After six weeks without rain the skies finally gift a brief, but welcome, downpour. You know for sure you've turned into your father when you use the term ' The garden needs it'. The wisteria along the front of the house looks rather the worse for wear this morning after the battering from the storm. The wisteria bloomed three times last year. Will it do the same in 2021 ?
France is still in quasi strict lockdown. No one is supposed to venture more than six miles from home unless on urgent business. If anyone stumbles across this pandemic record in a hundred years time they should know the abiding memory of this strange time will be silence. No cars, no planes overhead, no school buses. Just the contented sound of the mothers and their calves in the field by the crossroads. Another two new arrivals last night.
The grass is still wet but the grooming table just about dry. Sophie makes an executive decision to clamber up and enjoy her start of day nap in an elevated and more comfortable ' keep your undercarriage dry' vantage point.
In the orchard the 'architectural' wild flowers make their first seasonal appearance.
6 comments:
It's vanishingly rare that I find myself saying "the garden needs it" but that was my response too to yesterday's rain in Torridon (where pandemic inflation has sent holiday cottage rentals, and property prices in general, skyrocketing).
Sophie has a kind of "mistress of all she surveys" vibe today. We still have plenty of planes overhead in Tokyo. At some point in the last year, the government decided to allow low-altitude flights in and out of the Tokyo airports. I guess they figured people would be distracted and wouldn't notice during the pandemic. I kind of like them, but I do wonder where they are all coming and going from.
Normally we're very glad to see any rain here, and our gardens usually need it. Of late we've had an over-abundance of "dirty rain" - bringing sand from the Sahara. The normally crystal clear water in the pool is murky - I can't see the bottom, and everywhere in the garden is covered in sticky sand - including the plants. This morning I've walked round and begun to plan the best way to tackle the clean-up, which will probably involve pressure washing some parts of the house walls too. For the moment I'll leave any actual work, as the forecast and cloudy sky seem to suggest there's more of the same on the way.
Silence would be a grand thing. Here (Piraeus) it is traffic jams as people with nowhere else to go cruise around in cars and on motorbikes and take a drive by the sea. My neighbour who has lived here 45 years says she has never seen it so bad.
Hari Om
There has been a noticable increase in traffic noise (avg 30 cars per day) past the Hutch's window as things start to open up here. And, as ever, wish I could send some of our rain your way! YAM xx
The flowers you show in the last photo, apparently have an edible bulb. See Rosetta Costantino on Instagram.
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