Lazy days

 

Summer in Provence, and the days are just slipping by...and suddenly it's ten days since I last posted. To be fair, I'd always intended to recharge the batteries this month before diving back into the work-in-progress but this feels like true laziness. Not that life has been entirely idle, you understand. It's just that having friends over for lunch feels like a major event, planning what to eat and drink to consider, cooling the wine and laying up the table under the vine canopy...

There has been lots of reading and consequent thinking under the fig tree to factor in (I loved A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz).

In July and August there are entertainments every night up and down the Luberon valley, from relaxed jazz concerts in the squares of hillside villages, to dancing at the fetes votives to the more formal performances at the castles of Lacoste and Gordes offering opera and famous names. This booklet has suggestions for every day of the week. And with it is my choice for an authentic Provencal scent for the warm evenings: L'Occitane's Ambre Santal, which is not nearly as heavy as it sounds, just sweet and spicy.

The lazy days that follow can be justified by a bit of heavy lifting in the garden, where there are always jobs to be done, like the clearing of ivy from the "secret" door to the old walnut wine cave that was starting to disappear again under a cloak of green. It was a tough task, that called for urgent rest and relaxation afterwards...

When we do rouse ourselves to go out and about, there are always brocante shops to be explored. These pots were outside one in Lourmarin.

 

And so the sun sets on another arduous day...I'm sure you can see why there's been no time for blogging... ;P