Firstly the apology, with this blog being so late. Unfortunately life has caught up with me over the past 4 weeks. Work has been very busy and with Pat being ill a lot has had to fall off my to-do list. My blog writing was one of these items. I could also do with some sleep, the combination of the heat and a very restless Pat has meant that I’ve not had many a good night sleep.
We seem to have finally come to a combination of medicine that seems to be working for Pat so finally he might have some relief? He has the camera club here today (he couldn’t do the drive to them) so I’m upstairs out of the way. I have however made some courgette muffins for them (I’ve got so many courgettes and yellow squash this year) which are surprisingly yummy and healthy (one always has to taste test before giving them to others)! I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting on what can be made with courgettes this year, along with giving some away.
Yes it is hot hear in France and in our part of France very hot. It’s not the heat that is so unusual hear, but the lack of rain. We are in the Perigord vert, which means the green Periogord and summers are usually hot and humid – with the humidity building up until we have a thunderstorm and then the cycle starts again. This year however it has been dry and the rain has not come, so my grass is dead and there is lots of watering of the garden to be had. I will be honest for me it actually feels like a true summer this year which I’m grateful for.
I will admit I had to do house cleaning yesterday, a combination of the camera group coming today and my mum arriving at the end of the week, I really did feel it was necessary to do – house cleaning really isn’t fun in 35 degree heat, but the tiled floor dried really quickly as did my counterpane. For those of you who don’t know what a counterpane is, it’s a type of bedspread. So I decided yesterday that it was in desperate need of a wash – it states dry clean only – but that is just not going to happen – so I took it downstairs, too big for the washing machine. I remembered a friend used to have to wash her duvet in the bathtub, so upstairs we go. 1 bathtub, some washing powder one counterpane, and just add water and my feet – I was stomping up and down the bath on top of my counterpane – the water was filthy. You don’t see the water in your washing machine which I think I am now eternally grateful for. A change of water and a second stomping and things were looking much better. I then rinsed it, not an easy task as with all the water added it was very heavy. A final stomping, to get the water out and then the joy of carrying it down stairs and out to the washing line.
With the house now being somewhat cleaner and things seem to be slowly returning to normal – we hope I wish you à bientôt, from our wonderful part of France – Delia