Ever since the neighbour announced that he had bought
himself a little car to ‘do up’, Neel s has been itching to get his hands on it
so he was thrilled to bits when Laurent suggested we take it for a drive on
Wednesday morning. Make it no mistake, it is no Ferrari, Maserati or Rolls-Royce but it is really cute and
unbelievably noisy! It was a lovely day again and we took a series of back
roads with virtually no traffic, so enjoyed our little tour. Seeing that this
is a utility vehicle, in fact, it has remarkably comfortable seats albeit rather
cosily positioned. My knee nearly got put into third gear several times! On the
way back to our starting point, we got a different glimpse of the Lot River
valley to our usual one. The cliffs above the river are spectacular and are
known as ‘causses’ here. Because it is such an outstanding landmark there are
plenty of businesses around here that include the word into their name – a restaurant
is called ‘Les Jardins de la causse’ (the gardens of the cliffs) or the
Boucherie de la Causse (butchery of the cliffs) and so on. I suppose it is more
of an escarpment than cliffs, in actual fact. Anyway, we had a lovely outing.
The following day we had an appointment to keep in Figeac,
about 30 minutes’ drive away. They say you learn something every day, and that
day we learnt that an appointment at 4.30 at a place opposite one of the
schools, was not good planning. The GPS always tries to take us to the correct
side of the road at our destination, so we found ourselves taking a very
roundabout route to achieve this. At one stage we were directed down a small
alley which got narrower and narrower until we almost got stuck, and then we
had to reverse out which was quite nerve-wracking. The device is a real boon
most of the time but can also be a real pain. Neels was amazing. The school day
was ending and the everywhere was full of cars and pupils; there was no parking
anywhere and we were almost late for the appointment. In the end I got out and
walked the rest of the way while he waited for a parking space to become free
as parents collected their children.
On Tuesday I had ventured down to the lower part of the
property to help hang out the washing and to inspect the newly sown sweet corn.
It is the first time I have been able to do that for about seven months due to
the really nasty sciatica I have had. And on Friday we went down to the bus
stop to meet Courtney when she returned from school, followed up by a walk
around the village on Saturday. It was well worth the effort as the flowers are
so beautiful at the moment.
Sometime over the past weeks, we put up a frame-work that
could support one of those seed/fat balls that the birds enjoy so much. At
first we thought that the birds couldn’t see it, or that they were shunning it
because it is quite close to the house, but then suddenly they discovered it
and my goodness, have they enjoyed themselves. We have also enjoyed seeing
them, because we can sit in the lounge and watch them from there. I intend to
get a lot more pictures.
Otherwise, things are going well here. The flowers are
blooming, the sun shines most of the time and
the weather is even warming up ever so slightly – when it remembers. Last
Tuesday night was 0 degrees again and only 1 degree the next night so we are
still using the electric blanket to warm up the bed (Sissies!) However we will
soon be able to sit out on the verandah for long periods which we are looking
forward to.
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