The pizza oven is roaring, stones sucking up heat. The sun bakes and all manner of bees have been visiting the lavender flowers, one particularly alarming specimen with giant dark fighter jet wings whisks by my nose as I finish off the morose tale of Heathcliff and Catherine, after my trip to Scotland the world of moors and gorse are vivid.I blink to a reality of bright sunshine and a backdrop like a painted stage set from the sound of music. How can a view of such rolling fields and a dainty town below (replete with cemetery) exist out of fairytale? The constant grumbling of farm equipment and the swaying powerlines eliminate the need to pinch myself.We’re in the Alpes, and I am resting after a few days of niggling earache that hopefully diminish only to reappear as healthy as ever at dinner time to spoil my chewing. It is a good place to heal, all the more so as the nearest shop is an arduous bike ride to Grenoble so we have cut down on the temptation of patisserie treats. Although I may eat our hosts out of house and home of tiny fake toasts. (By a Grenoble grocery store we saw a man dressed as a pirate asking passers for money, I don’t think his garb helped his cause any)
The church bell rings in the hour and the grape vine above glows as it waves the breeze welcome. Tour de France commentary urgently murmurs from within, our neighbours laugh and every now and again the owner of the constant jingling of bells beats.
I’ve been preparing myself for home, dreaming up schemes and projects so the shock of return isn’t winding. In a handful of days we’ll be working on Phil’s tour group, holiday mode over. How shocking it will be to see a familiar face after all this time!
But for now I’m soaking up the present, I better run the barefoot gauntlet of deliciously soft but bee covered clover lawn to check the fire Dylan entrusted me with so we can have our first proper woodfired pizza since New York! After a barrage of honking horns, merry accordion music has begun floating up from the valley below. Looks like someone’s wedding will be providing a soundtrack to our delicious dinner.
