Suite a l'episode que nous avons connu.

This morning Bob sits with me on the storm drain. I dangle my legs over the edge. Bob leans into me and is told that this is 'his country'.  His sister forages for dead voles in the weed strewn ditch that leads down to the donkey field. She'll emerge covered in burrs. The young garagiste races by in his souped up Citroen C1 with tinted windows. He slows to wave then accelerates away. The exhaust makes a testosterone filled gurgle as he disappears down the lane. Angus tells Bob about John Bolton's trip to Russia. What will Putin get in return for turning a blind eye to Iran ? A blind eye to Ukraine ? Bob is  rather more interested in a cat that has emerged from a hedge at the side of the field. Affairs of state can wait until tomorrow. 

Bob may not be interested in diplomacy but he does have a comical face.

A rather rich chocolate layer cake at the bakers. Angus thinks the croissant rather 'stodgy'. The PONs disagree.

The village newsletter arrives. The Departmental gardening judges will be visiting the village on July 6th. Any villagers who want to enter a photo of their home or garden into the best kept house competition are welcome to do so. All entrants will receive a certificate and one of the mayors wife's dried vegetable arrangements. The land behind the village hall  that used to belong to the Very Old Farmer has been acquired. It will be turned into a car park. Work will start in July. 'The Font' unhelpfully wonders who is going to park there. The newsletter is supposed to be monthly but news is not exactly a big thing here so we may, or may not, see another issue before Christmas.

Angus finishes the biography of President McKinley. A surprisingly easy read. The first President to understand that America's wealth would lie in trading. As Presidents go he was lucky ( barring his unfortunate run in with an assassin), professional and decidedly uncharismatic. His wife had epilepsy.

Pandora's Box also finished. Undoubtedly brilliant but one of those two facts per sentence books that leaves you feeling drained and in need of a glass of Pomerol after reading half a chapter. President Wilson although not greatly admired in America today, emerges as one of the lights of the 1917-1918 world. Seen by both sides as an honest and fair man. His failure to lead a bitterly divided and angry US into a just peace treaty was one of the tragedies of the century and quite possibly beyond.