Notice of 'Oasis' summer schedule

In spite of the drought the garden is producing more fruit than I can manage, and at least six weeks earlier than is usual. Cherries are long gone, but the apple tree is laden and has already begun to drop 'windfalls'; there are a handful of figs each day from a tree bowed to the ground with the weight of plenitude yet to come; and the elder tree, that 'medicine chest of the poor', is already enpurpled.  I think I'll be making the annual supply of elderberry cough syrup long before the Holy Father sets an  intrepid foot on his native soil. There's going to be a huge crop of tomatoes, and my one vine promises white grapes for the table after an early 'vendange', probably by the end of August.  In the meantime the lady at the shop across the road gives me her surplus, unsold, apricots, melons, tomatoes, artichokes, carrots, and pears (ordinary and avocado).It's hard to keep up. And even though  my regular gardener, Jean-Philippe, who assists me with the heavy work I can no longer do,  has cut out a lot of the bramble growing in the thuya hedge that separates the main garden from my littlle 'Gethsemane', I'm sure there will be some blackberries too before long. We had roast beef a fortnight ago and I tried to dig up some horseradish. The ground was so packed and dry that the fork haft broke in the attempt. There was heavy rain last night, but I don't think it will have made a great deal of difference. I'll try because it's beef again tomorrow. Somehow, mustard just doesn't fill the bill.

The last two months, since the invitation to the blogmeet in Rome, have been intense, both interiorly and exteriorly. Other writing commitments, apart from blogging, have continued and more seem to be just around the corner, so all in all I think it's sensible, at least between now and September, to limit my posts to one a week, unless of course anything untoward happens. So I do not expect to be able to post again until this coming Thursday.

As always, God bless all here.

J