Thursday: Living the Life of Riley

  Just to rub it in I will say that it is 61F today or that's 16 celsius, which is not bad for the middle of winter.  We sat outside today and had lunch overlooking the garden.  We had a salad even, it seemed so mild a day.  This after many weeks of mostly drizzle, which was a bit out of character for November.  Yes, one of the best things about the south is that we really are in one of the best climates around( at least for now).

My husband is a great raconteur and by now ( after 30 years together) I thought I had heard all of his stories several times over but today he had a new one.   It turns out that the reason we are living on the FRench Riviera maybe had something to do with his dad who served in the war in France, a country he admired.

His father often repeated the phrase, LIVING THE LIFE OF RILEY ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA  when he meant someone had "landed in the gravy".  I think this got hammered into a little boy's head until we both came and had a look for ourselves and said "why not?".   I actually thought that my husband would just  want to stay for a little while but , well, it grows on you.

We sat outside today on a balmy terrace and had a dove conversation.  We feed two collared doves ( it's a long story) that live in the bay trees in our upper garden. (We don't feed them enough to be dependent, especially during the nesting season.)   Today we had a serenade from the female perched right above us on the "branches" of the parasol.

The male came and investigated to see if she was flirting with someone new but then he flew back to his branch.  She sat down on her breast then,  on the balustrade right in front of us, and made a little chortling sound, short and sweet, but many times.

 I don't have a clue what it means but it was sort of chummy and we liked it.