Ist September already ! This summer just seems to be flying by and it has been a hot one. Too hot for some people but I just love it. I’m not a sunbather and we don’t have a swimming pool, but I love it when you go outside at 7 am and it is already warm and I just love the long evenings when you can sit outside until late still feeling the heat of the sun on the walls of the house. All the watering of plants is a bit of a pain though !! I find it is better to water first thing in the morning rather than the evening, the flowers suffer less snail damage that way.
We had a long weekend in Germany to celebrate Ernst’s brother’s birthday in August. We drove up to Annecy to stay the night with his sister and brother-in-law then the four of us set off for Germany the following day. The drive to Annecy was ghastly ! All went well until we got to Lyon where the ring road was closed. We got hopelessly lost, driving round for an hour looking for a road to Geneva but they all seemed to lead to Paris or Marseille. Hmm, I thought, time for a crash course in getting the satnav working. Big mistake ! I got it working but it just kept wanting us to go back to St. Pantaleon. Then we couldn’t turned the flipping thing off, so we were driving around looking for road signs with the satnav yacking on in the back ground “turn around, turn around” !! Finally we got on to the right motorway and off we set ……… in the wrong direction !!! In all I led Ernst up and down three wrong motorways before throwing the map in the air and bursting in to tears ! Ernst was amazing, lots of friends have said that their husbands would have gone mad but Ernst just calmly said not to worry we would get there. Later, I heard him say to a friend that at that stage there was only room for one crazy person in the car !!! The journey from Annecy to Germany was no better, torrential rain and traffic jams after traffic jams, it took us ten hours to do a seven hour journey. Then to cap it all, it was freezing in Germany ! The party, which was held in the garden, was great but there was no way I was going to wear the intended outfit, instead it was jeans, long sleeved shirt and a fleece borrowed from my sister-in-law. Some people were in ski jackets !! Naturally the next day was hot and sunny and the good weather continued. The drives home were peaceful and trouble free !
Last Sunday Danielle and I held our now almost infamous second hand clothes stall at the Montcuq Vide Grenier . I was very anxious as one weather forecast was saying thunder storms all day. However, we were blessed with overcast in the morning and flaming hot in the afternoon. As usual, thanks to the incredible generosity of friends and folk we had a great selection of clothes and took two pitches this year to accommodate all the boxes, bags and rails of clothes. We had to be on site at 6 am (!) and when we arrived dear Sophie Bacou was there to help with the unloading. Lesley was there at 7 and kept the crowds entertained by trying on most of the clothes available. We were very busy all day, not surprisingly as we were selling everything at just one euro. Very many return customers who were very happy to see us and said so. Some young couples – and indeed, not so young – are finding it very difficult to make ends meet and spend any spare cash on the children so it was lovely to see them getting some great clothes and being so happy to be able to do so. We made a fantastic 785 euros ………. plus a Carrefour shopping trolley token ! The money will be split 50/50 between Poorpaws and La Mere aux Betes (Danielle’s refuge in Castelnau Montratier) and I can assure you that every single cent goes to making abandoned and unwanted dogs’ lives happier. At the end of a very exhausting day we went down to the Cafe du Centre for an early supper and my thoughts of the previous day when we spent all day loading up, ” I am NEVER EVER going to do this again” were banished and we were already planning for next time. So please, don’t throw any clothes away, save them for us for next time !!
Lucky dogs this month were the griffon pup, the Spitz, Falco and …………………….Egan !!! Remember he was let down at the very last minute ? Well happily the gentleman who was going to take him has made a great recovery, is feeling very well and I took Egan to meet him and his dog Babouschka (adopted from us some ten years ago) at Limoges. He had driven down from the Vienne and I up from the Lot and we arrived within seconds of each other ! The dogs seemed very happy to meet each other, so fingers crossed for a great new life for Egan.
We’re off for our usual week at Cap d’Ail with friends in ten days for our usual week of cards, reading and general relaxation. Can’t wait !!
Love,
Sue