Age is no obstacle

When we are in France we try to visit a friend whose freedom is limited by the needs of her husband who is in poor health. She is a remarkable lady in many ways. We knew that this would be our last visit to her in France because she is moving back to England to be closer to family members who can help her as demands on her inevitably increase. A few months ago she acquired an elderly upright piano and was teaching herself, and her six-year-old granddaughter, to play. This time when we walked in I saw that the piano had gone. She told us that her neighbour, learning of my friend's imminent departure, had asked if she might have it, and the piano had been duly moved across a few metres of gravelly courtyard to the neighbour's house, where it resides just inside the front door. 'I am making progress,' the neighbour said to my friend. Nothing very remarkable about that - except that the neighbour is 101. I found this story quite uplifting as well as funny, and I have related it to my own oldest piano pupil, who is a mere 86.

Unrelated, but beautiful - here are some of the plants that were in flower in our French acre.

New life

We shouldn't, perhaps, rest too heavily on symbolism - but this beautiful little Pasque flower, having miraculously survived two British winters outside, opened its first flower to the sun on Easter day.