This sure ain't a kiwi plant?

Throughout the night it rained, every time I turned over I could hear the steady beat of rain and wondered if it would finish and allow us to ‘hit the road’ today?

It’s been awhile since I’ve added an update to this blog but all is well. One day gradually moves into another and maybe that’s just the ‘French way’.

I love the quiet and calmness of country life but deep down, there’s the city girl in me too, Ottawa will wait. I hope that the weather is still nice when I return home so that I can take my bike and cycle alongside the canal and also put my gardens to rest.

The other day when I was in a bookstore I finally bought a little book on local hiking; I’d like to think that maybe one day I’ll return with someone who shares a love of walking.

Daria, is a newcomer to Cat’Art and she’s an artist from the US. She’s not able to start any of her paintings as her shipment of personal belongings has been delayed at French customs. It’s been lovely to welcome her with us on some of our daily outings and today is no different. Here is Daria’s website http://www.dgabriel.com/page2.html

We’re off to Esperenza, this is also the town where Ellie and John. We’re going there to experience Sunday market; we’ve been told that it’s the largest market in this area. I guess I’ve been here longer than I realize since some of the vendors are starting to look familiar. Again, I’ve bought more soap and I think that the spare backpack I’ve brought will be put to good use. Somewhere along the way I’ve also bought a bottle of ginger syrup (not too sure what I’ll use it for), some jams, as I loved their clear glass containers and even some local honey.

I’m going to miss the cozy fireplace in the downstairs of our home; we’ve had it on often and I think it could become habit forming. I’m not too sure if it was the previous people who lived in this house or not but someone left us a bag of 100 tea lights; I doubt that we’ll leave many behind. In the evening we often light them and put them in various nooks in our lower level dining/living room.

This morning Christophe came over with a wheelbarrow of wood; now we know where the wood stash is so we our supply runs low we can bring more in; it’s under the patio at Josep’s.

Last Friday afternoon with a crack of thunder and a crash of lightening we lost our power and the internet connection was lost too. Since it destroyed the modem they’ll be here on Tuesday to replace what needs to be done. Without the internet we return to our reading material.

When we were out traveling I saw some ground cover that had a flower similar to a small squash flower. I’ve never seen anything like this before but the little fruit on it looked like small kiwi; one was split open and it even resembled kiwi inside. This puzzled me as I know that kiwi grow on a vine; also that it takes a male and a female to get things going. Wondering what this could be I decided to stoop down and lift the vine for a closer look. I don’t remember if I picked it up with my hands or lift it up with the toe of my shoe but however I obviously disturbed it. Imagine my utter shock when I heard a loud crack and quickly realized that something had spit at me; I had clear liquid on my chin and on my clothing too. Thank goodness Daria was my witness to all of this. What was most interesting is that some animal had been eating the heads off some of them too. We quickly brought Pat and Judy over, Pat leaned over, moved the plant and she was squirted all over .. glasses and all.(NOTE from Pat...I leaned over and held out the leg of my sunglasses and suddenly it exploded and flew into my face and luckily wasn't poisonous as it didn't bother my eye which it made a direct hit into, as well as most of my face and clothes!). Also, when it spit it's head blew off in all directions ... All along, I’m thinking that this was a kiwi plant but then the others thought it was a variation of a ‘flycatcher’ plant. But all in all … it sure ain’t a kiwi plant! I do have a photo of it and when I can locate it, I’ll include it here .. me thinks however it’s not a flycatcher plant either. But what?

It's now countdown and this has been a most glorious experience and I know that I want to return to France soon!

Sweet dreams everyone!

Winn