A while ago

Lunch before guests visited

...the current Workawayer who is actually my former partner... how weird this all is... told me that his English hosts from Cyprus were going North to England in their camper van...and so we agreed they could visit. They came to lunch and then I managed to out together an evening meal as well!!! Fortunately, there was a contribution to costs!
Salmon, lentils and salad for lunch. Salad and roast chicken for evening meal. Wine!

The two weeks before that he converted the kitchen cupboards  and did a difficult task of making the worktop fit the space perfectly when every side was at a different angle!  I wanted the cupboards and line of the worktop to follow the line of the floortiles in a room where every corner of the four walls is at a different angle to every other!

 Naturally, work stopped for the weekend and with our guests we walked around the village.

 

I started to think camper van kitchens for my own house kitchen! Nifty use of space in their four wheeled van!

And on the walk back to my house after a cup of tea, after a walk in the village, I looked upwards to the sky, as I often do!

Three hours by bike and foot

I had wanted to cycle a route that I had walked with a friend and before that with an organised walking group.   We set off from my house on the cycles one late evening as it began to cool down. Across the bridge, turn left to Le pied Griffé and continue to various hameaux.  En route we stopped to take pics by the water and I was immediately pounced upon by mossies. Keep pedalling and moving! Once away from the water I sometimes had to walk as I have a road bike. I must get into the habit of riding the hybrid one with shock absorbers.

 We stopped for fruit and nut  refreshments and plenty of water.

 Then came a tractor dance.  One man, one tractor brings one trailer of hay bales from the field where others waited to be brought in after the wheat grain had been taken either that day or a few days before. He took no more than apx ten minutes or so to unload about 16 circular bales and stack in the grange. Imagine how many men and how many days it would have taken! It was fascinating!

Onwards...

and in the woodlanded area there was a deer....

Back to La Place where a private party for neighbours living in the houses surrounding La Place were having an annual public party.  Needless to say the bar visitors of whom there were many enjoyed the music too.
At home we ate a lamb steak...

and the day after, I roasted aubergines... I like this, especially when anchovies are squeezed between the fingery shaped halves of fruit.

Building Bat

BUILDING
Normally the gates are closed on what I believe is a former butchery or charcuterie.  It's the house with a wine bottle sign above it.  With recent renovation commencing I passed with camera at hand!! SNAP! I had no idea all this was hidden from public view.  The builders enterprise looks an excellent one.

BAT
Oh dear, this little feller got himself stuck in the shutter hinge, maybe on a night when the wind blew the shutters open... now it is dessicated.  I think it is a Common Pipistrelle, smaller than mon puce, my thumb, a measurement of one inch. I felt sadness.

More watery reflections

An evening walk to a sax performance meant crossing the bridge and river.  Look up and down.

Water scum was like 'oil on water' prints that I learned when I as a junior girl, when in school we made hard binders as a book cover. For me it included poetry and recently it was again unearthed and again I believe I have kept it!  When I was a teacher I taught the technique at school.

A willow tree had fallen from a private garden and blocked the passage of flowing river. Oh weeping willow, let me cry for thee.

High above, majesty reigns in an evening of glory. Look at the curved and rounded corner on the left.  Has anyone ever seen that before and if so, where????

The church tower can be seen from the bridge.

The vestiges of a chateau residence on a rocky falaise calls one back to stand and stare in awe at HISTORY.

Midsummer evening was a splendid view of blue blue sky...