Gardening, etc.

We needed a new saucer for one of the plants so out to the garden center we went. I have never  seen live chickens for sale at a garden center. Maybe it's a French thing?

This seed row was amazing! Made me wish I had a garden.

Another item I'd never seen before.  They have these bags to protect tomatoes and some are even 100% compostable. 

Our tomato height status? It would be well over 6 feet but I had to prune it to try and keep it at the 6 feet limit (the height of our stake). We had some hefty winds that required us to tie the tall stake to the balcony railing. That has worked pretty well but further intervention is now needed.

We did an inventory of the tomatoes on our grape/cherry tomato plant--at least 133 tomatoes! 

A few were beginning to ripen.

Next a couple of additional tomatoes were ripening.

On July 5 we harvested 6 of these beauties and created a lovely caprese salad. Buffalo mozzerella, a bit of shallot, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and fresh basil from our balcony finished off the dish. YUMMY!

Around the House

Our refrigerator had been acting up for about 2 months. The temperature in both the refrigerator and freezer warmed quite a bit at times. The frequency was increasing. On his second visit, the technician finally said it needed a part. 

Our agent began the task of getting the owner to agree to ordering the part. We knew from the technician it would take 6-8 weeks to order the part. Because the refrigerator was pretty old, we asked if it made sense to buy a new one. We even offered to front the money and buy it and get it delivered. 

It got to the point we were trying not to even open the refrigerator or freezer. Finally the owner agreed to just buy a new fridge for the apartment. When the delivery came, there was only one man and he didn't have a dolly. The old fridge was "too heavy" so delivery had to be re-scheduled for a few days later. On the second try there was a larger crew and a dolly.

For a brief moment I didn't think the old refrigerator was going to be able to be removed. It required careful movement in the narrow space around the island. It's a small kitchen. I was relieved when they did manage the removal and then installed the new fridge. 

Unlike the old fridge, this one doesn't have an icemaker so we are back to manually filling ice cube trays. We had to do that in Indonesia since no tap water was potable. If you remember, we only drank bottled water. Happily, we kept the ice cube trays! This fridge, however, does have a tank you manually fill with water (only 2.5 liters) and you can dispense it through the door but it's such a small volume we'd be filling it every day or so. We just decided not to use it.

Old fridge on the way out!

New fridge on the way in!

The new refrigerator has an acceptable amount of space but it is a base model. There weren't enough drawers in the fridge and no baskets in the freezer, just flat glass shelves. The shelves aren't very adjustable either. After having everything sliding around on the glass freezer shelves and often out onto the floor, we bought freezer baskets. We also purchased a couple of drawers that attach under glass fridge shelves Problems solved.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but one wall in our living room ( the one against the other apartment on this floor) is solid cement-- really solid cement. We had this situation in Indonesia but I found some hooks made for this purpose with 4 little nails that you could drive into the cement wall. I tried those here and the nails just broke! I admit that we have not tried purchasing a masonry bit and installing anchors. The agent discouraged us from even putting nails in the wall. We have tried the velcro type Command strips and regular Command hooks and we have had some success. We hung 3 items on this wall. Two of the items hung via this system have fallen off the wall. A photo collage with glass in the frame fell. The hook came off the wall. In the second case I don't think we can blame the Command system since the velcro strips were all attached to the wall and to the item that fell. Somehow the velcro itself let go.

This clock was very near the large balcony doors. We had a couple of extremely windy days when we had the doors open and I think it's likely that the wind was periodically moving the clock and pulling on the velcro attachments and that is the reason the clock fell. As I said, the Command velcro strips were still attached. Anyway, no more clock! We bought another clock (the new one has a plastic lens and not a glass one) but this time I will periodically press on the clock to re-attach the velcro. Lesson learned? Command velcro hanging strips can't handle high winds.

We had a gastropod visitor! A pretty good-sized snail (perhaps 2 inches in diameter) was hanging from the ceiling above our larger balcony for a couple of days. We now wonder if the folks on the 7th floor have a water feature with snails to keep down the algae and this guy escaped!

Neighborhood Archeological Dig?

We have no idea what is actually going on across the street but it looks much like an archeological dig of some sort. We know they are converting the long ago closed Polyclinque into apartment units and also building a new apartment building just to the right of the to-be-renovated Polyclinique building.

We watch the mystery dig unfolding across the street and take photos. This has been going on for several months now.

At first they seemed to just be moving dirt around. 

Next, they started digging big holes.

At this point they had created terraced holes and we could see what looked like a very old stone wall.

It looks like they are removing items and wrapping them in plastic bags and also laying down some sort of tags next to where items are found. In this photo, items that were spread all around have been collected into one area. We noticed survey equipment being used quite a lot, so maybe they are mapping the locations of items being removed?

In this shot, the hole had been dug even deeper so they finally put up a fence at the base of the wide pre-existing staircase. They also dug out a deep trench towards the right. B likes to call the dig workers ants. For example, he'll say, "The ants are out!"

The deep trench runs just behind the fence along the sidewalk. 

And there are more holes! The one in the foreground is terraced and is very deep. They have dug out the area of the to-be-constructed apartment building to be called Les Terrasses. What looks like an old cement wall was exposed and then they removed the wall. We have no idea what this tiered deep hole in the foreground is all about. 

I worry about the trees. I expect that most of these won't make it after the disruption to the root systems. Maybe that's the plan anyway.

With warmer temps the sun shades popped up. I've even seen some of the folks trying to work under an umbrella. We've were having a lot of rain. In the event of a sudden downpour, the pop up sun shades and umbrellas were helpful!

In this photo, can you see the round hole just inside the gated entrance?

If you compare the photo above to the next 3 photos you can clearly see a few new long trenches and squarish areas have been added.

The round hole holds rainwater pretty well. 

While the "dig" is going on new construction is going ahead on the right.

Large metal supports are being driven deep into the ground and wooden slats have been inserted between the supports. Soil has been backfilled behind the wooden slats/supports. It looks like they are maintaining a roadway across the middle of this area. We see them driving trucks of dirt in/out across this, though at some point that will have to stop as the new building will span this whole area. 

It is interesting to watch but so many questions...

Lac d'Aydat

Quite a few weeks ago we ventured out early on a Saturday. I'd read about a loop walk around a lake near here.  It was only a 25 min drive from town so even though the weather didn't look great we thought, why not try? We'd had a very cold spell overnight and it had snowed in the mountains.

On our drive to the lake-- Lac d'Aydat.

A collection of signs along the road.

We found a place to park near a restaurant that was still closed due to Covid protocols.

The lake! The lake was pretty even with an overcast sky.

The sign says a special fishing license for this lake is required. The French national license is not sufficient. The lower sign explains the number and size of fish allowed to be taken with the special license.

Some fish drawings.

We saw a few homes near the lake.

This one was interesting. Below the house it appeared that someone either imbedded large sticks in the ground all over, or these are tree trunks and they had all been cut off?? Or???

There is a wetland portion of the loop walk. There were practically no other people here on this day. I suppose overcast and chilly isn't inviting to some folks! Apparently, there are huge summer crowds enjoying all sorts of water-related activities on the lake.

There are some interesting clouds forming at this point.

Along the walk at certain points you are further away from the lake and walking through village areas. This is  the Church of Saint-Sidoine d'Aydat. It was constructed in the XIII century. This is the southeast corner of the church. In the XV century it was fortified by the addition of 4 rounds, one in the north and 3 in the south. The bell tower dates from the XIX century. 

The bell tower side.

The clouds appeared to be almost boiling at this point so it was time to head back to the car.

Another pretty lake shot!

Safely back in the car and heading home we took a few sky photos. I think the moment we got in the car we started to see a few drops on the windshield.