home

I pulled into the farmette driveway just after midnight. There had been some rain and the air felt very autumnal -- cold and damp. Inside, Ed had dozed off, as had Dance. You could say I woke the household up! (Who was more happy to see me -- Ed or Dance? I'd say it's a tossup, though eventually Ed's effusiveness tapered off and Dance just could not get enough of me.)

It's impossible for me to walk through the house and not straighten things up as I go along and of course that just sucks you into a tidying mode. That and catching up with Ed stories (the pawpaw trees, the assembled Amazon couch which we decided to send back...) took another couple of hours and so I didn't get to sleep until, well, this morning! For a while.

Up at 7, as always, rain or shine, Annecy, Paris, or farmhouse. I look out, expecting rain, but there seems to be a pause. A very, very limited pause that will last an hour or so. If I want to get in my movement, it will have to be now. Not after breakfast, not after I've rested some, now, immediately after feeding the animals on my walk thought this drizzled landscape.

(Remember the Auberge Gaura? White and delicate? Here's mine -- pink and bold...)

Ed, having just finished a long Wednesday ride, has no interest in riding along. Who could blame him! I put on my winter jacket and deeply regretted not stuffing gloves in my pocket. It's nippy out there!

I cannot say it was a thrilling ride. Everything in life cannot be thrilling or exceptionally sublime. But it was a good, invigorating ride! A pretty one...

And as always, it had an element of surprise. Today I come across a field of Sandhills and Canadian Geese. These birds are so common here, that they didn't so much surprise me as they astonished me in their sheer numbers. 

As I pause to watch these flocks of birds co-mingling in the harvested cornfield, I see a handful of cranes take off. And then suddenly they all take off, joining the small group, filling the sky with wings and song.

At home, I fix a breakfast, coax Ed into a photo...

And turn to the laundry. One of the jars of honey that I'd purchased at the French honey store -- the one that is made from thyme flowers, thus promising you medicinal benefits you can't even imagine! -- had leaked honey inside my suitcase. Attending to sticky clothes suddenly tops my todo list.

And then we move on to the next project -- packing up the parts of the couch that was delivered in my absence. Ed had assembled it, I sat on it once and agreed with him -- it was like sitting on a slab of stone. He had had the presence of mind to photograph the way it had fit into a huge cardboard container. Back it went, piece by piece, with my occasional assistance. 

We are on Square One in our couch acquisition project. Rumor has it that there is another one on Amazon that Ed likes. At just over $300, it's even cheaper than the one we're sending back! Let's see if we do better with it! 

In the afternoon, I'm picking up the kids again. In the rain. 

How quickly they fall back on their routines here! How easy it is to make them happy...

I expect to be wiped out by evening and that surely is the case. This is the weather for a soup supper and this will be my last job for the day -- cook up enough soup to last forever! And then finally I put my feet up, Ed turns on a missed episode of Just a Few Acres Farm. It's so good to be back...

Goodnight!