10 years ago we planted the orchard. Where there was a field of white clay on the side of the hill facing south and overlooking the lake, and where the ground was at its deepest amongst the rocks, we put apple and pear and apricot and cherry and walnut and almond and plum and kaki trees. We planted a small vineyard with white and black grapes, and that’s how it all started.

Then we added the tunnel with Vincent, we got the fences erected for the donkeys and the sheep, and we cleared the vegetable plot that had disappeared under the brambles and the shoulder high weeds but where some raspberry bushes still not defeated were procrastinating.

10 years ago the house was restored, some walls knocked down to make larger living spaces. Windows were enlarged and the roof got redone with drain pipes that led the rain water to be saved for the hot summers ahead.

10 years ago we started to see the shape of something that looked like Home.

10 years ago London was the place we left to settle here, leaving our jobs, the bustle, the stress, the rat race but also our friends, our pubs, our streets, our communities, our way of life….

London became somewhere, a far away, a before. A place we had loved and embraced fully, and had moved on from. Or at least for me. For Geoff cutting the umbilical cord has been a slower process. Brexit helped to make the jump into this new life, but being a London born and bred British Citizen is a strong pull, even if Geoff thinks of himself as a citizen of the world…

And today, mum’s house is being sold, a life has passed, a page has turned. Or rather an unwritten book is waiting on the shelf while a new life is about to be brought out into the world in Iceland, a baby girl, our first grand-daughter….

The orchard is maturing beautifully. Last autumn a few more trees were planted and new beds were added for the artichokes amongst the shrubs and the flowers.

 Geoff’s garden is full of tomatoes, courgettes, onions, leeks, shallots, parsley and celery. Mine has beans, peppers, aubergine, carrots and radishes and both gardens are thriving.  The chicken and the guineas have been a blessing along with the cats, donkeys and sheep.

The animals have me jump out of bed in the morning and my list of “to do jobs” keeps me busy all day and I could be doing just that until the day I die knackered but fulfilled and complete.

Sounds idyllic doesn’t ii?

Except that when I look at the bigger picture, our way of life is not sustainable. People in the South are leaving to travel north for survival, the earth is warming and climates are changing creating havoc like never before. Governments lacking leadership, vision and balls, desperately try to hold on to power. The ship is sinking and they are looking for a clean pair of pants, blaming everyone around when there is no clean pants to be found.

And now to top it up, they have a new toy to play with: The Health Card! Forget about the planet and our children’s future to take care of, let’s work on our re-election instead, it’s much more fun. Let’s confuse ordinary people and blind them with false issues and lies. Let’s bring fear into their lives and have them quibble amongst themselves.

Where are we heading?

The Covid 19 is not a killer. If it was, everyone touched by it would be dead or dying. But it gets rid of the most vulnerable in our society, the elderly the sick, the obese, the unhealthy….which is very sad indeed for every family that has gone through or is going through the loss of a dear one, but to “vaccinate” the whole world population, children and young adults included, is a disastrous political decision with immense fatal consequences to our health. Independent scientists are not listened to. Let’s have the rich get richer and see where we go from there, seems to be our government’s motto.

Here in France, there will be large demonstrations tomorrow against the health card with thousands of people in the streets of Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse….but we won’t get the right figures on the news let alone a few seconds of footage. If we want to hear the full news we’ll have to go to foreign newscasts.

Thanks  goodness a lot of people around the world have taken to the net and talking and sharing and discussing and thinking and educating themselves on those issues that are of prime importance to our lives. Will we chose comfort over freedom? Will we add our voices to the ones saying NO to the disguised dictators?

Where will we be in 10  years’ time?