Monday, February 11, 2019

An uncomplicated place.


Bob and 'The Font' help The Old Farmer get his motor home ready. He's going off to visit his wife's grave. He tells 'The Font' that when things get on top of him the best thing to do is drive over to see her for a long chat. '' She always knows what to do ". Seems his hip operation is causing him some pain and the cold northerly wind isn't helping. Bob checks the back of the venerable Ford Transit for cats. Our old neighbour heads off with a flask of Swedish coffee , a plate of still warm Pepparkakor and a striped aluminium framed deck chair for him to sit on. He's also taking his miners helmet style head light and his mobile phone with the extra large buttons.


Sophie and Angus go to the market. The fruiterer has Ile de la Reunion pineapples. They are best between the end of October and mid-March.  '' The ones from Mauritius aren't nearly as good " the young man behind the counter tells me before adding " same goes for mangoes ".


At the fishmongers we are two in line away from an old warrior. He briefly perks up when he sees Sophie then drifts off again into that uncomplicated place old dogs minds inhabit. Sophie is greatly taken with the prawns. We shall have them for a lunchtime risotto. The old warrior briefly wakes as Sophie goes. His tail wags.


The Monday morning cake collection heavy on raspberries and tinned pears


We opt for a strawberry tart and something dark, gooey and chocolatey. We toy with the idea of fondant a la mandarine but decide against it - too insubstantial.


Some Twitter feeds are educational : https://twitter.com/simondonner/status/1093880379205799936

Love the line in this ' relations between the P5 are not easy at the moment ''. A master of understatement : https://blogs.fco.gov.uk/aidanliddle/2019/02/06/disarmament-blog-the-p5-meet-in-beijing/

This morning there are three planets in the sky. This is an Australian explanation of how cool that is : https://veratevelde.blogspot.com/2018/09/high-on-life.html

5 comments:

WFT Nobby said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
WFT Nobby said...


"She always knows what to do". Such a moving statement of love, trust and respect in a relationship, enduring beyond the grave.

Taste of France said...

What is troubling the Old Farmer? I hope his wife can help. As Bertie says, what love, trust and respect.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
The OF clearly understands the benefits of stepping out of one place and into another in order to improve perspective. Of course, perspective is a purely subjective thing - which is why that entire paragraph you quote from comes across as something of a prayerful wish!

I have been thoroughly enjoying my glimpses of all the planets and I got totally lost down that thread on climate change... YAM xx

Emm said...

I am sorry for the OF's hip pain. Been there, done that. The docs will tell you that everything is fine and dandy, but they consider only the mechanical parts of the change, don't take into account that all that invasive treatment upsets the soft tissue. It does get better with time. Swedish coffee and Pepparkakor sound like good remedies.