Thursday, January 8, 2015

La France est en deuil.


Bob feels the need to stop and christen the bales of hay that the farmer has left in the corner of the cow field. Each and every one dealt with. The balance of a champion. He will not be hurried.

The outside world rarely imposes on our little corner of paradise but in the cafe the atmosphere is strangely muted. Only one topic of conversation. Eyes glued to the television set. It's as if the whole country has woken up to find that a little bit of what makes France special has died. An unspoken fear that 'someone' will cause yet greater mischief. 


After the illicit half croissant we head off to the Italian delicatessen and then onto the fish shop. The duo sit at the open door and look in expectantly. They are disappointed. Not even a sprat. The fish lady does however tell Sophie she's beautiful.



When we get home it goes quiet. The reason soon apparent. Three rose bushes have been pulled out of the ground and chewed. Bob knows he's done wrong and comes up for a tickle. Sophie goes in search of something else to demolish. The rose bushes, or what's left of them, are replanted. One ( clearly the centre of a spirited game of tug of war )  is a goner, the two others may survive.


Who would believe that such gardening skills could lurk beneath these innocent faces ?

9 comments:

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

We awakened to the news...always disheartening.

We think Sophie would have preferred the sprat to words...

WFT Nobby said...

What relief at least to find that in your corner of France, it is only the rose bushes that are damaged (and they will surely regrow).
The dreadful events in Paris have even, for the moment, pushed the news of plummeting oil prices off the front pages in Aberdeen.

Julie said...

Terrible, difficult times in France just now

That fish sure looks tasty, with a bit of pasta, yum, yum!

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

I find that at times of sadness such as this, that what truly does help are the simple and sometimes destructive antics of a dog or two.

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

The very image of innocence and purity.
I could never blame them for a thing.

Jake of Florida said...

Those faces! If only we were just talking about rose bushes and not such terror.

MrsDuncanMahogany said...

Your news has reached all corners of the world. We understand, sadly we had a similar sort of tragedy in October with the horrid sadness that happened in our nation's captial.

houndstooth said...

It's sad to see another nation suffer the same loss of innocence that we have here. And the feeling that no one is really safe anymore keeps looming larger and larger.

I would never believe that those two faces could mask any kind of mischief!

VirginiaC said...

It is very sad to see terror formulated against innocent lives...very very sad. In my mind I always felt that France would have been one of the safe havens in the world.....I hope the instigators are caught soon and brought to justice for their wrong deeds.
Rose bushes do well in pots here, maybe you can try to outwit the PON duo this way.
You made me laugh when you said "not even a sprat" for the PON's from the fish lady.....poor Bob and Sophie.