Today is yet another public holiday in France. It's Ascension Day, a Christian holiday marking the day that Jesus ascended into Heaven, after 40 days of walking the Earth following his resurrection on Easter Monday. It always falls on a Thursday here, and a lot of people in France make a four-day weekend of it. That's called a pont — taking the Friday off to make a "bridge" between the Thursday holiday and the weekend. May 1 (Labor Day) and May 8 (VE Day) are also public holidays in France — both fell on Fridays this year.
We've had another spell of fine weather this week. This vigneron was out working in his grapes a couple of days ago. I took the photo using a very long zoom.
I bought a pot of basil at the supermarket a few days ago. I hope the coming summer will be hot enough to keep it going. I'm an optimist by nature, I guess. If the weather turns damp and chilly, I can always grow the basil under a cold frame. The bricks are ones we found here when we moved in 12 years ago and were made in Saint-Aignan.
Callie's walks start earlier and earlier every morning in this season. Right now the sun rises at 6:20 a.m. and sets at 9:20 p.m. The days are long, and we still have more than a month to go before they start getting shorter again. It's supposed to rain today, unfortunately.
Last year I planted some perennial bellflowers (Campanulaceae) in the holes in an old cinder block to see if they would survive and bloom there. So far so good.
One of the things I like about the kind of weather we've been having this month is that I can dry the laundry on the line outdoors. Not many people in France actually have a clothes dryer. We have one but seldom use it.
Did you put up this clothes line or was it there when you bought the house?
ReplyDeleteIt was already here.
ReplyDeleteKen...
ReplyDeleteWhy is the hose coming out of the bottom of the water butt....
and back in at the top?
I really like the fact that you've got some of your local bricks...
there is a collector who gives exhibitions locally who does these....
and tiles that are stamped...
but the icing on his cake was the recent finding of the back to front, brass lettering stamp from one of the factories...
he's also got "hot water" bricks from some of the factories...
looks like these, but on the other side it has been pinched through to make a hooking point...
and they are very heavily glazed...
he was telling the people he was talking to, that they were very rare finds...
the one he was showing them had cost him over 100 Euros...
The bottom hose coming out of the rain barrel is used to fill buckets or watering cans. The top hose is just an overflow, to take water away from the house before it runs onto the ground.
ReplyDeleteDid you take the first photo from your house?
ReplyDeleteNo, I was almost out at the end of the gravel road. The vineyard goes out a lot farther. I never walk all the way out there, but with the Canon zoom I can sometimes get decent photos.
DeleteI like your clothing color choices :)
ReplyDeleteLove the cinderblock flowers. How do you say cinderblock in French?
Cinder block (concrete block) in French is parpaing. In the U.K., it's a breeze block. Breeze means cinders, like French braises I imagine.
Delete"Breeze means cinders...."
DeleteWell, I never knew that... I always thought that it was breeze as in light wind...
to indicate that the blocks were lighter than ordinary concrete....
UK ones were always solid... and only the size of nine bricks... I bought six to stand a shed on...
they weighed a ton... breeze, as in light as a feather, NOT!
I much prefer the French ones, much more useful... especially as planters!!
on another subject....does anyone have any suggestions for hotel or restaurants in Lyon?? We will have 2 days there on our trip in the fall (5 glorious weeks en france mostly visiting grandbaby in Biarritz & a week in Paris) but need Lyon info
ReplyDeleteNo help from us -- we've only ever been to Lyon once, on a day trip fom Paris via TGV.
DeleteDid not know that you were an Old Order Mennonite! That's what their clotheslines look like. Though believe it or not, they wear some really bright colors along with grays and blues.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I bother, because nearly all of them are far too old to fade, but I still sort our clothes by color (more or less) before I wash them.
DeleteThat's a nice clear photo of Callie. I love these long days, but ours in Alabama are never as long as yours.
ReplyDeleteNo. because we are farther north than Quebec City. Our long days are really long, and our short winter days are really short.
DeleteAh, Basil. I've never been able to keep one thriving or even alive. Don't know why. Now I just admire them when I see them in the market
ReplyDelete