Saufiene, Clement, and Thierry arrived on time this morning and waited for delivery of the new doors and windows, overseeing their delivery and stacking in the hall and garden. As they were leaving they noticed that the deliverymen had left a huge wooden palette blocking the pavement. Saufiene undertook to have it removed in the afternoon.
Le Code Bar at lunchtime was full to bursting, as must have been most of their customers. A tasty vegetable bean and noodle soup was followed by a beautifully presented ham and egg salad. A succulent steak with a mound of crisp, bronzed, chips was the main course. Dessert was the delicate chocolate mousse on a soft biscuit base served with creme anglaise.
After this I needed a rest before walking the Pomport road and donkey’s field loop. 
The profusion of cowslips, dandelions, buttercups, daisies, and other wild flowers I cannot name; the may and cherry blossom; and the willow tree by the lake must have been deceived by the reportedly recent warmer spell into thinking it was no longer winter, for it was again very cold. Cattle lying down in the field by Chateau Cluzeau gave a warning of the rain that set in before I returned to rue Saint Jacques.
The donkey was lurking behind a tree at the top of the hill. 
We were enjoying a friendly chat until he set up a deafening honking and tried to fell the tree. With this on one side and the horrific snarling and barking of the four evil-looking dogs baring their salivating fangs and hurling themselves at their wire fence enclosure on the other side of the narrow stony footpath, the hubbub was quite terrifying. Any fear was no doubt exacerbated by having, last night, watched Liam Neeson’s six companions in ‘The Grey’, translated by the French as ‘Territory of the Wolves’, one by one, being torn to pieces in the frozen Alaskan wilderness. Neeson himself was magnificently capable and brooding as usual. He didn’t survive either, but that was left to our imagination as he prepared himself for a fight to the death with the leader of the pack.