October 2018 Picardy, France.
I sit and work in the garden and the hot sun heats my lower back beautifully. I tan.
A peacock feather.
I look up as something thuds. An apple lies beside me. As I watch, whisper of a leaf; an acorn drops. Fruits still red and ripening.
Giving one Shiatsu per day for the community.
Looking down onto the village..
St Joan of Arc – one of the luminous stained glass windows of the chapel.
The garden from inside.
J makes dumplings – there is always lots of kitchen activity: fuels the brain!
E collected ceps and more in the woods for sharing.
I took a walk to the Intermarché/ supermarket on a sunny Sunday.
School and graf / graffiti.
On first sight I always think this means ‘no singing in public’!
Harvest time.
Pumpkins (above) and the last tomatoes (they are sweet as sweet).
The local library where MT volunteers.
The garden is the best place for writing. The light is inspiring. I caught myself thinking, ‘With this beauty and peacefulness I don’t need to eat’!
The slightly weird grottoes showing above the trees, which catch the morning rays.
Triffids?
The ringing singing tree, surely.
Evening walks.
After my tour, I sat in the garden as the sky darkened and the moon brightened. The last of the sun illuminated the tops of the birches and their tiny leaves flickered in the wind. The cyprus stood steady, turning a black silhouette before the rest. I watched a plane go past a star – that’s what it looked like.
An almost full harvest moon
Then an owl hooted: sometimes singly, followed by silence, then four in a row. Baby blue clouds appeared and a gauze of them passed in front of the orb which altered the light on the lawn.
The sound in the trees kidded my body into thinking it was colder than it was. Still, I pulled my hood over my hat, poked my thumbs through the holes in my sleeves and wormed one hand up the opposite arm. The chickens had been put to bed I realised, and there was no sign of the peacocks. A dog barked. The church bell tolled. I recognised a halloween sky but minus the bats! And I knew there was revellry going on indoors.
The Piano Concerto No. 21, 2nd Movement “Andante” by Mozart plays over and over in my head. I get down to the next chapter.
Walking without a donkey 