Tout-la

 Great Tout-la Wednesday, featuring O-B's family in from Norway to check on him -  and him still blossoming. Plus Peter G turned up as well as the usual suspects. And new boy Richard, new persons Deidre and Russell and others... Missed Roy who was away collecting Jo from the airport so no Alan who is usually wheeled round by the ferociously fit Roy. Pete and Claire left for blighty so also absent. 

Victoria

Olle

Justin 

Spot the Madso tribe!!!

the abomination of desolation

 

Here's le Healthy's terrace this morning... truly dismantled. Sad that another of Esperazas little treats has been lost - it looks very like TyRex today - 

Other news: The roof of the ex-Scottish Daves house is being redone.

Half of Esperazas glitterati are in Dublin for Kennys exhibition. The portrait of Mike, much admired, has been sold! 

Eclipsed, very partially

 

Yesterdays cryptic partial solar eclipse - or whatever this is. I trotted to the riverside garden at Garenaud which I thought would give me the best view, in full sun - and it clouded over as soon as I arrived, some 5 mins before the expected excitement. I did actually see the edge of the sun being nicked between cloud cover and found this perplexing photo when I got home.

But Bieke was there and that was a treat, we chatted through the light showers. Walked home along the river where there is quite of lot of damage from the high winds, fallen trees and branches. Saw a little black squirrel! And all the spring flowers are out, magic.

Now the clocks have changed. It's later than you think.

The ladies in my keep-fit class were talking about it; in France, the hour changed so they could work in the garden before school. 

same old same old

 There's a certain amount of repetition going on for lack of anything to say.... here's todays frog, coming up to battle the mossies -

It's been raining but the mighty Aude is taking the water in its stride -

...But look what excitement looms!!!

Me and Aileen Hennes will be signing (and flogging) our books in the British Library, Quillan, April 12th. Def a diary date.

Nel has made a poster, photographed in the window of the library. 

I'm sharpening my quill.

Our mayor gets a grip

 Here is our Mayors letter from Facebook,  clumsily translated by their resident bot:

4 prickly issues.

Regarding the Avenue of the Pyrenees, the SAUR will intervene tomorrow to clean the gravels and make us a clean avenue.

Contacted Enedis this morning regarding power outages. They are working on it but having trouble identifying the cause. We should quickly regain the sustainability of our networks.

Similarly, at the City of Sarrault's public meeting, the selection of trees didn't seem to have everyone convinced. We shredding this morning. There will be honey trees and other caramels. Less high, less harmful and clearing more friendly effluves.

Final point much more complicated as we have no return on TNT and the loss of channels. Following the calls from our assistant Rose-Marie Darot we currently have no return. Business to be continued...

Good to know! The entrance to the town, the Avenue of the Pyrenees, has had work on it for ever and is still a mess. The power failures have become routine, they are so many - we've lost a TV channel and would like it back.

But exciting to know that le Maroc will be having honey and toffee trees!

Other than that, we had a splendidly cheerful Wednesday night at tout-la - Ole-Bendick and Cleopatra got a standing ovation when they arrived - and Bob and I concluded the evening by eating chez nous with Pete and Claire, Terry and Di. It was good.

Here are some of the guests leaving, which is when I remembered the camera. Sigh.

mixed bag

 The resident frog yesterday, up and feeding after this long winter - seen again this morning but too jumpy to photograph. The birds are going ballistic and the cycle of life is moving into a good bit :)

And our resident immortal, Ole-Bendik, in the market after surviving his heart attack. Seen him look better but confident he'll be causing trouble soon.

A lull in our busy schedules, ahem, caused Bob to announce a trip. Accordingly off we went to far-flung Bram, to check out Barbara's exhibition. Without first checking out opening times, duh. Hoping to get back later this week, most imposing venue...

Fierce winds seen to have passed, causing many exciting electricity cuts last night. There's been an earthquake on the cote d'azur centered on Nice.

Have to give myself a plug now; in case anyone doesn't know I've written an informative book about death which outlines all the possibilities that science, philosophy, religion and new agers can imagine. 

It's available on Amazon.

 

Update

 Friday morning on the bridge... and I forgot to take photos of Gert and Elsbeth with whom we lunched at the Cafe de fa, which was lovely. We all like it there; and given that Erika is leaving us and abandoning the Cafe du Pont (in August, not for a while -) we need them!! On the plus side, Kevin has re-opened the creperie. No reports yet.

Susan is a brilliant cook, perhaps she can take on the Pont? Unlikely - but she gave a dinner last night which was superbe, a selection of salads and Lebanese-style dips, then trout and spinach lasagne (augmented by a tuna bake by Rose) and chocolate cheesecake and apple tart. Given that our friends were there and the music was also choice, it was a most successful evening :) Thanks all.

here's Maryann, back from Australia and en route to Switzerland - be here for the summer though.

and our Rose, looking good -

Mike and Kaye under the Periodic Table, deep in conversation - 

and our lovely hostess, programming a mix of eclectic music for our pleasure!