Glimpses of a full month

It rained last night!!
Like much of the world, we have been just way too hot of late – all of France is under the second highest level of alert, due to the heat. It was 40C in the shade this week (that’s 104 F for those of you who still haven’t caught up with the rest of us in metric!) Not so nice for those visiting from cooler climes. We fully understand the tradition of siestas now, and, while in the Spring we – ray-starved as we were after a decade of UK summers – revelled in the continuous sun, now we shut all the shutters, and remain inside from late morning until early evening whenever possible. The North Americans amongst you may need reminding that very few homes in this part of Europe have air-conditioning…certainly not old farmhouses. The thick stone walls combined with shutters work amazingly well, but none-the-less the warmth sometimes has a drug-like effect.
So when it rains, we are happy!

It has been an incredibly full month since last writing. But let me begin with Greg.
He has recently had his follow-up MRI scan – which came back with the all clear: there is no sign of tumour re-growth. This is wonderful news. But it wasn’t an easy day to be buoyant, because it was coupled with difficult news. He was told that there is absolutely no sign of change in his still 100% paralyzed right-side of face. And that that meant, at this point, that there was no hope of any change ever. And so he is presented with some more difficult options. He could do nothing – and as Greg’s face looks symmetric when relaxed (not always the case for other patients), one doctor is an advocate of this passive choice for it minimizes further difficulties. Or Greg could opt for a weight in his eyelid. Or he could chose one of a couple of surgery options which, with nerve grafts, etc, could possibly give him limited ability to intentionally close his right eye – which would mean that he could see out of it again (remember he essentially has use of only one eye at the moment). This latter route appeals to him most, though the thought of further surgery is scary, especially as it carries with it possibilities of uncontrollable facial twitches, and realities of months and months of daily physio. The surgery itself should be short, and he need only take a short time off of work. But it is a lot to juggle emotionally. And hard to make major irreversible decisions.
Greg’s got a lot weighing on his shoulders right now.

So it was good to be able to celebrate both the house and Greg with a combined birthday party and “Pendaison de la Crémaillère.” “Pendaison de la Crémaillère “ is the French term for a housewarming party. A crémaillère is a trammel, the metal adjustable hook that was used to hang pots in fireplaces, and the hanging (pendaison) of that hook was an essential completion of making a new house into a home, a place where food and warmth could be shared with others. Although we do not have a fireplace in which to hang a trammel, we do have a bread oven, and so that was duly fired up. (Quite an affair, the first time….lots of advice from Pappy, varying opinions from many on how many hours in advance it needed to get going, and in what order food should be cooked, etc etc.) We had many plans for the day, including plenty of games for adults and children alike. It was glorious but hot in the morning….and then, at the exact hour folk were to start arriving, the hail began. Some of the biggest stones I have ever seen (causing heartache for our neighbour walnut farmer, who had come early). Then, after the hail, torrential rain. And more rain. And more. As more people arrived, more rain poured down. It had been almost a month since the last drop had fallen – we were in great need of it. But not just then! The rain was so torrential that it became humourous. The barn was barely visible from the house – for hours. People were isolated into four groups huddled together in various outbuildings – in the barn, by the bread oven, etc. Excepting the ecstatically drenched children of course! But folk were incredibly good natured – and kept coming! Despite the crazy weather (including a second round of hail), 86 people showed up!! And with tons of food and drink (which all had to be set up in a make-shift manner in Greg’s workshop). And, due to the ‘natural selection’ of the rain, folk unknown to each other ended up being stranded together in rain-shelters for long periods of time, so all sorts of new introductions were made! It was one of those times in which a drizzly day would have been disappointing…but torrents turned it into a bit of an adventure. And Greg kept all amused as he dashed from ‘island’ to ‘island,’ using a one-legged plastic picnic table as his umbrella [Jen Hess Mouat’s old ‘study table’].
Fortunately bread ovens are not quenched by rain, no matter how much of it there is, so our friend Thierry continued to merrily stash food in: quiches, brioches, breads, tartes, roasts of meat (amazing flavour!), and, of course, pizzas. And in the brief water-hiatus between about 8 and 9 p.m., Greg and I were suddenly sent on a treasure hunt. Some of Greg’s workmates, and a few other friends, had decided to go together in buying us a house-warming gift. It had been bought with a particular spot -- by Bruce’s pond -- in mind. We were a little stunned when we found it: a nineteenth century cast-iron bench. It’s beautiful – the type of thing one sees and thinks: ‘that’d look great in our garden’ – but never truly contemplates the unfeasible thought.
Here’s a photo – taken with the sun in our eyes: but it’s the bench you’re supposed to be looking at!
And here's a few others from the Party...it was too wet too take many:



























It took us a week to recover from the diluvian party (which, by the way, seemed to be celebrated by the amphibians as well: our pond is *full* of singing, croaking frogs now!) And we were assisted in recovery by two particular dish-washing, floor-mopping angels.

And then plunged into a weekend of Tullins’ annual ‘once-upon-a-blue-grass’ festival. (The festival has wandered a bit from its roots, now including country, folk, folk-rock, and celtic as well). Greg and I had agreed months back to volunteer, as a way to get to know the community better. It was an amazing time, filled with Summer-School flashbacks for me, and served as a full-on ‘Intensive French’ weekend. (Nothing like the pressure of needing to get a band on stage on time to work one’s communication skills!) The weekend was filled with adventure, great and o.k. music, good and frustrating people, and many many retellable stories. One could write a book on the experience! One of our highlights was working with some of Maire Brennan’s musicians (they have their own worthy band), lovely guys. And we met some great people. Both musician-wise (part of Lucky Peterson’s crew, and Ronnie Bowman’s whole band), and fellow-volunteer-wise. Our favourite band was definitely “Mes Souliers Son Rouges.” And our favourite day was probably the day after it was all over, when the team of volunteers responsible for the musicians spent the day recuperating in an extremely lackadaisical fashion here at Pré Borel.
(My own recoup-ing took a bit longer!)

Due to a necessarily slow coming-off of a particular RA drug (one of the ones I’ve been on for six years now), my concentration level has been exceedingly low for the last few months. And so in one sense the demands of the garden, of various events such as those mentioned above, and the visits of friends and family have kept me from much frustration at not even being able to stare at even an e-mail, let alone something more intellectually demanding, for very long. That’s slowly improving, as perhaps the length of this overdue blog-entry may indicate.
The veg patch is out of control with production – beans, tomatoes, courgettes/zucchinis coming out of our ears (photo here is from June -- imagine everything 3 times bigger). We're 'between fruit' at the moment...giving us a rest from the deluge of cherries.








We’ve recently had a wonderful time with two families here to visit, who have helped fight the weeds, and helped work on the barn, even amidst the sweltering temperatures which necessitated frequent trips to the lake. We’ve fired up the bread oven again for an evening of amazing pizza, had some lovely BBQ’s, a few have swung from trees, and Greg is frequently exhausting folk on lengthy bike rides (with the exception of Trevor, who gave Greg a challenge for a change!)














































Bike rides…our bike is awesome. A bit too hot to spend too much time on at the moment, but we have thoroughly explored our neighbourhood now, and have many plans to go further abroad when the temperatures drop a little. Just as well, as we need a month of rest -- at least! Needless to say, when cycling we get all sorts of responses in a country where staring is one of the national sports (and cycling one of the others!) For one week Greg was riding about with his pirate-flag attached (an apt gift from a 6yr old friend enamoured by the idea of his patch) – I can only imagine what conversational delight we provide for the neighbours!!

The neighbours – in the next posting we’ll put up some photos of honey harvesting in Pappy’s house. Here's a fore-taste of some sliced honeycomb.

And, as the photos are not accessible at the moment of this either, I will leave you to visualize one of our most recent evening highlights: luxuriating under the stars by the apple trees, as a family quartet gifts us with a private outdoor strings performance of Mendelssohn (complete with brotherly banter). One of those moments that seem too good to be true. And yet was so Good because it was True.






P.S. -- and just 'cause they're too cute not to include, here are some photos of Greg's two German godsons...one trying out the patch, the other experiencing Gardening à la Greg.