The sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray! Finally after weeks and weeks of constant pluie, the bikinis are out and sunglasses on. The change in the weather couldn’t have come at a better time as we have had guests all week. Sue and Pete have been family friends for over half a century, from back in our Kenya days, along with their two children Debs and Rick although only Debs joined them this time. Naturally spending a week here involves one or two trips to wine-related hotspots – I took them up to Laetitia’s family vineyard which lies just above the village and of course, to the Cave (wine co-operative shop) in St-Hilaire. On the way to the Cave we took a little detour down to L’Horte as they hadn’t been there since before Pop died. Or since half the building have been pulled down and Severine and Nicolas have built the farm on our land. I suppose I’ve got used to seeing the old property change over the years but it was quite a shock for them. Sadly all return to the UK tomorrow evening so we are making the most of their last evening here and Simon’s barbecuing. Again. Thankfully it’s a Bank Holiday tomorrow so everyone can recover.
With the thermometer climbing well into the high 20’s and the forecast showing signs of summer, I decided it was time to take the winter cover off the pool. Since Roy had given the water a chlorine ‘shock’ the night before, I coerced Nick (who I always call St Nick due to him never saying no to me) and my darling Denis into rolling the heavy steel-roded bâche into a neat giant sausage shape and heaving it into its storage bay. Naturally I made them bring out the summer version whilst they were down there, I had my hands full videoing and photographing the great occasion so I could do a little more ‘Book’ advertising. Luckily, the water was still clear – I’m told that many in Rouffiac have de-clothed their pools and found them green but we were left with a very dirty bottom. All those winter winds coming up from the Sahara had dumped a whole lot of sand en route to wherever they end up which of course, turned into a sludgy slime. The robot has been in at least three times. It’ll take a couple of days before the piscine looks inviting enough to swim in, unless you’re Arry and then you’ve done a few laps already, but at least with so much heat this weekend, the water is warming up nicely.
As I noted in the last blog, self-promotion is really not my thing. Fortunately however, I do have our Tess to give me a push and guide me through the tangled trickery of social media. Tess knows about these things as she’s already written one book and is busy with the second. I have been clued up on content, how many hashtags one should use on different platforms and how often I should put posts on them. Apparently I should a website too but since Callum is way over there in Australia still and there’s no way my aged brain could figure out where to start, such necessities are not in the immediate future. Tess did say I need some high ‘res’ close up shots of yours truly as well but as I would like people to continue buying the opus, I’m not doing that either. Instead I’m going all artistic-like and snapping the literary masterpiece ‘on tour’ as Debs put it. So far it’s been in one of the rose beds and propped up on a sun lounger, perhaps the potager should be the next location. Thank you thank you thank you by the way for all the amazing feedback and the reviews, I love you lot. I highly doubt I will ever see the best-seller list but it’s nice to know those what have bought it, like it very very much…
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” (Stephen King)
Widow plus woofs 