Cherry ripe

When I look back over my notes for this day I only have one entry. Ate our first cherries from the cherry tree down on the lower terrace today. Gee thanks, that will really help to flesh this out.

I have been watching the cherry trees that we see from the terrace – and all are stubbornly green. But I had forgotten that we actually have a few grafted cherries on the property. Well four I think. One down on the terrace below the road, one up near the first floor of the guest house. And two right down the end of the property near the pool. Naturally most of them are very high and inaccessible. But I found that as I was mowing the second part of this terrace I could eat a handful with each pass of the mower and the grass catcher and the wheel barrow. It certainly incentivises one to keep going. Delicious plump fruit. So addictive.

But the day began up in Vernoux. I needed to get bread and go to the market, and drove Bernard up for his daily physio session. He usually cadges a lift from one of his many neighbours, or uses the moped if no-one is making the 15km drive. And it’s like driving royalty. He knows absolutely everyone and they all stop to wave once they work out who is in the car. We even had to stop and say hello to the goats. These belong to the big farm on the plateau owned by the Meiers. Very friendly folk, and no one even minded the traffic jam we caused while Bernard talked on and on to the farmers. Quite fun really.

Once back I walked down to the letter box to get a huge bunch of cow parsley for the vase for the front hall in the main house. This is the second flush of this wonderful weed. Sorry, wildflower, and I think we can get another before it all goes over and is replaced by other dull things like nettles and such.

I also picked the very first sweet peas that are popping up in the vegetable garden. They are twining up the bean poles in perfect formation. And it bodes well for a long season of room fresheners. I also managed a first crop of swiss chard for dinner tonight. Such a relief to have things to eat after the endless cabbage.

And then in the afternoon I potted on a good crop of basil seedlings which have survived the erratic germination. Poor seeds. They get sown in one pot, sit happily for a week, then get hauled into a car, taken down the road to another venue, baked for a bit, and then driven back up ten days later. Hope they put on growth now, and not just sulk.

And you may think that Alice’s path of grass is also sulking; you can’t see the detail in this picture. But the grass seeds are germinating, truly. I will try and find the time to weed out the weeds later this week, or on the weekend and maybe sow some more seeds to fill in the gaps.