Rent  A  Traditional  Country
Farmhouse  in  South-West  France

Week 66

Monday 11th July to Sunday 17th July

It's coming up to Pete and Maggie's wedding and we still have not got a ferry booked. The holiday season has started proper and Brico's is as usual, crowded with English speakers doing two things. They are buying paint for doing up their holiday homes, or standing looking bemused in the plumbing sections.

The weather is hot; really hot. And in the region where we are, the drought is becoming serious. Even farmers are now only allowed irrigation after 8 at night and before 6 in the morning. The trees we planted are suffering so we surreptitiously go out late at night and water them.

The authorities are using helicopters and light planes looking for people breaking the water restrictions. The grass we planted is brown and crackles underfoot. Only the toughest of weeds seem to thrive without water, and they are tough.

The "sanctuary"

No point using "Roundup" or anything like it. These weeds are like the MRSA bugs. They have mutated and now love weed-killer. It makes them grow faster, stronger and bigger! The only solution is to pull each one up individually, but that is only possible when the ground is damp enough for the roots to come with them. Of course as there is a drought ...

The vegetable patch is beginning to bear fruit (vegetables actually, but you know what I mean). We have picked our first tomatoes, and enough raspberries to decorate a pie. At least a pie made with someone else's raspberries. All without pesticides or herbicides. The tomatoes are unbelievable and I am now a convert to home produce.

In between watering with the watering can only (which we think we are allowed to do) and picking tomatoes, the week seems to have gone, except for Saturday night. "Moules frites" evening at a local village, costing 5€ a head is great fun. The mussels are cooked in massive pots and served immediately and the chips are cooked in vegetable oil. Like most of these types of events, we eat at long tables outdoors and the atmosphere is friendly and jovial.

Next week, well, maybe some building work