Birthdays on the Canal

Sunday was wonderful! Michelle and Erica share a birthday. Their husbands, Justin and John, organized a great day out for us. First we had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the marina, followed by a lazy journey on the Canal du Midi as far as Capestang and back. Pretty landscape, perfect conditions. A day we'll not soon forget. Thanks fellas. 

 

Terrace Haute Couture

This morning I was up at 6:00 and soon off down to Lizzie & Ali's to help with the vendange.  Thankfully it was a cool day. When harvesting grapes this is a complete bonus. We got all the syrah off the vines and into the vats in record time. In fact, we could sit down to an early lunch by 11:30, having cleaned the de-stemming machine we nickname The Mangle, the grape juice bubbling away happily, beginning its fermentation.

After a wee siesta, Henny and I were off to Pézenas for a little shopping. It was still only 3pm. The sun was shining, it was beautiful, but we noticed the light was already different. I said, this is the first day I sense autumn. It made us a little wistful. This evening, our girls were round for a light supper on the terrace. All three wearing my sweatshirts to keep warm. "Dressed by Yvonne" said Miranda. A lovely photo to remind us of a perfect day.

Eliane's new kitten

Eliane has always had blue-grey cats, a passion I share. My mother was partial to them too. Eliane's last grey cat, Grisette 2, passed away in an untimely fashion over six months ago. She's been looking for a grey kitten ever since.

Henny and I were in the organic grocers on Tuesday where we spied an announcement with photo of a little grey sweetheart. We thought of Eliane immediately. It happened we were seeing her that very evening, so we passed along the info with a promise to let us know if it worked out.

Not 48 hours later, we got the call to come over for coffee to meet the new addition. Eliane was beaming with delight! There may be one kitten left, which opened the debate about whether Pou, king of the castle these nine years, would cope with a little brother? 

Rainbow

A blustery day today, and this evening, finally, a fraction of the rain forecast. We were then treated to an amazing double rainbow. The entire arc could be clearly seen, but our camera wasn't quite capable of capturing it in the fading light. Ultra-wide angle lens required. Pretty spectacular.