Yes, I'm feeling a bit muzzy today, after quite a day or two. In part it is because the heat ramped up again very quickly, which seems to knock my system a bit. Jumping up 5 degrees in a day, then dropping back down again a couple of days later means I don't get to acclimatise to the heat. But in the main, it is because after a few years' gap, the Vieil Baugé Journée Champêtre is back and was yesterday.
To be honest, I wasn't too involved this year, but John had to be up and away early yesterday morning for setting up the site, so I wasn't able to sleep in. Then I was on the food line for about 3 and a half hours, not arduous but standing up all the time, which doesn't help my feet or knees. Then there was getting to eat my meal, drink my drink, see the fireworks and drift home to sort out chickens and cats and wind down from a very French experience (it still mangles my brain, particularly if I am mixing French and English during an event). So late to bed, and in a house that had got too hot during the day. Muzzy really does cover it!
Still, it was a success and people enjoyed it and it is good to get village traditions back. Here are a few photos, but Maryline Margas has posted a slide show of much better ones on Facebook.
We were threatened with thunderstorms for yesterday - which fortunately for us didn't materialise. The threat did galvanise me into lifting the yellow onions before they got too wet. I was pleased with the size of them, but a strange phenomenon was that quite a few sets produced two onions. I only planted single sets at each point, but about six did this, which I have never seen before.
In my muzzy state this morning, I was in the right frame of mind to sit and watch butterflies on the buddleia. To be honest I would have liked to have seen more, but it might not have been the best conditions for them, although there were a lot of bees getting nectar for the hives, which has to be good. There was this rather nice Comma butterfly - you can't see the comma, as that is on the underside of its wings, and he clearly wanted to soak up the sun.
Some of the high summer flowers are now coming into their own. The crocosmia is rather swamped by surrounding weeds but the flowers are magnificent. The statement white lily type thing in the garden tubs is starting to look particularly fine. And then there are the canna lilies - these are all from three bulbs or sets John bought about 15 years ago, and have since gone mad, been removed from places and chucked on heaps or left on top of the soil to be eaten, only to colonise, and get very big indeed. I love them when they are like this, big, brash and blousy.
So that is it, for this week. Next week I hope to have sorted out some wildlife photos and video. For those who watched the snake videos, I think I know where one of them lives, and I found that quite disturbing...
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