Painting poppies in Roussillon

After a very wet journey here on Friday full of extreme weather changes we arrived here in Saint-Saturnin-les-Apts. The view below is just before Cereste, I absolutely love the countryside here, and wouldn’t mind living here one little bit.

When Meiling and I arrived at the house the rain, thunder and lightening had finally stopped. Our house does not have an amazing view but it is perfect for our needs. Yesterday I went to pick Dominique up in Marseille, when I left the house it was 25 centigrade and sunny and when we got back there was heavy black rain, streak lightening and cracking thunder.  The days have been variable to say the least and today was not an exception. The sun was blazing and we rushed to our nearest poppy field. So hot it was, I needed to come back to the house to pick up some sun shades!

I was jut telling Dominique and Meiling how the farmer of a poppy field near us in Lorgues had chased us away angrily and had been bitterly unkind. So guess what. Two seconds later a very smiley man came down to see us in the field, I asked him if he was the owner, he said yes and he welcomed us to his field, he said he would invite us for a drink but he was going for a drink with the family. Another time we said. He helped us put up our sunshades. Told us about his daughter who runs the vineyard and the cherry tree farm. We are going to visit their chateau and taste their wine and cherry jam. How lovely.

Demonstrating poppy painting.

Meiling’s beautiful poppies.

Dominiques beautiful poppies.

As predicted, which is unusual for meteo France, the weather started to change at 1 pm. I wanted to get back for a swim before the storm hit. So off  home we went. Swam, sunbathed, ate a yummy lunch and settled down to the busy business of painting. We set up outside and as soon as we started to paint, the skies turned black, fork lightening shot through the skies, the wind blew a hooley and our beautiful roses started to fly through the air. Time to paint inside we thought.  Both Meiling and Dominique painted fabulous roses this afternoon. Here is some more of their work.

Red Rose by Dominique.

Yellow rose by Meiling.

A delicious day followed by, roasted chicken with lemon, ginger, mace, tumeric, spring garlic, and frech corriander. Roasted vegetables and roast potatoes.

Oh yes, followed by chocolate mousse, creme fraich and blueberries!!!!

Meiling and I decided enough was enough and took ourselves for a wonderful evening walk amongst the cherry orchards, the vineyards, the lavender fields, the poppy fields and all the scented night air.

See you soon, sweet dreams.