Maytime

The theme for May seems to have been bug invasions. There was an ant invasion that lasted several weeks. At first just one or two, seeming to drop out of the sky onto the table or desk where you're sitting or to appear when you unfolded clothes to iron. No trails, just random appearances. Then the serious invasion began. The sink counter could be covered in a few moments. You'd mash a few, turn your back, then look around to find a swarm. Another group decided to explore the open shelving. They ignored the cookie and chocolate shelf but found a zip sack of powdered sugar that was only half closed. And they seemed to like the jar of molasses, closed but gooey around the lid as these things will be. It was very odd that we never found a trail or where them might be coming in. Eventually the ant attack stopped; we're not sure our diligent ant squishing really helped. At lunch with friends recently, we were relieved to learn we weren't the only ones being plagued this year.

The disappearance of the ants was followed by the appearance of the bees. Finding an occasional bee inside the house in not unusual when you're living with the doors open. We weren't, though, since the weather hasn't been all that warm. Soon single bees brought their friends and we'd find the kitchen floor littered with dead or dying. Ed noticed a swarm at the corner of the house and we finally realized they were trying to nest in the kitchen chimney.

Open windows and doors let the bees out. For several days we kept a fire burning in the wood stove. This seems to have convinced them to move elsewhere.

Early in the month, one of Ed's choirs sang in St Junien at the Église Collégiale, built 11C-14C. It's kind of clunky outside, but although we've been in the area, we'd never been inside this church, which was worth a visit. The barrel-vaulted nave is decorated with Romanesque frescos.

The 12C tomb of St Junien himself stands in the choir. Apparently it was originally embedded into the main altar, so that end is quite plain. St Junien shares the space with the skulls of St Amand and St Théodore, as well as a fragment of the True Cross.

A closer look at one panel of the tomb.

The entrance to one of the side chapels is topped by a 12C painting of a naked man crawling.

There are interesting capitals on many of the pillars along with some nice old statues of saints.

Remember the leaking water heater that got replaced last spring? The new one has continued to burble and drip, so we finally called a plumber, who came and installed a valve to regulate the incoming water pressure, which seems to have fixed the problem. One of the joys of rural living seem to be water pressure that fluctuates wildly and water heaters aren't too happy about that.

Our Amsterdam friend Bill arrived for his spring visit before going on to Tours to meet a friend. We went to the bi-annual Phoenix booksale (where we may have come home with fewer books than we donated,  which might be a first). After that we went on to the Monbazillac Chateau where Monbazillac wine is made.

After a look around the chateau (16C renaissance building, largely unchanged) and the grounds, we tasted a bit of wine, bought a couple of bottles, and took ourselves home. You can see Ed and Bill admiring the view at the end of this little clip.