Sunshine day

Soundtrack.

Unlike much of southern Europe, we are having a "normal summer". Temperature in the high 20s, sun and puffy white clouds, brisk breezes. The forest fire situation has been nowhere near as grim as recent years.

Yesterday afternoon after lunch I went out to take the rubbish to the bin, and having done so I found Ingrid sitting on the bench outside our house so I sat down to talk to her. After a while I fetched S to join us, and then the regular gossipmongers arrived, some armed with their own camping chairs as there isn't enough room on the uncomfortable concrete bench. It's very rare for us to spend time with them, but once in a while it's very entertaining. 

I often wonder what they find to talk about all afternoon every single day. On this occasion there were loud and lively arguments about a) cheese (do sheep and goat cheese taste the same? NO was the majority view, fiercely resisted by a single person) and b) whether the riverside bar on the way to St Laurent where young people used to go dancing in the 1940s and 50s was on the left or right side of the road. This one got very heated. I was also amused when J, having stood up to leave, was so captivated by M-F's account of a woman with two wombs being pregnant with twins that she sat down again, drawing her chair closer to hear all the details. Having gone to put out the rubbish at 2:30, I eventually retreated into the house at 6 p.m. That is #villagelife.

Today we were obliged to go into town for shopping as we had virtually no food in the house, and we also needed photos for new identity cards (our current ones having expired five years ago). My new sourdough starter is going great guns -- it doubled in size while we were out -- so I've started a loaf. Having taken no photos I went for a wander while it was fermenting, with little success. Even flowers are not a reliable fallback, since watering is now forbidden and most plants are dry husks. It was a pleasure to encounter this cheerful little yellow flower, all on its own.