After a dicey few days, the good weather returned to Mazeroux yesterday, and despite the threat of a storm, it stayed with us today too. It’s hard to say how long it will last as the forecast at present is so changeable as to be useless, but its been mid-twenties, sunny and quite pleasant. The garden is coming along at last, but it’s been a very late spring. And, mysteriously, our wisteria has so far failed to flower, unlike all the others in the area which have been going for weeks. It’s finally budding now, but it’s way behind schedule. The grass on the other hard is growing prolifically and needs mowing weekly.
Before I get stuck in to the recap, I just want to cover a couple things that got missed last time. The first concerns the Smoo who, I realise we have failed to mention, has lost loads of weight. He was noticeably thinner even before the recent mini-heatwave, but since then it really fell off. He is now a lean, lithe killing machine and we’re very proud of him. He’d been overweight for so long that we’d taken to calling him Fats – a habit we’re having to unlearn now.
The other little titbit I wanted to note for posterity is that the final meal I cooked for Dad, on the night before Matt got back, was a success so in the end I was 3 for 4. I did pan-seared chicken breasts with rosemary served on a bed of rocket, and goats cheese mashed potato.
Ok, back to the news. Work’s still been busy for both of us. Matt’s finished working on the displaying of properties for sale on our big vineyards website so is now turning to some of the smaller tasks that have been waiting for him. For me, I have two new sites on the go, both redesigns. The first is yet another gite website, which is always hard to get enthused about, and the second is for a Welsh escort agency. Yep, you read that correctly. This too is not something I am relishing, but it will be well-paid, so that’s something.
I worked on the gite one all week and showed the client the design today. I am actually really pleased with it, and they love it too, so that’s a bonus. They’re recent retirees and are a really fun couple. We’ve much in common too – they are: staunch lefties, anti-Brexit, Trump-haters, vodka drinkers and cat lovers.
We had a social activity on Thursday when Françoise came over after conversation class to use our internet as hers is unbearably slow. She ended up staying for dinner and a few drinks afterwards and it was a very pleasant evening. Philippe had been away on holiday in Martinique but returned recently and the two have been finding it hard to cohabit. Françoise decided to head off down south to stay with her sister Nadine in the Gard where she’s staying for a month. Matt made the Thai green curry that I ballsed up when Dad was over and I learned a few tips on where I went wrong, so I will know for next time.
The next social activity we had was Saturday night when we invited Benoit & Virginie over for dinner. They’re mostly in good form and are eagerly awaiting the return of Eva their daughter. She gets back in about 6 weeks and naturally, a massive party is planned. Dinner was a recipe we’d not made in a few years: lamb or chicken kebabs with red onion, served on a bed of mint-flavoured rice and served with a greek salad. It’s normally done on the BBQ but the weather wasn’t great so Matt oven-cooked them and they came out great. Dessert was a new one : a frozen margarita pie. The base was made of crushed pretzels, giving you the salt. The filling was condensed milk (home made as its impossible to find here), cream, lime concentrate, and a small dose of tequila and of triple sec. You don’t bake it, you freeze it. It was a little runny the first night but still delicious.
We have been talking more and more seriously about making a patio area in the front garden and as the money’s been better of late, we asked Benoit about it. He told us what he thought would look good and we agreed completely. He gave us a ballpark figure and we said yes, so he is officially booked in to do the job. He’ll do it at the end of summer so we’ll have it ready for summer 2019!
It was so lovely on Sunday that I sat out and sunbathed for an hour or so before our weekly band practise. This went well and we’re starting to sound quite together on some songs. Now we’ve whittled the list of songs down to 12, rehearsals go faster too and we can be more focused. That evening, Lewi came by for dinner. He and Pary are down from Paris for 10 days or so, although Pary has gone down to Biaritz so we missed her. As it was a lovely evening we had aperitifs outside. We started with an improvised cocktail of raspberry vodka, apple liqueur, tonic and a dash of lime juice. Refreshing but a little too sweet. We sat out chatting until sunset then came in for dinner of veggie lasagne, followed by the margarita pie again for dessert which had set nicely. Lewi left at around midnight and we watched a little TV afterwards before turning in.
Right, that’s all from me. Au revoir.