Take a look at this image which appears without comment in a recent Plaything post.It is not a manifestation of iphone mania but a bushel under which a theatrical light is hiding. Our director, who is not normally publicity shy, is surely appealing in this instance to only her most dedicated readers; those who can be relied upon to magnify the picture and scan the text thoroughly in search of hidden treasure.

That treasure is the news that her production of The Tempest on board the Mary of Guise barge moored in the Water of Leith is a 2010 Fringe Festival hot ticket.

So get yours now.

It was a long and weary drive from Dover on Monday but for a change I went up the M11 and the A1 and then cut across country on the A68. The A68 drive is through lovely scenery and is very exhilarating with its ups and downs but can be a bit frustrating if you get stuck behind a lorry or a Sunday driver.

The evening was the sort of evening that has been hard to find in the Creuse this month, warm and sunny. So I did what I hadn't done in France; sat out in the garden with a glass of wine and watched the sun go down. Admittedly my Edinburgh garden is a little less than 2000 square metres and is perched on top of the flat below's window bay without a forest view but I'm very pleased with the progress of my plantings. Here's a sample.
I didn't actually sit but if I bought a little collapsible camping stool I'm sure I could squeeze it in and feel very continental.

Since then it's been tennis and tempest. Not that I've been playing in a storm. I've been glued to the telly for Wimbledon and torn myself away for a couple of rehearsals of The Tempest. So the good weather is wasted on me really.

Usually when I'm within 50 miles or so of Paris I tune my car radio into TSF to get a jazz fix but today I stuck with France Musique.

They've been having something of a British focus this week. Many of their broadcasts have even come from London. This has been in celebration of De Gaulle's call to arms after the fall of France broadcast by the BBC on 18th June 1940.

This afternoon they were playing music by Vaughan Williams including his opera Sir John In Love which I don't believe I've ever heard before. It was very tuneful and most of the time very jolly so I stuck with it.

Apparently he based a lot of the music in the opera on English folk melodies, ten in all. The only one I can truthfully claim to have recognised was Greensleeves and that because it was played pretty straight. The least variation or disguise of a tune and I'm lost.

I wonder how I'd have fared listening to the 24 hour broadcast of covers of Yesterday if I hadn't known what was going on?

So far, this June has been the wettest and most dismal of the ten that I have spent in France. It seems to have rained without intermission. If the weather during the last third of the month is as poor then I shall be heartily glad not to be here.

Of course all things are relative and I have not been swept to my death in a flash flood as many people have been in the south so it’s not been all bad.

The big question is whether or not there will be an interlude of dryness between now and Sunday lunchtime to allow me to cut the grass before I go. I’ve just been on-line to look at the forecast for this area but Météo France tell me that in view of the prevailing weather conditions their site is currently saturated and will I please try later.

I assume the saturation is from information seekers like me but I wouldn’t put it past that pesky rain having permeated the French bits of the world wide web.

Have you heard of Glen Baxter? I don’t believe I had until I came across an appeal for 100 ukulele players in the window of a music shop in Poitiers.They were required, and probably still are, in connection with Baxter’s historico-gastronomic tour of Poitou-Charente which starts today and continues until 12^th September. He is described in the pamphlet I picked up as a living legend of British nonsense.

Having looked at his website I cannot disagree.

We all know that black pudding is made from blood. But I often think when I eat a Scottish black pudding that the pig who provided the blood must have died of a heart attack, given the amount of fatty matter that is included.

Now that may be more natural for a pig than to be slaughtered but from my selfish viewpoint I prefer the sort of black pudding that I ate in Poitiers the other day. It could have contained nothing put pure healthy blood that had been harvested as it gushed from a neatly sliced throat. Accompanied by a delicious portion of mashed potato and half an oven baked apple it was a lunch to die for. And my thanks to the pig who did.

I was in Poitiers on a rest day between rounds of golf at a very pretty golf course in Vienne, where incidentally I can heartily recommend the golfers’ lunch. Fifteen euros will get you three tasty courses, a glass of wine and a coffee. The second time I lunched there my main course was wild Scottish salmon. How come I can’t get that in Edinburgh for 15 euros by itself never mind as one course out of three? Should you wish to brighten up your mashed potato by the way try mixing in some purée of split peas.

As I write this I am hearing of the death of Egon Ronay. His life is over but his work is not yet finished.

After the golf yesterday I set off with my prize of a bottle of red to the little village of La Celle Dunoise to attend a birthday barbecue. It was a lovely setting in a garden leading down to the river from a rather splendid 1920's residence. Unfortunately it rained intermittently and rather more on than off.

I stayed relatively dry myself not only because I had a drive of around 30 kilometres ahead of me to get home but in an attempt to balance my intake at the two social events that I had attended in my own village earlier in the week.

These were crowned late on Thursday evening by a substantial tumbler of Laphroaig served with a remark about how being Scottish I must like whisky and so on. Now as it happens I do like whisky and Laphroaig is one of my favourites so it would have been churlish to refuse.

But it would have been wise.

After a second round score of 73 Celia was still first equal but I'm sad to say she put in a disastrous 82 today and has ended up in 4th place. Not too bad for your first excursion overseas I suppose but disappointing both for her and for her supporters at Les Dryades. She's back to France tomorrow for another competition this weekend so let's hope that goes a little better.

I've at long last heard what part I am going to play in the Grads production of The Tempest in the Fringe. I shall impersonate Alonso, King of Naples. He is one of those who were instrumental in the usurping of Prospero. He seems a bit of a wet fish so I shall be acting against type (given how I see myself anyway).

Here's the venue - the good ship Mary of Guise - handily placed for drinkers opposite The Shore pub and restaurant with a number 22 bus stop only yards away. Come in your millions.

Keeping my flat warm this weekend have been the golf ace from Les Dryades, Celia Mansour, and her dad.

Celia, who attends a special school for France's elite young golfers, is playing this week at Gullane in her first overseas golf competition, the US Kids Golf European Championship, with her dad on the bag.

Naturally I'm keeping my eye on the results and am delighted to see that in the 14 year old girls competition after the first round Celia with a score of 75 is first equal out of 17 competitors.

I only wish that my golf skills had gone even infinitesimally in the same direction as Celia's since I first played with her about 5 years ago.