As I sit here typing this I'm looking at full grey clouds. My 6m old was up in the night with a gastro virus and my 3 year old had a very upset tummy yesterday, leaving me wondering when is my 18m old going to catch it & from which end will it appear?
I just saw on Facebook that it's my village's Brasucade tonight and suddenly I feel miles away from home.
It's dull and grey here in London, we've had weeks of rain. Yesterday Jasmine fell over into a puddle which was so deep she was covered in grey mud over her knees.
The handy little gadget on my laptop tells me it's sunny in Pezenas. Thanks.
It doesn't feel like Summer. I miss the heat, it's true I complain about it when you can't sleep when it's so hot you have to get up and shower in the middle of the night just to cool down. I miss the smell of scorched earth, the salt from the sea being blown in over the hot vines. The sound of people enjoying a glass of rose from the Cafe over the road and the fresh fig season.
Last week I paid 90p for one blinking fig. I went to Borough Market & saw some tomatoes, just like the ones at our local market - all rugged looking, ancienne varieties, green, yellow, orange, plum shaped, oval, round, beefy looking and very French, except for the price. The owner of these prized imported French tomatoes wanted nearly £9 for 2 beef tomatoes & £9 for a very small pack of assorted small ones. As you can imagine - I gave him the tomatoes back! Like the English in the UK who want to pay £1.50 for a tin of Heinz beanz, I wanted my French tomatoes BUT I wasn't prepared to pay through the nose for them. Better to wait until one day I'm back home and can have the real thing grown on my very own Roof terrace.
I'm not saying everything about Summer in France is great, the heat is both a blessing and a right pain - you can't go out for long walks except in the early hours or late evening - neither of which great for the kids, you use oodles of sun cream and still manage to get burnt one day rushing to the chemist, the tourists are everywhere and it's heaving in July/August) and the wasps/mosquitos/mouches are pretty annoying too.
But it's festival time, I see lots of events being advertised and I know what I'm missing.
As everyone else prepares for the influx of house guests, my house is empty, it probably smells of dust. I long to open the shutters to the sunlight and feel the hot air rush past. We made this choice, it's for our future but just sometimes when it's grey and dull outside for days on end I wonder are we doing the right thing? Should we scale back our plans and just go home & be happy?
I'm sure we will get a Summer - if we could just find the sun. The sun makes us happy, it lifts our spirits. I don't know how on earth people live in a country that hardly ever gets the sun (no I'm not talking about the UK now although it feels like it at times). So come on sunshine, please make my day & hint that there will be a Summer in the UK this year - it's our final Summer here so let's make it one to remember. Please...I'll even sing if it encourages you to come bless us with your presence....All together...The sun has got his hat on...