Welcome back to the Frog Blog. We had quite a full week last week so I shall get stuck right in. First off, the weather continues to be cool and damp, with just the rare odd nice day. We’re having a very late spring as a result, but it feels like it is starting to get underway at last. While the wysteria has still yet to bud, the magnolia has at least got its first flowers.
We also planted this year’s special crop : we have 11 wee seedlings that all seem to be growing well. It’s quite a feat to have 11 when you only germinated 10 seeds, but one was a twin, as apparently can occasionally happen. Lucien also came by to work on our veggie plot, which has been strimmed, tilled and had industrial-grade manure worked into it. It will need going over once again before its usable, but with the naff weather it’s hard to find a chance to do outdoor work.
We’re due an all-too-brief taste of proper spring weather this week: for three days starting tomorrow, it will be in the mid-20s, clear and sunny. I for one cannot wait ! Matt’s less enthused about it as Tuesday is the day he leaves for his annual trip back to Minneapolis, so he will miss out. To rub salt in the wound, they’ve just had a foot of snow fall over there, with the threat of more to come too.
On Tuesday last week, our latest gite client came over to discuss the final touches to his site, which then went live that evening. He was a pleasure to work for and very pleased with his shiny new website. We’ve also completed and put live a Chinese language version of our big vineyards site, and as I type this, Matt is working hard on getting the feed of vineyards for sale working before he heads off on his travels.
As well as work, we fitted in quite a bit of socialising last week, starting on wednesday when we had Marie & Christian over for a meal. They’re both in good form, although neither of them are terribly enthused about running the anti wind-farm association for one more year. Matt made chicken enchiladas and rice, followed by brownies and ice cream for dessert.
On Thursday evening, we were invited over to Françoise’s place down the road for an impromptu apero-dinnatoire. She has a friend of hers visiting at the moment called Marie, a young french woman from Normandie whom Françoise met out in Australia. We grazed on cheese, bread and pâtés and for dessert had a delicious cheesecake that Françoise had made herself. We had a very fun time, but didn’t stay late as Matt’s hernia was playing up that day. Françoise thinks she’s found a buyer for her house already, which is great news for her, but means she won’t be sticking around here for more than a few months.
The next evening we teamed up again with Françoise and Marie, this time to go to a bar in Abjat called the Entente Cordiale. It’s a little slice of Britain : an English-style pub where at least half of the clientele are expats. As off-putting as that sounds, it’s actually a nice place and they often have live music on a weekend. Not this time, as it turned out, but they were serving tapas so we had a bite over some drinks and then came back to ours to continue the festivities. They left us a number of drinks and games of cards later, at round 1am.
Saturday was one of our rare rain-free days and I took advantage of that to repot a few houseplants and to play some acoustic guitar in the garden. That evening, we were invited over to Stephan & Françoise’s house for a meal. (Different Françoise : they’re the couple that own the campsite where we got married). There was an art exhibition on at a nearby château in Villars that they also invited us to, so we got to theirs a little before 6. We spent a couple hours at the exhibition, which was around the theme of enchanted forests, and while we were there, also bumped into Françoise and Marie for the third day running. There was champagne and canapés at the end of the event, and then we headed back to Françoise & Stephan’s for a meal. She served up roast chicken, with sort of a potato waffle side, all of which she purchased from Thiviers market. Dessert was a sort of crème caramel, home made, and it was delicious. After a few hours we came home, lit the fire and watched some TV before turning in.
And that’s about all the news I have for you! Normally I am left home alone when Matt heads back to the States, but this time I shall have company: Dad is coming back over for another week of working on their house. He arrives tomorrow afternoon, just before I take Matt to the station. I hope he’s going to be able to cope with a week of my cooking…