Bird is the word

While I was taking photos of St.-Aignan's new passerelle, a bird flew through one of my shots. My first thought was "I'll have to take that out later." But I decided to leave it in. Local color and all that. I'm not at all certain what kind of bird it is. A pigeon of some sort? Wood pigeon?

The wooden plank deck of the new pedestrian bridge at Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher.

I'm planning a trip to the market in the nearby town of Selles tomorrow. The market is on Thursdays (obviously), but it's between twenty and thirty minutes away, so I don't get over there very often. Still, they have a great flower (live, not cut) vendor and I want some surfinias (trailing petunias) for the kitchen window boxes. Wish me luck.

Here's a very zoomed-in view of the bird as it zoomed past.

Le pont neuf

There's a new bridge in town! For a while now, we've watched the construction of une passerelle adjacent to the bridge over the Cher at Saint-Aignan. In French, a passerelle is a pedestrian/bike bridge. The word is also used for jetways and gangplanks among other things. The construction is all done now, but the bridge hasn't officially opened. The old bridge will remain, of course, but now pedestrians and cyclists will not have to negotiate its narrow sidewalk or the busy car and truck traffic that it carries.

The new bridge is made of steel with a wooden deck. It passes through the building on the far side. The old bridge is made of stone with rounded arches.

We had a little bit of rain yesterday, but I was still able to get out with the weed eater (strimmer) to neaten up the borders in the garden path. I noticed that the application of the home-made weed killer has done a good job on the weeds, but I think another treatment is called for. And, the yard wants to be mowed again.

Tread lightly

Look at those tractor tread marks! When it rains they become muddy as a bog, making walking treacherous. When it's dry, they harden like concrete. And the grass and weeds look packed in along the rows and are about a foot tall. Most of the parcels out back don't look like this one, but enough do to make me wonder how the grape vines survive. But they seem to.

We avoid walking between the rows and stick to the dirt road as much as we can.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are what French people call les saints de glace (the ice saints), after which the danger of frost is over. But beware! It's not unheard of to have a late freeze. It's 11ºC outside this morning, about 52ºF. Far from freezing, but still chilly, if you ask me.

As high as an elephant's eye

The grass is very tall in places around the vineyards. I think it will probably get cut eventually, but in the meantime, the tall grass is good for the wildlife and the wildflowers.

That's our little hamlet in the distance with the river valley beyond.

 

Yesterday the sun came out and things warmed up a little. I took advantage and made a couple batches of weed killer and sprayed the garden path as well as the gravel parts of the yard adjacent to the house. The mixture is mostly household cleaning vinegar mixed with table salt and dish soap. There are many versions of this recipe on the internet. If this one doesn't work well, I'll try another. The sun will rise soon and I'll get to see how the weeds are doing.

Un escargot

I saw this one the other day. I had to hurry to get the camera set, hoping he wouldn't dash away before I could get a photo. ;)

These critters are common around here.

Today is market day in Saint-Aignan. What's on the list? Green asparagus, radishes, strawberries, and poultry sausages, for starters.

Knapweed

These flowers are growing in our neighbors' yard. I'm not sure if they're wild or some domesticated variety. No matter; they're pretty.

A more rustic-looking version of this flower grows in some of the uncultivated areas out back.

The taxes are done, I hope, for another year. I always feel like I've missed something, especially, as one of my commenters pointed out, the forms change ever-so-slightly from year to year. I just have to check the summary recap to be sure that everything is there.

Snowballs up close

The optical shop sent me a text on Tuesday saying that my eyeglasses were ready. I went in yesterday to have them fitted. So far, the reviews are mixed. I've been wearing progressive lenses for close to thirty years, so I know there's an adjustment period whenever the prescription changes. My eyes need to figure out where to look. This morning is better than yesterday afternoon, but there's still room for improvement. Maybe today will be better.

A closeup of snowball flowers.

I'm planning to get the French income tax return done today. It shouldn't take long once I get started. It's getting started that's the hard part. I just keep telling myself that the sooner I start, the sooner it'll get done.