So, this is another catch up sort of blog, continuing what has been a kind of diary for me over the last 3 years. It all feels very predictable...the rhythms of the year, the vide greniers at the same venues on the same weekend each year, the cherry trees ripening, and the cherry conserve making, the cigales starting to accompany every hot afternoon......the arrival of les hirondelles.....and the blue blue skies.
We had to return to England for a couple of weeks at the end of June, for my regular hospital check up ( all is well ! ). We took advantage of some lovely English weather, and spent several days with the grandchildren.
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| Izzie and Flynn |
I worked a couple of shifts at the Hospice shop, and enjoyed seeing some of my favourite volunteers, staff and customers.
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| With Georgie at the Overgate Hospice shop |
We mooched, as it is by far the best thing to do, in our lovely Hebden Bridge, and then we spent some time in Liverpool with Jess, who ran an amazing personal best time 10K in a Race for Life event in Sefton Park. It was exactly 2 years since she ran her first ever race, a 5K Race for Life, when I removed my wig for the first time, following my chemotherapy.
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| 2 photos, 2 years apart...... |
Back in Caunes again, and the summer has really got underway. Le Tour has started....into the Pyrenees today....we're going into the mountains tomorrow,to get our first ever view of a mountain stage. Les Venderedis Classiques concerts in Caunes have started, It's feu d'artifice in Carcassonne tonight, to celebrate le quatorze.....and its hot ! It has been over 30 degrees every day for ages, no rain for 5 or 6 weeks, and our figs have already started to turn purple.
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| Opera in the grounds of Caunes Abbey |
So...all is well. We have no visitors for another 2 weeks, then lots of visitors for the duration of the school holidays. It will be good to see the grandchildren again, and to watch how their swimming and treasure hunting skills have developed since last summer.
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| Mark & Clark |
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| Liam |
So, that is it, our very lovely life continues to jog along, meanwhile Greece totters, benefits are reduced for the poorest in the UK, migrants continue to risk all to arrive in our part of the world, Scott Walker, from Wisconsin, seeks the Republican nomination for the Presidential race, alongside wanting guns to be more easily available for American citizens, Tories want to ease regulations re fox hunting and people are not travelling abroad on holiday because of terrorism fears.
I feel very lucky. All is well in my personal world, and being cocooned in this lovely place, with so much to enjoy and look forward to, sometimes seems very unfair. On the plus side, it is wonderful to be able to share it with our family and friends who come to visit.
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| How well will they all be able to swim this year ? |
I do know what you mean about being in the cocoon....but there's nothing unfair about it. Lucky, perhaps, but not unfair.
ReplyDeleteBut I do fear that we forget Niemoller's warning at our peril...they've already come for the trade unionists; they have already come for the sick, the disabled; not with the knock on the door at 4.00 am, but with the the deprivation of the right to make enough to have a decent life - and now they have come for a nation.
Sorry to be gloomy....daily life here is good too and we enjoy it...but I do wonder how it is that we have let these monsters rule us.
I fear for my daughter's generation Helen. It was important for my parents that "things" were better for us, and in so many ways, they have been. Being financially comfortable ( bloody rich in comparison with most of the world ! ) does provide a cocoon, and being entirely selfish I hope to be able to pass that security of sorts onto our children......but I wish I could do more.....
DeleteI agree with Helen. It's lucky but not unfair. I worry about the state of the world. If I didn't have internet access I would be completely unaware of it all, stuck here in my own cocoon.
ReplyDeleteI'm also finding it difficult to blog and read other blogs at the moment but I think it's perhaps just this time of year. It seems to take much less effort in winter.
Have a lovely summer with your family Janice xxx
I think my blogging problems are partly about being conscious that I have a lovely life, where the rhythm of each year is exactly the same as the last......I'm enjoying it, but dont feel taking the same photos and writing about the same things every year is what i want to do...or subject my friends to ! ( preposition at end of sentence.....I will be struck down). I must stop moaning, I'm having a great time, my life is lovely, I am incredibly lucky. Jx
DeleteI started blogging about the same time as you and like you find that as the years go on, I've said all I want to say about the yearly schedule of trips, fetes, festivals et al, but I do want to continue and still love reading others (who now feel more like friends). Let's hang on in there.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes.....we will ! Thanks for this Bto B.....it is good to see friends pop up on screen and to share bits of their lives. Hope you're enjoying Hydra still, and that the trip home is easy.
DeleteI do hope you will continue to blog, Janice. It IS an effort that takes time, but, it is in the ordinary of our lives that I think we find ourselves and in doing so help others. This all being said by someone whose own blogging is waning and seems to be only about gardening and deer. So it is in July. I enjoy reading about and seeing your adorable grandchildren and all the festivals and, like you, I worry about the state of the mankind.
ReplyDeleteI love your gardening posts, and the deer are fabulous ! I know what you mean, sometimes, writing about yet another cherry festival or vide grenier purchase seems a bit pathetic in the world as it is developing today. I know I will continue to blog, it has given me so much pleasure over the last 3 years, and I do feel as if I have some wonderful friends, dotted all over the planet, entirely through blogging.
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