So where have we been anyhow?

Well, we've been off visiting family and friends in the US. Kaye went first to visit her mother in the Kansas City area, then met Ed in Houston for flying visits to friends in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston again. Pogo stayed with friends while Sophie and Oscar shared accommodations at their favorite cat spa. We much enjoyed the visits, but were ready to come home, especially to recover from the heat. Only to return to a heatwave here—whew! Since then it's turned cold and rainy and we've even had the heating on to keep warm.

While Kaye was away, Ed finished making a hole in the kitchen wall for the new exhaust fan. Upon our return, he complete the installation. The old fan was made for a smaller stove; the new one is not quite as wide as the stove, but is more than sufficient to exhaust properly and to light the area. Unfortunately, it's one of those stainless steel monstrosities (not to our taste), but that's the only thing we could find in our price range. It does have a nice space for the kitchen radio and for hot pads and oven mitts.

Since we didn't get any veggies in the ground before we left, we bought some plants at a garden center and now have three corn plants (the last ones available), some zucchini (one each, straight and globe), an eggplant, some beets, and some big tomatoes. We're counting on last year's cherry tomatoes to provide us plants for this year, and these have been very obliging so far.

A neighbor's strawberries have been producing like mad, so Kaye has been busy making jam, ice cream, and sorbet. We're out of jars now, so she hopes this flow has stopped.

We've been to a couple of quizzes. Came in second at the first and first at the second; there were only three teams each time, so this isn't too impressive.

There was a nice article in the June issue of The Connexion, a monthly paper for expats, outlining Hollande's new policies. Unfortunately, Connexion isn't making this article available online; if it shows up, we'll post a link. Hollande has already started some actions, rolling back Sarkozy's raising of the retirement age (back to 60) and reinstating 5-day weeks for elementary schools. The final round of parliamentary elections is this weekend. So far, it looks like Hollande's party will have a majority, which should help him push through the rest of his program.

In other French-related news, you'll be relieved to know that the last French producer of berets has been saved.

To wrap up, here's a picture of Pogo enjoying running through a cow-less field in the evening light.