Perspectives

View from the terrace

It’s an annual trek to this lake for a picnic with friends on holiday from the UK (they own a summer home in Le Boulou, a few minutes from Argelès). The lake is almost always deserted, but this year a duck convention was being held right in front of the no swimming sign as if they could read and agreed to follow the rule.

Not all the lake is off limits to swimmers. Three teenage girls had their horses out for a day of fun and they were galloping up and down the path behind the grassy knoll. They took the horses for a long swim. The brown mare especially was in no rush to leave the water, but the dapple gray climbed out and rolled on her back in the grass much like a dog. The laughter from the girls floated over to where we were encamped with our salads, local cheeses, and fresh baked bread, olives and sausages. The horses seemed as happy as the girls and I wondered if they were making comparisons to their ordinary days in a field, versus the chance to swim and run.

Another part of the tradition with this couple is to go back to their place where they serve coq au vin (or in this case poulet au vin) on their roof top terrace and listen to the river that runs by their house.

As we were having the apero, a Siamese cat, probably only a few months old, made her way across the brick red tile roof and made it plainly known that sharing a bit of sausage and a few olives, would not go amiss.

Our hostess, led the cat, which she had named Speckles, downstairs for a bit of tuna.
The cat ate, came back on the terrace, and disappeared over the roof tiles. Some inner sense must have told Speckles what was there, because she raced back to the terrace and was set up with chicken, rice, gravy and even a carrot. Her pitiful meowing for more made us wonder if she was thinking we were stupid not to recognize her demands for more.

We watched the full moon peek over the mountain. It seemed to race into the sky. I mentioned that it was moving up into the sky fast, and my friend said, really the earth was moving downwards away from the moon...Perspective…the ducks probably didn’t care about the no swimming sign, the horses just revelled in running and swimming and the cat thought getting fed was her due. Meanwhile each of us on the terrace had our own perspectives on good food, good friends, good conversations