looking up

Really nice clouds out last evening. I was out there admiring them, and coming back from across the street & down a bit where there's a gap in the web of power lines & trees & housetops & other obstacles I remembered to take a new photo of the house.

Yep, the fir tree's poodle-cut has been fixed. Now it just looks dumb, without the humor value of being excessively absurd. It was a surprise last Wednesday to come home and - oh - the top of the tree is gone. I wonder if the rest of it will still be there tomorrow.

Oh, and you can see my strategically-placed green recycling bin, to the right of the house, filling the gap between it and the metal shed-thingy. Now the plum tree that used to take up that space is gone, I realized while sunbathing on Sunday that passers-by have a clear line of sight to me on my lounger.

The sight of me at 49 in just a string bikini bottom is really not for public consumption.

hike up Puy de Dome

This hike was a couple of weeks ago now, but I thought I'd post a few photos anyway.

And yeah, this is one of my most frequent summer hikes. I take pretty much the same photos every time! Just shows I like it up there, I guess.

 The trees and hazel all around the mountain is so thick it's too dark for undergrowth.

 And then suddenly you step from the shadows into the blazing sun.

 The usual flock of sheep is hiding. Hundreds of them in there. Wimps!

No countryside is complete without cows.

 The trail down the other side of the mountain has totally different trees. I don't know why.

 Then it's back to farmland

and all the sheep again hiding under a tree. Brave donkeys in the sun!

Around this point I realized that although I had made good time, my appointment with my landlord was sometime between 4 and 5 - not sometime after 5. Even making it home by 5 would be a challenge, so I packed up the camera and speedwalked the remaining 8k or so. Which would have got me there in plenty of time if only I hadn't just missed the bus & there wasn't another for 45 minutes!

So I got there at 5:10, and Mr Delaige was chatting with his friend the window guy on the front steps. Said no problem - they were old friends who hadn't seen each other in ages, and waiting around didn't bother them at all. In 15 minutes I had all my windows measured, and in the fall I will have nice insulated windows instead of these old ones that leak heat as fast as the radiators put it out.