Rain!

After a nice lunch Chez Hervé in Sallèles yesterday, we spent a pleasant hour recovering gently by the canal, watching the occasional duck or Noddy boat float by. The duck looked faintly disgruntled, perhaps because I'd devoured a substantial amount of a relative at Hervé's table a little earlier. From there we ambled gently down to where the Canal de la Jonction, a branch of the Canal du Midi, joins the Aude, and watched a Noddy boat struggling to navigate into the canal from the river. Thence to the sea, over the Massif de la Clape, and into the clouds. Not a day for paddling, in our book, but I guess it was better from the point of view of the hordes on the beach than staying in the waterfront dwellings thereabouts. We got home shortly before the thunderstorms began. Good news: the piss-streaked post-festival streets have been well washed down. Bad news: some rainwater was coming in under the roof terrace door and dripping down into the stairwell. We already have a couple of maintenance projects on our list for this visit, but are trying our best to ignore the fact.

It seems to be a good year for oleanders. I've had to prune one by the front door, and our two newish plants are in flower, though straggling a bit. Up by that essential element of French village life, the Caserne des Sapeurs-Pompiers, the hedge they planted around the time the new fire station was built is well settled, bushed out and flowering vigorously. Our mint is doing pretty well, but our only other culinary achievement is a pot of basil, bought this morning at Carrefour...