The Spring Rush

Spring in the south of France is a reliably difficult month for foreigners who live here. The odd beautiful day lulls you into thinking that winter is gone, only to have gloom and rain settle back in for another week or so. But the days keep getting longer, some temperature threshhold passes, and everthing starts growing like mad. The garden, however, stays too wet and soggy to do anything about it. Then May rolls around and the entire country goes on holiday for 30 days. Or so it seems.

Just as things start to dry out and you gear up for some serious garding one long holiday weekend starts to follow another. When the hardware store and gardening stores are closed not only from noon until two weekdays and all day Sundays, but also Saturday and sometimes Monday or Friday, and maybe Thursday as well, it's hard to get ahold of the bits and pieces and parts that always seem needed.

An organized person would follow the example of the farmers, and take advantage rainy weather to catch up on maintenance and organization; one would make a careful list of every necessary item for a single run to the "brico" when it is next open. Then, with everything ready to go in advance, one would be "in the field" the first dry day thus maximizing the opportunity to get work done when the weather permits. But something else invariably gets in the way, and when the tools finally are pulled out and a widget is missing or a left-handed spanner is needed, it turns out to be noon, or Sunday, or a holidy.

We've finally managed to catch up now, and just in time because summer, it seems, is already here. The spring wildflowers are past their peak and the wheat is starting to turn golden in the fields. Doors and windows, which for a few weeks stayed open much of the day, suddenly need to be closed against the midday heat. Meals have moved under the umbrella on the terrace. The swimming pool has warmed up, the rosé has chilled. A sampling of olives from the Monday morning marché is at hand.

Gardening? Anything that isn't done yet may have to wait a while.