Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Like mountains, high soaring above.


It's ' The Fonts' birthday. Bob and Angus are up at five to cut roses in the garden and lay the breakfast table.

Sophie wanders in to see if there's  anything for her to eat. She stands and stares in her best guilt inducing way.

'The Fonts' father always said that first thing in the morning and last thing at night we should talk to family dogs as if they're our best friends. This way whatever disasters may occur during the day they know they're 'forgiven'.  I tell Sophie she's a beautiful girl. After twenty minutes chasing squirrels this may not quite be the best description but her tail goes into hyper-wag mode. Angus is rewarded with a lick.

Bob watches me as I top up the swimming pool. Amazing how much water is lost every day through evaporation.


After a hectic start to the day the PONs settle down in the cool for a deep sleep. Their owners head into Toulouse. It's nearly nine when we get there but the town has that deserted post-apocalypse look that you only see in 'B' movies.


We wander into the cool cathedral. A strange building. It was going to be huge but the construction was interrupted by the Black Death. What is left is a smidgen of what was planned. An overly tall side aisle and various enormous chapels. None of them aligned with the other.


The cathedral deserted. We're joined by a trendily dressed young French father ( at that age where there's only one child and he's managing to get some sleep ) who points out the figures in the stained glass windows to his two year old daughter. He tells her that one shows '' Justice like mountains, high soaring above ". Presumably he's a lawyer. She giggles and holds out her arms to be picked up. Father and daughter pirouette out of the church to the sound of her ever louder laughter. Summer innocence.

Alone again we watch the sun light up a little side chapel. On the wall a huge 18th century picture of a virginal saint about to be put to a particularly grizzly death by a group of hairy heathens holding a variety of blunt objects.


The Old Farmer returns from his appointment at the hospital. He's gone in his late wife's car. Carefully polished and made road worthy for the occasion. Later today we'll find out what the prognosis is.


Who'd have thought it  ? :

14 comments:

Lisa in Tokyo said...

First, a very happy birthday to the Font! Second, that link regarding Fahrenheit/Celsius is absolutely shocking - I thought that, like the right side/wrong side of the road debate, there must be some on one side and some on the other. It's very hard to change, however, as the sense of temperature seems to become hardwired pretty early in life - I've lived in a Celsius country for more than twenty years now,and I know objectively that 0 degrees is cold and 30 degrees is hot, but as to what, say, 18 degrees feels like, I have managed to develop no intuition whatsoever.

WFT Nobby said...

Happy birthday to the 'Font'. May her wisdom continue to increase with the years.
Bob is looking cool and handsome despite the heat.
I am wondering is there a French version of he hymn 'Immortal, invisible'?
Cheers, Gail (expecting a high of 14ÂșC here in Aberdeen today).

Angus said...

The SW is still a very Huguenot culture.

Coppa's girl said...

A very Happy Birthday to 'The Font' - wishing her a very enjoyable day. What did you and the PONs decide to buy her? I seem to remember a discussion about the merits of replacing a fatless fryer past it's best, some time ago?
Angus, you smooth talker, Sophie obviously believes every word you say - even on a really bad hair day.
Hope all is well for the Old Farmer.

BaileyBobSouthernDog said...

Happy Birthday greetings to The Font. May it be her best day ever!!! My father always told me not to laugh at our dog, it would embarrass them.

rottrover said...

Happy Birthday to The Font from Southern California where it will be 95F today.

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday to the Font. We use celius here in Canada. Can not remeber when we changed to it, but sometimes I convert back to the old way. Do not get me started on the kilo/lb thing!

Unknown said...

Happy birthday wishes to The Font!
Excellent advice from her father. It could be expanded to other family members as well.
Very interesting about the Fahrenheit/Celsius.

MrsDuncanMahogany said...

A very happy Birthday to the Font from the Canadian prairies!

VirginiaC said...

Happy Happy Birthday Madame Font....wishing you many many more!

MOPL said...

A very happy Birthday to the Font. Have a fabulous day

Beau and Mom said...

Happy - Happy Birthday to the FONT ! !
I hope there was loads of Wonderful French Food ... and more importantly = C a k e !! Eat an entire piece, Celebrate!

Emm said...

A very happy birthday to the Font. I hope it was the best day ever

Poppy Q said...

Happy birthday to the font - we hope you celebrated with a delicious cake.

Wise advice to be kind to the dogs - I wish that more people extended this to each other.