I have not written a Daily for several days. This is principally because life here goes along in a fairly uniform way at the moment so that one feels that there is nothing to report.
Personally I feel myself to be in a kind of interim. I have more or
Read more…It now seems definitely to be autumn. Misty mornings. Cool weather that feels cold by comparison with what went before. Interesting how one forgets what winter felt like. There is little to write about in terms of activity here. All goes on as usual.
Read more…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. Th
Read more…The moon rises further east each evening and gows in size. Three quarters now.
The days are hot and today the wind was particularly dry. Perhaps it is the sirocco. The winds from Africa rarely get this far north, but today the air had a quality altog
Read more…The half moon is orange in the clear evening sky in the south. The crickets are chirping and the summer heat persists.
Elja has a regular industry of jam and syrup making going on in the kitchen and fruits continue to ripen.
Inside we work on editing
Read more…We had our usual Friday visit to Oasis this morning and today for the first time did the ritual in French which was very nice. Annette has been doing some great translating work. She has done the whole of our service book and I am now editing it, eve
Read more…This morning I read one or two interesting things that led to me writing a blog post about not knowing what we know.
Meanwhile, outside, the flowers are blooming...
Fruit
Today Elja was picking berries and making jam and syrups while I was sawing logs that Adam was then storing away in the woodshed. All preparations for the colder months to come.
We are still getting plenty of garden produce. Today I harvested a
Read more…Since a couple of days ago I have been back here at Eleusis. It is nice to be home. I had been in Holland for eleven days. This time I was a guest of Yvette, the pilgrim who went on her bike from Den Bosch to Eleusis. Every visit to Holland seems to
Read more…We are a community of three once again, now that Elja is back. It is blackberry season and we have been picking berries and she making syrups in the kitchen.
I have been doing some woodwork and the hut in the barn now has a roof, effectively giving
Read more…This morning, as most Fridays, we went to Oasis.
Tara met up with the hens
Adam had a splash in the pool
Our little birds have left the nest. It is empty now. They have joined the dozens of other ones that loop around our years and fly through the refectory, in one end and out the other. I guess they are all hearing stories about Africa and chasing the
Read more…Picking berries on one's own is a very silent activity. Here at La Ville au Roi much of the time there is no ambiant npoise whatsoever. With only the mantra rolling around my brain for company I set off to pick the first real takings. It is apparent
Read more…The month is nearly over. Time flies. Walking in the woods today I was conscious of the first fallen leaves. Autumn is coming. Everywhere blackberries are ripening. Today we harvested our first pumpkin, a big yellow one. The tomatoes are ripening too
Read more…There is now no longer room for all three chicks in the nest so one has crossed over to the next beam.
leaving two in the nest. The parents keep coming and feeding them all.
including the one on the nail. They are all practising stretching their wi
Read more…Jan sent us this account of her journey from La Ville au Roi (Eleusis) to Hawai'i
Would I sound deluded if I say I feel that I have a new take on time and space? Maybe it comes from having two places with strong connections. As I journeyed back to Ha
Read more…Our little friends are nearly ready for flying lessons.
The roses are blooming
Strawberries are sleeping
Tomatoes are ripening
And pumpkins are on the way
Another very hot day. I have been working all day on my book manuscript. As much as possible I have been sitting outside in the shade of the walnut tree. Later in the day I move to the shade of the maple, as the sun moves round. Tara the kitten sleep
Read more…Today I helped a neighbour take a trailer load of rubbish to the tip and, in return, borrowed the trailer for a few hours in order to go into town and pick up some timber I had ordered. It is nice to have such mutual cooperation locally. It also gave
Read more…This morning I took Tara to the vet in Ainay le Chateau. She is fairly used to being in the car now and sits on top of the seat backs so she can see out or stretches herself out along the back of my neck across my shoulders. We had to stay in the vet
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