More visitors and time flying by

The first of our visitors has come and gone, a friend from Bariven days and her 9-year-old daughter. The weather wasn't especially nice and many child-friendly attractions weren't yet open for the season, but we managed. We visited Vallée des Singes, a zoo specially in primates that we visited a couple of years ago.

In Angoulême we visited a market and had steak-frites for lunch on a terrace while the weather cooperated.

We kept ourselves busy and a good time was had by all. (Our next guest had to cancel because her cat needed emergency surgery, so we have a clean house and a free week till the last of this group of visitors arrives.)

For the major part of two days in the last weeks we've been without internet or phone service. Apparently quite a large area was affected, and there was a chance the outage could have lasted for days rather than hours. You don't realize how often you use the internet until it's not there! We only missed the phone when we went to call to report the missing internet. (And very poor cell phone reception here at the house made that path impossible.)

Ed has primed the bathroom door and the doors on the closet below the stairs, so there's a chance those will get painted before long. The paint on the bathroom door jamb has stopped Sophie from using that as a scratching post.

Sophie's tail is healing well and she's going outside again. Relations between her and Oscar went downhill while she was inside with all that pent-up energy. They're both going out now, so we hope things will settle down a bit between them.

After a dry winter, there are already water restrictions in neighboring communes, but none here in Mazerolles. Yet. Right now we're going through weeks and weeks of predicted rain, but we really haven't had all that much. A few heavy showers, but mostly just gray and damp. Grass growing like mad, although it's hard to get mowed in between showers.