Cycles of Nature: Home Sweet Home

Afternoon cock crow,
tractor's buzz in the distance -
drowsy in the sun.

It has been a lovely lazy week for us - enjoying the luxury of sleeping in a bed, not having to pack up our life every morning and unpack it again in the evening.

Spring has turned quite summerish, every day in the garden a new variety of flower emerges. No chance of mushrooms in the forest - everything is too warm and dry. There has been no rain to speak of here for more than a month.

We have had a couple of morning sessions on the rocks, taking it slowly so Neil can ease his reconstructed shoulder back into climbing. It is great to be back in the forest again and fun to be riding our unloaded bikes along the sandy tracks, feeling so light as we pedal.

Generally we detest shopping malls but one day we made a trip (40km round cycle) to a nearby hypermarket and sports store to replace a few bits and pieces. The hypermarket is so huge staff wear roller skates to get around ! Our local supermarket (only a 4km ride away) is much smaller but still has everything we need and there is a small shop to buy bread and essentials in the next village only 2km away.

The only lack was reading material, us both having finished the novels with which we left Ireland. That was soon remedied by ordering roughly 3500 pages of books online. Happily they arrived yesterday. Hopefully they'll last us a while, supplementing our French texts and non fiction reading.

Here's a few photos of our home for the next couple of months:


Our front door - entered through the courtyard


Downstairs, living area.


Window to the street out front.


Old bedroom furniture and lovely stone walls.


Awesome old ceiling beams.


Lunch - asparagus risotto cakes.


Sadly, no hats to hang.


Over here the horseshoe is hung the other way.


Lunch, al fresco. We tried cider in Normandy and really liked it - nothing like Strongbow or Bulmers, more like a poor man's champagne.


Old stone steps to a grange.


Grape vine, mint and pansies.


Plenty of irises around in various shades.


??? but it looks interesting.


Climbing rose flowering just outside our bedroom window.


One of five different roses in our little garden.


Peonies and tulips.


Scrofulous looking chook in the backyard. Neil believes they're fledgling skeksis.


Healthier looking - we keep expecting the big white one at the back to turn around and say 'boy, ah say, boy', it looks so much like Foghorn Leghorn.