Not dead yet -

-day of the dead is tomorrow, naturally a national holiday. 

Our neighbours will be taking potted plants to the graves of their families and sharing large lunches.

In the meantime, Gracie and Tim are back though only fleetingly... off to their new place in the hills. Brilliant to see them :)

The evening saw the opening of an exhibition in the Municipale Foyer in Rouvenac where some friends are exhibiting their pictures. Micheal Bosworth - seen here with Ole-Bendick - was one, a r myth (aka Raj Gopal) was another. They have made some highly covetable stuff, as have the other two exhibitors.

 Bob and I plan to return to see it all in the cold light of day































some of ar myths' work can be seen here...


asap.https://www.flickr.com/photos/armyth?fbclid=IwAR36eh49HLTlA3qCsvZt43iBJWmiW9DB_J2KRd1CUQst4Zxu8SLoNxJi5uo

and here is Cleopatra. Here is a song about her:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zTDtSq1RNU

Great vernissage and many old mates hanging out. They gave me Maury to drink. Hic.

Halloween twilight

Of course it ain't Halloween quite yet - but this was the view from the bridge at tea time today.

funny old life...

....had an especially fun night last night feeding Jamsie and Guillhem on spag bol and apple cake, which is a very good way of accompanying a deal of red wine. Woke happy and relaxed and trotted optimistically off to life drawing. Though taxing it has got to be better than paperwork.

(Apropos, rather than going mad, Le Capt and I have decided that I will do studio work in the mornings and paperwork afternoons and evenings.) 

                 (So when am I writing this?? Nevermind...)

Anyway, Fabienne was modeling and many artist friends were there. Hubert turned up. Since he's been known to have been ill, it was a pleasure to see him well if a bit wobbly on the pivot. Turns out he took himself to Ireland to get over the trauma of Nigeria and whilst in Ireland in an excess of high spirits he swam in the Atlantic during a storm. He was accordingly beaten by the waves onto the rocks. Hence his extended stay in London where his son is a physio. He's alive and functioning, recovering.

Margaret arrived next, with the daunting news that Johns workshop had burned down last night. Quelle horreur. Many loved and useful things gone and all his recent work. And Margrets wellies. Shocking news with which to start life drawing. Began watching the door with trepidation... heartfelt commiserations to John who did seem somewhat shocked at the cafe afterwards. (The pompiers took 20 mins to arrive and then couldn't find a fire hydrant.)

I suppose that tout le monde know that Aileen and Ole-Bendik have parted? Hope they won't mind me mentioning it here.They were both there and it looks like life drawing can continue peacefully.

Peacefully it proceeded with evidence of some seriously fine art abounding. 

Last bit of miserable news -in keeping with the days evident theme -  my chewing gum detached part of a tooth with all of the filling. Bummer.

Rang my most attractive dentist later and he can't see me till mid November. BUMbummer.

Bobs trip to the Osteopath was OK, phew, and he says Bob is now better. Hes cooking dinner. I can go hunt papers, hurrah.

a life-times supply of charcoal

contemporary art in the making

Brr

 Winter has struck. Cold, grey and snow forecast. A correspondingly small market - though still fun, friends out and about and in good humour. Here is the indomitable Ole-Bendik whose dog does not like oysters. Fortunately O-B does.

Had a wonderful tea-time treat yesterday at Jutta and Bernhts with Angela, Norbert and Louise. In Germany when it tuns cold they huddle over strudel, home made  ice-cream, cake, coffee... forgot photos but not the memories :) Afterwards ate at the Rest'o'Vale which was a blessed relief after the paperwork I'm engaged with, all carte de sejour stuff.

Our Kate Hardy has written a handful of books now and this is her latest which I read when I was flattened with the effects of the 'flu jab. It's just marvelous - couldn't put it down. Ingenious and funny; highly recommended. Guessing its on Amazon. Kate now has an agent so I'm hoping there'll be a movie:)

arrivals and researches

 Margaret and John (Matthews) are back and Jean and John (Harris) cooked dinner to celebrate - Spag Bol and cake, we all wolfed it - that was the day before yesterday.

Yesterday Angela arrived for the weekend.

J and J (Harris) leave this morning for frozen Blighty, but heres hoping they'll be back.

Meantime, Jamsie of St Ferriol and I have been attending to the important things; a conference organised by le Collectif International de Recherches sur le Catharisme et les Dissidences (CIRCAED) at the Chateau de Carcassonne.
You are probably aware that the burning issue de nos jours is whether or not the Cathars actually existed. Local scholarship is divided into those that think they were a later construct using possibly erroneous info. and those who still contend they were a prelapsarian band of happy wanderers based in large chateaux and murdered by the Catholics.

Here is yesterday morning in Esperaza under a tremendous moon (looking like a Van Gogh, no?) followed by sunrise at Carcassonne -

 and here are some of the three owls in the stained glass version of the rod of Jesse in Carcassonne Cathedral where we whiled away half an hour before the conference began; empty space, quite beautiful.

 Anyone out there have a clue why owls should be included in the glass? The best I can do is a confusion between hibou and hebreu... very long shot. There's Isaiah13:21 ( and their houses will be full of owls) and other texts where they represent desolation and mourning but why??
Below is a nice snap of  Pete Biller delivering his key-note address and being filmed doing it.

Prof Biller is of York University. He talked about Robert Moores' book The War on Heresy which has rather put the cat among the pigeons (at least in Carcassonne) He was followed by David Zbiral from the University Masaryk de Brno of the Check Republic who read his paper on the Liber de Duobus Principiis and the Florence ritual ... and the rest, I'm sure the agenda is on line if you are  interested.

Tuesday

Been forgetting to take snaps lately - but not of our Andree, mostly because it annoys her so much :)

Here she is at lunch at the Odalisque in Limoux. What a restaurant; all agreed it was impeccable. And Andree continues in fine form. Living in a posh maison de retrait clearly suits her.

Before lunch we breakfasted at Lucs with Louise and Norbert who also seemed in good nick. After lunch we apero'd with Richard and Eva, who are blossoming in their new palace. Richard has his Carte de Sejour already  and had some useful tips - so has Peter G, who is reassuring about it. Still haven't got all my papers together, still trying not to panic.

Bob has been missing most of the action due to a bad back but his brother and partner are filling the void.


Below is a Vanilla slice with a phantom spoon.

X-Ty-Rex..

 ...currently Rest'o'vale getting a thumbs up from John last night - they really are good, they served mushrooms (pied de mouton) picked in the forest that afternoon with our meals, delicious.
Here's an informative site about the mushroom:
 http://kitchen-notebook.blogspot.com/2007/09/pied-de-mouton-hedgehog-mushroom.html. 


And here's Jamsie, having a think about it -

Magic dinner

Jean and John

Gert and Elsbeth were foolhardy enough to invite me and Bob, Bobs brother John and his partner Jean, Pete and Clare, Roland and Kat to dinner last night -they must be exhausted today! The conversations never flagged and the ambiance in their beautiful house was magic. 

Elsbeth, Clare, me

Elsbeth and Gert and delicious meal :)

me interacting with the art - and Clare and John

It's clear the I'm not the photographer - Roland took the camera and gave me a night off, hoho - I took the next one though, which is of the wastebin in the playground... 

As the group left the party just before midnight we found it burning. 

Went back to Gert and Elsbeths for water to put it out. It was burning quite fiercely and there was talk of rousing the pompiers but no-one could remember their emergency number (note to self; put it on the mobile)

Gert galloped round with watering cans and Roland found some blankety stuff and they put it out in minutes.

Presumably it was started by a cigarette left to smolder. There was no-one around, anyway.

The rest of the stroll home was cheery and uneventful though there was much partying at Luc's bar. Aha! Toby is home from hospital for the weekend and the Scottish Daves are here or a week, perhaps there is a connection????

Annie and Pete alive and well

 Drove to The Mill in Couiza to check on our friends. They are well :) The next-doors' car in the river is another story. Below is the view from the kitchen window.

And Toby is out of hospital for the weekend, tottering about on a zimmer but blossoming none-the-less. Turns out Leos request for info on the bus timetable was a joke - he did go and get her :)

Rose says goodbye

...shes leaving her lovely home of many years. An emotional time as she built it with her late husband; the fact that she is moving to be nearer the beating heart of Esperaza will soften the blow, we hope!
Anyway the tribe turned out to give her a hand.

Bob, Jean, John

Love this photo of Jean being interrogated by the Harris brothers - John and Jean are staying with us this week so everyone will get a chance to meet her. Don't frighten her off.

view from Roses' back door, high over Esperaza

 ramshackle random collection of hazy photos shows that a good time was had :) We await the moving-in party now.

Bernht and Fran in another room

no idea... Leo in Mirror?

Vivienne and Bernht

Else

Red Alert

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipN5b0NRcpvnrRT5KNg3HH3SupIE9epVZAeoGUlZFtJndAs8Z30bJalxAqLqF-8ZYQ?key=UnFaSWhabjFNQ3BHbWgzRzhTMnpXZ3UxcnVneEJR

Not sure if the link above will work; its a little video of Annie and Petes mill above Couiza, that they have posted on Facebook. The mill sits squarely on the River Sals - the river that has risen to flood Couiza - so their friends have been concerned for their well-being. Extra difficult, as its hard to raise a wifi signal there.
So the film is a relief and a shock. Their land rover is lying in a raging torrent and their van is all but submerged. They are OK though.

And Aileen and Ole-Bendik are alive but flooded. Their house is at the edge of Esperaza, built over an underground stream: the stream is currently overground and belting through their home.

All our other friends seem fine, we have been spared the terrible destruction that has hit the Aude. Latest say 11 people are dead and 3 are missing. We are still on Red Alert; schools and collages closed. Carcassonne hospital is totally flooded so don't get ill, OK?

Our Canadian friends made it through to Carcassonne yesterday using the mountain roads and said it was deserted (they have touring visitors who wanted to see La Cite) As was Esperaza... hardly any traffic as there was allegedly no way in or out.

Kat and Roland gave me, Gert and Elsebeth dinner last night, a lovely evening despite the ringing sense of shock that is pervading the area. Kats fab cooking and the company of good friends alleviated that a good deal:)

And look who turned up yesterday!

 Mujtaba arrived out of the blue, coming to visit his Esperaza friends. He was in the first group of refugees that were bused here from Calais and now lives in Toulouse where several of that original intake have settled. Most have contracts now, working in shops or on the roads. 

Mujtaba has an interview next week so fingers crossed for him. He sends love to everyone and says Esperaza will always have a special place in his heart; but he had to say that as I was complaining that they came, befriended us all and then pushed off as soon as they got better offers, bah.

He doesn't know any of the latest arrivals and we were laughing at how the young ones have got it made - already with wifi and smart phones and music, the things that Mujtaba and his colleagues had to sort out for themselves in their bewildered and fearful state. 

He told me of the villages in the Sudan that were wiped out by floods and how the floods were followed by a dreadful disease that kills in three days following a very high body temperature. 

Lets hope we don't have to contend with that. 

post apocalypse

Esperaza reminds me very much of London post the hurricane - silent, shocked, slightly relieved. We are mostly OK after the ferocious rains of last night but are an island, all the roads in and out are closed. Carcassonne has been badly affected.

The river is going down, amazingly, given that the Sals is very high. The town hall texted at 8.00 to say how bad it was and to stay safe, then rang with the same (automated) message. Perhaps its a call to prayer.

Ole-Bendik is flooded. No drawing at the MJC this morning. Keep safe y'all.

More parties

It being John Rushtons birthday, the chateau at St Julia de Bec was given over to excess - Clare, Eric and Alison, John and Sue Marshall and I overdid it in our pleasure at still being on planet after all these years. John and I go back to art school days, some time ago, and often  reflect on the change in our lives since then.... when a packet of crisps and a half of beer was going it some :)

 Coming home to the market, I snapped these entertainers outside the Relais Occitan holding the kids spellbound. Nice market, not too crowded...

 after which Gert and Elsebeth took me for an amazing lunch at the Cathar Gormande. Having a bit of a rest now. Bob back Weds., sends love to all.

Quietish

 Of course its never quiet here... Jim came and had a serious talk with my computer, the one that needs disciplining (thank you thank you) and - thanks to the good offices of a friend - a sweep came and swept, twice. One per chimney.

There are old superstitions pertaining to sweeps but I can't remember them.

Here's Oswald, still not quite hibernating and below, feeding time. Husks from the parrot feeding bowls are left for the wild birds who throw them everywhere to be eaten by rapacious rabbits.

And people came and went. Nice day. Paperwork for the Carte de Sejour maybe 1% accomplished.

panic

Only got a month before my paperwork is due for the interview to get a carte de sejour - panic has struck. And I'm writing this instead of getting on with said paperwork.
Forgot to take photos last night.  Had dinner with  Elizabet and Gert, - gave them anchovy tart and steak and kidney pudding though not on the same plate :) Pudding from the award-winning baker Msr Serrano.
Here are some morning- in-Esperaza snaps...

 It is a high rise building in the mist, but it was  built in 800 by the visigoths. They built to last.

 That's Rennes-le-Chateau in the distance, rising out of the mist as dawn with her rosy fingers etc etc.. and below, our nice old bridge.
Worth doing paperwork to stay here. Sigh. Anyone got theirs yet?
                      Any hints?