The garlic fair continues.

Five and a half decades old. You go to bed one night aged twenty five and you wake up the next morning to discover that thirty years have rushed past in your sleep. Where does all the time go ? The font helpfully points out that an active old age beckons as it will take at least another fifty five years to get the rickety old farmhouse habitable. That's a cheery birthday thought . From the comments at the breakfast table it's clear that the younger members of the family consider fifty five to be the non-biblical equivalent of reaching the age of Methuselah.

While Wilf and I discussed the meaning of life and the elasticity of time over a coffee and a bowl of water, the house echoed to the sound of the roofer (replacing the slates) , the plasterer ( patching up the boot sized hole in the ceiling) , and the decorator ( an unexpected arrival ). The decorator is a chain smoking lady, barely five feet tall, who dresses in a white t-shirt and black cycling shorts. Her name is Aude. This causes great hilarity among the aforementioned younger members of the family who pronounce the name as 'odd'. 'Hi Odd'. 'How's it going Odd'. The names is perhaps not altogether misplaced as she holds lengthy conversations with herself while working away. Yesterday was a day for discussing who would be the next President ( apparently she does not like Monsieur Sarkozy), the relative merits of Farrow and Ball as opposed to supermarket own brand paint, and the various idiots that had lacquered the roof beams. This is a not a case of talking out loud but an altogether more worrying bi-polar ability to take both sides of an argument.

The garlic fair continues. After yesterdays attempt to break the world record for garlic peeling ( they didn't) today sees the award for the best decorated garlic strand. Can anyone out there in dogblogland can beat that for excitement ?

Just a quick mention of a heartwarming blog that manages to sum up that special link between dog and human, www.my-dog-farm.blogspot.com. The last couple of posts show the highs and lows of that relationship. Yesterdays entry brought a happy smile to my face.