Not having an alarm clock makes mornings interesting. Today, Thursday, May 10th, I woke up at 6:45. The birds were already singing. A white truck came up the hill...it was picking up the garbage. Shortly after that another white truck came up the hill...it was collecting the recyclables. I settled down to read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It was hard to put down, but I wanted to take a walk.Down the hill Elisabeth wasn't home so I headed for the goat barn. Along the way I watched a hen with her adorable chicks and 2 ducks taking a bath.
Yesterday I had asked why some of the cheese that looked identical had different names. The names refer to the different fields and, though the cheeses may look the same, each field gives a different flavor.
The adult goats were out in the fields somewhere so only the babies were in the barn. There was one fellow who was determined to get all of the attention!
Every picture I took ended up with this fellow, the one on top, in it! At least in this shot another baby managed to also be in the picture. At one point I was trying for a picture and one of the kids put its head through the railing to nibble at the bottom of my shirt.
It was a beautiful sunny day and there is seldom any traffic so I continued up to the main road before circling back. A farmer came along in his tractor. The tractors move quickly, more like cars than like a farm tractor on the roads in Vermont. He probably thought I was nuts to be taking a picture of him as he passed by...but I won't bore you with that picture here.
Below, that's Fougnieres in the distance. It's another hamlet of Blanot and where the grottes (caves) are located. I haven't gotten there yet...another day...
Once upon a time I planted this kind of pink blossoming tree or bush in front of our Belmont home along with mugho pines that weren't supposed to grow taller than 3 feet. I should have taken out the mugho pines before they took over all of the space. I could have had this gracing the rock garden in the driveway. I haven't seen this shrub recently in any of my plant catalogs so I'm really loving them over here. They show up in a lot of the gardens and some of them are truly spectacular!
As I approached the village center I thought of the fairy gardens Mary makes, and here was one growing all by itself on top of the rock wall.
Below is the Blanot lavoir. Just about every village has one because they used to be where people washed their clothing. It is running water so you could use soap at the end where the water is exiting and rinse the clothing at the end where fresh water is always entering.
Blanot's fountain is just beyond the lavoir and beyond that is the back of the four de pain...or what was once the community bread oven.
Elisabeth was now home and I was invited for lunch. The only hope of getting a phone card for the phones Marie-Annick and Francis had loaned me, and to get another battery for the camera, was to check out some stores in Macon so off we went.
I want to show how vines get drastically pruned, yet seem to flourish.
The first vines are growing across my porch. You can see how they get pruned right to the main stem.
On our way to Macon we were driving near Verze where there are many vineyards. I didn't get out of the car, but I tried to get a close-up of some grape vines.
Every year they get pruned back to being a stump. The new growth has just started.
Here is the well known Chateau.de Berze-le-Chatel (again, apologies for not being able to add the correct accent marks with this little netbook).
It was such a clear day that in the distance we could see the white top of Mont Blanc...the highest mountain in the French Alps...magnificent. My camera would not have been able to capture that sight so it's just in my head.
In this next picture you can see the famous Roche de Solutre.
It turned out to be 31 Celcius in Macon...that's summer weather.
And here's another chateau that I just happened to catch on our way by.
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