Contents of article "August 2007"
Friday 3rd August
Thursday 9th August
Thursday 16th August
Tuesday 28th August
Friday 3rd August
The weather continues to be absolutely fantabulous - very warm but not too heavy - with a light breeze to lull the sunbathers into a false sense of security! Bisou finds this weather rather unacceptable to the doggy species, and every time she walks into the room, it sounds like the Orient Express is passing through! She also has a new idiosyncrasy! She refuses to leave the house for walkies unless BOTH of us accompany her. If one of us remains in the house, she sits down on the door step and won’t budge! Insecurity?
We have had the ‘pompiers’ round this morning (at an unearthly hour so sadly I wasn’t looking my best. Ooooh – I do love a man in uniform!) to get rid of a wasp’s nest in the electricity meter. They were a very aggressive bunch of nasties, (the wasps, not the pompiers), and Lulu has already been stung eight times. They had a guard on the entrance of the nest and as soon as anybody or anything moved near by, four or five of them shot out and injected, unprovoked! It had become a nightmare just going to the post-box, but they have now gone to meet their maker, ascended to that great hive in the sky, and the way to the mail is clear, thanks to my heroes, the fireman (seen here doing up each other’s zippers!)
If you do have a wasp’s nest in your garden, your local firemen will come out and get rid of it for you. However, it is not free and in some cases it might be as cheap or cheaper to call out a pest control firm. It really depends if you have more than one nest and also where it is. If it is on the ’voie public’ - land that is not private - they will do it for nothing.
Tonight I am going up to Coustouges to watch Sam Zarka play. He’s a local guy, who plays folksy, Neil Young, Dylan type of music style and will be there every Friday night through August so if you live around that area, do go along and support him - he’s a lovely chap. I’ll take some photos and let you know what the music sounds like, but who really cares how good or bad he is, when you are lucky enough to be sitting in the mountains under the stars, eating moule-frites and sipping a cold glass of something red?
Thursday 9th August
Wow! After a couple of days of torrential rain, we now have a fairly strong Tramontane whipping around our nether regions. Personally, I don’t have a problem with some occasional bad weather in summer, as it means that I can sit in front of my computer all day without Olivier trying to drag me into the pool every time he comes in!
So what has been going on in my life in the PO. Weeellllllll - the new PO Life is out and I’m already working on the next. I’ve started turning down full and half page ads (or at least not accepting more than a couple) because I want PO Life to remain something that is worth reading and to do that I can’t let the ads take over the copy. It’s never going to make me rich but I do SO enjoy doing it, that it really does make up for the lack of any noticeable profit. We do have a ’notice board’ section now (by popular demand - well two people suggested it!!) so if you have anything to buy or sell etc PO Life is your man!
We went round to friends for dinner last week. They live in a village house in a small village near Thuir. From the outside, it just looks like a door in the wall, but walk in and it’s like walking into the Tardis, with a delicious garden and airy, light rooms. We had a lovely evening, but Olivier insisted on taking me home just as I was warming up on the sing-song front! It’s a bit like going out with my Dad - no worse, ’cos my Dad quite likes my singing - there again, he is tone deaf and used to spend school music lessons out in the corridor because his singing was so bad.
Last Friday we went up to Coustouges to see Sam playing. In fact, it was a ’portes ouvertes’ meaning that anyone can perform on stage, so we were treated to blues, rock, soul........ a bit of everything really. I snapped away merrily, and have only found out this morning that I didn’t have my memory card in my camera! We met up with four friends made via the site and forum (by coincidence – they were already going as they live up that way) and had a great evening, showing the locals that the Brits know how to put away the vino!! Oooops! Got back to the car around 2am to find that we had a flat tyre! Fortunately, the poor long suffering Olivier was sober and up to the job, whilst myself and Moira (a lovely lady who we picked up in Arles sur Tech – literally that is, not figuratively) sat on a nearby pavement and giggled!
Thursday 16th August
Gulp! I walked 15 kilometres uphill yesterday on the organised walk from Maureillas to Las Illas, (departure at 7h!). The weather was perfect for walking - cloudy first thing with clear blue skies by the time the worst of the ordeal was over, and I really would recommend this walk to anybody. The views, by the time you are half way up, are stunning, the track practically all off road, and the calories burnt must be off the scale!
We actually walked up to Super Las Illas, which is about 2km higher than Las Illas itself and in a rare and unprecedented burst of energy, Olivier and I jogged all the way down to Las Illas, overtaking other walkers and giving the general impression to those who made comments on our amazing fitness levels, that we had jogged all the way from Maureillas. Do put Las Illas on your walking progamme if you enjoy walking - it is fabulous up there.
The weather has been perfect recently - warm and sunny, not too heavy, just right for an ice cream soda which my Mum always used to make us on hot days. Stick a blob of icecream in a glass, cover it in lemonade, stick in a straw.............uuhhhmmmmm. Délicieux. Lulu has unfortunately inherited my sweet tooth, but oh - what bliss on a warm day!
Oy! Fishface! Look at me when I’m talking to you!
Friends arrived to stay yesterday evening so of course today we had our first cold, cloudy day in weeks. Talk about sod’s law. Sue decided that if she had a strong word with the local wildlife, it might improve the weather, so a good chat with a local fish-head seems to have done the job! The night sky is now clear and cloudless, though a little bit blurry, but I think that might be the result of several bottles of Arse!
Finally, I received this email last week and it would be really nice if there were somebody out there who could help this little kitten out.
"Around the end of May, we were enjoying a lazy afternoon in our garden in
the village of Llauro when we noticed a thin, black cat walking away with a
backward glance towards us. That look was saying, “Over to you mate,
they’re all yours” because, a few hours later, three tiny, starving kittens
arrived at our kitchen door. We were loading the dishwasher and, as we
turned away, all three leapt inside, desperately licking the food off the
plates. Mother cat was never seen again, so for the next couple of weeks we
carried out bowls of milk and the kittens, two pure white and one skinny
tortoiseshell, showed their gratitude with much hissing and spitting,
running around in terrified circles.
The two white kittens suddenly disappeared – Monsieur Renard? - leaving the
little tortoiseshell alone. What a relief when she answered our calls each
morning, her tiny head appearing between the bushes.
Several weeks on, she has become part of our family. She is affectionate,
funny and devoted, following us around like a puppy. She’s clean,
domesticated and vaccinated. But, there’s one problem. We have to return
to the UK for three months this winter, so what do we do with Pipps until we
return? Taking her with us is not an option. It has been suggested we lock
up the house and she will fend for herself. We don’t think so. Do readers
have any other ideas? Any suggestions emailed to jceverett@hotmail.co.uk
would be very much appreciated."
Tuesday 28th August
I’ve just trundled back from a week in Leeds. What a shock when I poked my nose out of Leeds and Bradford airport - it was flipping freezing! I know we’ve had reports of a rather iffy summer in England this year but this was one helluva shock to the system as I heaved this old carcass out into wind and rain and my bare arms and legs reluctantly took the full brunt of the British summer! Still, lawns were emerald and vegetation was lush due to the day or two (!) of rain that has recently fallen on that green and pleasant land - and by the time I left a week later, we were all moaning about the heat!
I returned as usual to Barcelona with Jet2.com and collected my weighty suitcase (loaded down with Sainsbury chicken korma and other such delicacies) with heavy heart, knowing I was going to have to drag it all the way back to figuères on the train - but no - lucky lady that I am - Bisou had come to pick me up at the airport (bringing with her Olivier and Lulu) so I rode back to Maureillas in style! Lucky really, as I had to ditch my lunch in Leeds as they are not allowing meat or dairy products to be taken on the plane (they didn’t mention the curries so nor did I - naughty girl!!!)
Back here in Maureillas, the weather is beautiful again and the countryside around is a colourful kaleidoscope of blackberries and blueberries, figs, almonds, apples, grapes……..
Mirabelles
Mushroom season is also approaching and it won’t be long before the shops are full of so many different species of mushroom. At the moment, the fruit is particularly good - apples and pears, plums and pomegranates, peaches and apricots, sweet ripe melon. Look out too for mirabelles, yellow, mini-sized plums, just slightly larger than cherries and harvested from July to mid-September - absolutely delicious if you pick or buy them at the right time and great for pies and tarts (if, unlike me, you know how to bake!!)
Do take particular care by the way if you go out mushroom picking this autumn. It’s great fun and there are loads around but you really do need to go with somebody who knows what they are doing. If you have any doubts at all about the mushrooms you are picking, DO NOT TAKE THE RISK. Although you can take your mushrooms for identification to most pharmacists in France, this is by no means foolproof as a single poisonous mushroom in a basket can poison the entire batch of edible ones and a pharmacist can’t possibly know where they come from or what you’ve been doing with them! The best rule is to never eat any mushroom you cannot positively identify.
By the way, did you know that the word mushroom comes from the French mousseron meaning growing on moist moss.
Oh and...... What do you call a mushroom that buys all your drinks?
Yes, You’ve guessed it! it’s a fungi to be with!!
John from Port Vendres sent me these great signs (although I must admit that the ’Keep right’ had me puzzled for a while - I never have been very good at telling my right from my left and Sue Holmes sent this superb photo of sunset over the Albères. Isn’t it fabulous?
