Darn! No Starbucks in Bormes les Mimosas! And no coffee pot in our apartment. But there is a one cup French press. Cathy and I got up at 6 a.m. this morning and it was still dark. She said that tea would be fine with her (although I DID offer to make her coffee!!), so I made myself 2 consecutive cups of coffee and tried to come to life. We put on our gardening garb and gobbled a quick petite dejeuner of yogurt, muesli, and strawberries, and headed for a walk up the hill and several flights of steps to Mick & Nicky’s house. Neither of us had been there before and we weren’t sure where we were going, so it was an adventure – including figuring out which locked gate the key Nicky gave me would fit into and open up. The photos will show you our trek and some views of the house and garden.   Once we arrived, Nicky gave us a tour of this truly enormous garden, telling us the names of all the plants and where all the tools were and what needed to be done. Two other work-away people were there – have been there a month already – a couple: S and T, (using initials for privacy) from Berlin. Right now they are staying in the center of the garden in an apartment that used to be a glass house, but this Saturday they will be moving into the apartment below us. We liked them immediately. We also met Mick for the first time, along with Nicky’s sister, who is on a 2 week vacation – she isn’t gardening. But everyone else is, and everyone was fun to work with. Our first assignment was to rake and clean up the graveled paths, including pulling any weeds that had grown up there. Our working hours are 7:30 – 11:30 every morning, Monday through Friday. Around 9 or 9:30 (I wasn’t watching the time at all, so am approximating) we all stopped for a coffee break, which included oranges (from their own trees) and watermelon. Then we returned to our raking. S and T were doing other jobs. At about 10 or 10:30ish, Nicky interrupted our path raking and asked us to help near the half done abandoned pool. It’s too long a story to tell here, but they were having a pool built and some serious problems have them in litigation with the builder. The problem is that every time it rains, as it did Monday morning, the heavy, thick rubber liner fills with water and they have to pump it out so that it doesn’t become a breeding ground for mosquitos. Today they decided to cut it up and move it in order to expose the ground underneath so that the water would seep down into the earth. Well, not as easy as that might sound! This rubber liner was enormous and hugely heavy and having it filled with stinking water made it even worse. We – Nicky, Mick, T, Cathy, and I – pushed and pulled and tugged and lifted and dragged and, once we had it where we wanted it, hauled very large rocks to anchor it all into place. Mick and Nicky’s house and garden is high up on a hill and this area is known for its strong winds – and at times a really extremely strong wind called the mistral – so the anchoring was essential. By quitting time at 11:30 we were beat! But I took a little time to get photos of everyone before we headed back to the apartment. Cathy and I made a lunch of lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and bread, then we headed out to explore Bormes les Mimosas. We went over some of the same ground I covered yesterday when I walked it alone, but we also found new rues (streets), ruelles (little streets), cuberts (covered passages under houses). Again, I couldn’t stop taking photos. I won’t include all of them, just a selection, and will be sure to include the ones with Cathy in them – and me, too. At one point in our exploring we stopped at a restaurant and had a cafe, which here means an espresso. And…we both did a small artwork!!! Take a look at the photos. I am still doing collage, just like I was doing with Margaret, and on my own in Lyon, but Cathy is using caran d’ache and water. We poured a little water from a drinking glass into an ashtray for her to “paint” with and to clean her brush when she was finished. We through our supplies together quickly before leaving the apartment and I didn’t photograph them the way I did with Margaret – not this time, anyway, but we did get shots of each other working and of the finished pieces. After that we decided to walk to the local, small grocery store and boucherie (butcher shop) to buy something for dinner. This is the same trek that we did yesterday and I told you it was 20 minutes. Today we are convinced it is half an hour, and that is the downhill direction. Uphill is about 3 hours – but only if you are as stupid as we were and buy a cooked chicken, some shredded carrots, a couple of tomatoes, a bottle of olive oil, a bottle of wine, and, the kicker, a six-pack of bottled water. What WERE we thinking!!! Obviously we weren’t. Must have been gardening fatigue, sightseeing fatigue, and sun stroke all rolled into one big brain breakdown!! So, the walk back up the steep hill to our apartment did NOT take 3 hours, it only felt like it did. Now, Cathy is sitting outside on our patio reading and I am in the bedroom writing this blog. It’s about 6:30 p.m. and we plan to eat at 7:30. So I am going to load up the photos and post today’s story. Hope all of you are doing well. Thank you for reading this, and, as always, thank you for your comments. It’s nice to feel that I’m still with you even though I’m so far away.