Forgive me if this week’s blog is full of grammatical bloops but I didn’t get in until the early hours this morning on account of a riotous Halloween knees-up at chez Abraham‘s last night. Actually, it was earlier than the time the outside security camera registered a 50-something dressed up like a Peaky Blinder making her way unsteadily across the driveway as the clocks went back an hour sometime between numerous glasses of wine and a rather delicious mechoui à la broche. And I’m not the only one trying to keep her eyes open, Denis has put back our afternoon mushroom hunting mission to Thursday so he can sleep off the rest of today.
The poor man deserves a rest anyway as he and his brother, Thierry, have been up ladders all week, sawing off tree branches around the property – a yearly must as telephone cables surround most of our fence line and we like to keep our neighbours (and the Mayor) happy. Little Louisette, Denis’ beloved van, dragged precariously over-filled trailers off to a secret location (we aren’t really allowed to dump dead-wood in the countryside -why I have no idea) like an underpaid baggage handler doing the late shift. I have to say the garden looks much brighter now which is just as well as the weather is not. Overcast skies and drizzle have now replaced the early Autumn’s heat and whilst it isn’t ‘see your breath’ cold, the sharp snap that greets me when I let the woofers out in the morning is enough to make me want to get straight back under the covers. Luckily, Mumo’s sitting room with its new wood-burning stove is right below my bedroom as my radiators aren’t kicking in – Max chauffagiste has promised he will come round as soon as to to boot them up.
Speaking of clearing the view so to speak, I’m trying very hard not to do an impression of Hyacinth Bucket at the moment. Our new neighbours, those who have bought the house behind us, are due to arrive anytime today and, well, I’m just nosey. Graham tells me they are keen runners and have a dog, hopefully the woofers will be more polite to her than they were with the previous inhabitants canine. Whilst I don’t want company when I run, the solitude is part of the reason I love to get up in those hills, I’d be more than happy to show them the beauty this little bit of France has to offer. I bet they don’t have to spend 10 minutes strapping various joints before taking to the road, unlike myself – they probably won’t face-plant either, unlike myself. Mind you, I did manage to stay upright on both runs last week which was a miracle in itself as it was pitch dark and wet for most of the kilometres. There’s an advantage to losing that hour even if I didn’t appreciate it this morning.
I shall finish by saying a big thank-you to everyone for all the messages asking how Mumo is doing after her little stunt a couple of weekends ago. She’s doing fine, no doubt helped by the tootsie-warming furnace below me. I even dragged her out for a little retail therapy mid-week so she could stock up her winter wardrobe. Unfortunately, although she did buy a swish pair of walking shoes, she didn’t manage to find anything wooly-wise – navel skimming jumpers mostly in fuchsia or glittering purple, not being her clothing of choice. Well, it is almost Halloween. I wonder if the new neighbours know there’s a witch watching over the wood pile next door?…
“Halloween is the only time that people can become what they want to be without getting fired” (Sylvester Stallone)
Widow plus woofs 