I Voted, Have You

One of the benefits of living abroad is that you get to vote ahead of everyone else via Absentee Ballot. (which they don’t count ) So I’ve done my civic duty and I urge you all to do the same. Too much is riding on this one and if the country should go straight down the crapper in the next four years it won’t be your fault, because at least you voted and were counted (maybe)…unless you vote for the Wrong guy, in which case all accusatory fingers will be pointed in your direction. Well, …’nough said.

Oh wait, there is one more benefit to living out of the country in an election year. I don’t have to deal with this like the poor slobs in Toledo. Those ads are something I DO NOT MISS!

Ok, then…

At one o’clock in the afternoon the indoor temp in my cute but solid-brick house, was still at a brisk 67°. This is still a bit chilly for me so I put on a sweater and lit some ‘mulled cider’ candles for the illusion of warmth and now it smells like Christmas in here. With nothing but rain in the forecast, and with forecasted highs in the 60’s for the rest of the week, I’ll take my cheer where I can get it.

First, or (since I’m down to the fourth paragraph already) fourth, apologies all around to all of my readers. The last few posts that featured photos were so large that it was taking 2 minutes or more to load the web page. What happened is that in the past I would resize the photos before posting them to keep the load time down. The last few times I forgot to do that and then on top of that I added some animated gifs. So to relieve the wait time (no, not going back and fixing the problem) I have limited the number of posts showing on the main page to 1, especially since this post alone has quite a few (resized) photos. If you want to see the previous posts go down to ‘Archives’ in the left hand column and click on ‘October 2004’, just be prepared for a substantial wait to fully load the page. (I think it’s worth the wait). I’ll keep it set up this way for a few weeks until I get a few more posts ‘under my belt’. If you experienced no such problems then lucky you, and ignore this paragraph. If you don’t know what on earth I’m yammering on about then lucky you, and ignore this paragraph.

Alright, finally to the meat of the post.

Since we moved in S has been chipping away little by little into the lawn (well the weed patch that passes for a lawn) and creating a garden. Well, there were 8, weed choked and summer bedraggled, rose bushes in a corner of the front yard when we arrived and it’s that area that S has reclaimed and expanded. At first we just removed two or three of the truly dead roses and replaced them with a couple of new ones. Then, last fall we planted a few tulips, hyacinths and daffodils in bunches between the roses. This summer we added some snapdragons and geraniums to the edges for summer color. And now we have truly cranked it up a few notches and have added about 50 crocuses, another 20 hyacinths, another 30 or so daffodils and about 50 more tulips. Plus S dug up the dirt along the fence and we planted 6 lavender shrubs there and some 20 crocus between each shrub. The neighbors just look at us and shake their heads. Pretty stupid thing to do on a rental property I suppose, but since we have to look at it for two more years it seems worth the effort. Spring around here is looking to be festive.

This weekend we did some more touring of the country side and we visited a village called St. Cirq La Popie. It is labeled one of the most beautiful villages in France. So of course we had to go. It lies about an hour north of us and just east of Cahors (famous for its regional wines). The town is supposedly crowded with artisan shops and restaurants, though it was pretty quiet when we were there this weekend due to it not being tourist season any more. I think it’s the best way to see the place though because you don’t have to park at the bottom of the hill and climb up and you do not have to fight crowds up and down the narrow lanes. The climb to the observation peak was touted as dangerous and at your own risk, but well worth the wonderful view of the valley and river below.

So without further ado the photos of the day.

This is a grape harvesting tractor dumping its haul of grapes into the trailer to take them to the winery

Look at all of those grapes!

Is that not just beautiful!

Just ripe for the picking.

Hard to see I know, but that is an actual beret on the head of that little old farmer. He's getting ready to hit the road and slow down all of that weekend traffic. The other man standing there is his son. The little old man very proudly told us that his son owns the vineyard now.

St. Cirq la Popie from the road, before crossing the river.

A lane in St. Cirq that leads to the church.

The church (of course) is having its interior renovated so we have no interior photos but this is a photo of the outside from the overlook point.

Looking down on the village as we descend from the overlook.

Yeah, yeah, look at that an actual picture of me, taken at the railing overlooking the valley. No my leg is not up on the railing because I was thinking of jumping.

And look there's S down another charming little lane.

On the way back we stopped in Cahors to wander a bit, not as beautiful as St. Cirq, but tons bigger. We saw this church garden and I just had to have a photo. Notice that the garden borders are actually woven wicker work. We noticed several planters and fences and gates that were woven like that. It was pretty cool.

Well folks that's all for now. Looks like the rain is starting up again.