More From The Garden

Le potager, our vegetable garden, is producing more each day. Right now it's mainly zucchini (courgettes) and yellow squash (courgettes jaunes?) along with herbs like basil (basilic) and chives (ciboulette), but I can almost watch the eggplants (aubergines) and cucumbers (concombres) growing, not to mention the tomatoes (tomates) and peppers (poivrons).

Yellow tomatoes, just beginning their transformation from green to yellow, cling to the vine.

A zucchini blossom advertises pollen to the bees.

Nasturtiums cling to the feet of the tomato plants; behind them, eggplants set their fruit; further back, a row of mustard greens; finally, one of two banks of British runner beans.

Basil growing in the herb garden.

The moles are still with us; the poison gas didn't really work. I might try flooding again. I hesitate to use too much poison in the soil directly under the vegetables we will be eating. I may just have to live with the moles and hope they don't uproot the plants. I suppose that's the green thing to do.

Yesterday's high was 33,8ºC (92.8ºF) here at the house. Today one weather site is predicting 34ºC (93.2ºF) and Météo France is predicting 37ºC - that's 98.6ºF ! On the left is today's carte de vigilance (map of weather alert levels) for France. We are in the orange part in the upper central section of the map. We're going to go for a ride in the car today to stay cool, perhaps visit a château (think thick stone walls and cool air) and eat in an air conditioned restaurant.