Country Mouse Monday: home and the heart, and crickets and coyotes

As much as I love traveling and vacation, and as much as I love the South of France which we just visited for two weeks, nothing beats the feeling of the return home.

Nothing beats that total sense of relaxation: the home bed, the first home coffee, the nighttime sounds of crickets and coyotes.

And nothing beats that first-morning-back dazed walk around the garden to check in with all that's happened during our absence.

The big news: eggplant!

The bad news is that the irrigation got a little messed-up while we were gone. Somewhere there's a leak that's causing problems for the well-pump, but now we're here and can fix it. Only one casualty, very sad: the canteloupe that was just booming when we took off, will most likely not recover from the singe of our time away.

But did I mention eggplant?!

And still more happy news: neighbors appearing at our door bearing welcome-home gifts of fresh eggs and figs from their tree. And then our own bounty of tomatoes and basil and eggplant, baked into a parmigiana, the oven roaring at 425 despite the scorching evening.

Home is so much more than its address, but that feeling in the heart of return to the nest, to the comforts of a place assembled and coaxed and curated by our own hands. And to the tastes of what we grow and make ourselves, delicious eggplant parmigiana on a hot late-summer night, just as the crickets start up their nighttime din.

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