Normal internet service is resumed. We are back to getting our news online rather than from the radio. The grumpy man in white overalls spends all Monday leisurely climbing up and down a ladder and dealing with the break in the internet line. Miraculously at four twenty five it's back up and running. At four thirty he goes.
Up here on top of the ridge bright sunshine. Down in the valley thick mist. Sophie hares off through the reed beds to the waterfall and loses herself in the scents of deer, badgers, foxes and who knows what else comes here to drink at night. It's peak barn owl breeding season. The owls that perch on the plane trees along the lane have been out partying all night. Some of them on the ledge outside our bedroom window. Their passionate screeches melding with the amorous cats on the ox track. Whoever thinks the countryside is peaceful has clearly never lived in the countryside.
A novelty in the greengrocers. American Pomelos. You rarely see anything American for sale in France. Must be something to do with food tariffs.
The tree peonies which usually bloom in mid April are about to come into bloom six or seven weeks early. What does this tell us about the summer to come ?
For some strange reason I found this intriguing : https://archinect.com/features/article/150185081/sino-african-architecture-a-look-at-the-rise-of-chinese-built-projects-across-the-african-continent
5 comments:
Did Sophie find any owl party leftovers?
The amorous owls left a beheaded shrew. How's that for a great start to the day ?
Your fog photo is art. Gorgeous.
Yesterday I drove to Toulouse for my French test for naturalization. I had to turn on the A/C for the drive home. I noticed some genêt in bloom along the autoroute. Already! The ground is dry; I worry about summer. And to think that in October our neighbors were driven out of their house by floods and took refuge with us.
The architecture article is fascinating. I immediately thought of Great Zimbabwe when I saw those towers. Very cool place. Harare was quite beautiful in the mid-'80s. Ditto with Nairobi; I also immediately questioned the wisdom of elevators in a place with dicey electricity. When I took my husband to Kenya, we stayed at what I always considered a nice hotel upcountry. The running water was in the form of women hustling across the grounds with basins of water that had been heated over a fire. That said, Nairobi has had some very unusual architecture since independence. The Kenyatta conference center, the New Florida Nightclub (look it up...I saw quite the dance show there years ago).
Here, in relatively rural SE USA, most of our loud nature sounds are cows in heat, and the occasional donkey. Although in the past, on SF Bay, squabbling raccoons have created quite a racket, every night, as they traipsed by our bedroom window.
I had to google what a pomelo is , and now I wonder why they import them to France? Surely you have great supplies of citrus from Europe? It is quiet in our little urban back yard, although the cicadas are clicking away at the moment.
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