Il pleut.

The predominant theme of this week has been rain. Rain and cold. Odd for a summer in Southern France, but the at least the plants don't need watering.

Sunday evening, we drove 20 minutes down the road to Sharon's house, a tiny, quaint 200-year-old fixer-upper she has been remodeling little by little for years. She's an artist specializing in mosaics, so the whole floor in her kitchen is one big mosaic, as well as many tables in her home. After she showed us some of the progress she'd made in the main room, we all went out to backyard to look at all she had planted, especially her very fruit-laden cherry tree. As soon as we were back inside, her cat, Gina, took an immediate liking to me, which she demonstrated by hopping up into my lap practically the moment I sat down. Soon enough it was time for dinner: marinated Hawaiian pork with brown rice and asparagus, a recipe I will try when I get home. She also made us strawberry shortcakes featuring her famous from-scratch biscuits. Delicious. After we had eaten, we played Tarot for a few hours, which is much harder with four people than with three, and she and I both lost miserably to the more expert William and Rosalie.

Sharon's kitchen with its mosaic floor.

Monday saw no let-up in the rain, and the day was mostly occupied by smaller chores and an absurd amount of time spent watching Fringe, as we've gone back to the beginning and are currently watching Season 1. Tuesday was also wet and chilly, so I spent a good part of the day planning my Saturday trip to Toulouse, researching train times and popular attractions. I also both started and finished reading a mystery novel. Dinner consisted of sloppy Joes (sloppy Jacques?) and cole slaw (or the French interpretation, shredded celery root and carrots). When they have guests, they only cook them French food, so when the rooms are vacant they indulge in American favorites like burgers, BLTs and pizza.

Rain clouds in the valley. Go away.

Today it rained on and off, but the sun was out for enough time to get some gardening work done. While William, Rosalie and Sharon were all engaged in various outdoor tasks, from weeding to sanding down an antique table, I went to work on some of the beds in the yard, pulling up dead daffodils to make room for new plantings. I also trimmed back some roses whose buds had rotted from too much rain. This was, of course, until it started pouring again. Then it was back to reading--"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan," a find from the library downstairs. I think my mom read it for her book club a few years ago. At any rate, it's pretty good.

The sun is supposed to stay out tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to get a walk or a bike ride in during the afternoon, after our morning errands are done and the rooms are completely set. They have a couple of women coming to stay for 3 nights to scope the place out for a potential biking tour, so it will be a nice change of pace to have guests after our long, lazy break.