High summer

August is vacation month in France. It's the month that, chances are, will be warmer than any other during the year. People head to the beaches in August and hope for the best, especially in the north. Most of the agriculture that goes on around us is in maintenance mode, except for early crops of grains and hay that have been harvested and bailed already. The wine grapes are developed and will begin to ripen in the coming weeks.

The underside of a wild carrot flower head.

The carotte sauvage (wild carrot), called Queen Anne's Lace in English, is flowering profusely all around us. For me, it's a marker of high summer. Our vegetable garden is maturing and we've begun harvesting courgettes (zucchini). Green beans are forming and we have an abundance of green tomatoes that, along with the grapes, will be ripening during the warm days of August. At least, we hope they will be warm.

Queen Anne's Lace thrives among the grape vines in high summer.