At the beginning of the week we returned Dappley to her owners and were just a little sad to see how enthusiastically she greeted her owners. Obviously she had just been putting on a brave face for us, while all the time she was longing for them to return! It was fun to have a little dog around the place, but to be perfectly honest, we couldn’t really think of having anyone’s pet here for longer than a few days, and then only infrequently.
On the way home again we called in at a large supermarket and bought ourselves an indoor aerial for the TV set we have been lent. Our idea was that if we could see the pictures while hearing the French, particularly on the news channel, we would be able to improve our French by leaps and bounds. However, our dreams of becoming fluent French-speakers overnight were still-born as, no matter what Neels tried, we could not get the aerial to pick up a strong enough signal to give us a picture that stood still for more than a nano-second. Oh well, it’s back to the hard way then…..!
The following day we were returning some of the hospitality that we have been shown, so were unable to return the aerial until the day after that, which we were a bit nervous about as we had lost the till slip. However, there was absolutely no problem at all. We merely said that the aerial was incompatible with our TV and that was that. Money back at once. The same day, I suddenly got fed up with my hair which was too long and badly needed cutting, so I phoned the number I had been given for an English-speaking hairdresser and made and appointment. She lives near a town called Mielan which was all new territory to us, and we had a really lovely drive down to keep the appointment. I know we are trying to do as much as possible in French, but I definitely do not feel competent to discuss a haircut in French and imagine if I mispronounced something vital and ended up with a shaven head! Anyway she is a lovely warm person and I am glad to have got to know her. That night, we had been invited out to dinner and when we left our friends’ house, it was just beginning to drizzle quite heavily. By the time we got home, it was pouring down, and continued to do so all night and most of the next day, with the temperature dropping way down again. Afterwards we discovered that our village had had 60 mms of rain, and the garden had been transformed once more into a bog! But there is always a bright side and in this case it means that the garden will not need watering for quite a few days.
On Saturday we set out for Toulouse airport where we were due to collect another cousin who has come to stay for a short while. The weather was not very bright and was quite cool too, but we are hoping for an improvement as grey days don’t make for good sight-seeing. We also have a full programme planned for the time he is here, and would really like to show him the area while it is looking its best.
Although we have almost exhausted the supply of vegetables in the garden, with only some rather magnificent onions still to be lifted. Our tomato plants that we rescued from the Agri are doing very well and have sprouted magnificently. We are longing for them to start producing to that we can find out just what kinds of tomatoes we have actually acquired. However, the fruit trees are now coming into their own and we are already getting delicious little Mirabelle plums. Soon we will start picking a bumper crop of figs, and I may well be glad that I have kept all the various bottles that we have emptied over the past few months! I see a major jam-making session ahead.
Of course the garden doesn’t stop there as there are still all sorts of flowers coming on too. We currently have a wonderful bed of gladioli – red, orange, yellow, pink and a striking two-toned pink and white one. We also have some really spectacular dahlias in a whole range of colours, and then my favourite is a blue hibiscus which I have never seen before but which is very eye-catching. Having not planted any of these things, it is a bit like opening a treasure chest and seeing what is inside, when these plants start flowering and we are loving the experience.
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