Le chat sur le balcon

Over the past few weeks, R and I have made a new little friend...a feline friend who we fondly call Poubelle. In French, poubelle means trashcan..and of course, we call him that affectionately because he eats everything we give him and comes back for more!

Poubelle started coming around when we were outside barbecuing. As the meat starts to sizzle and smoke, Poubelle shows up in the garden, sitting a comfortable distance away, but looking intently in our direction. R, being a total cat person, throws him pieces of choice chicken, sausage. Poubelle lays and watches, faking his disinterest in us and the meat that R threw in his direction. But as soon as we pay no attention to him, he scampers towards the meat and snatches it away in his mouth, scurrying off to eat it under the hedge. Over the last week or so, Poubelle has taken to us, or maybe he just likes the hands that feed him.

Today, we found him sunning himself on our balcony, within 2 feet of us. When I walked out on the balcony with pieces of meat for him, he didn't run away. But he did grab it and run down the balcony stairs to eat in peace on the terrace. Within minutes, however, he re-appeared on the balcony, looking inside to see if I was going to feed him. And of course, I did...and after, R gave him some yogurt with milk. He looks well fed and happy...so I think he lives in the neighborhood and belongs to a family there..but all the same, I like that he comes by every night.


Appearing on the balcony for a bit of yum-yums. Totally ignoring the plate of yogurt that R has placed on the balcony and hoping for some more chicken or sausage. After some snacking, he sits by the mint plant on the balcony..with his back turned to us! He's getting pretty comfortable being near us now which is kind of nice.


And look what's now growing in my garden:


My courgette plant (zucchin) is prolific...I've already harvested a giant zucchini and here are 5 more that are growing quickly. Tonight's expected rain will water them even more..grow courgettes, grow!


One of my Charentais melon plants..actually the biggest one so far. It's starting to flower and soon I hope to have little baby melons to show you. When full grown, Charentais melons look like baby cantaloupes and they taste like cantaloupes too.


View of my garden...and the 9 tomato plants I have which are staked to curly metal stakes...to better keep the tomatoes off the ground so they can ripen on the vine! This week I started picking off the bright red ones and just one bite tastes like a month of summer. They are small in size but big on taste! Besides melons and courgette, the eggplants are growing well as are the beets, lettuces, pepper, and leeks. The cilantro plants are just starting to break through..yay!