It is our 7th summer in Thezan (even before Sile retired we were able to spend the school summer holidays here) and I am doing one of my very favourite things- sneaking down the stairs early (around 6), making myself a sneaky coffee and drinking it slowly on the terrace while I watch the morning creep in.
There have been a couple of changes in these seven years. The principal one must be that in this time Sile has tamed the gone- to- seed garden into colourful order, and this summer, after the very heavy rains of spring here in the Languedoc, it is looking the best it ever has.
Our summer Jasmine, which covers the old stone stairway down to the garden, is, for the first time ever covered with buds and flowers and its fresh smell is already scenting the morning beautifully.
Our white rambling rose which climbs up to the terrace from the garden was under sentence of certain death last year because of its miserly production of flowers, but, because of the spring rain showers it is giving us its best display ever and has secured a reprieve.
Our great glory; the huge Chinaberry tree is also, just, in flower and now in leaf and is providing an excellent hiding place for our new and welcome population of birds, as I write there is a fledgling sparrow making drunken forays from the safety of the tree on to the strings which support our bird feeders- he is beginning to get the right idea.
We now have families of Coal Tits and Sparrows in the garden who come to eat at the feeders and a very discreet Black Cap who hides in the foliage of the tree and sings beautifully. Our Black Redstarts have become rarities but the Swallows/Swifts/Martins (I still cannot tell the difference) continually bombard the tree in the morning and evening presumably feeding on the insect population feeding there. With such noble work on hand I can easily forgive their screaming cries as they swoop around.
All this is possible of course only because the weather has turned from cool spring to hot summer as suddenly as if someone had thrown a switch. This not only pleases me, there is not much joy in sitting in the early morning on the terrace in the cold, but obviously delights the plants and birds as well.