Progress

I love this time of year in the potager. It was a difficult start to the growing season with Spring presenting us with the most awful weather conditions from which I feared the damaged early growth would never recover. But miraculously, thanks to the alternating spells of wet and hot weather over the past weeks, growth has accelerated at a fantastic rate and the miscellaneous tomato plants in particular hold great promise for a real feast in August. We are still a week or so off enjoying some delicious French beans and the sweetcorn is still in the early stages, the courgette, cornichon (gherkin) squash plants and aubergines are all flowering..... but today's big surprise were these
I had no idea the garlic was at such an advanced stage and that the soil was hiding such an enormous red onion! How exciting! And yes, I am easily pleased ;-)

On other matters, Sadie has been receiving more attention over the past couple of days. Not only are the roof vents now safely installed but also, after a bit of adaptation to the fitting instructions, the two solar panels which are capable of providing 240W of power when the sun is at its strongest. These will be essential for keeping the leisure batteries topped up in order to provide power to our somewhat energy hungry laptops while we will be awayShe's looking good, don't you think? Next step is to install the fresh and waste water tanks underneath the vehicle and then start on the plumbing and electricity which will be, er, fun!

Now then, unless you have been in a state of hibernation for the past nearly 2 weeks, you will know that le Tour de la France is currently meandering its way through the country. To date, the stage results have generally gone totally against the predictions with a number of notable upsets (I won't bore you with the nitty gritty). But the race arrives in the Pyrénées on Sunday and we are planning on cycling up to the Col de Pailhères/Mijanès area to be at the heart of the action on that day. I can't wait! I have some friends in the area for the stage so will hopefully be able to hook up with them at some point too. Then on Monday, le Tour heads from Pamiers through Saint-Girons and on to Bagnères-de-Luchon. There is still an outside chance we may be able to catch some of that stage, so fingers crossed!