Time for tree

To the garden today. The water has receded, leaving an interesting scene behind. Bizarrely, some items were picked up and delicately moved several metres without damage. A red balloon left over from the last time we had friends round lay still part-inflated in the mud, surrounded by spiky twigs (extra -- pity it's not a red balloon day!). One table was still standing proud, with everything that had been on it still in place.The other table was in a tree, perfectly intact (that's what the white oblong in my photo is). Meanwhile a wooden fence had been entirely demolished, and only the logjam of stacked chairs in the (intentionally doorless) doorway of the shed had stopped everything else in there from floating free.

Even some tomato plants were still standing, complete with ripe tomatoes, despite most of the poles being ripped away (extra). Astonishing! But basically it's all a big mess and there is little enthusiasm for sorting it out. We love our secret garden, but floods happen with tedious regularity. And it's not just the cleaning and repairing -- every time it happens, the garden gets covered in a thick layer of sterile silt, killing all the earthworms in S's laboriously barrowed manure. So he's actively got his eye on another garden, on higher ground.

You won't be surprised to learn I didn't go on my Tuesday walk today ... still raining off and on.

Finally, how dreadful to read that a woman who lost her husband in the terrorist attack in March, shot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, has now lost both 90-something parents as well, drowned at home in Trèbes.