The sulks

Goodness it’s been so long since I’ve written I’ve forgotten how. And forgotten that it’s a daily habit that must be fitted in.

We are back in France and life is almost returning to normal.   There were huge storms and very heavy rain for an entire week while we were away.   I had been following it on the French weather sites, and getting exciting emails from Andrew about the 14 inches of rain. Ugh.   We haven’t heard of anyone who hasn’t had a bucket under a leak of some sort under their roofs.

And we were no different. The guesthouse was a bit of a leaky sieve. And the main house even surprised us with some damage.   But it might just have been driving rain (almost 100km per hour) pushing into the chimney.   Quickly mopped up; thank goodness for tiled floors.

The garden is sodden.   But it’s so free draining that it won’t stay wet for long. I’m yearning to find out just how much rain we had; but my rain gauge is safely indoors away from any frost. And I forgot to ask Claude our neighbour who keeps track.

My potting shed was awash.   And when I looked for Artur he emerged from underneath the staging. Well hidden from the storms and rain by nesting in a bag of fleece well out of sight.

He picked his way delicately out of his hiding spot.   But I don’t know why. It was only to glare at me.   Ah, I do love their joyous reunions.

Actually for most of the first afternoon his main job seemed to be to get in my way.   I needed to put back all the plants that had been in the calabert. So he positioned himself in the doorway just where I would almost trip him up with my boxes of plants.   Who says cats aren’t clever.   I predict I get another day of punishment before we are friends.

There wasn’t much time for more than that on the first day back. It is getting dark around 530pm so just a few hours and suddenly it was gloom and dark.

But I did notice that the guard from the apple tree on the main lawn was no where to be seen. Goodness only knows how far it has blown.  The tree looked oddly naked without its protective fencing. I do wish we didn’t have deer in the forest that think apple branches a delicacy. Ah well. A small niggle. It’s just so lovely to be back.