How frustrating is that ?

Our shutter management routine now well established. In the morning every window opened wide from six thru nine to let the cool morning breezes in. Then as the sun rises over the village green the house is once again closed and firmly shuttered against the heat.

Bob lies in the front door to make sure no errant squirrels attempt to gain entry.

Sophie sits in the garden to enjoy the fresh air then heads into the kitchen in search of any remnants of yesterdays dinner. Sophie lives in the hope that 'The Font' will develop a neurological disorder that causes the patient to clear out the refrigerator and dump all its contents on the floor. She is disappointed. Maybe tomorrow ?

This morning the family princess spends a full five minutes standing glaring at the village pond. She can hear the waterfowl but not see them. How frustrating is that ? Bob watches The Old Farmer and the Belgian lady load up the venerable Ford Transit motorhome with bottles of beer and baguettes. They are going to the local lake to have a picnic and avoid the heat. The Old Farmer helps the Belgian lady clamber up into the passenger seat by giving her an indecorous push on her rump. She roars with laughter. We can still hear them laughing as the motorhome reaches the crossroads.

For the 50th anniversary of the moon landing the US Air Force published this picture of the surviving Apollo astronauts.  Check out Buzz Aldrin !  The gentleman behind him with the braid on his dinner jacket is sporting a style I've never seen before. The 5 conservatively dressed gentlemen with the starched shirts and studs are presumably Annapolis graduates.



And a Scottish ghost in the Adirondacks : https://www.lakechamplainregion.com/blog/2016/10/scottish-ghost-adirondacks

The first of the season.

An unexpected thunderstorm sweeps down from the high mountains. The first big one of the season.

5:30 am. Bob wanders into the 'out of bounds' bedroom to find out if I'm awake and aware of what's going on.

I'm asleep.

Bob decides to check if I'm really asleep. 

5:31 am. A cold wet nose in my ear soon has me awake.

So starts what is shaping up to be ( thunderstorm excepted ) the best day ever . 

The world is full of good people quietly working away. The dog in this video recognizes some of them  : https://twitter.com/dodo/status/1152005127743533057

Counts as excitement.

High summer in France. A time when musical ensembles across the country leave the big cities and head out to entertain the citizens of France profonde. The notice board outside the town hall plastered with posters advertising excitement to come.

Angus wonders what The Glory Gospel Singers of New York, USA will make of a local audience.

Dinners in a local farmers barn with rustic music and even more rustic wine for E45. Parisians love this sort of thing. A sort of get back to your roots moment.

A moorhen wanders out onto the water lilly leaves and looks at me disinterestedly. I take a photo. You'd need to be a clairvoyant to see it standing there. They are remarkably well camouflaged birds. Sophie, who has been drinking at the zinc bath, arrives and the bird dutifully scurries back into the undergrowth. 0/10 for nature photography.

There is a pony in the overgrown field by the churchyard. It wanders over to greet the PONs.

This counts as excitement in our little touch of paradise.

The angelic duo watch as I unravel the hose and top the pool up with water. Moorhens, a new pony and now some pool refilling. Quite the start to the day.

The whole of human history.

The mayor leaves a 'notice' in the letter box. An official heat emergency has been announced. High temperatures are expected from Monday of next week through to Saturday. The village hall will be open for anyone who wants to find somewhere air conditioned to sleep. Bottled water will be available in the village hall kitchen. The old folks home will make space available for any villagers over the age of 60 who would prefer to spend their nights there. Seems its unusually hot in NY and DC too.

The cleaning lady arrives at six to avoid the heat. Madame Bay considers her to be a 'girl' but she's a thin stylish lady in her fifties who looks after a chronically ill son who survived the same car crash that killed her husband. She is polite, courteous, hard working and strong willed. Her sheer strength of character makes her one of those people we're glad to have met on our journey through Europe. One of those uncomplaining 'pick yourself up, dust yourself down and deal with whatever life throws at you' adherents.

The PONs move out into the garden when they see the cleaning lady bring the hoover out of the cupboard. Both PONs are completely in agreement that the hoover is the devils disciple and should be avoided at all costs. Bob gives his sister a reassuring peck on the cheek.  He does this every morning. She suffers the indignity in near silence.

From his desk Angus can look out of the window and just see the angelic duo at the gate. Bob is on his stump seat watching The Old Farmer replace a brake shoe on his 1983 Peugeot Estate. Sophie is looking back at the house willing Angus to get his shoes on and take her for a walk. As we head off The Old Farmer informs me that Americans don't buy estate cars .

Bob sits next to Angus on the concrete storm drain. We soak up the view. Sunflowers coming into bloom, fruit trees covered in netting to stop the sparrows making short shrift of the ripening pears. The donkey field covered in blue cornflowers. Sophie heads off in search of badger poo. Angus tells Bob that the amount of food needed to feed the world in the next 40 years is more than has ever been harvested in the whole of human history. Bob absorbs this information in sage silence. He gets an ear scrunch.

For a group of dour Presbyterians this seems to be a masterpiece of quiet and cheerful political messaging :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXlO8U0gkvY

Beauty and innocence.

The village drifting into high summer doldrums. The pace of life, relaxed at the best of times, slowing even further. Returning from our morning walk there was no sign of the school bus nor the two tikes and their long suffering and disdainful elder sister. Perhaps the summer holidays have started. If so I hope the two brothers have a long ( preferably very long ) and enjoyable break with their grandparents in St.Etienne. This morning a full moon was high in the sky as we headed off through the gates.

To avoid the heat ( more 40 degree days forecast for next week ) the angelic duo get two long walks. The first at five thirty, the second at ten. After that the tarmac gets too hot for PON paws and they are confined to the garden and the sunflower fields.This morning Sophie is decidedly miffed to discover the waterfowl have rushed into the undergrowth ahead of her arrival. I attempt to explain to her that throwing your head back and emitting loud squealing noises is not a good  waterfowl stalking technique. She heads off for a noisy and long drink from the zinc bath tub below the village walls. I could swear she gives me a grumpy '' What do you know about water fowling ? '' look.

Lots of melon varieties in the greengrocers. We've done the strawberry season, worked our way through plums and nectarines, started to enjoy the local peaches and now can supplement our seasonal diet with melons.

Fresh almonds also make an appearance. Angus has no idea what you would do with fresh almonds so he leaves them alone.

There are however wild  blueberries to go with 'The Fonts' morning porridge.

"First he was never for a moment, in all 27 years, bored. He was never lonely. He said that he felt almost the opposite of that. He said he felt utterly and intricately connected to everything else in the world. It was difficult for him to tell where his body ended, and the woods began  ''. There is a surprising beauty and innocence to this tale :
https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-48968502


Dog owners may enjoy this : https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jul/16/do-our-pets-ever-really-love-us-or-do-they-just-stick-around-for-the-food

I'd forgotten entirely what a lovely way of speaking this man had : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F46g8d5LZ0

Fine form.

Bob is in particularly fine form this morning. It still amazes Angus how enthusiastic the family fellow is about life. Did previous generations of PONs always rush to the front door, tail wagging, at such high speed ? Did they show such a keen interest in any and everything ?  Is this joie de vivre a Bob specific thing ? Perhaps Angus is slowing and the PONs have always been high speed companions ?

The supermarket now has a fully fledged exotic products aisle. It provides an interesting insight into national tastes in food. 

The Polish section is stocked with bottled beetroot, gherkins and cucumbers.The English shelves are full of crisps, baked beans, canned peas, Heinz salad cream and organic spelt.  

According to the supermarket stock controllers Americans would seem to live on a diet of jelly beans, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. The jars of Fluff remain lined up and completely untouched. Perhaps marshmallow spread is simply too exotic for local tastes ?

The hoverboards don't seem to be selling. A further 33% reduction has been applied in order to shift them.

The underground car park in front of the cathedral has been filled in. The lady at the bakers thinks a garden is planned. I've heard of car parks being demolished but never filled in. Angus wonders what alternative arrangements have been made for shoppers.

Four things I saw yesterday : 


Dog and cat :
https://twitter.com/i/status/1150090057329586181

How cool is this ? :
https://twitter.com/MichaelaWiegel/status/1150323769648582656

A Simone Weil quote from Laphams Quarterly :
https://mailchi.mp/laphamsquarterly/back-matter-simone-weil-thinks-about-revolution?e=171f023a74

This Edinburgh restaurant has an interesting dinner menu. Pepper dulse is a new one on me :
https://fhior.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/SAMPLE-Dinner-Menu-1.pdf

No doubt.

Hot again. The pre-August heat building. The PONs are parked out on the cool floor tiles when I wander downstairs at 5:30. They're both sound asleep. It takes a moment or two for Bob to wake and his tail to wag. His sister takes a little longer to emerge from her beauty sleep.

Task 1 of the day rush round to the village pond to ensure that the Coots and the Moorhens are under control.

Then we're off through the sunflower fields for some high adventure.

After some toing and froing the PONs are loaded up into the car and we head off to carefully choose our croissant.

It seems that a brioche a la Canadienne has cranberries baked into it

For lunch Angus opts for a millefeuille and a sophisticated raspberry thing for 'The Font'.

We then head out into the square for a coffee and a bowl of water. So starts our day. Some might think that it's just another sunny day but PON owners are left in no doubt that this is going to be the best day ever - by far.

French ballad for a hot Monday morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH-6SoFYkLg

July 14th

'The Fonts' father once told me " Greet your dogs like your best friend first thing in the morning and last thing at night and they'll happily cope with anything else the day throws at them". Sophie is a great one for morning greetings. She squeals, turns on her back and waves her  legs in the air. Bob does the same although he doesn't squeal - he snorts. Our twice daily getting reacquainted ear scrunch and tummy rub routine.

Overcast. The morning pre-walk routine interrupted by the arrival of the mayor at the front gate. He's come to borrow a ladder. He was supposed to put the Bastille Day flags out yesterday but somehow forgot.

No point in even bringing the i-Phone out of my pocket to try to catch a picture of the waterfowl. By the time Sophie has sprinted off to the village pond the Coots and Moorhens have hidden themselves deep in the surrounding vegetation.

At the fishmongers in the little market town a small dog being taken for a walk by two ladies. They are in a lengthy conversation about the size of the cod fillets. Sophie eyes up the small dog in a way which suggests she might be wondering if its a snack on legs. The family diva is hurried along. Bob is oblivious to this small canine presence. He is sitting looking imploringly at the butchers van.

After a coffee, a croissant and a bowl of water at the small cafe ( the waiter always says Bizzou to the dogs when he delivers the croissant ) we return home for a restorative PONette nap.

And song as legend :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM-E2H1ChJM

The wrens are still busy flitting in and out of the wisteria buy the front door. Sophe remains furious at the audacity of their presence in her garden. She can sit and glare at them for hours at a stretch. Saw this picture of a wren in flight by an artist called Jackie Morris. It gets the wee wrens wing movements absolutely right :

Less than elegant

We head off on our morning walk to find great excitement on the lane outside The Rickety Old Farmhouse. A combine harvester driver has managed to shed his cutter blades on the speed bump. A traffic jam ( if one Peugeot can be considered a traffic jam ) has formed.

The PONs investigate the scene of the mishap and then sprint off down the track that leads to the valley, the stream, the waterfall and the shade.

On our way back Angus sticks to the dirt track. The angelic duo disappear in and out of the sunflowers. Sophie shrieks. Bob chases her. Why have a walk when you can have excitement ?

The combine harvester has been reunited with its cutting blades. A cloud of chaff rises from the wheat field by the crossroads.

By the time we've made it home Sophie is looking somewhat less than Kennel Club elegant.

According to this map 3.3% of the French population live abroad. This is surprising as I've yet to meet a French person who thinks their food-climate- culture mix can be replicated anywhere else on the planet. Ireland is high. Scotland would be up there too if the numbers were split out from England :