Fourmilière

That's where les fourmis (ants) live. They're digging a lot out on the vineyard road and their anthills are everywhere.

An anthill in the dirt road out back.

I fixed my French tax return according to the instructions that the tax office gave me. I had a little trouble finding one of the fields they wanted adjusted, so I just wrote the answer in an e-mail and resubmitted the return, hoping for the best. Ten or fifteen minutes after I hit the send button, the tax office responded that they had accepted the return and the matter is now considered closed. Yay!

Oops

I got a message from the tax people about my return. Uh-oh. It seems to be an automatically generated message The message is from a real person and he said there are a couple of boxes I didn't fill out that I should have. I think I did fill them out, but I will go back and double check, of course. I could have left a page before it saved (which is the most likely scenario). It's the only instance of the tax office's computer finding a glitch that I've had in the past twenty years or so. Either I'm really good (it is to laugh), or their software is getting better at spotting anomalies.

A decorative pruning job against a storage building wall.

So, after I figure that out, this weekend I'll be potting up the marigolds I got on Thursday. They're going into the kitchen window boxes. I also got a few geraniums for the deck and elsewhere and some herb seeds that need to be planted.

Nuages

Clouds. They only block the sun. So says the song. They rain and snow on everyone. Well, we haven't seen snow in quite a while, but we've had our share of rain. These clouds let some sun through and gave us a pretty show over the last weekend. Since then, mostly overcast and rain. I did get the north forty cut yesterday before the rain came.

The rising sun paints the clouds with shades of yellow and gold.

The French tax returns are done! With two weeks to spare. Phew. Today I'm venturing over to a nearby town to buy some flowers for the kitchen window boxes. We're still waiting for the weather to allow our landscaping guy to till up the vegetable plot. Meanwhile, in the greenhouse, some of the tomato plants are blossoming. Yikes!

Tuesday was pizza day

I made this pie (two of them) with some left-over tomato/vegetable sauce that was a conglomerate from a couple of previous meals. Then I topped it with grilled and sliced Toulouse sausage (also left over from another lunch), roasted red peppers (made by Ken), cheese, and black olives. Quite tasty.

The first of two pizzas.

Today I will endeavor to get the French tax return completed and filed. It will be good to have that done again for another year.

Artihoke charts

Short post today... got an early appointment for a haircut so I've got to get ready. Shower, walk the dog (in the rain), and make pizza dough for today's lunch.

We already have artichokes on the plants. They like wet weather.

Campanules

The bellflowers are starting to bloom now. Both the garden variety (seen here) and the wild ones out in the fields among the vineyard parcels. These are some that we moved from a large patch in the driveway to a spot in the back yard.

Campanules blooming among the hens and chicks.

Our heat wave, such as it was, is over. We're expecting single digit lows this week. A bunch of rain is predicted for tomorrow and I have a haircut appointment during the worst of it. The holiday weekend is over and people have skedaddled back home, so there will be less traffic on the roads. Of course, next weekend is another long weekend. It's the Pentecost Monday holiday.

Golden sunrise

I got out early this morning with the camera. And the dog. The sun had been up for about fifteen minutes. The trees and grape vines were rich with fresh golden colors, a different gold from what we see in the fall but no less beautiful.

The sun emerges from behind a cloud and saturates the landscape with gold.

Saturday was our warm day before new weather comes in. I got a new bottle of gas for the bbq grill. While I was out I took a load of recycling to the collection point (of which there are many sprinkled about our area). And the grass was dry, so... I got the mower out and did the south forty. The grass was between ankle high and knee high, depending on the spot. But now its back under control. Sort of. For now. The rest of the yard is begging to be done, but I have another story for that. Stay tuned.