In general, I’m doing much better every day. The swelling and soreness are mostly gone, and I’m getting back to my full range of mobility. I had a set-back this weekend since I overdid it on Saturday, but I’m already on the mend again.
We had a largely quiet week, and are both back at work full time. The woman from the local brewery came over on Wed after a prompt from Will. She seemed like she really wants to get the site done, but we’re still awaiting the final content. At the same time, the escort client came back with some answers, so that’s a go again, of course, at the same time. We both have work to do on the two sites, so it’s keeping us busy, along with other minor support and updates for other clients.
We had dinner at Sophie and Dom’s on Wed night. She had two sets of cousins visiting her for the week whom we hadn’t met before. The older couple come from south of here in a city near Toulouse, and they both had a thick southern accent which I found hard to understand at times. The other couple were younger but we didn’t speak with them as much.
We started with homemade fois gras with fig confiture (ours) and asparagus from her garden. It’s one of my favourite vegetables, but only available in-season here, when it’s still expensive. Every year I think about planting some myself but it takes three years before it starts to bear fruit, so it puts me off. It would also mean keeping a separate plot away from the veggie plot so it doesn’t get plowed every year. The main course was enchaud du porc which is a pork roast, slow cooked in duck fat, like confit de canard, served with a ratatouille lasagne. Dessert was a simple sponge cake with chocolate icing that she made with one of the disabled adults that she looks after. We didn’t stay too late and took advantage of the late sunset by making it home before dark around 10.
Francoise is back after a month at her sister’s where she finished her thesis. It’s being reviewed by one of her advisors and then she’ll submit it. She and Nadine visited their father for a few days before she arrived back here last week. We both went to conversation on Thurs and then she stopped by for a drink. Our other social event of the weekend was having her, Manu & Mathilde over for dinner on Sat night.
The meal was meant to be a bbq and the weather looked ok when we shopped on Friday, but when Sat rolled around, storms were forecast for that evening. The meal was spice-rubbed pork chops, red cabbage and apple coleslaw, and roasted sweet potatoes and carrots. There were some leftover potatoes, so Will requested potato salad as well. I had brought back graham crackers from the States, and wanted to try my hand at New York (baked) cheesecake so I borrowed Francoise’s pan. I made the cake in the morning, then did a bit of work after lunch and made the salads. Will mowed the back and later, we put up our new plastic greenhouse. Although it wasn’t hard work, spending the day on my feet, and bending and stretching later on were probably not great for my recovery.
Will tidied the house a bit after that, while I finished up in the kitchen. We both showered and Will finished just before the guests arrived. The three invitees know each other very well, and they can talk for hours, which was convenient for Will and I since we were knackered from our busy day. We had espresso martinis for apero, and I cooked the pork chops under the grill. We sat down around 10, normal for us and then did a fairly good job of finishing most of the food. The exception was the coleslaw of which there still remains a fair amount. I’m mostly proud of my cheesecake, which was pretty good for a first attempt. I won’t be able to do it with graham crackers for a while, but there are similar cookies here that work nearly as well. We had a cleanser or two before the guests finally left sometime after 1. We unwisely had a final-final cleanser and watched a film until the wee hours.
We had a bit of a lie-in on Sunday, but it was called short by Louis who has been abominable of late. He’s been bringing in mice and eating them, walking across the bed and our heads, and standing on my ex-hernia from time to time. It’s mainly because the weather has been bad and he can’t go out, but we’re a bit fed-up and sleep deprived at this point. That afternoon, we rehearsed with Christian for the first time in a few weeks. We mainly picked up where we’d left off, with a few extra mistakes, plus a few new songs. We’re playing for the first time at their place in two weeks, just for a few friends so it will be a good warm-up performance.
The only other news is seedlings. Since the batch we planted back in April never really recovered, we’ve planted a few new ones. It’s fairly late in the season to be starting over, which is why we bought the greenhouse. If all goes well, we’ll keep them in pots in there and give them a longer season to grow. We now have seven new seedlings in various stages of growth and will get them planted when they’ve matured a bit.