Aqua bliss

My this last week is roaring along. Mad thunder storms all morning. Poor Manu was out digging our earth wiring in the rain. The house has no earth at the moment; that will require a major rewiring which we just don’t have the courage to undertake right now. But Manu is a great one for advance planning. He had made a hole in the wall to run the cabling from the pool shed to the main circuit board; so suggested he embed the earth wire at the same time. Very neat and very assiduous work. We had planned to go climbing today – but the rain stalled our plans. Instead we went for a walk up the hill this afternoon. Then I spent a furious and extremely sweaty hour hoeing all the weeds in the lower potager. I’m sure they weren’t there the day before. And I have no hope of working out which seedling is mâche and which is weed in one of the rows. So I fear I will have to replant that row in pots and then plant out. But the radishes are pushing up madly. And the chard and lettuce are great.   I kept glancing forlornly at the inviting swimming pool at the end of the terrace; and after the hour I knew I couldn’t perspire any longer. I dashed to the house, hoe clattering to the gravel, into the swimming costume and straight into the 24 Celsius bliss. Now that’s what pools are for. Hard work in the garden and then plunge into the pool for a half hour cool off afterwards. 

Tonight we are off to our neighbours Danielle and Jean-Danielle for dinner (plum and almond tart just out of the oven) and we have agreed with M. Darribière on the shape of our future roof. The climb up onto the deteriorating tiles was an eye opener. All very well to have hundred year old works of art up there. But the amount of broken, and plain missing ones is glaring. And the under-tile fabric (don’t ask me what it’s really called) has deteriorated in many areas too. And we have the typical Ardèche method of keeping the most important tiles on the top. They are held down by small stones. Not brilliant but picturesque.