RIP Iain Macdonald

Iain left Esperaza in 2012 ish, when he and Steve sold their house off the square and moved back to Edinburgh to work.
Steve posted this morning;

With great sadness I have to tell you that Iain passed away last night in his sleep. He was much adored and all his many friends will miss him. We all have so many fabulous memories of this charming, gregarious man and I was privileged to know him and call him my dearest friend. Xx

Its improbable that any of us who caroused with Iain will ever forget him :) Much love and bonne courage to Steve, truly the loyalest of the loyal friends.

more prexmas celebrating

 Clare and Fran invited us to theirs last night - and lo! Charles, Frans brother, and his wife Louise were there since they are waiting to complete on their new home in Chalabre. So they'll be near neighbours and very welcome too, fine additions to the tribe.

They are as erudite and drole as Fran and Clare so the evening passed very quickly in laughter and joyful greed (in my case anyway, must stop eating so much) Onion soup, cuisse de canard, pear tart. Yum.

A tinge of sadness at the news of the funeral of Edmonde Bonnet, a lady of impeccable character and a force in the town. Last time I saw her, before the illness that saw her off, she was saying that she had lived too long and wanted out. Others who saw her in hospital said she felt she was in prison. She was 94 and won't be forgotten - she was the widow of Dr Bonnet and had worked in the health service here all her life, touching many lives. She also worked as a volunteer in the local food bank  (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurants_du_C%C5%93ur) in her great old age! A  model for us all.

pre-christmas party

 John and Sue, Eric and Alison and Richard are all off to spend Christmas elsewhere. John and Sue  gave a jolly dinner last night since we'll not meet over the festives...

Eric

Alison 

Bob,Alison, Richard

Some interesting topics were mooted. For instance, is it legal or ethical to send a drone over your neighbours land and swimming pool? And if not, is it legal to shoot it down? We reached no conclusion on that one :)

Market highlight

 Here's Nightingale with her beautiful new daughter, Alloui (not sure about spelling). Night says motherhood is great. Suits her :)

It continues to be cold but so far we have been spared the terrible weather in the rest of France. French friends continue to mourn Johnny; one explained that his songs paced their lives, their first kiss was to one of his songs, all the important events had a Johnny link. Wonderful massive funeral yesterday before he went to America to be buried. Great that an entire country can so honour a musician.

Art in Limoux

 There's a little gallery in Limoux,  http://leconsulatdesarts.fr/ which is hosting Muriel Bo, an artist/printmaker  we met at the arts weekend at Magrie.
 Instead of having an evening drinks party, they had a large meal spread for a brunch which was a nice idea... though Kat and I didn't stay on account of the amount stuff to do before Christmas.
 Good to see Muriel though.
That was yesterday, today its Sunday, its raining; not fair!!

Latest

 Here's Rosie! We are hoping she'll be a proper mate for Puerto (as opposed to Rico, who is a totally different species.) They are in separate cages at the moment, chattering to each other and generally getting on. Will put them together tomorrow if all continues well... and today being the anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, you are invited by the Communist Party to the School at Limoux for an exhibition and sale of posters, books and etc. There is a space for games and debate and a film will be shown. Starts at 15.00H.

All the latest...

...from Gossip Central :)

Here is Laughing Anna's Christmas window for the Creperie, nicely chosen.* She is my favorite artist, every year working around the shops of the region and painting the perfect image for the client.

 Yesterdays market, featuring the very large new christmas tree.... and a cold rabbit in the garden.

The only real news is that Andree has changed her plans and is not moving to the Maison de Retrait in Toulouse. Instead she is leaving us for another in a village called St Pierre d' Irube, near Bayonne. On the one hand this is really good, as there is non of the noise and traffic and pollution of Toulouse; on the other, it means that the weekend visits proposed by Esperaza's culture-and -Andree-lovers will not be able to happen. She won't escape us though - its only three hours away.

The new decision is prompted by the family, who have sold the Toulouse house and are moving to the Bayronne area.

*It brings to mind the time Edith took a newly-arrived group of Sudanese refugees to the museum of dinosaurs. It dawned on them that these bones were NOT plastic - they'd assumed they came from dinosaur movies, that is, fiction. Then when they learnt they were the real thing they thought maybe they were still living around here and were afraid. Like the Bible, the Koran has a particular take on our ancient past.