Wild blue phlox

Wednesday
Today was one of those pleasantly surprising days, when the weather turned out so much better than the forecast. We had planned a day of domestic and outside jobs, and we had a guy from the heating and cooling company coming at noon to give our air conditioning a service. It’s living on borrowed time currently, but as long as it’s working, we’ll put off the major expense of replacing it! So I spent the morning doing some sorting, tidying and dusting in our bedroom, but when the air conditioning guy was finished, we decided it was far too nice a day to stay home, so we headed out to the bike trail, this time starting at Corwin, where I finished the other day. The wild purple phlox made a lovely sight lining the trail in places. The trail was very quiet today - we only saw 4 or 5 other cyclists. 18 miles today! Once we got home, after a cup of tea, I set about cutting the grass, while Roger did some other jobs in the garden. So a productive day. However, after an 18 mile bike ride and an hour and a half cutting the grass, I was shattered, so I collapsed in front of the TV after our very late dinner, watching a movie on Amazon Prime, “Renoir”, a French film with English subtitles, though I did understand much of it without referring to them. It is set on the French Riviera in 1915. Renoir’s wife has died, and he is in his old age, and crippled with rheumatoid arthritis, though still painting with some assistance - for example he needs other people to put the paint onto his palette, and has to be carried or wheeled everywhere. His middle son Jean is home to convalesce, after being wounded in WWI. Renoir is filled with new energy when a beautiful young woman enters his life, and becomes his latest model. Both father and son become smitten with the beautiful and free-spirited Andrée. The notes at the end of the film tell us that after the war Jean went on to become a leading French film director, and Andrée appeared in several of his early movies, and became Jean’s first wife.