end of Feb

Snapped this yesterday - it's of the old campsite, now a place for  fattening sheep.
The coronovirus is beginning to take over the news now that the last sex scandal is sub judice and we are reassured here - our President has called a meeting this morning to decide if special measures must be taken. Masks don't work and wash your hands is the info so far. More as and when.

celebrating Kat

 Kats birthday yesterday - a small but perfectly formed group clustered around her at the bar last night. All the usual suspects and then some; usual rubbish photos.  It was a premiere bulle blanquette apero event which meant we all drank a tiny bit more than was circumspect. Feel tremendous today, (thanks to dear Susan who fed me afterwards).

...not a lot

going on ; except they are not decorating Georges x-house, they are re-roofing. Luckily the Scottish Daves are away or they'd have no access to their home.

Its raining! Me and my big mouth, bragging about the heat.

too hot

The views from Max's garden yesterday - where I had to stop drawing because of the extreme heat :)
Forced to shelter in the gazebo until I was cool enough to get home. Some people think that when winter comes we will be badly hit; others, that winters are a thing of the past due to the climate changes.

PACS and Cremaillere

Gracie and Tim have been PAX'd; that is, united by a Pacte Civil de Solidarite, which is a sensible form of marriage. They have also bought a house together. Last night was the Cremaillere (the installation of the cauldron) - a housewarming.
Party time :)

Great music, great food, plenty of booze, great people and a whopping sense of joy -

some Esperazanaise and many mountain dwellers mixed freely, old and young-

and when the dancing started we quit early, being elderly - and got the benefit of the crystal clear starlit night .

Day at the sea

 Yesterdays weather being totally glorious, Bob drove us to La Franqui, through the gorges - it's been a while since we've done the drive and it was breathtaking. La Franqui was as sweet as ever, by the afternoon littered with young persons inflating kites and skimming over waves and into the sky, though we had the place to ourselves in the morning.

Back in Esperaza, more excitement; the house once inhabited by the towns' alleged murderer, Georges (see entries passim, esp March 22 2015) which has been empty since he received his prison sentence for life, is being painted!! What can this mean? Normally its the precursor to selling the place...

other excitements are the hotting-up of the election campaign. Since us Brits can not longer vote nor have any control over how our taxes are spent, it does not really concern us (grrrrr)  but our mayor Georges Reverte has published an answer to the criticisms of the team fronted by Jean Fournier, quite forcefully. One significant element is the change of name of the new arts centre to the Maison des Arts et de l'Artisanat, thereby neatly side-stepping the elitist element that had been seen as inherent.

Ha!

Behold...

 ...the conquering hero comes!!!
Max has completed and survived his grueling African rally.

 He returned to us for one night - today he's off to Winnipeg but hopes to return soon.

We celebrated his survival at the bar (X- Luc's) and at the only restro in town (X-T-Rex)

Plus it was Janet's birthday, another cause to party...

Most of the tribe were out, including the rarely spotted Padge seen here with John's chin. Lots of photies, most of them unusable - I quite like this rather odd one of Claudinne, taken in the morning  at the coffee break. She has returned to the fold with a brand new titanium knee and is very happy with it.

The thought crossed my mind that future archaeologists will be charmed by the metal carried in our bodies and then I thought - oops, most people want to be cremated after death (NOT me BTW)  So is the metal extracted before cremation or does it go through with the corpse and if so does it melt??
Just askin'.

screwed

Here's our Lorraine who, alas, took a tumble and cracked her femur in a most painful manner. She has been screwed back together but can't put weight on the leg for another 5 weeks. For an active girl this is torture. For anyone else, the chance to sit about and watch the screen or read books would be not unacceptable -  

Get better soon Lorraine!! Apart from anything else, you are probably driving Leigh mad :)

At the Captains table

Captain Bob did the meal last night, for Angela, John and Margaret - and very good too, he's hired. AND he cleaned up.I'm lounging about and drinking. C'est comme ca.
Weather warmish but greyish, fairly dull though a deal better than the extremes that are going on elsewhere. Friends in the UK are flooded out. Courage, all.

Sociality

Here's Angela, back with us for a few days, at breakfast in the Pont yesterday - where we were joined by Mr and Mrs Matthews, also back for a holiday in the sun.

 

Actually the sun disappeared at lunch time and today, Monday, is grey so far... Ken and Annette dropped in after the market, helped me drink just a little Monbazillac - treat time - 

In the evening I forgot to take photos of the apreo at mine, with Jim Barty, Susan, Angela and of course me and Le Capt. We explored various forms of magic and traded histories. And drank a particularly good blanquette and ate quite good nibble stuff.
             >bouff<

Axing dinner

Dinner was more a performance piece than a meal - without Roland, we'd have had to gnaw a rack of deer communally. Judicious use of an axe prevented this embarrassing opportunity.
It was delicious, BYW. Many thanks to all concerned, the hunter, the hunted, the donor, the youtube chefs and the man with the axe.

Dead Deer

Bob's neighbours Tom and Maggie, back briefly... hasn't he grown?? 

Here's Maggie looking glam on her new sofa cover. She came bearing a rack of venison - I've soaked in brine and then marinaded, full report on that after the eating. 

post apocalypse

The riverbanks are changed, the litter is everywhere after the flood - any children at a loose end in your house?? Send them out collecting -
Yesterday was mild and grey. Love it.

Feast day

I'm back and by the skin of my teeth - there's a storm called CIARA in the north of England, where I was for my great-aunts' 100th birthday over the weekend. Got back to Esperaza by train from Liverpool to Manchester airport and Ryan air to Carcassonne - time and tension but we made it, unlike some of  the cousins who are still marooned. 

Realising that today is the feastday of Our Lady of Lourdes I went to the church to look at the grotto and sing allelujia there - here is the stained glass image above it.

Looked at the other windows, a mixed bunch but another two featured young women having visions - a product of their times and diet no doubt. 

Apartments have been built the other side of this window so its luminosity is somewhat curtailed

 There's a slight drizzle here, very pleasant after the driving rains and mega mph winds of blighty.

 Here is a connection to the facebook page for the 8a8....  no backwater this, right?

Though maybe it is. Plonkers have scratched into the stone surface of the ex-fountain outside of the ex-Cathar Gormande. It'll take a stone grinder to get it out, maybe a while with emery paper. Volunteers?

Weds

Went to Quillan in the morning, first time for an age - Sue the Book Lady was there with many English books :) In case you don't follow the plot here, you should know that Sue has a spot in Quillan market on a Wednesday where you can take books, return or swap them.  Blessings on her.

The early evening was a meeting with our endlessly patient mayor Georges Reverte and his team together with a soupcon of artists  for a natter....

 ...followed by dinner with Pete and Clare chez nous.

 A beautiful day - going to Liverpool tomorrow for a long weekend - more anon!

Giant Chrysalis

Actually not a chrysalis, as far as I know - its Susans self-portrait. Brilliant.

And here is the artist who hosted an apero for some of the usual suspects last night...

and the mean streets of Esperaza, where the talk was all of the weather. Monday 28 degrees, Tuesday 8 degrees and rain. 

remembered, forgotten...

Forgot to photograph dinner here with Micheal and Barbara which was a lovely evening. I'm writing about it so I won't forget it totally, what with the brain getting more whimsical daily... what was I saying?
---It was the first day we were foreigners here. All rather down, though dealing with it maturely of course. I made a suet steak and mushroom pudding and a trifle, a memory of our young days when we all believed we were Europeans, before we joined legally. We return to that innocent state. Jaded.

 Here's my letter from the mayor telling me I no longer have the right to vote here. Given the amount we pay in taxes here you might suppose we could have a say in the running of the place.
Deep breath...

Here's the market yesterday, shrouded in the mornings mist.

and here's dear Madame Leaner [spelling???] who has taken a tumble and broken her collar bone and arm. Shes in her 90's so not great news but she's happily trotting about - we all wish her well, pronto -

The afternoon was baking, comparatively speaking. Peter Dunn and I embraced  the humiliation of watercolour landscape painting. He's mastering the dark art a lot quicker than I am.

Pamiers

 Thanks to Roland, Kat and I went to l'espace d'art comtemporain des Carmes at Pamiers last night - to check out our old mate Mat Hilton. Excellent expo :) and open until 15th Feb. Do get there if you can.

At opening parties in France everybody gives speeches. Mat managed a brilliant double act for his, where his talk alternated with comments from a professional performer. Great trick -

Three exhibition spaces and all rammed... well done that man.
Ate at a Portuguese restro afterwards, drank - ha!- Mateus Rose. Blast from the past. Lovely night. Took my mind off becoming a foreigner.
Back in Esperaza, people in the street being most kind about B#*x@#