I'm planning to go into town this morning for the weekly market at Saint-Aignan. I want some chicken sausages from the poultry vendor. Specifically, chipolata and merguez. Grilling season is upon us!
We live under a relatively busy commercial air corridor. We see (and sometimes hear) jet liners and their vapor trails passing over in the sky above. In this case, they're coming from the north and flying south. Paris and Orly are to our north, so I suspect that many of these jets are coming from the Paris region. They might even be coming from places farther north like the UK and Scandinavia, others from North America even, all heading south toward the Mediterranean or Africa, and beyond! If the fates allow, I can sometimes identify a plane by using air traffic software. Very nerdy stuff, of course, but fun. This photo is not very good but, by zooming around, I can count at least six jets heading south.
If woodsy areas are not maintained, they remain in or revert to their wild state. Dead and dying trees fall and decompose. That's good for the critters, I expect.
I'm heading out with Tasha this morning. I haven't decided which way we'll go.
This is where we end up after walking down the hill from our hamlet toward the river. Fields, sometimes planted in winter wheat, other times planted in colza (also called canola in English). Outside the frame to the left is another field of similar size.
As you know, we're waiting for our landscape contractor to show up. In addition to the annual trimming of the hedges, there was other work around the yard to be done. We approved and signed his estimate for that work back at the end of last summer. Since then, as they say, crickets. We're waiting still. I texted him once since to no avail. Yesterday, I texted him again. Just a few words: Vous m'avez oublié ? Have you forgotten me? Within fifteen minutes he replied: "No, no, I have not forgotten you." I still have no idea when, or if, he intends to do the work. Hope springs eternal.
This path is one that we used to take when walking with Callie and now with Tasha. It goes down past a vineyard parcel to our north, then down the hill toward the river. It's good exercise, but these days that means it's harder to do. No matter, I'd like to go that way once or twice a week as a change of pace and a mini-workout.
During my walk this morning (we didn't take this path) I noticed some weed trimming work that needs doing outside the hedges along the road. I should be able to get that done today.
Here's another view of the west forty (in the foreground) and the north forty (beyond the apple trees) from out near the garden gate. You can see the tall grass along the path's border wall. I weed wacked what remained of that yesterday. I also got the walk-behind mower out and tidied up a section of the south forty (to the right just out of this shot) where the riding mower can't go (because of shrubs and other obstacles).
We enjoyed the warm spell we've been having. Now the temps are cooling down again. No freeze warnings are in the forecast so far. Let's hope Jacques Frost (perhaps more correctly Jacques Givre) stays away.
I stood in the den window to take this photo, looking out over the border between the north forty (background right) and the west forty (foreground left). The actual line is somewhere along the sawed off tree trunks that you can see in the foreground, maybe a little farther west. The apple trees (you can see one standing in the sun) are definitely in the west.
I got the weed eater (strimmer, débroussailleuse) out yesterday and worked on the tiny walls that separate the garden path from the grassy sections. The mower can't get close enough to cut it. I may do some more today. But, it being Sunday, I can only make noise between 10h00 and noon. That's plenty of time to do the work if the dew has dried up by then.
