Finally the weather broke. Last night we had a big storm with torrents of rain. The outside world is suddenly refreshed. The earth had become hard and dry, the grass all yellow. The rain fell and was soaked in by he ground like a great dry sponge. The plants must all have appreciated the downpour. Now we shall have at least a couple of cooler days.
Yesterday I was working on repairing and liming walls. I have learnt how to make a'limecrete' - concrete without cement - that works rather well, and am also repointing and even, in places, rebuilding. Over the many years farmers have knocked these buildings about in various ways, not excluding knocking holes right through thick stone walls in places. Repairing means a kind of three dimensional jigsaw puzzle, finding a combination of stones that will fill the holes and then putting in a sufficient amount of lime-sand mix to bind it all together until finally, hopefully, nobody can tell that there ever was a hole there. In a certain way it is hidden work. Nobody is going to come along and say that one did a good job because all of the work is under the surface. This is a bit like spiritual practice. Repairing a wall, repairing one's soul, it is all much the same. Perhaps doing one helps with the other.
Today I will rest from my labours a bit and read and write. The way our week often works out, here at La Ville au Roi our 'weekend' is Thursday-Friday rather than Saturday-Sunday. As the heavens have openned and everywhere is wet, this will, in any case, be a good day for indoor activity. So we had a long breakfast discussing personal life experiences, social class, loneliness and other interesting topics.
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