The vineyard in October

The weather continues to be just beautiful. It's so odd. I mean, we've had nice stretches of warm, sunny days in late October before, but this one, unlike those, was not preceded by a gray, rainy period earlier in autumn.

We've had beautiful summers, lasting into late September, in past years. The summer of 2009 was like that. But summer 2018 is one for the record books. I took a walk with Natasha yesterday afternoon in golden sunlight and in my shirtsleeves. In the photo above, that's our house and, on the right, two neighbors' houses.

Tasha is loving the walks this summer fall. She's mostly very good at staying close to me as we walk — I don't bother putting a leash on her. There's always the danger that we'll encounter a deer (un chevreuil) or a hare (un lièvre) and she'll take off running after it, but she always comes back after a minute or two when I start calling her.

The vineyard is such a pleasant environment for walks with a dog. Dogs love running up and down the long straight rows between rows of vines. This time of year, they get very curious about grapes. Natasha just sniffs them, but our late border collie named Callie would always eat a few on walks at this time of year. Most of the grapes have been harvested now, but there are always a few left on the vines after the harvest.

The hamlet we live in, which is located just 3 kms (2 miles) from Saint-Aignan, is on a high bluff on the "left bank" of the Cher River. Between us and the river there are woods and some houses along the road down into the river valley. Because we're high up, the land is very dry in rainless periods like this one. Grapevines, with have very deep roots, thrive in these situations. The 2018 wines are predicted to be some of the best our region has produced in decades.