un Peu Loufoque and the return of life's natural balance.

At last middle child is well enough to return to school with his brother. The fresh air yesterday did him a power of good and of course all that rain whilst he was weeding the vegetable patch certainly brought his temperature down a great deal. I am so relieved; children can be incredibly irksome when they are unwell.

Loics leg fitting went splendidly, although there was a tricky moment when the blacksmith, anxious to get back to his repas before his crepes cooled, welded his foot on backwards. However luckily Antoine noticed and, once they got Loic back on the anvil and fiddled about with the hammer, tongs and a red-hot poker, they soon put that right. Loic seems very satisfied with the result and as long as he remembers to carry a pot of goose fat with him to oil the joints in wet weather I am sure it will work splendidly. He assures me that the burns on his knee will heal in no time and anyway I feel sure you will agree, third degree burns are a small price to pay for a new leg complete with its own dibber and fork.

Sadly, to avoid the risk of Loics woodworm infecting our wheelbarrow it has had, as a precaution, to be burnt along with the remains of the wooden leg. I wonder if it might be possible to make a wheelbarrow attachment for Loics Leg? I must ask Chief Patissier.

On a happier note, Madame Grognonne tells me that Nicholas Fartoocy has had rather an unpleasant mishap .It appears he turned up unannounced at Fatimas family home, demanding he be allowed to inspect their plumbing very early on Saturday morning and inexplicably slipped into the Fosse septique, having tripped over someone’s outstretched foot. Sadly it being a Holy day, the family was not able to pull him out themselves but Fatima’s kindly grandmother offered to go to the village to fetch help. Of course grandmere being rather elderly, she was obliged to stop several times en route to catch her breath so by the time she could find someone willing to come and help Nicholas had been there for some time and as a result has developed quite a serious case of gastroenteritis and an unpleasant skin infection so the Doctor has hospitalised him until both clears up.

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This paintng is anopther by the artist John Singer Sargent and shows an arab woman scenting her body and clothes with sweet perfumes from a charcoal incnese burner at her feet. I imagine it is something that Fatima and her family may well have had to do several times after Nicohlas was dragged from the fosse septique to rid them selves of the stench in their nostrils.Fosse septiques do give off rather a powerful aroma if distrurbed by someone swimming in them I understand.