…. “And we’re eating outside again”. On good days (for weather) that includes staying out till well after dark: 

But the weather has become much less predictable, with grey, sometimes showery, days mixed in among the fine ones, which are still very warm and a dip in the lake remains an almost daily activity. 

…. “Lizards are common round here”; This is the best attempt so far to photograph one: 

I’m sure there’ll be a better photo once we move to the house …..

FROM LAKELAND TO LANGUEDOC. (Could be a book title; ‘Lakeland to Languedoc; A Year To Move House’. Hmmm …. Hasn’t someone done something like that already?)  Many years ago, when I first went camping in the Lake District with a little girl in a little tent, I was sat outside the tent one morning (couldn’t sit IN it!) planning the day, and I said to little girl “Could you bring me ‘The Southern Fells’, please?’ (Maybe not all readers will know that that is the title of one of A W Wainwright’s guide books). Instead of popping into the tent to get the book, little girl trotted off to the other side of the campsite. I thought ‘must have said something wrong!’ and got the book myself. Some minutes later, little girl comes back carrying (for her) quite a big stone. ‘I couldn’t bring you the whole of the Southern Fells, so I just brought you a bit of them – hope that’s all right.’ …. We kept that stone and put it in the car at the end of the holiday. It stayed with me through time at Billing, Plumpton and Garth View; now here it is at Puivert, between my flowering (sort of) shrub and my herb trough: 

An irony is that ‘The Southern Fells’ is the book that has gone missing from the set of Wainrights. A replacement won’t be the same as all the amendments, notes and dates of the walks and climbs are irreplaceable.

There’s also a log (piece of wood, not a diary!) that served as a mug stand in the hearth at Billing – nearly got burned once when a guest offered to pop it on the fire – which also made it to Plumpton and Bolton. That’s here, too. 

Company around us keeps changing, but most of the time we are the only occupants of our ‘square’. (the campsite is arranged in enclosures like this, mostly containing four or more very generously sized pitches):

When there are no immediate neighbours a good place to socialise is in the all-purpose, unisex, wash-up, laundry and toilet / shower block. Our current friends are from Germany, he German, she Austrian, and when not sitting in our awning on drizzly days: 

…. We play light-hearted games of boules, ignoring most of the rules and speaking a Durcheinander 

Quoi?

 Un méli-mélo 

Wie?

He means un mélange. 

Oh – ein Durcheinander, ja ! 

… and speaking a mish-mash of English, French and German. 

Hey, Harry – c’est quoi un ‘mish-mash’? 

Das weiß ich nicht ….

 Doh! Carol has never played boules (pétanque) before, but two of these winning bowls are hers!: 

 Life goes on …….