What a weather week! It's been so hot and sunny - just my cup of tea - anything up to 30°C but usually around 26°C which I find perfect, with just the slightest warm breeze. We have been very lucky in Brittany as most parts of France have experienced giant hailstones, tornadoes, serious storms and flooding. We have had the odd bit of thunder rumbling in the distance but never coming to anything. I have been very glad of my pool and enjoy cooling down in there and doing some aqua aerobics in private!
In the village there are lots of hydrangea bushes of every hue.
They seem to be really flourishing this year and everywhere around there are huge blooms. My Callistemon is also flowering well for the first time since I planted it.
Yesterday morning I picked the first of my tomatoes - two very tiny cherry tomatoes - not quite enough for a meal but so sweet! The lettuces in the polytunnel are doing very well and I now have a mixed salad leaf bed starting too.
The fishpond, has miraculously cured itself and is no longer leaking. A cubic metre of sand, four 35kg bags of cement and waterproofer are in the garage, along with a cement mixer but it seems none will be needed at the moment. I have today put back in the surviving thirty-seven fish - four died unfortunately - and the divided plants and I have my fingers well and truly crossed against future leaks. My worker now thinks that it is possible that the fault was not with the pond but with a leaky hose from the pump which was not returning all the water to the pond. So, we have replaced the hose and will see what happens before we hide it properly in the plants at the back of the pond which also hide the pump and filter system.
Yesterday evening all three cats decided to follow me on my walk down one of the lanes leading from the calvaire.
I walked for ten minutes and I don't think that the cats had ever gone so far from home before.
On our way back a horse and rider came towards us. She spoke in English and asked "Do you take your cats for a walk?" I replied that they just followed me and asked her where she was from - St Nicolas du Pélem apparently. Bizarre meeting an English horse rider deep in the Breton countryside.
Her horse scared the cats and they disappeared completely only to reappear when the horse and rider were well out of sight.
Part way back they decided they had walked far enough and did a "lay down" strike.
Once we arrived home they just flaked out on the terrace - no stamina! This photo is of Purrdy and Claude on the calvaire the day before.
Two lots of guests for rainbowcottagesinfrance.com arrived last Thursday and left on Sunday - all very pleasant and we had several drinks together and put the world to rights. The next guests in Middle Cottage will be my very good friend, June with her twin six year old granddaughters who arrive on Thursday into Dinard Airport. I haven't met the girls and am looking forward to practising my limited Spanish with them - their Daddy is Spanish.
On Sunday there was a horse endurance race which came through the hamlet. I sat on the grass at the base of the calvaire and took lots of photographs - here are just a few.
My neighbour's grandchildren watching the competitors going up the lane I walked with the cats this evening.
My team came joint first in the Quiz at St Mayeux last week, mainly because there were only two sport questions this time. We have a dearth of sport knowledge in spite of having two men in the team and having so few questions this time was very good news.
The new sheep have settled in well and will now feed from my hand or the bucket I'm holding. They have already made distinct paths in the fields and left deposits everywhere. I can't believe how they can poo so much!
The incredible summer weather has brought on the grapes on the vine at the back of Rainbow Cottages. There's going to be a whopping harvest again this year.
My worker has been continuing with the kitchen and all doors and drawers are now finished, just the cornice, pelmet, plinth, tiling and eventually floor to go now. It's a slow job as he only comes once a week to do it but we'll get their before Christmas hopefully.
Three things I like:
1. Making lunchtime soup with the tomatoes and onions the guests left behind and some of my basil.
2. Seeing the fish back swimming happily in their pond again.
3. Getting my campervan back with the electric windows working again - thanks, Andy.
1 comment:
How wonderful to go walking with cats, great story made me smile.
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