Sunday rambling

I’ve written before about how busy May is for us and this year it’s more of the same. From a slow Spring, the garden has suddenly sprung into action as we find ourselves in temperatures more like summer. Bright colours are everywhere, with my favourites the poppies waving glorious heads above the young wheat in fields and along the verges. They’re riotous this year, bringing blasts of joy early each morning as I walk the dogs down to the pond.

One day last week the sudden heat caught me out. It was mid morning by the time we left the house. Here in south-west France the temperatures rise quickly once the sun’s up. Taking time to cool off and rest in the shade of newly leaved oak trees before completing our walk down the lane to home, I resolved to switch into summer mode: early, then earlier and even earlier still walks to beat the heat. It means our summer days are long. We rise with the birds and complete as many chores as we can before heat drives us indoors, or under the trees to relax and sit it out.

Last summer the relentless heat and drought was exhausting, I craved instead the wet, cold days I grew up with. But, I’m determined to embrace summer this year. I’m thankful that we’ve got to the end of May without the stifling heat we’d had by the same time last year. Even if the next three months are beltingly hot, it’s just a quarter of the year and that I can live with.

I stay away from social media when temperatures in Britain begin to climb along with amplified, frenzied warnings of the dangers of heat. It’s too much. Social media can be both a wonderful and dreadful place. I enjoy plenty of things and have made lifelong friends through it, but it’s driven away common sense and any sense of proportion. I know people can be careless and ignorant and need help recognising the dangers of exposing pets to high temperatures. But honestly, a lot of what’s in my newsfeed feels alarmist and OTT. If I took notice, or lacked common sense, my dogs wouldn’t step outside the house for months on end living where we do. Common sense and social media are impossible bed fellows.

As it’s Sunday, it’s extra quiet here. Even though it’s a holiday weekend – Pentecost, also known as Whitsun – and the village at the bottom of our hill has a fête happening, it’s perfectly peaceful. A beautiful day I’m grateful to enjoy. With Michel, Cosette and the dogs to share it with. Life really is what we make it.