Season Changes

It rained today and I managed to get caught right in the middle of it.  It just didn't seem all that threatening when I left this morning to go to the market.  On the way back from Michel's where I bought some beef for stew, while I was in the fruitier's getting veggies, the thunder rumbled and the drops began to fall.  I ducked into Eurodif and bought an umbrella (another one) and splashed my way to Monoprix for some whole wheat flour and a small bottle of red wine to put in the stew.  By the time I got home, my pants, my blouse, my shoes--all drenched and cold.  Socks and dry long pants felt really good for the first time in months.

Storm coming in from the Pyrenees

It reminded me of a Brookings rain, except for the fact that it didn't last for three months.  It rained hard for about thirty minutes and then it stopped.  This was our first real rain since maybe May.  It's been awfully dry here, enough to impact the grape harvest.  The rain gave the sky a different look--perhaps we will once again see that hard blue summer sky, but I doubt that there will be many more such days for some months to come.  

Change of seasons sky

I also think we have seen the last of the 80 degree temperatures.  It's getting darker noticeably earlier.  And sunrise is coming later; dawn and the birds who get up with it are allowing me to sleep a little later each day. I needed to turn on a light when having breakfast this morning.

Last of the summer blue sky

I put on jeans this week for the first time in months.  Hallelujah!  Last season's pants still fit and still predictably bag in the rear end. I wore a jacket last night when I went out, and I have put the summer short sleeved things to the back of the new closet. 

The first stew of the season is simmering on the stove and sending delicious smells throughout the apartment.  I am learning how to cook in my new kitchen.  I used the oven for the first time this morning to make a hot lunch for myself.  .  

First beef stew of the season. 

Time is never still, and I feel myself more in tune with natural seasons than since my childhood days growing up in Frederick County, Maryland.. I got a piece of good news today--the Prefecture called and left a message saying that my carte de sejour de retraite--my card giving me permission to stay in France for another year is ready to be picked up at their office any weekday after 8:30.  I will get to see another cycle of seasons in this beautiful part of the planet I now call home.