July already. The sunshine has come back to us, scorchingly hot, and the sunflowers are blooming wonderful!
I'm harvesting seeds every day, from our poppies, nigella and honesty, so at least we'll have some colour in the new garden next year. I love self- seeding plants, although our raised beds are at the moment overwhelmed with a jungle of self-seeded tomato and pepper plants.
We now only have two weeks to go before the removal man & van come to take away all our stuff - and we still don't have confirmed dates for completion of either the sale or the purchase: talk about going to the edge! As a forward planner I find this difficult: is it an exercise in trust, faith, and patience, or in sheer bloody-minded determination that it will happen?
William is doing sterling work, sorting out transfers of utilities, mail re-direction, and booking a couple of Ibis hotels to lodge at for at least the first weekend of homelessness, one in Rochefort, the other back in Pontivy, where we stayed while house hunting. Much more tiring than one might expect, doing all these things in a second language and according to unfamiliar systems.
But this hiatus has given us the opportunity to have two very useful conversations.
The first was about The Future. Having completed our Three Year Plan of time in the sun, and conscious that we're both now in our 60s, we've now come up with a Ten Year Plan. Well done us! And it's simply this: to enjoy our new home in Brittany for at least ten years (no surprise there!) and then minimalise our possessions, sell up, move into rented accommodation (somewhere near the coast would be nice) and enjoy using whatever money we get from the sale (minus rent & basics of course) while not having to think about who to leave anything to. It's genius.
The second conversation started with my encouraging The William, once we're unpacked, to get on with some research he's been wanting to do for a long time, but not had the energy or support to progress. The working title of it is 'Peter, Paul, and Mary' - and no, it's not about the folk/pop group of the 1960s! But the upshot of the conversation was that The William is now encouraging me to get on with my work as a liturgist (which sounds a bit posh, but isn't) and complete my series of simple, domestic celebrations to mark the turning year, natural as well as traditional/ecclesiastical. So I am. And a very nice break from packing boxes it is too!
Watch this space (or the one above it) for the first of the series, which is for the celebration of Lammas on 1st August.
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