Spring Is Sprung

Spring Is Sprung

Signs of spring are all around now, in the weather, gardens and shops. When out, as it mostly is, the sun has real warmth in it. Unfortunately the Mistral wind has been unusually frequent since the turn of the year which lowers temperatures significantly unless you are in a sheltered spot. Out of the wind the temperature reaches the low 20s and the evenings continue to get lighter; and we' have an extra hour in the evenings to look forward to at the end of the month. We have had virtually no rain now for over a month, though, so I have already started watering sporadically.

Two weeks ago friends Steve, Jo and I want down to the coast to Carry La Plage, as we had done 10 years previously. It was a very pleasant day and we had a good lunch on the sea front in Carry Le Rouet. Carry La Plage though was a disappointment. Ten years previously the sea front was untouched apart from a a simple promenade skirting the beach and a couple of cafés. Now the very large car park well behind the beach has been extended forward in a concrete and metal maze which entirely spoils the feel of the place. No doubt that has been done to accommodate increasing numbers of summer visitors but it made me think I wouldn't want to go back there.

In the shops we now have the first asparagus, melons and strawberries, a sure sign of good things to follow. These are not yet local and so not yet to be found in the markets; they are from Morocco and Spain. The strawberries look good but don't have nearly as much flavour as the local ones but the asparagus are fine. I've not yet tried the melons but may get tempted if I start thinking about melon and ham as a starter for some meal.

In the front of the house the bulbs I planted last autumn are mostly in flower, giving the view (below) from my front window and of the bench on the opposite side of the road. 

When Steve and Jo call round for a coffee, that is where we sit to drink it if the sun is out. Most of the plants in pots, apart from the few annuals, have survived the winter so there has is little to do there for another month; I've already cleared the winter debris. At the back I've decided to add another climbing rose, Guinée, which has an exquisite perfume, and a couple of patio roses. There isn't much room for anything else other than some ground cover, some of which I've already obtained from friend June in Beaumont. Since my lemon tree, despite being now a large bush and looking rudely healthy, still refuses to produce any lemons I've bought a small one to replace it which already has some lemons (and flowers) on it. Then it is just a question of letting time do its work.

There is a booklet on the history of the village that I translated some years ago so that the text was in both French and English. It sold quite quickly but there was little incentive to reprint it as the print costs were more or less the same as the price at which it was felt it could be sold. Since I had a copy in electronic form I've put it on DVD (DVDs cost about 1 euro and nothing to reproduce) and proposed to the Mairie that, since there is plenty of space on the DVD, the content be supplemented with more photos of the village and surroundings, the content of my website on the village and anything else that the village council thinks appropriate. We'd then have a DVD that could sell for probably around 10 euros for a cost of just 1 and a souvenir that summer visitors could take back with them. There seems to be some interest in the idea so I will just have to wait and see if it catches on.