Blooms

These flower photos might give you the wrong idea today. They were taken on Saturday, when we had sunny weather. Now we've been in a deluge for 24 hours. I lay awake much of the night listening to hard rain beat against the roof tiles and skylight windows up in the loft. And it's still raining now, but not as hard for the moment.

Anyway, the peonies out back have finally bloomed, as you can see above. They were growing here when we moved to Saint-Aignan in 2003. We had made an offer on the house in December 2002 and the deal was closed in April 2003. It's hard to believe it was so long ago.

Another spot of color that the people we bought from, Jean and Josette, left us are these purple-blue bellflowers around the front of the house. They put on a good display at this time of year and are perennials. As you can see, the amaryllis bulbs I brought back from North Carolina recently have started to bloom too. More photos when the rain stops.

Jean and Josette also left many rose bushes all around the house. Some of them are just starting to flower now. I hope the hard rain hasn't knocked the petals off the blooms. By the way, we often get very hard rains at this time of year.

Finally, one more shot of a peonie. Josette, who'll turn 89 in a few days, used to call this place « un havre de paix dans un océan de verdure » — "a haven of peace in an ocean of greenery" — and this time of year you can see why. Obviously, there are colors other than green, too.