Lightning

Last evening a thunderstorm brushed by us. We got no rain, but we saw a lot of lightning and heard the thunder to our west. A breeze kicked up and I opened the loft windows for some ventilation. It sure felt good. As the storm moved away from us toward the north, we lost the sound of thunder, but the lightning was flashing fast and furious in the distance for several hours. It was amazing. I saw stars in the sky between the lightning flashes.

Tasha noses around in a little pine cone desert between a vineyard parcel and some woods.

Tasha Tuesday

Here she is on her morning walk last Friday; ever vigilant, keeping her eyes on the birds and watching for deer. And, of course, she inspected that tractor when we got close.

Tasha watches some birds as we approach the walnut tree and the tractor.

Yesterday was very warm, and sleeping last night was difficult. I slept for about an hour, maybe two, at the beginning, but was wide awake around midnight. The combination of the heat and my restless legs kept me getting up and down all night. Two fans running in the loft helped some with the heat. Today we're expecting a high of 34ºC (about 93ºF) and a little less than that tomorrow. All the windows are open this morning to let some cool air indoors. The sun's not up yet as I type this; sunrise happens at 06h31 today.

Holy vineyard, Batman!

Or maybe that should be "holey" vineyard. There are holes in the vineyard parcels out back, places where a grape vine has died or is dying. In some cases, the grower will transplant another vine to fill in the "hole." In other cases, the holes will be left, sometimes signaling that an entire parcel will be dug up and replaced in the not so distant future.

A dead vine among the living. The vine behind it doesn't look very good, though.

Our new weed-eater arrived on Saturday afternoon. I assembled it on Sunday, charged up the batteries (it's a cordless battery-powered model) and took it for a test drive. So far, I'm very happy with it. Those pesky corners and other spots that the lawnmower can't navigate will finally get trimmed. It's not for big jobs, though. That would take a débroussailleuse (a heavy duty brush cutter) and this is only a coupe-bordure (a smaller string trimmer or "strimmer").

The light of day

One of the main features of this house, and one that made it attractive to us, was how bright the rooms are thanks to very large windows. Even on the dark days, we get enough light to brighten our spirits. Since we arrived, we've replaced most of the windows, converting them from typical French-style (opening into the room) to sliding windows that take up no space when open.

Olympic tennis on tv. The day was overcast and dark, but the living room felt light and bright.

I found some Olympic tennis to watch on Saturday on one of the streaming sports channels we get with our satellite package. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to watch a lot more in the next weeks. We're looking at another heat wave building in during the week with high temperatures in the low to mid 30sC (around 90ºF). Sleeping may be uncomfortable, but we do have a couple of fans.

Friday's sunrise

This is looking back toward our hamlet from out among the vines at sunrise on Friday. Guess what! This morning the rain is back. It's not predicted to last long, and then we're in for another mini heat wave.

Fields of grass, Queen Anne's lace, and, of course, grape vines.

I watched the entire Olympics opening ceremony last night, including some of the pre-show events. It finished at about 23h30. Parts of it were peculiar, but most of it was amazing. Especially considering that it rained (in Paris) during most of it. But the rain didn't dampen the athletes' spirits or diminish the energy of the light shows and dance numbers. I was confused at times during the parade of nations. I didn't know that Puerto Rico was a nation. Same for the US Virgin Islands. And I lost count of how many nations' names begin with the letter "m." Quite a few, it turns out.

Curiously, the parade (on boats down the Seine) seemed to be organized alphabetically in French, but the flags identifying each nation were in English. It was a little confusing to see "Chad" among the T's. In French, it's spelled "Tchad," but the flag said "Chad." There were a lot of curiosities like that.

Another machine

This one is not a vineyard machine. It belongs to a company that does terrassement (earthworks). The work they're doing now is a continuation of the filling of the ravine out by the walnut tree. I thought they were done until the other day when the guys started hauling more truckloads of dirt to the site. And this half bulldozer/half claw thing was brought in.

Good old Caterpillar. The green sticker is the terrassement company's logo.

The Olympics opening ceremony happens this evening. The weather forecast is not great, but it doesn't look all that bad, either. Time will tell. I don't know if we'll watch live or wait for the news channels to do their thing.

Wildflower

I'm not sure what this is called. It looks like wild carrot, but I don't think it is. But it could be related. At any rate, it's pretty and there is a lot of it out among the grape vines.

Wildflower.

The Olympic frenzy is ramping up. That's almost all that we'll see on tv for the next three weeks. Some events are already happening before the opening ceremony on Friday. I'm hoping for lots of nice pictures of Paris.