It is late afternoon and I am sitting in the Garden of Earthly Delights. As I tap that last word a cat hops the stone garden wall and sneaks through the early spring hedge. He rubs against my shin and then flops on his side as I scratch the back of is neck. He is warm from lying in the sun. 

  Birds twitter overhead and barn swallows fly in an out of the ancient wooden eaves of the house next door. 

  I am enjoying a week or so in the Ariege region of southern France. The land that time has almost forgotten. Almost, but not quite. Still, the day rolls by slow and lazy and the morning’s wood chopping is done and piled away.

It is a quiet healthy life I am relishing here and later I’ll ride a bicycle to the next town where there is an afternoon market. 

  I call it Life in the slow lane.