The rains came down and the winds came up

I almost got up and put in my earplugs last night –and I have never slept with earplugs except on an international flight (which is why I have some here – put in some earplugs, wear a hoodie sweatshirt and put the hood up, and put a facemask over top of it all and you can actually get some decent sleep with the engine’s whine and your seatmates’ noise blocked out). The wind is crazy! It would die down a little, and then wake me up every time it went screaming around the house again, banging shutters and whistling through cracks. Ugh. One thing I have to say for these stone houses though is that even this wind doesn’t make them move a muscle.

We got up to find that the rusty latch on the gate to our terrace had given up the battle with the wind, and one of the windows in the studio below us had blow open, sending gusts of air to practically rattle the hinges off the connecting door. Mom and I went to inform Madame Collette, who came and closed it up. And it’s a good thing we were here to let her know because around noon the rain came whirling down in buckets to give the true hurricane feeling. Mom and Dad had run to the little grocery store in Bonnieux , so I watched from the window and hurried down to help them carry the bags up the slippery street. I also took the umbrella… well, you can guess how that went. Silly me. It seemed like a good idea inside the house!

Alan and the rest of SCAD were supposed to get on the bus at 2:45pm to take them to catch the train in Avignon, but the time was moved up to 2:15 because of the weather. I guess the French at least slow down a little on these windy roads when it is raining and blowing huge gusts of wind! I would not want to have been the bus driver. Alan waited for a little let-up in the rain before heading down the hill to the bus, and the weather was nice enough to slow to a drizzle while the students loaded up.

Mom wanted to go for a walk, but every time the rain stopped you could see the next cloud coming over the top of the mountains behind us. It finally let up after dinner, so I cleaned up the kitchen while Mom and Dad went for a quick walk before it got too dark to see. At least the wind stopped with the rain – the quiet that night was pure bliss.


(Can you believe it I didn't take a single photo today! Of course, Alan is off with all the camera gear and the computer, so I just have my little pocket camera for the rest of the week. Ah, I do get spoiled by nice equipment...)