Argh!  MY Fruit and veggie guy has closed and I had to find a new one who is not conveniently located at the bottom of our road.  Unfortunately, even here where food is everything, more and more mom and pop stores are closing as the big supermarkets and chain stores move in.  It's very sad.  There were 3 greengrocers down on the main road when I left in June and now only one is left.

On to other things.  Yesterday we spent the day hiking in the mountains.  We went to Colle Del' Agnello, (Col Agnel in French), the highest pass in the Alps between Italy and France.   Our German friends were driving and we'd planned for them to pick us up at 8am.  Obviously GP had me dressed and ready outside at 7:55 but as he calls Birgit a "false German" she was 20 minutes late.  GP threatened to report her to Merkel and have her German ID taken away for bad behavior. They've decided they should switch nationalities as she is always late and indecisive and GP is so damned precise.   The drive is 2 hours so we finally got to our parking place at 10:30.  We started walking at about 1700 meters, (5578 feet), and walked up for two hours to almost 2,600 meters, (8530 feet).  On the way up everyone except me saw Marmots! What I did see were lots of cows.  Lower down the cows were grazing in the forest, which seems very strange to me, and once past the treeline we'd see them here or there, alone or in small groups just wandering.  They were all wearing huge brass bells and with their names inscribed on a tag clipped to their ear.  (These are milk cows and the area is famous for wonderful cheeses that we had to stop and buy on the way home.)  We passed a Bruna  and a Laura.  We walked till we arrived at the first of a number of small glacial lakes, sunken into crevasses in the mountains.  This one is called Lago Blue or the blue lake.  The water was frigid so we didn't swim but we ate a picnic lunch and sunbathed.  And rested.  The walk up was a killer.  It took half as long to come down but hurt my knees more.  I'm getting old!!  We stopped for cheese and ice cream on the way home, shared a bottle of wine and said cheese for dinner and I was asleep by 9.  Oh so slightly sore today.  We have to go to the school at noon for the PTA's welcome back brunch and I have no desire to move from this sofa.  xxoo me 

There's my little mountain climber!

On the way up

At the lake

Bathing beauty!

The gang

Wow

Bruna