Three weeks to go!

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Three weeks from departure and we are throwing items on the spare bed ready to pack - passports, a tube of Vegemite, coffee sachets, insurance documents, paper maps (don’t trust technology completely), new socks and other miscellanea. Suddenly it is close, after a year of planning and booking. Peter is doing serious research on the ancestors in Scotland and collecting his art supplies for the painting gig in France. I am working away editing my book in case by some miracle a publisher gets back to me before we leave. We are both in the garden most days in this glorious spell of classic Melbourne autumn - 20 degrees or so, sunshine, cool mornings and cold nights. I have culled my pot plants so that I can concentrate on how to protect the ones I really want, and we have almost emptied the vegetable beds after a bountiful summer. Just lettuces, onions, spinach, cucumbers and capsicums left. I have experimented with green manure in one bed and it has sprouted on the fourth day! The plan is to dig it in before we leave to get the nitrogen back into the soil. Everyday business still takes most of our time - eating, cleaning, shopping, family, friends, health appointments and life in general. We have three weeks, but are lucky to have one clear day in a week. Which is exactly why we need to get away and leave ordinary obligations behind.



As we drive around the Mornington Peninsula, we are often aware that we are about to leave one of the most beautiful places on earth to travel a long way to somewhere else in search of experiences and scenery! The vineyards here are yellow and red, some netted to protect their crops, the bush is as green as ever but the paddocks are brown from our extended dry period in February. The lines of ornamental pears along the driveways of larger properties have changed colour to a bright red and some flowering gums are out. The summer harvest has been evident, fading now into seasonal transition, and we are all trying to use up the last of the tomatoes and zucchinis. My tomato-mad grand-daughters were sad that we have pulled out the tomatoes, but they have gorged themselves for months on the crop, and understand now that they will be back next year.



So we dream of Provence and watch the temperature there rise as ours falls. How lucky are we to be having spring, summer, and then spring and summer again? Scotland is still blanketed in snow, but we hope it will be a little warmer by the time we get there in June. Here’s to the summer solstice in Aberdeen!



The news of the train strikes in France is a little concerning after all our careful planning. With SNCF strikes for two out of every five days, there will be some chaos. According to the published calendar of strikes, our travel days with booked TGV sale tickets will be OK, but things can change. C’est la vie! Our main concern is the day when we plan to travel from St Remy to Glasgow, connecting TGV, Eurostar and Virgin trains - it will be a challenging day even without train strikes! So we press on with the DuoLingo app trying to resurrect some French - my score is 70%, but I don’t exactly feel fluent! My vocabulary is extensive, but putting all those words in sentences when I need them feels out of reach. We tell ourselves that it is a good exercise for ageing brains… c’est vrai.

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