Harvest

S and I went for a short walk around the village at 6 pm, and were startled to find a tree that already bore huge ripe figs (along with a lot of small unripe ones). We did not resist, and they've since been baked with Muscat for a later dessert.

It's the first of July, which means the village swimming pool is open! It was a sunny but windy morning; all the usual suspects had promised to be there on the dot of 10 a.m. but in the end only Ingrid, C, and I turned up. We universally agreed that we were all either mad or brave, but when I ventured to dip a toe in I was surprised how temperate it was (possibly a function of the rather cool air temperature). Anyway, to general surprise I plunged in, pronounced the water lovely, and did 20 lengths. C was perhaps the bravest though -- she doesn't swim but does aquarobics and had set herself a target of an hour. She did plaintively ask "Is it 11 o'clock yet?" a couple of times while Ingrid and I were sitting in the sun wrapped in towels while Ingrid told me about her trip to Kyrgyzstan (she is working her way through all the stans -- probably not Afghanistan -- with a group of friends).

So weather notwithstanding summer has officially begun!