They think it's all over......it is now!

Some people are on the pitch...

What on Earth they were doing on the pitch Heaven only knows. Why, oh why do we pick superstars to play a team game? I could have picked a Championship England side that would have worked harder and gelled better, but what do I know...

So we are back to watching Wimbledon and supporting the cricket.

As for our pub side, the Dragons (made up of sports teachers from our local schools and me) we are in to the semi-finals again which I hope will be played this weekend. It's an 8-a-side tournament, with each side facing 12 eight-ball overs. You pair up and each pair gets three overs to face. the opposition each have to bowl at least once from a short run up while the batting side tries to hit 20 twenty style without getting out. 'Outs' cost you 8 runs, but since the team start on 200 its a bad side that finishes on 175..! In our last group match we only finished on 253 which is 50 runs short of a good total, but our fielding was superb and we bowled straight and true. As defending champions we are hoping for another great performance in the semi-final to give us a chance of back to back wins... It's a nice, friendly and quick way to play the game and technically it's for non-cricketers to have a bit of fun and a few old ringers like me to have a chance of the glory that alluded them during their playing career!!

Bees are doing fine, all you mockers out there who accused me of reginacide. Hope to harvest about 40lbs in the next couple of weeks. Bring it on! What a nice summer it is turning out to be.

GOOD OLD ENGLAND

Dear Nic;
How exciting for you all, for you and Claire to do so well and THEN go to Hawaii as well. Good luck to you both and I hope you ALL have a super holiday.

WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING England get beaten (again) by a much better team? even if we were cheated over our second goal. I suppose that is about it for our football team, but we are doing well at One day cricket, beating the Ossies, and we came 2&3 in the F.1, beaten by a German !!
When do you travel to Hawaii. Will it be in time for your birthday?? Love and congratulations to you and your family from your loving DAD XXXXX also from Julian
- Show quoted text -

Check out http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4217978&id=321200821949

We go ourselves a National Chamion and we are off to Hawaii

Lunch at Monieux

A quick decision to go to lunch: The "but where to"; I`ll take you to a nice place says Julian, so off we go towards Sault, up hill round the mountain until we spot the country road he has been looking for, the road to Monnieux, when we come across the village with the plane tree Centre covered in a very large white tent with the centre supported by the village war memorial, This was the restaurant Julian had been looking for the Restaurant Les Lavandes: Around the town of Sault, the lavender capital of the Ventoux district, everything is called Les Lavandes, shops, garages, restaurants, cafes.
The restaurant was full, as was the tented area outside, under the trees. We learned that the restaurant owners were preparing for a wedding on the morrow, for 200 guests, hence the large tent. After a long wait, a pretty little waitress asked Que vous desire or voulez or words to that effect and we ordered our lunch:
Confit de joue de porc for me (pigs cheeck) and a gateau of Lamb for Julian; with a bottle of Rose to wash it all down:
Steve, my confit de porc was like you cook, in the pot. Lovely, so tender, with a sort of ratatouille a la Provencale. Just like home. With a glace a lavande afterwards it was a heavenly meal. Julian remembered that he had to do a painting, so after we had settled up with my new Tesco card, we came home the quick way down the new road, built when we were here house-sitting for some friends, some five years ago:
The front of Les Couguieux looked all spick and span as Julian had spent the morning strimming away the long grass, while I read a book for the second time in a week, called THE HELP by KATHRYN STOCKETT. I recommend it. LOVE FROM DAD AND JULIAN

More lazy buggers...

... but you've got to eat aint'ya!

lazy buggers

garsington

A quick hello from Garsington where Bella (who overheated again today but I think it was a hump not a raging protest) and I are residing. In the evening I play operas and during the day I work 'tirelessly' (I quote) for my husband! Today I spent the whole day holding a stall at a sun drenched 'summer living' expo at a very posh barn just outside of Henley. I sold eight books! Yesterday I drove to Woodstock and Chippy to give copies to the lovely indie bookshops there. Woodstock in particular were lovely and before I could blink, Postcard from Provence was in the front window! They are keen to have Julian do a powerpoint talk in the autumn. As soon as they see the book, everyone seems to melt and recommends other small bookshops and so the word is spreading.

Meanwhile, though unfortunately I had limited places to offer, I am pleased to report there has been a fair turnout of Merrow-Smith's at the opera. Hugh has been to two dress reherasals and I was thrilled that Gemma, Clive and Will (who have all been so supportive and humourously so with my Bella problems) all made it to a pre-dress, hamper and all. It was really lovely to have them all there. Let's hope this is just the beginning of their opera going lives!

Peter, you don't have to swap honey for books (though it would be lovely to taste your honey)! You all of course get freebies. They are all in Hugh's garage for the moment!

Hello,folks

Dear all,
Changeable weather until today and it is now very hot: We have been out and about and today we were searching for a suitable subject for today`s painting. Weather has been very windy, but the food is good and we are both well.
We have been watching the Coup du Monde on J`s new TV. On Monday we went to Bedoin Market and Julian bought some fillets of sardines, which was nice. Today we went into Carpentras to do a similar thing with red mullet à la Provençale, with potatoes and greens from the garden.
Thank you Steve for your Father`s Day card: I hope you are having a good time, in Cornwall. It is very difficult to try and type on a French keyboard; so excuse my misteaks. LOVE TO YOU ALL FROM BEDOIN AND THE GEANT DE PROVENCE. From DAD & Julian

Just a quick note...

Hi Dad,

Hope you are enoying Provence. I understand there was a bit of flooding down there but hopefully Bedoin is not in the mix - too high and hilly I should imagine. Missed you on Father's Day, for which I apologise as I had hoped to chat. Never mind, plenty of time when you get back.

Been a bit stressed out this term and what with the exchange rate working against us until fairly recently we have been under the financial cosh too, so it hasn't been much fun of late. Still, the Lord and his people are very good to us and we are beginning to make some headway.

The bees are doing well. The queen who was so mercilessly picked off by her workers (not me) has been replaced by supercedure, and my new queen is laying like mad to get the colony up to capacity. I'm hoping to make a new colony from this one once I can get another hive and prepare it for occupancy. In the meantime I have two supers on the hive and reckon to harvest about 40lbs-50lbs of honey sometime in the next few weeks. It really is a great fun hobby - I can't recommend it enough. If I could have my life again I might well go down the honey line. I had the chance while I was working at Minster Agriculture in Thame but never took it seriously and didn't pursue it.

The next hive I expect to be sited at Judy and Stan's in Chinnor. I should get a better grade of honey from the suburban gardens as there is more variety of forage for the bees.

Look forward to being able to pass some honey to you when you are back.

Can we do a swap of the book for some honey, Jume?

BUSY DAY

Julian spent Monday with me and I assisted in sending off 43 of his books to definitive orders in UK, I'm glad you all enjoyed your Book. Julian has had rave reviews, he is selling some through the Red House Book Shop in Thame. I spent today with Julian; today he helped me out with some private matters. We then met Ruth and her step mum (Fiona Maddocks} at the Ashmolean in Oxford and lunched up on the roof. Ruth had got tickets for Benjamin Britten's very comical Midsummer Night's Dream at Garsington. It is really more like a comedy, than a Grande Opera with laughter all the way. I have just got back at 11.15 and on Wednesday I am clearing up and packing all day as we leave for Provence at 0830 on Thursday morning. Lovely to read that Kate enjoyed her trip to France. I'll tell you all about Bedoin when I get back. I'll try to keep one of my diaries.
Love to all from DAD

A lovely day with Dad and Julian

We had such a lovely day meeting up for lunch at the Walnut Tree Inn near Abergavenny.
Julian's book is wonderful. Four months with out Mum, we would have loved her to have been there, it was just the right amount of posh and relaxed I think she would have been comfortable. The sun was shining and everything looked beautiful.

Thanks for a lovely evening Da

Thanks for inviting us to share such a lovely evening listening to the Bicester Operatic and Choral Society. I reckon that rendition of the Polotsvian Dances took me back the furthest. Remember years ago back at 77 you have an LP of Borodin. Funny to think he spent fifteen years writing it while trying to hold down a regular office job!