The Belgian Summer ...

It's not happening this year ...the rain keeps returning, the grey skies reappear again and again.

We've had glimpses of a glorious summer but no, it disappears and is replaced by weather so foul that you forget that you had those warm and promising days.

On the bright side, the garden continues to thrive. The rhubarb, back home, has been prolific.  Here in Wallonia, the zucchinis are going crazy too.  We fight our way through a reasonably abundant supply of fresh tomatoes and beans.  The hens are all laying, so we 4 are dreaming up things to cook with those eggs. 

Peach clafoutis and pavlova are at the top of the list, quiche too.

I  have set up a work station at the dining room table, here in the light-filled kitchen, keeping company/kept company by the lovely Rwandan woman studying for her examinations.  I think we have given up on summer.  She mistook this morning's drizzle for snow. That it didn't seem impossible probably tells you how we feel about summer these days.

Anyway, here's a glimpse of the house where I'm staying ... just a corner for now.  I have to work out how to photograph it, in all its hugeness, and I need to learn the story of it more precisely.  There is a Nobel prize winner involved in its history ...

Terri Windling and Brenda Ueland

"But the moment I read Van Gogh's letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by drawing it. And Van Gogh's little drawing on the cheap note paper was a work of art because he loved the sky and the frail lamppost against it so seriously that he made the drawing with the most exquisite conscientiousness and care. ”

Brenda Ueland, from If Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit.

I found this extract this morning, just as I had set up my work station for the day, down here in the big country kitchen, and I thought it was surely something to share. 

I have Terri Windling's blog in my google reader and most days, she has something like this to share with whoever cares to read her.  She is a writer, artist, and book editor interested in myth, folklore, fairy tales, and the ways they are used in contemporary arts.


 

Tonight ...

I was going to sit downstairs here ... at the big outside table, near the forest, thinking I would attempt to capture the absolute joy that is living out here in the country but ... the table has these two lovely American girls talking of learning Nederlands and Italian, an Australian reading his book and smoking, trying not to annoy us with the smoke, and that dog ... the one that drops his tennis ball at our feet, waiting for us to throw it for him, again and again and again and again and again.

The church bells just rang, 7pm.

The air is warm.

It's good to be out of the city...