Lily's Blog

The sign going into the fruit and vegetable shop in the village does not do justice to the beauty of the produce contained inside.

This photo essay gives a little idea …

Really it’s not a fruit and vegetable shop at all. It sells local produce from the region. Goats cheese for example on the second shelf down

2 figs and 1 peach for my early breakfast cost 78 cent.

I write this at the campsite looking out on tall conifers, green hedges and a blue sky. The sounds are of wood pigeon and crickets. If I rub the wild fennel between my fingers, I can smell the aniseed.

People are amazed that at my age, I would choose to camp. I get plenty of raised eyes. Denis and I are very different in many ways, but we both love camping.

Then we did spend our honeymoon, cycling the island of Cyprus.

I will admit, I am now only a ‘fair weather’ camper. I will camp only at good camping sites and only in good weather. I wouldn’t camp in Ireland – it has neither the good campsites, nor the good weather. Here, when occasionally the weather breaks, it does so, gets over itself quickly, and then back to sunshine.

With good weather and a good campsite, camping is heavenly. It’s the one time of the year, one gets to live in the great outdoors.

And for me the outdoors really is great; to wake up in the fresh cool air, to listen to the various sounds, to go to sleep with the stars as a ceiling.

But then maybe there is a bit of an itinerant lurking inside me.

Last night, in the darkness, there was an air display – a thunder and lightening storm. Rarely does a year go by without at least one decent storm. Over the years, I have gotton used to their ferocity and now really enjoy these natural fireworks.

A natural Bastille Day celebration!

The previous night, the night-sky was spectacular. Lots of stars. It was great just lying there late, chatting under the stars. (Cameras actually lie. There was a brilliant bright sky that night. The photo just shows black.)

Years ago while in India at monsoon time, with its constant heat and humidity, I came to really notice how nice a shower is, how nice water is, how nice the feeling of actually being clean is!

We all live lives such that we stop noticing.

Camping for me is an annual return to actually noticing. Noticing the ordinary things we take for granted. An annual ‘Back to Basics’.

Camping for me is time to ‘smell the roses’

PS I wrote this earlier this morning to post later in the day. When I had internet access, I read Tommy’s blog to find he also has posted about camping. The idium ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’ comes to mind. He has pointed out some negatives.

Must say to him in relation to:
‘… symphony of insects performing their own version of dawn chorus …’
It’s only the male crickets that make the noise!

So I guess you have both of our takes on camping today!

After my previous posts, I’d better do Bastille Day today, given where we are!

Happy Bastille Day.

The French really celebrate this day. Here in Maussane festivities have been underway since last Friday and finish tonight. It must be great when guaranteed good weather for open air concerts, fireworks, bull run and such like.

It’s nice to see how a small village celebrates. All ages are out, from the newborn to the very old, with all ages in between.

One thing I notice is the the number of old people around. The good weather allows older people to be out much more than at home. Each night until late, a group of old people congregate at one end of the town chatting. I’d love to take a photo but wouldn’t. Village gossiping?

Because we have been coming here regularly, we too are beginning to feel part of the place. We recognize many of the people and they us.

Finally a bit of trivia – though the fall of the Bastille was the flashpoint of the French Revolution, and it subsequently became an icon of the French Republic, the prison only contained seven prisoners at the time of its storming!

We are camping in a small French village called Maussane, Denis, youngest mouse and I. We have been coming to this village for about ten years. Middle mouse will join us for a few days next week. Though he tried, it’s looking doubtful if eldest mouse will make it.

Posting on the blog may be more irregular. I’ll see what I can manage. The one good thing is that there is great internet access. Dublin please copy. Cafes/campsite have free Wi-Fi.

In our early years coming here, I remember Patrick used to cycle over every morning to an internet cafe in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. This cycle was about 15km in all, over Les Alpilles, the small range of mountains in Provence, uphill for the first half and downhill thereafter.

What I love about this type of holiday is the great weather, relaxed pace of life, un-spoilt French village, lack of tourists, great food and wine, lots of walking, cycling, reading, playing scrabble. Lots of time to chill.

Speaking of scrabble, over the years we have played lots of scrabble, with bonus points being added to scores, reducing as mice got older.

Youngest mouse has long since lost any bonus points.

Last night the three of us played our first game of scrabble on this holiday. Youngest mouse beat his parents.

Again.

This is beginning to become a consistent pattern.

I am now working on bonus points for the auld pair!

I write as I drink coffee in the square, listening to a live band play as part of the festivities for Bastille day tomorrow. Denis and youngest mouse are gone to rent bikes.

Who wouldn’t like Mondays in Mausanne?

She has come with us on holidays. God, how I hate listening to her. Denis obviously likes her, otherwise he wouldn’t have insisted on her coming.

She is a help, but I wouldn’t choose her company.

She’s much more patient than me. That’s why he likes her, (plus, he adds she has a mute button and volume control!)

Yeah she’s much more patient than me. When things go wrong,

In that calm, even voice, all she says is …

‘Recalculating’.

People are divided on whether Lance Armstrong is a wonderful sporting hero or a wonderful example of the exact opposite. I don’t have a clue which he is, but I for one am delighted he is in this year’s race. Maybe if I was a cyclist talking part, I might not be, but as an armchair spectator, I am. He adds colour to the race.

As if there wasn’t enough colour already with all the talk of jersey colours – yellow, green, polka dot and white.

Lance Armstrong certainly does things his way, be that surviving cancer plus going on to win the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, retiring in 2005 and now competing again at the age of almost 38.

As I write this he is within a whisker of donning the yellow jersey after only 4 of 21 stages. Mind you there’a a lot of cycling yet to be done in this race.

While camping in France in July, we have caught the Tour a few times. Here are photos of last year, where the Tour passed through a village close to where we were staying.

Arriving early with scrabble and books to entertain us as we waited.

Becasue the cyclists pass so fast, they are preceeded by a long array of advertising floats who entertain and throw out various freebies to the crowd. Think St Patrick’s day parade time but in beautiful weather. I read somewhere that it costs companies an enormous amount to be part of this marketing opportunity – between 200,000 Euro and 500,000 Euro, not cheap.

Years ago we visited an uncle of Denis’s in the US who was undergoing his own cancer treatment. He was reading Lance Armstrong’s autobiography ‘It’s Not About the Bike’ in hospital. Sadly he died sudddenly, while we were visiting. After his funeral we each choose a momento of him and I chose that book. For anyone undergoing cancer treatment, it’s a very good read.

Armstrong made the point in that book, had he not taken personal ownership of his own cancer treatment, he doubted he would have survived. This point, that we are responsible for the management of our own health issue really resonated with me. I whole-heartedly agree with him.

So I personally don’t know if he’s a hero or a fraud. I do care. I’d like to know which and would like to think he does it without doping. Who know’s?

I didn’t know this ‘fact’ until Alan brought it to my attention, today is Chocolate Day. He said:

My question for you, … if you’re going to continue to celebrate the major national/international holidays, but if, with a son who is off chocolate (and another obsessed in trying to thwart him), will you celebrate Chocolate Day come this July 7th?

I wont put up his link because I actually think it’s a dodgy website. (The site just said I’ve won money, as I was the millionth visitor to it!)

I can still wish people a Happy Chocolate Day though …

except of course to those who are off said treat.

One popular dessert in our house is ‘Bruce Bogtrotter cake’. (Remember Bruce Bogtrotter – he was the little boy who stole a piece of chocolate cake from the Trunchbull in Matilda. As punishment, he then had to consume an entire cake in front of the whole school!) I got a copy of a Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes (really it’s a cookery book) from the library years ago. A link to the recipe is here It’s actually a lovely chocolate cake.

Alan to be fair to the others can you check when is ‘Happy Natural Confectionery day’!

Kevin left a comment on my last dog post saying ‘it’s stunning how bad those dogs are behaving’.

I was thinking of the saying ‘Like master, like dog’ … I did a little research and found this piece:

Those who think purebred dogs look like their owners are barking up the right tree, but matching a mutt to its master is another thing, a study suggests.

Barack and Charlie are mutts.

Phew!

Given:

• Eldest mouse is currently living in San Francisco
• The US is the second highest source of visitors to this blog
• We have a dog called Barack named after a certain American born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961
• I did a Happy Canada day post on Wednesday,

I can’t let the day pass without saying ‘Happy 4th of July’ to our US friends.

Barack and Charlie are learning well.

Yes they have learned the importance of a varied diet for good canine nutrition.

First up, their morning feed of ‘Feedwell’. It says on the bag, ‘A complete dog food suitable for all types of dogs’.

Details of its nutritional content are given:

• Protein 23.5%
• Oil 9%
• Fibre 3.5%
• Ash 8%
• Vitamin A 7500iu/kg
• Vitamin D3 750iu/kg
• Vitamin E 65iu/kg

Anyhow to ensure their optimum intake of vitamins and minerals, Barack and Charlie are taking no chances. They supplement their ‘Feedwell’ during the day.

The mutts are into supplements …

Holly

Ear phones

Their hearing should be greatly enhanced, they ate the part that goes into the ear.

Tennis Balls

Rocks

Full plants

The garden (and anything that should possibly be left outside for even one minute), provides endless possiblities.

It’s great to see them so into good nutrition!