Autumn approaches

Summer is almost over already, with a few autumnal mists on some early mornings, the evenings darkening noticeably earlier and the weather mostly a bit cooler. However, our stream is still more-or-less dried up as there hasn’t been much rain and there are water restrictions in place across most of the country. Our vegetables and fruit have been the best yet, this year. Our own sweet-corn was the best we’ve had – tasty, plump and lots of it. The plum fruit harvest followed the success of the cherries and also made lots of conserves or was frozen for use over the coming months. We’re still eating our potatoes and onions but our broad beans are over, our melons and squashes are about ready and the courgettes are just finishing. The only negative is that our hens have not been laying much through the summer - we may even have to buy eggs! Or more hens.

We’ve had rather changeable weather through the summer, with frequent heatwaves and a few cooler spells, and rather fewer thunderstorms than usual – only a couple of severe ones early on – but the pool has kept warm and useable throughout and is still comfortable for swimming.

Politics continue to be painful, though more so in the UK than here in France, where Macron has seen his initial high popularity slide as he hasn’t achieved very much yet, in most of the locals’ eyes, and has upset the unions with proposals to change employment law (which are badly needed). We despair about the UK political situation as Brexit continues to be handled badly on both sides and no benefit is visible, only deteriorating conditions all round, mostly impacting on us with the pound sterling’s collapse against the euro costing us dearly.

We’ve had a few more trips this year, Rhys has been to the UK twice to see family and friends. Visiting his mother has become more difficult as she’s now in a care home with dementia to add to her other troubles, but visits to see the ‘children’ and grandchildren have been wonderful. It’s also been lovely to see some friends who we usually don’t manage to fit in during our trips. Unfortunately, Jeanne was not able to go as well this last time but we are busy planning our next joint trip, so she’ll be able to catch up.

Jeanne on Montalbano's balcony

Our main holiday was in Sicily with local friends, which we enjoyed very much, and we were able to visit some of the sites of the Inspector Montalbano TV series, including his TV home, where we stayed for a couple of nights.   

After we returned we took another trip to stay with other friends near Agen – where the prunes come from. We had a lovely time with them including a boat trip on the river Lot and an open-air production of Shakespeare’s Richard III, updated in costume and ‘business’ but faithful to the bard’s words. 

And we’ve had a few nice visits from family and friends as well, with another two or three scheduled for the weeks ahead. But now that we’re into September Rhys is looking forward to the new Opera season just starting. Last year we were lucky to have operas and ballets from the Royal Opera, the Paris Opera and the New York Metropolitan Opera all ‘streaming’ in to our local cinemas at bargain prices for what are usually brilliant productions.We're hoping for the same again this season.