What a marvellous start to the new week, and what a waste!
Brilliant blue , cloudless sky all day and what were we all doing? Washing,
cleaning, tidying and packing. As the house had been lent to us to continue to
use after the owner left, we felt it was only right that we left it in pristine
condition, and, since we all anticipated a fairly long road home the next day,
none of us were inclined to do any driving around. The next day was more of the
same, at least as far as the weather was concerned. Such a shame that the best
days of the week that my sister and her husband had had with us should end up
being the last day, and the day they had to depart at nine o’clock in the
morning. At least the Carcassonne Airport version of ‘Drop and Go’ made us all
smile. We left a little later and had a good drive back ‘home’. The snow-covered
Pyrenees were clearly visible as we drove along and we wondered if the myth
about getting rain within five days holds good all year round. I have decided
to try to make a collection of photographs of pigeonniers and we knew that we
would be able to find at least two more if we detoured off the main road, so
our return trip took a little longer than expected.
It was so hot when we
got home that I rashly put both my jerseys into the wash at once, but they were
both dry again after an hour on the line. I had forgotten how much drier the
atmosphere is in the Gers, or should I say that it is a lot damper in the Aude
where we had just been. And I am not only referring to the recent weather! The tap
water, too, is quite different – very, very hard. The soap that we always use
here just wouldn’t lather there, and my hair turned to straw within a couple of
washes. Even the clothes that had been washed seemed to feel different. It all
made us feel very grateful for what we have.
While we had been away, a nasty creeper type of weed had
spread all over part of the garden, so before it got any worse we decided to
attack it. It is a really horrid plant! One has to wear gardening gloves to be
able to grab it as it is prickly, but then it sticks to the gloves because it
is sticky too. And if you don’t keep control of the tendrils as you pull it
away, it sticks to anything else too – hair, clothes, other plants, even the
grass. Eventually we called it a day when we had filled the wheelbarrow to
overflowing, twice. While I had been attacking the weeds, Neels had been trying
to get the grass down to an acceptable height with a trimmer so by the end of
the day things were starting to look a bit more orderly. Oh, and it wasn’t a
full day’s work – we had gone to fill the grocery cupboard and to give Goldie a
bath in the morning, coming back to find the temperature had risen to 26
degrees, so postponed our gardening efforts to a little later in the day when
the worst of the heat had passed.
Thursday was again hot and clear when we set off for Mielan,
a small town some forty-odd kilometres away. It’s a long way to go for a
haircut but we enjoy the trip and we enjoy keeping in touch with the lady who
cuts our hair. They came to France from England about three years ago with
their daughter who was then ten or eleven years old. As is usually the case,
the daughter slotted in quite quickly and is now in High School and doing very
well. The parents are still struggling with the language, but seem to have few
French friends which would probably make things simpler for them. On the way
there and back, the mountains hovered tantalizingly, seemingly at arm’s length
away, although from there they must be all of eighty kilometres away. They have
been clearly visible for almost a week now – it must rain soon.
We had done a bit more gardening the previous afternoon, but
we really put our backs into it on Friday in spite of the heat. I wish that I
had taken ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs because it is really looking so much
better now.
Saturday proved that the myth does work all year round as
the temperature dropped to 10 degrees and the rain kept up a steady fall all
day. A bit of warm sun after this lot and those weeds will be all over
everything again. In the meantime though, I had my cross-stitch to get on with.
That night, after shivering in the lounge for a while we retired early to bed,
putting the electric blanket on for a short while to warm the sheets. This is ridiculous!
It is June 8th and we are still using the electric blanket!
Sunday was also an indoor day as the rain continued to fall
along with the temperatures. I pulled out a polo-necked T-shirt to wear under
my jersey and was not over-warm. Got plenty of cross-stitch done though.!
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