Looking forward

These are some colorful food photos that I took nearly 9 years ago, in July 2013, while walking through the Saxe-Breteuil open-air market in Paris. The market sets up a couple of times a week on the avenue de Saxe, not far from the Eiffel Tower. I'm looking forward to summer by looking backward in time. Summery thoughts are important right now. We had very little summery weather in 2021. Vegetable gardens were miserable and the plants had to be pulled out well before the normal growing season was over. We're hoping for greater success in 2022.

       

Yesterday was a drizzly day in Saint-Aignan. We've had some decent weather over the past three weeks, and as a result a lot of fruit trees have already blossomed. Now we're going into a cold spell, with light snow predicted for tonight and tomorrow and freezing temperatures at least in the early morning hours over the weekend.

   

Yesterday I had to go to see my dentist down in Luçay-le-Mâle, 30 minutes south of Saint-Aignan. On the way back home, I drove through a giboulée, which is a very hard shower of cold rain. There was very little traffic, and even though visibility was poor, I just drove slowly on narrow, winding roads through the green countryside and I made it home fine.

Some good news: Over the past week, Tasha the Sheltie has made great progress in her recovery from the knee surgery she had in January. She is now able to go downstairs under own power and come back upstairs from our entry hall at ground level up to the living room. She's got a spring in her step that was missing for a couple of months, and she seems to enjoy our walks again. The recovery is far from complete — Walt still carries her up the steep and narrow wooden stairs up to the loft in the evening and back downstairs in the morning —  but we're feeling more optimistic about her prospects.