One Garden: Harvest

A good day today. Breakfast in bed, served by S, who had got up at 6 am to walk up Alaric and back, getting home before 9. Work in the morning. Then I rescued some apricots that had been hanging around in the fruit bowl a bit too long, by making them into a divine vanilla-speckled compote. It was so good I had to stop myself from just eating it straight out of the pan. Then I made two big trays of escalivade for a party tomorrow. And since I was on a roll, I pitted my last kilo of cherries for yet more compote.

A real summer evening saw us down in the garden grilling merguez and ventrèche (salted pork belly) for dinner. For dessert we had some of my apricot compote, layered with Greek yoghurt -- gorgeous. And with our aperitif of chilled white wine we ate the first broad beans, straight from the pods with a little salt. You just can't beat tiny home-grown beans.

Back in the village we had a digestif in the form of a glass or two of wine and a chat with a few neighbours on the square. Maybe summer really has arrived ...