La vie du village

After spending last summer here in Bellac with wave after wave of guests, it is a different experience with just the two of us and no car. Looking back at the past five days since I last blogged, the week was full of... I'm not quite sure. Leisurely mornings, some gardening, a walk to the grocery store or two, a trip to the pool on the hottest day of the week, a trip to the local library and we even looked after the neighbour's garden while they were away for a few days. The attic has been an ongoing project as well, especially for Steve, with the ceiling being painted, and we had the electrician back this week as well to change a few switches and to change a light fixture. Now you can turn the light off at the top of the stairs as well as the bottom. Makes it easier for those late night trips....

My garden is coming along. The cucumbers are doing very well while the two sets of lettuce are lagging behind. The impatiens and petunias are doing well, but the geraniums haven't bloomed yet and the hydrangea may need to be transplanted, instead of just being in a pot. Just checking on a good place for it with enough sun but not too much, a happy medium. Linda, our neighbour,  gave me a cactus like plant that grows like a weed, something I am able to grow, and looks great in a rock garden. So I am trying my luck with those as well. The lawn is still more weeds and clover than grass but that will be a long range challenge. 

My lettuce. It will be a very small salad.

My cucumbers.

The start to my rock garden.

I know the photos don't do it justice, but if you are planning to visit, bring your own vegetables.

As we putter, we have adapted into the the village life. If errands into town don't happen before 12:30, then we have to wait until 2:30 when life returns to normal, except on Mondays and Sundays, and some Tuesdays. We have started to take pictures and notes of the times various stores and services are open just to keep it all straight. The post office clerk taught me how to use the self-service machine so I hope any documents get back to Vancouver all right. It unlike the bank machines didn't have an English button. I took out some easy reading books in French from the library and they even have an English section, so I am re-reading Lord of the Flies. Just wish their air conditioning was turned up a bit, as it would have been a great place to escape the week's heat. We had to resort to the local pool for that. It was a great way to keep cool on the hottest day of the summer so far. Only about 39 degrees. 

It has cooled off nicely as the week went on, but still no rain. Tomorrow's forecast is for Belles éclaircies  (Beautiful cloudy according to Google translate). Next week the heat, returns, in the low 30's so we will enjoy the beautiful clouds and the mid 20's this weekend. Which reminds me of a quote from Violet Crawley from Downton Abbey. Watch the video below.

As the weekend approaches, there is little change in life here except the Utile grocery store is open all day on Friday and Saturday, the church bells call everyone to mass just before 10:00 and we need to make sure we have everything in for Sunday's dinner before 12:30 as everything closes for the day but for the rest our life, there is no difference between the week and the weekend. I guess retirement is like that. 

Steve painting ceiling (a.k.a.: waking up spiders)

The guest bedroom in progress.....

Dordogne River

We are getting ready for a few days out next week and we are heading south. Touring some picturesque villages, canoeing on the Dordonge River and then visiting the medieval fortress of Carcassonne will take up about 4 days. Looking forward to hitting the road again. Get the GPS out of the drawer and away we go. 

Even though we are in a small town/village here in France, we are precariously tied to the rest of the world by our internet service provider, Orange. The service is overall not too bad, but regularly needs to reconfigure its internet connection which temporarily unties us from the world. We are still able to keep in touch with the world with our email, Twitter, Facebook and British television. It might be nice to stick our heads in the sand and not worry about Trump, American police shootings, the Islamic State, and Brexit to name a few worries, but the world won't go away. 

Since our memories are similar to Dory's.