08 May 2013

May holidays

The rain is back today, and it's a holiday in France — le 8 mai is Victory in Europe Day, marking the day the German army surrendered in 1945. It always falls on May 8, of course. This year, tomorrow happens to be a holiday too — a Catholic holiday called l'Ascension, marking the day 40 days after Easter when Jesus, resurrected, finally departed this Earth and ascended to Heaven. It always falls on a Thursday.

This is a new leaf on a Chardonnay vine. The vineyard is just beginning its 2013 growth cycle.

May is full of holidays in France. May 1 is Labor Day, or la fête du Travail, in France and many other countries. And then 10 days from now the Christian holiday of Pentecost — la Pentecôte — will be celebrated, with a Monday holiday in France called le lundi de Pentecôte.

The recent garden pruning we had done left us with four or five big piles of branches that we need to cut up for use as firewood.

If it rains on every one of these holidays, people in France will get pretty grouchy. We've finally started having some nice weather, and Walt and I have been getting a lot of work done in the yard and garden — tilling, mowing, and cutting wood, mostly. I guess with today's rain we can take a holiday too.

5 comments:

  1. Holidays are probably the only saving grace of religion!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Everybody who possibly can is taking the whole of this week off, so they will have had the benefit of some good weather, even if the holidays themselves are poor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The sunshine in your yard looks so nice :)

    We finally had sun yesterday! woo hooo! We've had days and days of rain and temsp in the 40s and 50s. Now, my azaleas are in full bloom, though!

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  5. :-) There is no video in this post!

    ReplyDelete

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