Sadly, I believe that it is now incumbent upon me to offiicially admit that life isn’talways  perfect in Sainte-Foy-La-Grande.  At least not this trip.  We arrived home to Les Terraces to the sort of weather that we have come to expect from spring in Aquitaine – clear sunny, but cool, mornings; lovely sunny hot afternoons and almost freezing nights.  That lasted 3 days, I think.  Since then we’ve had rain and more rain.  We’ve had driving wind, grey skies and more cold than Graham and I have endured in many years.  Worse still, our guests have been looking at their weather back home (in Canada) and discovering that it’s lovely there!

However, our area of France has been very low on rainfall for the past few years and this weather has been badly needed so we really can’t complain.  Well, we can, but it does no good at all.  And without it the grape harvest this year might be dire, so we’re not really griping.  I lie too.

I really wanted to get out and take photos of all of the wonderful spring flowers we’ve seen since our arrival: primroses, bluebells (a few memorable plants), daffodills, apple blossom, the drifts of cherry blossom on the pavements, tulips, forsythia, catkins and, just yesterday, cowslips.  They are so beautiful to behold.  So are the stunning crisp greens of new leaves on the trees.  But taking a walk to take pictures of these beauties in the rain has been more than this particular princesss has been prepared to do.  Sorry.  But I did catch a rainbow:

It hasn’t all been bad and I, for one, don’t actually mind the miserable weather.  After 24 years of life in the tropics it’s a not-unpleasant novelty, but it has definitely made Graham question the wisdom of a permanent move here.  He HATES cold, grey rainy days.  Cold, grey rainy months are simply not to be countenanced.  Houston: we may have a problem here!

So, what have we managed to do in this inclement weather?  Mo and two friends came to stay for a few nights at the beginning of our stay.  My father came and spent 10 days with us.  To his enormous surprise he wasn’t involved in a single bit of maintenance, but then we did nothing more than take a run out to enjoy lunch at Le Table Rouge on Easter Monday, which was mercifully fair for the weather and Kate’s food was sublime, as always.  We also made it to Monpazier, arriving just as the heavens opened. But that’s a story for another post.

Now, sad to say, we’re counting down the days til we return to Tortola.  I still don’t want to leave (the rain and cold are OK), but needs must.  We’ve work to do.  Bills to pay and all that good stuff.