Sun on the Righteous

Our neighbours JJ and Nadine arrived back from their Paris home on Friday and they seem to have brought the good weather with them. Saturday it was scorching and about 28 degrees and it was the same today! We spent yesterday shopping ( a shower tray ready for tiling) so today (Sunday) the first job was to finish clearing out the pigeonnier. It was just (!) one trailer-load.

After I'd emptied the trailer into the compost bins, Sue took over to move some compost from the corner of the front field to use for her 'melon' bed.

We'd been advised by the lady on the market stall where we bought our plants, that you can't grow melons next to courgettes. The bees cross pollinate the two and you end up with melons tasting like courgettes! So, Sue's made a bed for 3 melon plants behind the porcherie, which is about as far as we can get from the veg plot.

Those of you who know Sue well, will remember that she has a phobia about snakes. So I was a little surprised when she called out to me that there was a snake on the trailer. She was unloading compost onto the melon bed when she saw a small snake wrapped round part of the trailer.

The little fellow was only about 15 cm long and he must have come out of the compost heap. He was determined to hang on to the trailer, but we managed to knock him into a bucket, and I took him to the boundary of our front field and put him in a pile of stones.

Just after all of this excitement, I heard Sue talking to JJ and Nadine and, when I joined in, they had realised that their big, very old vine had died! JJ hasn't dug it out yet, but they rushed off and bought 2 new vines to replace it. I suppose it will only take about 20 years!