(or When it Rains, it Pours)
If it’s not completely obvious, today’s post is appropriated from the Wizard of Oz except there, it’s “Lions and Tigers and Bears” and is chanted by Dorothy, Scarecrow and Tin Man just before they meet the Cowardly Lion. In our case, it refers to our recent harvest, albeit a meager one this year due to the storms we had earlier in the month. Most of the apples and pears fell off the trees during the storm and the horses have been enjoying the remainder. They can reach the trees from their pasture and when they use their mouths to pull fruit off the branches, it shakes the trees such that we end up with loads of fruit on the ground. The peach trees weren’t all that healthy before the storm and were damaged severely during it so I managed to salvage a few small pieces of fruit. So I’ve been enjoying fruit salad these past few mornings but once that’s gone, so is this year’s crop. All is not lost, however since we still have grapes and figs yet to come.
It may surprise you to learn that today’s alternate title doesn’t refer to the weather for once but instead, to our job prospects. Will has been building a site for a wood-turner who works with his dad. It’s one of those projects that he started a few months ago but didn’t hear anything for awhile. In the past week, he got the go-ahead to finish the work so now it’s just a question of waiting for photos and then getting paid. In addition to that site, he got another prospective client, also via his dad. It’s for a carpenter who lives in a neighbouring town and who liked dad’s site, which led him to Will’s site and then on to the site he built for the wood-turner. He likes Will’s work so looks like he’s going to commission him to build him a new site too. To date, most of Will’s referrals have come from his dad and my mom so a big thanks to our parents for their kind assistance 
I should be wrapping up my project for Alan this week and hopefully, putting it live over the weekend. As of Monday, I had no prospects for other work but as of today, I have two and both look promising. I reached out to some former co-workers in London and one of them, Luke who I know from kpe and is also a good friend, suggested me to one of his customers. Also, he mentioned my situation to David, a mutual friend and former kpe coworker and he is also looking for a developer. David just got a job working for a private Swiss bank and has been tasked with rebuilding their digital presence. This includes a new web site and also, an iPhone/iPad application. We’ve been exchanging emails today and at this point, it looks like that may come to something. He’s off to Geneva to meet the current design/development team so I should know for sure by early next week.
The second prospect is for a small company that produce short videos and publish them to various sites like YouTube. They have 5 or 6 different channels, or content areas and they’re looking to develop a site and iPad app for each one. It sounds like they’re not in a huge hurry so if things work out, I will be able to do both jobs without much overlap. This prospect is less certain and I must get back to him with a proposal so I probably won’t hear much for a few weeks. Also on the prospect front, I recently spoke with Jake who is the creative force behind the I Never Knew That app that I’ve mentioned in previous posts. That one is contingent on finding investors but he has one or two in mind so it may get off the ground yet. It’s amazing how things can go from absolutely dire to hugely optimistic in the space of a few days but that is indeed how I feel.
On the social front, I have little to report except for one event last week. On Friday, we went over to Pete and Sally’s for lunch in celebration of her birthday. There were about eight other English in addition to six or seven French. It was hot and we sat outside in the shade which was nice. We knew a few other guests and met some new people including their neighbours, Josette and Jeannot. They live next door on 2 hectares of land on which they built a house and few outbuildings and did most of the work themselves! They also have a big veggie garden, plus lots of fruit and nut trees. He is originally from around here but they lived in Paris for many years and settled back in the region a few years ago. They have found it difficult to meet people out here; they claim that people keep to themselves and aren’t too welcoming to outsiders. I guess we’ve found something similar but in our case, there aren’t that many French people our age to meet. Anyway, they gave us a tour of the grounds and buildings and then loaned us some swim suits so we had a quick dip before joining them for a drink or two. We got back home around 6:30 and with a full head of steam from the day’s festivities, carried on drinking into the evening. I’m not proud to admit that by the time we went to bed, we’d pretty much has one of each kind of booze that day including white and red wine, beer, pastis, vodka, wiskey and even a stray can of cider that we found in the fridge. Needless to say, Saturday was a write-off.
Just a quick note about my two favourite topics, the veggie garden and the weather. As Will mentioned in his last post, the weather has not been terribly seasonal of late although it’s not nearly as bad as he made it out to be. But starting late last week, we’ve had a mini heat wave that lasted through yesterday with temps in the mid 30’s (90’s) with high humidity. Will took advantage by sunning himself / sweating in the garden but I’ve had the excuse of work to keep me inside. Starting last night, we had storms and it’s been raining on and off today so the garden will be happy even if Will isn’t. On that front, we’ve been doing a good job of making meals out of our own produce, namely tomatoes, beans and courgette but also a butternut squash and broccoli. I made a lovely gazpacho the other day and will probably do so again when the sun comes back. We generally use veggies, plus cheese and/or bacon and turn it into a pasta or salad so it’s been fun to do some creating in the kitchen.
Ok – I’m sure that’s long enough. We’re off to Villebois this weekend which is having it’s annual summer festival so we’re staying at Lee and Richards on Sat and Sunday. They have some friends coming down from the UK so it should be a fun weekend. Au revoir.