Puzzle

S brought back this photo along with lots of fresh produce from his visit to the market today. We have both been puzzling over what the word that was whitewashed out was. Obviously a short one. Guesses welcome!

An encouraging poll today suggests the RN will fall well short of an overall majority, thanks to many third-placed left and centre candidates dropping out of the second round to leave the path clear for the person most likely to defeat the far right. PM Gabriel Attal has been saying sensible things today too. As for tomorrow night, the popcorn cava is ready!

A chilly 24 lengths in the pool today. At least it wasn't as windy as yesterday. I baked and froze most of the figs I picked yesterday, using a Nigel Slater variant with lemon juice and honey. The rest will go into a tart. I also googled and found out about the breva figs we have seen in markets in Spain. Some trees produce figs on last year’s wood in the spring, while the main autumn harvest is on new growth. So that’s why the tree had these single huge ripe figs among clusters of immature ones. I’ve never seen this before. I will look out for them in future because they are delicious.