Saturday 26 January 2013

The end is in sight - hurrah!

Apart from yesterday (Friday), it has continued to be wet wet wet down here but without the light relief of Marty Pellow. Snow has continued to fall thick and fast up in the ski resorts where the avalanche risk is extremely high. Despite the sun making a welcome reappearance yesterday, we opted to stay out of the mountains until the situation stabilises and instead headed out for a run up onto the hill above Aspet. No snow there at 400m
The path up onto the hill was muddy and very slippery but up at the Estive (summer pasture) at 650m there was a light dusting
As we headed further along a woodland track to Gaillardet at 700m, there was more of a covering.
It was wonderful to be out in the sunshine, to breath the fresh air and to feel the lungs working. The legs didn't do too badly either and my knee only started to tighten in the last 500m of the run back down. I have been working hard to try and resolve my knee issue in the hope that I will soon be able to run a decent distance without the pain which flares up around the lower iliotibial band on the outside of my right knee. There is a local trail race that I really really want to do in early June so that is my incentive. I just hope my efforts pay off and that I will be fit to enter it.

Meteo are forecasting much improved weather for the coming week with clear blue skies and temperatures up to 15 degrees by midweek. The mountains are calling. Snowshoes or skis? Probably both!

Thanks to the brief weather window, Andy was able to get up onto the roof yesterday to pull the chimney liner for the new woodburner up the chimney which has now enabled us to put it into use. It's a little Colmar2 5kw/7kw woodburner made by Supra but my goodness, it kicks out some heat! What a difference it makes to the current kitchen/future dining room .... it's so wonderfully warm and cosy now!

2 comments:

gabriele gray said...

The 'before' picture makes the 'after' one that much more enjoyable. What a wonderful addition to a room..and the backplate still catches the eye and definitely enhances the space.

I was going to comment on recycling the old copper hood, but my thought was to offer to sell it to an artist that works in metals..as a solid piece I think it would be worth more than as scrap and you'd have the knowledge it would be continuing its life contributing to the culture & history of the area.

penny said...

That's a lovely idea Gabriele, thanks. I shall do some research and see whether there is a local artisan who could use it. Otherwise, I'll probably advertise it on le bon coin and as a last resort sell it for scrap.