Sunday, February 14, 2021

Silence interrupted.


It's cold and wet. A perfect day for getting paws and low hanging fur covered in mud. Sophie has her annual check-up at the vets in 3 weeks time. I think of telling her there's a major B-A-T-H and a T-R-I-M in her future, but why ruin a girls fun ? We discuss the impeachment trial. The analysis on French radio this morning is that the former Presidents reputation has been severely damaged and that his power over the GOP has ebbed away. Angus wonders quite how they arrive at this conclusion.


The water level in the stream has risen again and pushed the fallen tree trunk over the edge of the waterfall. This discovery turns out to be the highlight of our morning walk. There is a small mudslide when Sophie ventures to the waters edge for a drink. This is met with a theatrical, high speed,  reversal back up the bank. Reversals and high speed are mutually exclusive. Angus gets the PONette glare. ' How could you let me face such danger ?'


After breakfast we do a tour of the village. Not another soul to be seen. Quiet at the best of times the village is super quiet on a Sunday morning. Sophie greets the goats, geese, horses and chickens. The donkeys would also be acknowledged but they're down at the bottom of the field. 'The Font' has opted to make Chocolatines for breakfast. This turns out to be a more complex process than imagined. They may be ready by eleven. Sophie's morning routine will be a largely sedentary one - in the kitchen.


On our way back up the hill four jet fighters fly over. France has sold a fleet of Rafales's to India and their base is about a hundred kilometers from here. The  pilots do their test flying here - presumably because the population density is low and there will be fewer complaints about noise.  In the photo it looks as if they're thousands of feet in the air. In fact they're flying along just above the level of the trees. The noise is incredible. Sophie stands. rooted to the spot, and watches them as they hurtle into the distance. Those late sleeping villagers won't be sleeping in late after all.


 





8 comments:

Lisa in France said...

Wow, lots of excitement in the post today - just the thing for those of us in impeachment recovery. I thought Sophie looked unusually purposeful coming back up from the stream! Her tail is quite magnificent in that first photo - I assume it won't be involved in the T-R-I-M? I would give almost anything to be able to stand in a field and watch jet fighters flying by just above the tree line. At our weekend house, the planes from the local US Naval base fly overhead, but the noise they make is a very controversial issue in Japan, so unfortunately, they fly too high to make it very exciting. Charlie experienced his first earthquake last night. The epicenter was up north in Fukushima, but we had a pretty good shake in Tokyo. He did not like it much and it took him quite a while to settle down and sleep afterwards. (He probably wouldn't like jet fighters either.) Next month will be the tenth anniversary of the big earthquake/tsunami/nuclear accident in Fukushima, and it was interesting to learn that the seismologists think last night's shake was still an aftershock.

Angus said...

Yes, the Japanese quake has made it into the London Sunday papers. We used to have earth tremors in Italy. The PONs were oblivious to them, their humans less so. By the time we left we were adept at picking up the 'whoosh' noise they make as they hit.

WFT Nobby said...

I'm betting those chocolatines will be worth the wait...

Coppa's girl said...

Perhaps 'the Font' will make a double batch, and there won't be any waiting next time?

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

The result of the impeachment trial was never in doubt. The problem is that the verdict will only fuel his base. To them it justifies their claim of a witch hunt and indeed the act of storming the Capitol itself. They were after all only following their leader. On the flip-side, there are other ways of dealing with this as Mitch McConnell referenced yesterday. Remember that Al Capone was finally jailed for tax evasion not for being a gangster.

Ranger said...

Happy Valentine's Day Sophie! Love your beautiful face.
WAgs,
Ranger

rottrover said...

One can only hope, Kim...

rottrover said...

Sending Valentine's Day kisses to Sophie!

Otto and Osa