Just noticed in a facebook post that the equivalent French proverb refers to April. Reason obvious.
Still, it has been pretty damn' cold here for a few days, which prompted us to go and buy root veggies to make a pot of broth. Our doing so today has, needless to say, prompted a rise in the temperature. But we still enjoyed the soup. We'd to resort to stock cubes, having not had the remains of a chicken to boil up. I did improve the stock a little though: Martyn did delicious roast asparagus with mushrooms and lardons for lunch yesterday, so I chopped, boiled up and strained the tough ends of the stems to add to the soup. We spent a pleasant little spell together in the kitchen this morning slicing a leek and dicing carrots, turnips, swede and a couple of potatoes, and are not unhappy with the result. Three more relatively healthy lunches cooling in plastic boxes as I type.
Since I'm still not on Cagalière climbing form, and fancying a visit to the parcours botanique close to the summit thereof, I suggested that we drive up. This we did; very gently, because the track is quite badly rutted by run-off from winter rains. It wasn't as bad, nor anything like as long, as the Escala de l'Ours with which we tested the Tiguan six years ago, but the Ateca is now nevertheless pretty thoroughly tested. Not a trace of wheelspin, so I guess the transfer box is doing its job.
As it happens, the flora were a shade disappointing - nothing like the display we enjoyed on the road up to Villerouge-Termenès on Friday. Yesterday and on Friday we saw a whole lot of aphyllante de Montpellier, but on Friday we also saw plenty of broom and cistus in flower, as well as asphodels and a vivid blue flower the name of which I've yet to find out.
As I went up to the shop at lunchtime for a dinner ingredient, I found a neighbour sitting in another's gateway. I assumed he was enjoying a bit of sun until the penny dropped: I realised that what he'd said in his almost impenetrable accent was 'je suis tombé', and he was clearly unable to get back up again unassisted. I couldn't manage it alone. Between us, we just managed to get him up and back indoors. He spends much of each morning sitting on the bench outside the shop, so I asked the assistant if she had contacts with his large family. She assured me that one of the grand-daughters was in town to give him his lunch, so I'm hoping he told her he'd had a fall. He's really in no shape to be living alone.
We are on orange warning for thunder, hail and squally winds until early tomorrow. Meanwhile, the washing is drying pretty well up on the terrace, supervised (I suspect through closed eyelids) by His Grace. To my shame, I must admit to having found two towels in the washing machine drum, where they had been drying since last September. Well, they've had another wash, and are on the line. I nearly did the same with one of the shirts today: good job I can still count up to eight, eh?
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