About Me

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Lot, France
Married to Lindsay for thirty four years and father of Matthew, Erin and Adam. Starting the next chapter of my life with Lindsay in south west France.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

It's raining rain, hallelujah.............

The heavens have opened this morning and the wet stuff is falling for the first time in awhile. It has been difficult for the last few weeks keeping the plants in the potager and in the pots alive and well, this last week has been especially hot, "canicule" is the word they use here to describe very hot weather, it's a great word especially if you are a geordie - it sounds exactly the same as canny cool, which in geordie tongue means exactly the opposite!


Everything is growing well in the potager, and at the moment we have the usual glut of courgettes and cucumbers and Lindsay is getting out the recipes for everything with courgettes! We have had the first harvest of peas and are now eating the first crop of potatoes. The "murphy's" have managed, so far, to survive an attack from the Colorado potato beetle, which are endemic in France apparently and very difficult to get rid of. We had friends to visit a couple of weeks ago and John spent a good few days picking grubs off the leaves and burning them. I have since resorted to spraying them with "agent orange" but they are still on the march and manger.






We had twelve tonne of castine delivered a few weeks ago to finish off the new terraces and the bottom of the drive. Thankfully it was not quite as hot as it has been lately as it had to be moved from the top of the drive by wheelbarrow!


This is the gin and tonic terrace finished, it faces the evening sun and is a wonderful spot at around 7 o'clock!



This is Lindsay leading another barrow load of castine to the bottom of the drive! A few year's ago I could not have imagined Lindsay getting involved in this or planting and weeding in the potager but she does it all now and enthusiastically !! Mind you she still insists on wearing gloves with flowers all over them ........ no soil must touch the hands, and sunflower wellies and shoes and now has her own wheelbarrow with flower stickers all over it!


Nearly there! Just about 6 tonne left to move!

This is Lindsay and Ann scoffing moules and frites by the lake at Frayssinet during La fete de Musique. They do moules frites every Friday evening at this small cafe by the lake and it is very popular with the local people and tourists alike.



We also had the annual fete du vin at Grezels a couple of weeks ago. All the local wine makers bring their wine for tasting and selling! It is a great event with picnic tables set around the wine stalls and you are able to choose and buy meat to BBQ yourself and eat with your picnic. It's great fun and much wine is "tasted" by everyone.
At the end of the day they finish with a barrel rolling competition.

This bloke seems to have consumed his fair share of wine, and maybe emptied this barrel.....they didn't win! I don't think they made it to the end of the course.

This is David, who approaches everything with great enthusiasm, in this case I think he approached the wine tasting with a little too much enthusiasm!



And this is John, who is looking very happy as he has just made sure that he has enough wine for his picnic!












2 comments:

  1. Just catching up with your blog, looks like a good time!

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  2. Summer is always very busy down here, lots of things going on in July and August. We have to be careful not to over do it.

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