Orchids

I shall add to this as I manage to take pictures of orchids close up that aren't blurry.

Here goes with trying to show pictures of the orchids in the field. This was the first sort, it's a green winged orchid. There are loads of these all over the field.

After that I found the lady orchids.

There are very few of these and mostly around the edges of the field. These are man orchids over by the wood pile I think because they have bits in the middle of the flowers that look like people.

And then when we were taking the lid off the swimming poolI found a patch of spider orchids. I went this evening to inspect the man orchids and there was a bee orchid there.

At the bottom of the scrubby wood bit there are lots of pyramid orchids in fact they are coming up all over the place.

It's a delight. Every week there is another sort. Brilliant. More pictures to follow.

An early visit to St Cyprien market this morning. Well, early for us, we got there about 1/4 to 9. It is a glorious day and everything looks fresh and green and shiney. The morning sun shows off the ancient town at its best. Meet ladies already coming away with beautifully boxed patisserie and baskets full of vegetables. Still lots of setting up and loads more stalls now that the tourists are coming. Lots of clothes stalls that must have been hiding somewhere for the winter. Because we are so early everyone is still in good humour and the stall holders are all chatting to each other or disappearing off to get a coffee before they start up properly. Less black clothes today on the locals although still lots of coats and hats.

I wanted some artichoke plants but we had a lovely walk down the street chosing the lovely stuff that we would buy on the way back - if we had fifty quid to spend on lunch!

I think oysters to start. The asparagus looks lovely and the strawberries look and smell gorgeous. A nice bit of cheese perhaps and some bread. Not for lunch, but the soap stall smelled lovely too. A beautiful desert. Lovely flowers for the table......................

We bought duck breast and eggs from the same stall which are all double yolks - must remember to ask her what brand of chickens they are. (In the back of my mind I have it that these may well be duck eggs because they are from the duck stall and quite large, but maybe not large enough for ducks? - ignorant again.)

Asparagus and strawberries because we now know that the strawberries won't get any cheaper and they are always gorgeous. In the whole of last year only had 3 or 4 soft ones in the punnet. And my artichoke plants. Left meeting a steady stream of ladies with their wheelie shopping baskets ready to load up. Got bread, and pain au raisin for late breakfast, on the way home.

Came home to sit in the shade and 'love it'. Another wow we live here day.

Saturday

Have been in conversation with our chicken adviser about how french housewives afford these huge prices for meat. The vast majority of her customers are french and she says that they have a big 5 course blow out on a Sunday when the family come and apart from that eat pasta/charcuterie/omelettes. But I still think 25 euros for the meat for a meal is a lot. She says that the french are lead by their stomachs not their wallets and they have acquired a taste for farm raised meat and even though most of the young people no longer grow it they want to eat it.

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Uneventful supermarket visit and small DIY shop visit this morning. Went to the bigger DIY shop forgetting that we will get 10% off on Monday so just looked. They still have the worktop I want which is a surprise.

Came back to decide that Hamish had sticky eyes as well as having been sick and generally even more pathetic than usual and we really ought to do something. Had an immediate appointment at the vets and she gave him drops. Having been sick and pathetic here, he munched down some of her cheese. He then threw it up when he got back but as usual he was full of life in the vet's surgery. Found him yowling and sitting on my shoes which is not good and he's now sitting on my lap breathing very oddly. The vet seems to think he's on his last legs and he certainly looks odd.

In between times we opened the pool and Arnie the hoover is busy doing his stuff . Of course the sun immediately went in but the forecast is good for the next few days. Him outdoors managed to reconnect the pump and is now sorting out the pump for the well so that we can have some more water in the pool and start the filtering system. Water is not green but looks like it's full of amoeba. Add lots more chemicals and it's be fine! The swimming pool shop is of course shut on a Saturday!