Screams In The Night - Part Two and Five Cows Shot Dead

The incident of the screaming man has been brushed under the carpet,with the mayor and farmers saying we had mistaken a cow crying!! I was annoyed at this as I can tell the difference between a cow and a human! However, My next nearest neighbour down the valley went to help another friend out with her bees and she described the man, with his red beard, as having been wandering around her hives, and asked to buy a pot of honey with a cheque. He said someone had stolen his rucksack and things and he had been sleeping rough!! Definitely our man and quite a looney, a little 'slow' maybe. So he is still around as that was on Thursday after the screaming. Maybe that was when his things were being stolen? So still a bit of a mystery. It looks like it is forgotten and now being joked about.......serves them right if they find a body in two year's time like the other one! We did our duty and reported the screaming. And the main story would be: "The Mystery Why Any Crimes Reported By Foreigners Are Not Investigated" !!! LOL It is still weird, because people keep seeing him around here, My neighbour, then a beekeeper friend from the next village about 6km after My neighbour's house, which is even more remote than ours! People have likened him to an elf, a wizened old man, Cat Weasle (a character in a 1970s children's programme), a hippy, a tramp etc. if he had his rucksack stolen, maybe that was all the screaming? But why deny screaming? And why has he not asked the police for help? Of all the people that saw him, none have said he asked for help. At My friend's mill where she keeps bees and sells honey, p he was seen among the hives, a dangerous thing to do, then when questioned he asked to buy a pot of honey for 12 euros, he said he had no cash, then pulled a cheque out of his back pocket to pay, he made the cheque out for more and she gave him a few euros change so he could get a coffee. Of course this could have been a dud cheque, but he is still hanging around. If he had committed a crime you would expect him to high tail it out of the area. Actually not easy to do if he didn't have a map, and after the event near us, we now know which direction he went in which was deeper into the forested Corbieres. Not the actions really of a criminal on the run. He was also spotted hanging around in another village later and he had been able to buy a coffee, presumably with the cash back that the beekeeper gave him. Time will tell if the cheque is dud! But it will have an address on it. Such a small community of people for 10 k in each direction from here, and a convenient, almost medieval gathering at the plant fair, now everyone knows of his existence if not his exact whereabouts! So really, everyone is on the alert. However this does not really instill confidence in the French Gendarmes, who are army and not police, but in control in these remote areas. We need also to remember that we are on one of the routes used by the Resistance in World War two and before, through the Pyrenees. The forest in this area is still thick providing perfect cover. Unfortunately these routes are now used by illegal immigrants on their way up through France and Spain, after perilous crossings of the Mediterranean Sea. A body was found two years ago just 300 metres outside our village. It was just a skeleton and the bones had been scattered across a wide area by wild boar, but his rucksack was beside his skull, untouched for two years. He was discovered by a cow farmer who spotted the rucksack before the grisly remains. In the rucksack was 20,000 euros, and maps of the area. No sinister story here though, he had been trekking to Bugarach Mountain and Rennes le Chateau, and had died of natural causes. Both these places deserve a blog article from me. Bugarach Mountain is a place of pilgrimage by UFO enthusiasts, and was recently a place supposedly thought capable of turning into an alien spaceship to take people away from the earth when it was forecast to end by the Mayan calendar on 21 December. More questions were left unanswered some months ago when a local cow breeder had Five of his very pregnant cows shot dead in the field. I knew nothing about this until I noticed the corpses, swollen and fly blown, piled up on an open trailer right beside a layby on the main road as I came home from a restaurant quite late at night. I saw legs and hooves sticking up in the aur and was instantly reminded of all the horror of the slaughter during the Foot and Mouth outbreak in the UK, about 15 years ago. The stench was so bad I could smell it three hundred metres away at my house.......i contacted the town hall to find out that they were waiting for the gendarmes to come and check the bodies before they could be sent for disposal and processing. It had already been a week since the shooting. This story finds its place into this article because it was another crime against, or reported by foreigners. The gendarmes had to be pushed hard by a petition to the Prefect signed by all the local mayors, to investigate the shooting. People around here, not only farmers were worried. First cows, then people. Was this some looney or a local person on a hidden agenda? Even then it was not really investigated, and the dutch farmer and his girlfriend were at one stage barricaded into a friend's house with guns, expecting reprisals. To this day, this crime has never really been investigated, but there has been speculation and everyone seems to know who the perpetrator is!! But the crime has just been allowed to be forgotten by the fog of time.

Screams In The Night - Not a very Quiet Night in the Corbieres

Living in isolation in the middle of the countryside is not everyone's cup of tea. We love it and have become accustomed to the noises, the way of the country life and the natural cycles of the year and weather. I can spend hours outside just listening to the birds and other wild animals, and our own animals. I suppose I am more in tune to these noises than most people because of this. The noises change with the seasons, and of course there are more human noises in the summer when so e people like to 'wild camp' in our area, or the keen hunters at the start of the season camp out to get an early start at dawn. One of the noisiest nights was when the Tour de France chose to come right past us on the nearest main mountain road. We were not expecting the amount of people that chose to bring their camper vans and tents here. Every corner of the road, on the grassy edges and in laybys were little gatherings of Tour followers, all excited, meeting up with old friends, and noisily eating and drinking the night away, to wait for the two or three second flash of their lycra encased heros cycling by the next day. So, it was strange, when at about 9:45 pm last night my husband went out to put the chickens away and shut the llamas in their home pen, he quickly came back to say he had heard shouting outside, like someone crying for help. I went outside to listen and sure enough there were several more, chilling screams. We could not understand any words, just screams, and when we shouted out in French asking if someone needed help, the screams stopped. We were sufficiently worried to think about phoning the Gendarmes, but as there is no night cover around here for 50 km, had anyone been hurt that could have serious consequences. A hunter was injured five years ago when a wild boar attacked him and one of its tusks gashed his femoral artery. He called for help on his mobile phone but the emergency services by road and helicopter were too late, he bled to death. So, my husband grabbed a high powered search light, jumped in the Land Rover and headed off in the direction of the screams, on a green lane next to the river. Meanwhile I telephone a friend whose husband I knew had been chainsawing and clearing a trail not far from us earlier in the day, the check if he was home, he was so we were relieved. I saw the Land Rover lights disappearing in the distance and I listened for more screams, but heard nothing. I frightened myself when there were rustlings on the opposite bank of the stream in front of me....I had left all the dogs inside so that I could listen....so I had no protection. My mind started working overtime, what if someone had been attacked? Our lights are the only ones for miles, could the attacker head in my direction. I rushed inside and took up position on the first floor at an open window. I heard nothing more. I rang a friend for advice, who in turn rang the mayor of our village who has the power of the

One of my guard llamas!! police here and I think can even arrest people in exceptional circumstances! The message back to me was that he had contacted my immediate (300mt away)neighbour and both were on their way. My husband was taking a long time and I had started to think he was now in trouble......anyway he arrived back to say that he had seen a stranger, a man, not dressed for the torrential rain that was falling, standing up at a crossroads about a kilometer up the road. There is an old, open fronted stone building at this crossroad and the guy was standing in there. My husband spoke to him, asked if he needed help but the man just stared at him. So my husband came back home. He arrived outside at the same time as our neighbour and the mayor, so they left together to investigate the 'man in the stone shelter'. We have another neighbour about a kilometer away, so I rang her to warn her that there was something going on and the area could be full of flashing blue lights soon. After about half an hour my husband returned and had not understood the situation up at the stone shelter. The man had been there, outside, leaning on the stone tourist map when they arrived and the two Frenchmen spoke to him, then looked in his only bag, a small plastic shopping bag, that contained a couple of tins of food. They then left the man up there! I was concerned about this, but when I rang the mayor a few minutes later he told me that the man was not drunk but very confused, not making any sense and no reason apparently for screaming. The mayor was sufficiently concerned himself that there was no real explanation that he had called the gendarmes as soon as he had got home. Since the mayor was talking to a town 50km away originally, there was a call back on the mayor's mobile from the local gendarme while I was on the phone to the mayor. The story was relayed to me by the mayor's wife.......the Gendarmes would cone and cruise the only two possible routes he could have wandered off along, and check out the stone shelter, but they would make a full investigation in the morning. They believed him to be a vagrant passing through? We locked everything up really well, put away the axes! And got some sleep, although I listened for a long time at the window. Now here I am waiting for more news or a visit from the gendarmes. Meanwhile I feel there are so many unanswered questions. He could have been in shock, after witnessing an attack, there could still be someone else somewhere. He could have escaped from a mental home, even vagrants dress for the bad weather, and why be a vagrant in such a remote area, not many pickings or donations from few passers by. Who knows? There may be a follow up to this post......or maybe not.....

Bar Wars - Part Two

Bar Wars part 2

I am wide awake, it's only 5:50am, the moon is so bright and it has just passed behind our house and shone right across my eyes, but what a treat, the nightingale is singing with such a passion. It has been a cold night though, the stars were amazing when we got home from the bar, Orion's belt was lying across the top of the trees at the end of the garden! I really hope that giant breton got home safely. I think he probably stopped somewhere to sleep off the alcohol as he is only working in the next village, and home would be an hour's drive, and most french workers have an early start. The young man that I have seen before who was with them was very amusing in French and English. Our friend was telling him how worried she was about him driving off, the boy shrugged his shoulders and said, ' il est majeur et vaccine', " he's over 18 and vaccinated". Which I think is such a funny way of saying, "he's a big boy, grown up" and not to worry about him. The young hippy family in the bar were friends of the owner, their baby was so adorable. Babies and animals are attracted to my husband, probably because he looks like Father Christmas! But this baby who had just learnt to walk, made a bee line for Papa Noel with his arms open, so he just picked him up and sat there with this complete stranger's baby for about 10 minutes. The parents both had elaborate, long dreadlocks decorated with beads, and both wore "sarouels", those very baggy cotton trousers that seem to be made out of two large squares of fabric seamed together, are tight at the ankles and the crotch seems to be right down there somewhere too! Even the baby had a tiny pair on!! They were great on him as they easily accommodated his nappy and wobbly new walking legs, he had a little tiny twisted bit of hair at the nape of his neck with coloured cotton wound round it, so cool at 13 months!! Shame, I could hardly whip my Ipad out to take a photo! I suppose a 'real journalist' woul have done so! We sat and had another drink with them before we left because it was still very early. The family made a fuss of the owner who was quite shaken by the whole thing, and they made her a drink and we all sat talking about the incident with them for a little while. This, and the bar we started off in, are the only two places anywhere near us that we can take visitors. Fortunately, our visitor was very amused by the whole thing, and we spent a long time laughing about it on the way home, and at home, while I made us Irish coffees and a hot water bottle for her to tuck her up in her LDV camper van, already christened the Powys Hilton! (Powys is an area in Wakes, UK). I was definitely a party girl, working in the tourist industry I had to be a continuous party girl with all the various groups that came out to France, Italy or Greece every week. People on holiday are naturally in a different mood. It's a wonder I did not become an alcoholic, drinking and socializing as much as I did every night for 5 months at a time. I barely had a month off between summer, Greek island holiday seasons and winter ski seasons. And for most of that time all my drinks were offered free by bar owners grateful I had brought tourists to their bars, and I had to spread my affection too by taking various groups to various bars every night. Now, it is the same but on a much smaller scale. We might be retired, but whenever people come to see us they are on holiday and ready to party, so we join in. We are acting like tour guides of course for our area of France, but sometimes it was a little difficult to visit the same tourist attractions every week. Four or five visits to Rennes le Chateau looking for the priest's gold or aliens is quite enough in one summer than you!! Now, it's better as most of our hard core of friends have been coming here for over twenty years to visit us and they don't want to do the 'tourist thing' anymore. They come to se us, to eat, drink and talk about old times which I can only just about handle these days. I can not do all the walking involved in showing people around all the Cathar castles now. I have a library of guide books for visitors which I put by their beds. We always hope now that our visitors come here by car, or hire a car, and do not need to be driven here around by us. And we pray for a break between visitors as our old bones cannot cope with all the extra running around cooking, cleaning, putting up teepees and making merry. Dawn is breaking now and the nightingale has been joined by hundreds of other birds, the dawn chorus is fantastic. I should try to "video" it to record the sounds, the cow bells are ringing as don't know if it will work? I'll have a go, but as soon as my feet touch the floor or I open the back door, the dogs are going to hear me and 6:30 is still a bit early to wake up visitors, or the snoring Papa Noel next to me! Zzzzzz Tomorrow we thought we'd go to a bar in Tournissan for a meal. This bar is run by a threesome of one guy and two women who share a bed, and one of the women looks like the french footballer Eric Cantona.......so I expect there will be a tale to tell tomorrow as well. Then Friday, back to the original cafe where we are booked in for a meal, and finally Saturday we have an invite to a barbecue......but by Saturday, according to the rumours we should have snow!! Never a dull moment here. Never a Quite Day in the Corbieres!

Update on the house to rent

No dates available at the moment, fully booked, sorry.

Bar Wars - Part One

Bar Wars - part 1

If you buy a holiday home, or move here permanently like we did you need to prepare yourself for the phenomena of constant summer visitors.....some a pleasure to welcome, others can be hard work! We have some space in the house, but we also put up a decorated teepee and a large Inuit tent in the orchard which is frequented at night by wild boars......but that's another story.....and we don't tell the visitors! It is exhausting talking to visitors all day. I insist on everyone here having siestas, and pack visitors off to their rooms, campervans or teepees to take an afternoon nap or at least be quiet, it is the only way I can recharge my batteries for the next round of cooking or going out. To wake us from our daytime slumbers today, another expat in our village, an 86 year old english lady, full of character, arrived with her little dog, to have my husband cut her dew claws that had once again grown right round digging in her pads, poor thing. Dave is the only person who can cut them, she even screams the place down for the vet! So cups of english tea and biscuits were served while the Dog Whisperer did his work! The sun was over the solar panels on the roof when he finished so the tea cups were replaced by glasses and it was time for a quick gin and tonic before dinner....... We decided to eat a steak up at the bar in the next village, so off we went at 7:30 pm, our neighbour, the cow farmer, was in there very drunk with two friends, one a giant of a handsome man from Brittany in northern France who made our neighbour look like a stick insect next to him, who was also so drunk he could barely stand, and a very short young guy about half the age of his drinking companions. The blonde giant immediately lurched over to Woody and me and started trying to talk in english, asking if we were "women of character!" "What character?" We asked, "Good or bad?". We humoured him a little as he was so very drunk. Disappointingly it turned out the bar was not serving food tonight, the owner, who we know very well was trying to get rid of my inebriated neighour and his two friends. So we sat outside, drank our drinks and left to go up to the next village, to the only other bar/cafe for miles around. At least the brazilian gypsy bar owner had some beautiful food, pork in a mustard sauce with rice, it was lovely. No sooner had the food arrived than the three drunks arrived!! It shocked me to find they had driven the 5 km up there!! Anyway, the bar owner refused to serve them, put glasses of water in front of them, and my neighbour ordered a pot of tea!! And showed it to everyone!! There was another couple with a year old baby in there and the 10 year old son of the owner watching a film on the computer. The drunk breton guy just suddenly started abusing the owner with long strings of insults in French, english and Portuguese, punctuated by the slang words for prostitute and slut in all three languages. Then he picked up a bottle of beer, shook it up and threw it all over everyone? My neighbour, who could not even stand, was apologising for his friend and trying to push his very tall friend out the door. The owner was phoning the police when the abusive guy walked/fell out the door, then we heard a van revving up and eventually driving off at high speed.......then, shock, horror, my neighbour and his small friend came back in, this meant that the extremely drunk guy had driven off in the van!! Apparently to drive 60 km to the village where he lived?? Leaving My neighbour and his nearly sober friend without a lift home. We offered but they refused. So that was Another Quiet Day in the Corbieres!! But it was not over yet....... When we got home we turned off the outside lights, locked all the doors and had strawberries and cream and Irish coffees, worried that my neighbour would turn up for a nightcap. His cows were everywhere around my garden, eyeing up the long grass and my baby lettuces on our side of the pathetic non electrified electric fencing. Four or five massive, grey Gascon cows with cow bells and very big horns were looking expectantly over the thin wire at us. We parked the Land Rover on the tiny bridge over the dry stream bed that was our only defence from the invasion of these beautiful ladies in search of a lush green meal. Just to finish off an absolutely crazy evening, we were suddenly aware that the clanging of the cow bells had hot louder and we shone the torch outside to see that the herd of hungry cows had all burst through my neighbour's flimsy wire fences and were lined up on our bridge behind the Land Rover, looking over the blue bailing twine I had rigged up as a defence when they all escaped yesterday?? Whatever next?? It was pointless trying to ring the neighbour who we presumed was still drunk in the bar in the next village, he was not going to rush down here to control his cows, he couldn't even control his own legs! And so to bed........LOL Tomorrow we thought we'd go to a bar a little further down the mountain for a meal. This bar is run by a threesome of one guy and two women who share a bed, a real 'menage a trois'. Another woman who frequents this bar looks like the french footballer Eric Cantona.......so I expect there will be a tale to tell tomorrow as well. Then Friday, back to the original cafe where we are booked in for a meal, and finally Saturday we have an invite to a barbecue......but by Saturday, according to the rumours we should have snow!! Never a dull moment here.

2014 Starting off the garden

Starting off my garden for 2014

Before starting garden......get out neighbour's cows I started tomato seeds and chilies way back in February in the warm bathroom under lights with my orchids that need extra care and humidity in the winter. And one or two flower seeds that need an early start like Sweet Peas and morning Glory. I have everything to convert an old cheap metal greenhouse that long since lost its cover, into a heated tent, but this winter (2013/14) never really got bad and I was very busy. I really started in 2013 with garlic, I have had garlic in the ground since December 21st, it is traditional here to plant on the Winter Solstice and harvest on the Summer Solstice, the 21 June. This will leave me a half empty raised bed to plant again, probably with some quick, cut and cone again salad leaves. Then in March and April I started planting beetroot, a salad leaf mix called Mesclun here and red onion sets all outside as it was so mild. I covered them with thin white fleece to protect from sudden cold nights but we did not have any this year! Global warming? Who knows? We have had minus 15 C in March before now, we are at 500 metres above sea level in the Pyrenees. Last week (April 16-18) we had daytime temperatures of 23 to 28 degrees C and everything put on a fantastic spurt of growth........today all my seed trays are piled up in the kitchen as we have had torrential rain and wind for two days over Easter. Gardeners need to be prepared for anything We had snow on the 5th of May a few years ago just after everyone had bought their organic veg plants at the local plant fair the day before which had been hot and sultry! Fortunately I had not planted out my new plants and I just brushed off the snow and brought them all into the kitchen and bathroom. Permanent plants in the veg plot I have three massive globe artichoke plants that are perennial and give about 15 fruits per season, and a mass of Jerusalem artichokes (like potatoes) put on a wonderful display of yellow, sun flower-like flowers in late summer, then we dig them up and eat them, leaving some to continue next year. Somewhere down there I had a massive Horseradish plant, but I cannot seem to identify it among the other robust weeds, so my original donor has given me two other pieces of root to plant this year.....I will make a large sign for it this time. Various herbs reappear every year, chives, Greek oregano, Sage Officianalis, thyme, rosemary, lemon balm, several mints, lavender (where would my blog be without it?) and of course fruit and nut trees, cherry, apple, almond, peach, plum, elderberry, walnuts, cob nuts etc. i supplement these perennial herbs with those I grow annually, corriander (cilantro), parsley, several basils, two different types of parsley, and dill. I may have forgotten something. We have seed swaps between villagers and friends, which is a good excuse for a get together. Then after Easter when everyone (hopefully) has had lots of success with seed sowing, we often swap plants, and some people have that many they rent a table at the plant fair to sell their extras. I never have time to do this!! I am too busy buying everything else at the plant fair to sit down! The plant fair is the place to meet everyone from miles around, this year it is on the 4th of May and is the first local outside get together and barbecue of the year. We fill the back of our car with boxes to hold all the plants on their very short journey home. We find a table near the bar, order our lunch and some drinks, then I wander to and fro the stalls, ferrying plants back to my other half to take to the car. We mert all our old friends and shake off the cobwebs of winter together over a glass of red wine. This is one of my favourite days of the year I buy the rest of my organic tomato plants, some local heritage varieties, cucumber plants to trail up a wooden teepee, usually a variety of three or four courgette plants, and three or four aubergine (egg plant) plants. To supplement my lettuce plants and salad leaves I buy some small plants by the dozen, although I will continue to sow leaves throughout the summer.

PHOTOS OF HOUSE TO RENT IN SOUTH WEST FRANCE

Gite to rent in South West France

We have a gite to rent in the centre of the tiny village of Laroque de Fa. The building is more than 300 years old and was the old bakery, the bread oven and system for heating the house are still in place. We do have a more modern heating system now..... Ground Floor: Kitchen with electric stove, washing machine fridge freezer fully equipped for four people. There is a small sitting area with armchairs and a dining table. There is a wood burning stove for which an initial supply of wood is included in the price. From here there is an original staircase to the first floor. First Floor: On this floor there are two bedrooms, one with a double bed, the other is at present made up as a single with an orthopedic bed. A second single would fit in this room. On this floor is a separate WC and bathroom with bath and shower over. Second Floor: The second floor is reached by another original staircase in the local style, through a door which effectively shuts off the two floors. This floor can be included in the accommodation although the ceiling is yet to be painted, it comprises one large room where there is a double bed and two singles set up as a corner sofa, there is also a large dining table and chairs. The windows open on to a little square in front of the house which was the original threshing area for the grain. Hot water, and electricity are included in the price of the gite. Linen is charged at 10 euros per person per week. Cars should be left in the area next to the church or on the main square. The road up to the gite becomes very narrow and although there is a way through via the top of the hill, it is only suitable for pedestrians or very small cars. There is a piece of land belonging to our gite which is a little overgrown and wild but visitors are welcome to use this for picnics during their stay, it is about 200 metres away, we will be happy to show yo where this is and in season you can pick the figs and enjoy them. Laroque de Fa is on the D613 road from Narbonne through to Couiza, putting you within easy reach of places like Roman Narbonne, the old city of Carcassonne, sed in Kevin Costner's film Robin Hood Prince of thieves, Rennes le Chateau with its mysterious history, and Rennes les Bains for free hot spring bathing in the woods, also recently used By Kate Mosse as the setting for her novel Sepulchre. There is a file of useful information on the shelf in the sitting room downstairs, and if you need any more specific information please do not hesitate to contact your hosts on : 04 68 70 09 38 You should also come and visit us while you are here, we have a small farm just outside the village where we are renovating the old watermill, the Moulin de St Jean Circa 1260, and we have an organic vegetable garden, llamas, goats and other animals to see. Photos of the gite to follow.

Another quiet day in the Corbieres!: 4th December and still cosmos in flowe..............r

Another quiet day in the Corbieres!: 4th December and still cosmos in flowe..............r

4th December and still cosmos in flowe..............r

We have had such a mild autumn here. South of France, what's new you might say? Well we are at altitude in the foothills of the Pyrenees and the growing season can be quite short with early frosts and snow. This year we were still picking aubergines and beetroots last week. Cosmos is an annual plant, as my avatar, and to still have flowers even after our first frosts is amazing. Although the flowers are about half the size of the ones shown on the left. Pandy the new kitten who was abandonned 'chez nous' this summer is growing fast, she is on the Pussy Pill at the moment as we do not have time to go get her fixed, and do not want any more little paws running around here. A friend's dog has just produced a litter of 10 puppies, spaniel crosses, but not spaniels as we know them, in France the breed épagneul has much shorter ears. We agreed to take a female spaniel-type, they will be ready to go at Christmas, but everyone wants females so do not know yet if we will get one. We can only take a female at the moment as our old Japanese Akita male is now nearly blind and deaf and a bit aggressive to other male dogs. When he goes we will be looking for a large guard dog, a Patou - Pyreneen Mountain dog or another Akita would be good. As usual I am having problems uploading photos, I think I have to learn how to reduce the number of pixels, so this message will be lacking in photos. We are bracing ourselves for a bad winter according to the locals, and snow is forecast for the Alps today, but only a little for the Pyrenees. We may buy snow shoes this winter to go feed the animals as walking was very difficult in soft deep snow last year. Photos coming soon.... à bientôt!!

Paragraphs ? Have they B.O. Bugged Off?

Maybe I am missing something on the new layout of French Blogger, I don't know but even when pressing enter/return twice while writing the post, the paragraphs do not appear on line. Hey ho, must be going the way of all grammar, it has taken me ages to decifer some text message from my son because of the abbreviations. No need now to remember things like: Because = Big Elephants Can Always Annoy Small Elephants....... So I guess I shall have to use photographs to split up my 'new' thoughts.

We have had a very dry summer, hardly any rain at all, but when it arrives to make up for lost time, we had a flood last week, although not quite as bad as the one above. If we ever had to protect this place I think we should remove the bridge and put in a drawbridge..

The veg garden was a bit of a disaster this spring as I was unfortunately ill with shingles followed by a skin infection which seemed to go on for ages. Miraculously the garden still produced loads of tomatoes and potatoes, and lots of salad for the tortoises. Last week we took off the final aubergines and chillies. I have never planted anything for the winter but maybe I should as we have more time available to care for the garden in the winter.

This picture of Frida and Marmy from last winter is just how they were last night. This week we lit the wood burner for the first time since April which is quite a saving on wood and kerosene for the Rayburn. We bought in 2 piles of wood from a neighbour's son as he was earning money to pay for his next term at college, and Dave cut down several trees in our wood in the spring, so they will also be dry enough to burn, we just have to drag them from the wood and cut them up. Did I say 'We' - I mean Dave, although I ought to learn to use the chainsaw, but it frightens me. I recently become interested in 'Preparedness', TEOTWAWKI - the end of the world as we know it, and feel living where we do is halfway to being safer than in a large town, but where would anyone run to in Europe? The only wilderness would be in or near to the arctic circle, and I do not think I will be walking there with my Bug Out Bag.....:o) I have just been updating first aid kits, clothes, my seed bank of collected seed for veg next year. We always have enough staple foods here to last months and we only go shopping once a month anyway. Let's hope things do not go even more pearshaped in Europe financially with Greece etc. and Iran stays 'cool'.

Am I becoming a Preppie, with my BOB,BOV and BOL ?

I have been reading about BVs, BOBs, BOLs for WTSHTF (when the s... Hits the Fan), i.e. a major disaster resulting in having to leave quickly - to Bug Out. I know where we live we will probably be Bugging In, as we are in a self sufficient (or could be) situation. Ray Mears is my hero, I love his programmes and films for the scenery mainly, but living on few resources and your own skills and knowledge in a crisis situation has always interested me. In the USA it seems to be big business with loads of blogs, mainly by guys, about Bugging Out and survival. I am not knocking these blogs and related sites as there is a wealth of information on them, but the selling side of things I can avoid. A great deal of these sites cater for people bugging out to the Wilderness and surviving on berries, living in home made shelters and fishing with the basic items brought with them in a tobacco sized tin, in an Every Day Carry bag with concealed weapons, but what about the townies, people in big cities or in the suburbs. The Wilderness is not very close to Wimbledon, and in the UK we cannot legally carry guns and machetes! Where would we have bugged out to if we had still been living in the UK? Some of the blogs/sites cater for suburban and city Bugging Out, but not all, remember the chaos after Hurricane Katerina and the length of time it took before some people were rescued. We have already had to survived being cut off several times here by floods and snow. The last time we were cut off for 4 days with no electricity, no phone, no mobile phone and out only way out was by tractor as the snowplough had effectively compounded our situation, had we needed to get out, by ploughing past our exit onto the main road and piling up the snow. We are lucky, we had stores of food and the building is a watermill with a well, and we had prepared when things started to look bad, by filling the bath with water etc, taking a shovel inside, propping the main door shutter open a bit as they open out and snowdrifts could block us. We have a wood burning stove and loads of cut wood which we brought inside before the snow was 2ft high, found the candles, filled up all the oil lamps. In a way we were prepared and survived with a lot of humor. The mayor and a councillor walked the kilometer from the village in a blizzard to see if we were OK on the third day, I was a little concerned about there being no form of external contact whatsoever for so long in case one of us had been ill etc. and it would have been difficult to walk out (add snow racquets to our list for this year). Having a Bug Out bag has always been sensible to me, I have always had a 'Hospital Bag' packed and ready to go, with a list of all my medications, wash stuff, my medical history written in French (husband does not speak much french), some money, etc. The bag is located in view where my husband can find it, this 'HB' came about after I was rushed into hospital in the UK and my husband ran around like a headless chicken, and a day later brought in a large black plastic bin bag stuffed with T shirts and socks some of which were dirty, no wash things. The riots and looting in the UK were terrible this year, but think how they would have been compounded had the reason for them been survival, and not just looting designer jeans and trainers after, for example a 4 day cut off from power, no food deliveries, no fresh water being pumped and no money from cash machines, no petrol in the pumps, many people shop from day to day and have no stores and there would be no fresh water, surviving a major disaster would be much harder in a town. During the Athens earthquake in 1981 my friend and I rushed out of her basement flat terrified, and spent the next two nights under tarpaulins and tents in a nearby park, it was cold even in Athens in February and would have been more bearable if we had had a Bug Out Bag to take with us, we did however, soften the hardship by consuming rather large amounts of Metaxa brandy. I picked up some very useful ideas from these US sites and blogs am now in the process of making up a decent Bug Out Bag and improved first aid kit for the house and both the vehicles. One of the best ideas/necessities I am preparing now is to scan all valuable documents, deeds, ID, driving licence, heath number, family photos, etc. onto a 4Gb USB key to carry with me at all times, together with a list of contact numbers for family and friends. The torrential rain this week set me off on this new obsession........Be Prepared, Dib, Dib, Dib......... www.faliaphotography.com a woman on her own in a van, is the site I stumbled upon while researching camper vans, which started me linking to other survival sites that she lists. http://survivalgoddess.blogspot.com http://youtu.be/DOo9bjLtL3Q this will frighten you, so what is the point of storing stuff

My Empress Tree is flowering!!!!!

No photo yet as I have a new camera and have not yet managed to learn how to upload photos, but was pretty excited when I saw the buds. Let's just hope they manage to survive the cold nights, and that we do not get a frost yet. Temp was 7 degrees C a few nights ago, but it has been up to 29 degrees C in the day, an Indian SUmmer for us.

See entry and video about Empress Trees below or in the archives.

Will add to this post later.

Never a Quiet Day in The Corbières......................

Seriously, I have just been reading another inspiring blog and when I left a comment I realised I have not posted on here for nearly a year.

Too busy I suppose with enless visitors, and various crafts, and involved with the village community.

So, I am off outside to take some piccies to bring everyone up to date again.

We are starting our winter preparations, Dave is chopping up the trees he cut down in April, so that we can bring it nearer the house before the trail gets too muddy or too deep in snow.

We have another new arrival, Pandy, an kitten with a panda face......more later.

We are considering selling our village house, buying a camper van (RV) and travelling up to see the Northern Lights..............but what to do with the animals?

Shiro is showing his age now, he is bery wobbly on his legs and when he wags his tail he falls over, he is deaf and nearly blind, but he still manages to run away towards the village.......

Spinning with a drop spindle

Thank you Abby Franquemont

NUNO FELTING SCARF 2 - Laminate felting

1.  Lay silk or silk chiffon, or muslin material along a table covered in plastic.
2.  Pull very light pieces of wool from the wool roving and place around the edge - overhanging the edge.
3.  Place some wool in the opposite direction along the edge

4.  Start adding your design, these are pink dyed Wenslydale curls.  It is always best to place some very light pieces of roving wool across addition like this to ensure they are well anchored onto the piece.

5.  Don't breath , open a window or let in the cats it could be disastrous!!

6.  When you have completed your design cover with nylon mesh - if the scarf is long this is a two person job and needs to be done slowly to avoid moving the design.

7.  Now the messy bit.......mix up a bowl of hot soapy water - washing up liquid or Lux soap flakes for wool until the mixture is very slippery.  Start springkling this onto the design covered with the nylon mesh and as you do so, gently tap down the wet design.  Continue the length of the piece, do not miss any areas.  

8.  Smooth over with fingers and gently rub all along the edges of your design.

9.  Place another layer of bubble wrap over the piece.

10. Start to roll up from one end, quite tightly.

11.  Ties bundle with old tights in several places.

12.  Wrap in old towel

13.  Start rolling quite hard, keep elbows into sides to avoid over working your shoulders.

14.  After 20 minutes, un-roll and roll up again from the other end - repeat 20 minutes rolling.

15.  After this, unroll gently and make sure the edges are well felted, if not gently fold the edge over and rub with fingers.  Check the whole length of piece.

16.  Roll up again and repeat 5 minutes of rolling.

17.  Unroll and discard bubble wrap and towel.

18. NOW ABUSE YOUR WORK :D - gather it together and repeatedly throw it down on the table - this will start the shrinking process.  Do this for abot 10 minutes

19.  Rinse your piece in hot water squeeze gently, then again, in the sink throw the piece down into the bowl about 15 times. 

20.  Check the shrinkage is to your liking - check the edges have not felted against each other, they make need pulling apart to even design.

21.  Rinse work in cold water, squeeze out and hang up, again adjust any over felting and straighten any edges that are too felted.  Hang up to dry.

21.  The wool will have shrunk and the silk will crinkle up enhancing your original design.

22.  Feel free to add embroidery or sequins - anything you fancy.

HAPPY NUNO FELTING

Summer in the Corbieres - a busy, varied time as usual......

Pixie finds time to relax in the sun on the swing bed, all she needs is someone to swing her........

MLC Blues band from Tournissan came to play at our first village fete in June - great eveing!!

We had an 'open day' on the Journee de Patrimoine' Heritage day in France and met many interesting people with more information for us about our medieval mill.

Seems to be a bumper year for large crickets - there are about 6 in this photo, all on a spindle tree.

Feline Termenes plant fete and marche gourmande, usually the first outing of the 'season', this year, after snow in May some people lost the plants they bought here.

We had a very interesting day here with an archaeologist, Frederick Loppe and an historian.  They confirmed the base of the walls at the back of the mill date back to 1200, which confirms the history we have already discovered.  I laid out all the 'finds' we had made over the years and they identified them for me, a piece of roman glass, pottery from the 16th, 17th and 15th centuries, and a 'cannon ball' that our son found 15 years ago which we always thought was an ancient 'boule' for petanque!!! This will form the basis of another posting on this blog and the blog dedicated to the Moulin de St Jean - link in right hand column.

Art Holiday in France

Fancy eating well and having fun learning new skills with artist Kate Hardy  in the Pyrenees mountains?  A friend of mine is running an art week at her beautiful secluded farmhouse in the foothills of the Pyrenees - fantastic views......check it out here:

http://artholidayfrance.posterous.com

There are only two places left now.

New llama - Carabar Lily

This is Carabar Lily, a new arrival on our little farm.  Her name Carabar is the name of a witch in France, so we have named her Lily.  She has settled in with our old male, castrated llama, Larry, in fact she is now the dominant llama in the pen, but no aggression.

Unfortunately Carabar Lily has produced two handicapped crias (llama baby), so the owners asked me to home her while they had an entire male llama visiting their other females, to ensure she did not become pregnant.  I am happy to say that she may stay permanently with us.  We already love her and she eats from my hand.  Female llamas are known to be harder than males to train, but when things have calmed down here after the summer run of tourists and visitors, I will get down to some serious training with her.

Llamas are often used to 'guard' herds of sheep against dogs, wolves and cougars (not many of them i the Corbieres I am glad to say!!). They need to have some training to do this efficiently but they do seem to have some natural instinct.  Carabar Lily is already very possessive about the chickens.  The coop is in the llamas pen and when I let the chooks out to free range every afternoon, Carabar Lily hums her little warning noise when they go out of her sight, and when they come back to roost at dusk she often 'herds' them into the coop by touching her nose on their tails - this is very endearing.

The 'S' Word again......I don't believe it.......

Snow? In June - I had to 'phone a friend' to coonfirm that I had just heard the weather forecaster on TF1 mention the 'S'Word and Pyrenees in the same sentence - Not again, please......all my pants are late this year.

Update on the Empress Trees - they are doing very well, lots of leaves but they are not enormous, however the Empress Tree I moved that was not doing well had gone completely mad, and when we get some sun it will be providing shade for the tortoise.

Picture shows latest excavations inside our ruined mill that dates from before the Knights Templar occupied the area (before 1200)

Fete de Pays Corbieres - A good day, our village was hosting an historical walk along the river, probably pointing out the 'lack' of wildlife........ Just before lunch the group reached our mill and we actually learnt more historical facts from one of the visitors. He is coming back to see us tomorrow - La Journee des Moulins 20 juin - when we have an open day - Porte Ouverte. Today was the first day of a weekend of Patrimoine - heritage - when most museums and national monuments are open for free, we had about 10 visitors which I think was good considering we have had driving torrential rain......

I will add some photos later, Blogger seems to have changed its layout and it is not clear how to add photos now......