First Spring, Now Summer!

This week has been a string of shining days, days that beg to be spent outside, days with surprising, new-found longevity-- 8:30pm and it's still light?  Winter is over!  80 degrees, not a cloud in sky.  The birds sing so loudly that I can hear them over the rush of wind as I ride my bike.  Cut grass, dandelions, all of a sudden the trees have leaves again-- it feels like summer in Boston or New York. I shop at the best street market in town where I can get 10 kiwis for 1 euro; apples for 80 cents/kilo; oranges, strawberries, mushrooms, avocados...

I spend hours in the long afternoons enjoying Toulouse's parks-- lying on the grass reading with my new Kindle and listening to the music circle of some students next to me.  One guy even had a trombone.  Katie and I had a picnic by the Garonne downtown-- tomato and goat cheese sandwiches, olives, fruit, and wine-- trying to "bronze" our ghostly legs. (I learned that wine doesn't do much to quench your thirst; I should've had some water in addition).  She strummed her ukulele and I tried to remember "Let it be," which I learned on the ukulele this summer...  I rode my bike in a sundress carrying a baguette-- with this weather, I can ride my bike anywhere, so I spend less time on the metro. I've been trolling the streets for an unclaimed lilac bush where I can poach some flowers.  Being so residential, though, all of the lilacs are well secured behind fences.  Until this morning! On my jog in the green zone behind my apartment, there by the road was a whole bank of lilac bushes; I returned with a bag and a knife and now my room is full of my favorite fragrance!