I’m already making plans for next year. Nobody seems to be taking an interest in the fence to keep out the wild boar around the allotments but I have planted Morning Glory in a pot against the fence which are doing well and a honeysuckle just outside it. I think the fence should be covered in flowers but there is a lot of it. A solution could be wild clematis (old man’s beard) which has much arger flowers here than the UK variety. I’ve made a mental note to collect the seeds when they appear in the countryside here and plant them around the fence. I’m also collecting dead heads from the flowers around my house and scattering them around the area where I have potatoes planted. I’ll dig up the potatoes at some point and will leave that area untouched next year until quite late and hope I can identify what sprouts and is not weeds. It’s all to play for!
Politics
The rich-poor divide is becoming more evident here as it already is in the UK, although I think that game is already decided in the UK but not quite yet here. The best quote I have seen about the removal of Johnson in the UK is that it is like shitting your pants and deciding to change your shirt. There is little prospect of significant change there. Attempts by the far right to to divide and rule to take over, backed by extreme wealth and what that can buy, in terms of media, influence and even members of parliaments, are evident around the world and no less so in France. Rightly or wrongly I see the EU as a counter to this, trying as it is, successfully or not, to make very wealthy people and companies pay the due taxes, the kind that everyone else has to pay. My hope for France lies in the belief that it is better at protests and less afraid of revolutions, whatever they may bring, than many other countries. We all know that the French can be very bloody minded and I hope they stay that way.
