I'm still here!

Time between my blog posts seems to be getting longer and longer, doesn't it. But that's because life continues to be so darned busy down here! This, however, is a good thing. A brief summary of the past 4 weeks for you.

My brother came to visit us at the start of the month for a few short days of mental 'switch off' which was desperately needed. Fortunately, the weather Gods played ball and he had glorious weather for his stay. The peace of the place started working its magic very shortly after he arrived...

We took him for a walk up to the Estives de Paloumere above the Col du Portet d'Aspet which tested his legs and lungs but for which he was rewarded with stunning views

We also had time to put him to work in the potager....

Time passed by oh too fast, but I'm pleased to say he returned home much less of a stress monkey, which was the important thing!

Everything has been on hold in the potager for the past two weeks as the weather has been truly appalling with unseasonally cold temperatures, driving wind and rain. Pretty miserable. Thank heavens for the polytunnel which has already earned its keep. I have been able to sow all kinds of veg in troughs and modules that it would have been impossible to sow outside. It has also enabled me to pot on young brassicas that would have perished outdoors. But we are forecast for better weather from the coming weekend, so I will no doubt have a big push to plant out a lot of stuff. Watch that space.

As the weather has been so dire, we haven't got out on the bikes as much as we would have liked, but we have made the most of every weather window that has come along. I have now got a fantastic new saddle (a women's specific Bontrager Affinity RL in case anybody is interested!) which has finally relieved a lot of the discomfort that I was experiencing on the bike and has made the whole riding experiencing a lot more pleasurable! My best ride to date was at the start of the month, an 85km/1400m+ ride taking in the Col des Ares..

... which I steamed around, feeling really strong, in 3h32! That was a cracker.

We also had a scenic 73km/1100m+ lumpy ride in the foothills which was more exhausting  than riding a col with all its ups and its downs

Then today, on the first sunny day in 2 weeks, we met up with Helen and Chris over in the Luchon Valley who run Pyractif cycling holidays for a blast into Spain then up and over the Category 2 Col de Portillon back down to Luchon.

The river Garonne down the valley was very high thanks to a combination of recent heavy rain and snow melt

It was a wonderfully sociable ride of 79km/1000m+ made 'interesting' by a strong headwind back down the valley from Luchon which saw the boys working hard to bring us girlies home in a not too exhausted state!

May is the month of beautiful Spring flowers in the Pyrénées. Here are a few of my favourites. The unique tongue orchid ....

... the pretty lady orchid....

.... black rampion (phyteuma nigrum), only found in France...

Neglected

Oh dear, I appear to have been neglecting my blogging duties. I don't suppose anybody will have noticed, though? Anyway, here's a quick update on what life has been all about over the last month. It has been busy busy busy!

The highlight? A wonderful relaxing trip back to the UK to see my gorgeous new grandson, 3 week old Rufus James. He is absolutely adorable and both my son Jamie and his lovely lady Emma are doing a fantastic job with him.

While I was visiting them, we were able to meet up with my sister and her family for a lovely walk around Delamere Forest Park - SO good to see my sis again.

We returned to Jamie and Emma's village to find that the thatch of their local pub had caught fire! Fortunately the pub which dates back to the 15th century was not completely destroyed as it does great beer and traditional pub grub.

My visit up north was over far too soon. But while I was in the UK I was able to catch up with my good mate Trudi in Paignton and managed to get in a 10K run around Abbotsbury in West Dorset on the way back. It was far harder than it should have been (how unfit am I?!) but it was very pretty

The weather was fortunately dry for the whole of my visit but it was bitterly cold. I returned to wet, cold, horrible weather back at home which didn't exactly do the spirit good. But fortunately a lovely big high pressure area that has drifted up from Africa has now brought hot sun and clear blue skies. At last I can get some serious work outside. We have created a little herb garden at the front of the house in a space that was previously just overgrown and full of rubble....

... and I have got to work on the potager, preparing it for sowings and plantings. In the medium to long term I am hoping to adopt a 'no dig' approach, but this requires the addition of lots of organic matter to our heavy clay soil which is going to take time as it is a big plot. But where I have managed to enrich the soil already, I have now planted Charlotte potatoes, sown parsnips, carrots, florence fennel, spinach, mangetout, dwarf peas, French beans, beetroot, rocket and salad leaves. The capsicum, chilli peppers, aubergine and tomatoes won't go in until June and I also have some brassicas, leeks, red onions and celeriac in modules that will be planted out later in the year. I have also got strawberry plants, raspberry canes, gooseberry, redcurrant and blackcurrant bushes. I really can't wait until everything is cropping. Exciting times!

With the fine weather, we have today had our first ride for a few months on the road bikes. I felt surprisingly good, all things considered, although my energy appeared to disappear after we stopped for a slice of pizza from a boulangerie when just 12kms from home .... weird! But it was a lovely figure of 8 circuit up to Saint Lizier and back, 70kms/670m+/3 hours. Hopefully we will get out on the bikes much more often if this lovely weather hangs around a bit longer. It's looking good so far :-)

Spring already? Surely not!

It's all a bit worrying. We're only just into the first week of January and yet the first patches of snowdrops are through and today at 1300m we spotted some Liverwort (Hepatica Nobilis) in the beech woodland above the Col du Portet d'Aspet

OK, so we are currently enjoying the most glorious, warm, sunny weather thanks to a fantastically stable high pressure area, but I think the plants and flowers are going to get an almighty shock when Winter does reappear, which surely it must do at some point over the coming few weeks?

In the meantime, we have been making the most of the glorious weather and had an outing up above the Col du Portet d'Aspet today. We were all prepared to don the snowshoes but it was quite clear on arriving at the Col du Portet d'Aspet that there simply wasn't the snow up there to warrant putting the snowshoes in our packs! We made our way up through the beautiful beech woodland......

... and it was only when we got up onto the ridge at 1500m that we found snow and even then, it wasn't deep. The views were however spectacular as always.

Up on the top, we had a brief pause for a slice of pizza from the boulangerie in Aspet - not a bad lunchtime view!

We were only out for 2 1/2 hours but that's the beauty of where we live now..... it's so easy to just 'pop out' for some good exercise and amazing views!

The drive back down to Aspet was rather more eventful than we would have liked though, as we hit a large patch of black ice and ended up doing a very very scary 360 spin which very nearly landed us off the side of the road. Thank heavens for the wide muddy verge just at that point and the lack of traffic on the road. It was one of the most frightening experience of my life and unsurprisingly not something either of us would like to experience again :-(

But back to the good stuff .....the roadie got another airing on Thursday when we got out for a lovely 70km/1100m+ ride which took us up through Aspet and the Col des Ares before dropping down to the Vallée de la Barousse and back via Barbazan and Sauveterre. The last time I did any proper hills was way back in August, but my legs felt surprisingly good, despite the knee niggle which I have had before on the bike. Full stats on the usual site.

Back at home, we have been doing more apple tree pruning and I believe we have rescued another tree that was in danger of being overwhelmed by mistletoe. It's the big tree on the left in the photo below - the smaller one on the right cannot be saved and is going to be pulled out to make way for new stock;

Here's the 'after' photo. Hopefully it will reward us with a good crop of apples this coming autumn!

The fantastic weather is set to last through to mid week next week, so more outdoor action is planned. Watch this space.

Biking

Mention the Pyrénées to most people, especially those who enjoy a bit of road biking, and the famous cols of the chain such as the Tourmalet, Aubisque and Aspin will be hot topics. The Tour de France has obviously reinforced people's idea of  the Pyrénées as an arena of suffering for the masochistic road cyclist. However, the amateur road biker who doesn't fancy energy-sapping, leg-busting col-grinding will no doubt be relieved to hear that there are endless opportunities here for mile upon mile of gently undulating riding on quiet lanes amidst stunning scenery. After our last couple of outings, I am convinced that where we are now, near Aspet on the border of the Haute Garonne and Ariege departments, is the best area for road cyclists of all abilities.

We have had two cracking rides on the road bikes over the past week. The first one, last Wednesday, was an exploration which took us into the undulating 'bosses', the fingers of hills that are North of the A64 autoroute. This area provides contrasting scenery ....

.....and also contrasting riding to the roads that are south of the autoroute, with the option of either following the little valleys that separate the 'fingers', keeping the ascent to a minimum, or tackling them head on, which gives you a ride profile something like this!

In some ways, rides such as this with small hill after small hill can be more exhausting physically than sticking the bike into granny gear and grinding your way up a col. But thankfully the little old legs were working well and I felt fine after the 70kms/1000m+. It had been a beautiful ride out in perfect weather on wonderfully quiet little roads. Full stats on the usual site.

I have been working hard to try and resolve the issues that I have been having with my right knee when I run, doing regular targeted exercises to try and strengthen my right glute max and glute medius muscles in particular, combined with stretches for other specific muscle groups that affect the knee. The overall result appears to be reduced tension on my hamstring, looser calves and less tension on my knee. I will probably test it out running when the weather cools down a bit, but for the moment my work seems to have made things easier on the bike and I am really enjoying our outings. 

Our other roadie outing was on Sunday and was my longest ride for some considerable time, 88kms/1100m+, which took us from here near Aspet along the amazingly quiet roads of the Comminges, heading East and then South along the river to arrive at our old stomping ground of Saint Lizier and Saint Girons. Fantastic riding! We meandered back via the beautiful roads through Montgauch and Cazavet...

... before heading West again back towards home via Saleich and Urau in the Comminges

For some reason, after 70kms, we chose to finish the ride not by taking the easy route, but by tackling the relatively insignificant Col de Larrieu which links Aspet with the Arbas Valley. We have ridden down the Col into the Arbas Valley before but have not ridden it in the other direction. It felt so steep in parts (OK, so apparently it did ramp up to 14%!) and I had a serious battle with myself not to stop and rest. But, despite the increasing heat, I somehow managed to keep the pedals turning and made it up the col in one piece. The profile ended up like this!

Again, no repercussions in the leg department. This is a very very good sign!. Again, the full stats are on the usual site.

For a relative change, we took the mountain bikes out for a run today. With temperatures set to rise up to 30+ Deg C, we tried to set out in decent time so as not to die in the heat. Exploring new routes and new link ups is great and it allows you to eventually separate the 'good' circuits from the 'not so good'. Today's circuit was a grand old mixture of 'Jeez, sod this for a game of bingo, I'm going home' and 'Bloody hell, that was just amaaazing!' The problem section was approx 1km long, up through the woods from Izaut l'Hotel to Arbon, a steep, rocky, slippery path that was beyond my riding capabilities where I had to resort to pushing my bike. Andy on the other hand put in a sterling performance. Thankfully, the route soon became rideable again and we enjoyed some fantastic views

After some superb riding, we arrived at the Col des Arès before beginning a fast, fun descent down a forest track and then good paths with some pretty technical riding in parts back down to Payssous and the meander home. Apart from the tricky section up to Arbon (which can be avoided by riding up the little lane instead!), the route was fantastic and I can't wait to ride it with mountain biking friends who have promised to come and visit us in the near future. 30km/700m+, 2h30 of riding and we were back in time for lunch :-) Full stats on the usual site.

Tomorrow (Wednesday), we sign for the house and get the keys. We are going to busy over the coming weeks and months, but we will of course make time for more biking and hopefully walking and running up in the mountains too. Fun times ahead!

Busy times

Yes, I know these pages have been sadly neglected for the past 2 weeks. But, you see, I have been just a little bit busy. Preparations for the move to our new home are at full pelt. We get the keys on the 27th of this month! There is some work that we want to get done before we actually move in.... messy, dirty, dusty work like sanding down the big beams on the ground floor before we treat them and then attempt to restore them to their former splendour. The house is now empty, the owners having done a fine job of clearing it of the vestiges of the lives of three generations, which has been an enormous task. We are obviously now impatient to move in and get to work creating our new home.

When I returned 10 days ago from my trip to the UK, the poor weather that I had experienced there decided to follow me home, which I really did not appreciate. However, at the end of last week the weather finally took a turn for the better with temperatures climbing to 30 degrees. I was keen to get up high to experience more of the amazing scenery that we have in this area, so we popped up to the Col du Portet d'Aspet and made our way on good paths to the ridgeline that runs high above it. The views did not disappoint

I wanted to use the outing to test out my knee and I was very encouraged by what I was feeling. Despite running several sections of the very undulating 10km/800m route I had no discomfort at all except for on the final 100m of the descent. I may actually be making some progress here! I now need to be careful not to get too carried away by my enthusiasm and do too much too soon. Steady steady!

The bikes have also had an airing over the past week with a cracking 33km/700m+ ride out on the mountain bikes which saw us linking up several different tracks and paths in the area. We also had a wonderfully leisurely 63km ride out on the roadies in the sun, over into the Barousse Valley and back through the foothills of the Comminges. Just stunning! Good times, good times.

Local explorations

The weather last week continued to be sunny but cooler through to Friday when it rained. But before the weather turned, Andy plotted out a roadie circuit for us midweek which took us on some wonderfully quiet little back roads inland, through citrus groves (OK, I admit it, we did 'acquire' a few stray satsumas along our way which were totally delicious!), almond groves and olive groves.

It was lovely riding, but my lack of biking fitness was very evident. Even the smaller hills and undulations felt like mountains and it was all much more of an effort than it really should have been. Still, 68kms/600m+ in the bag.

On Thursday we had a meander along the coastal path trying to photograph and identify some of the bird life that occupies the scrubland there. Unfortunately we didn't see anything amazing, although the cormorants that flew up and down the coastline were good to see.

Friday, rain, so an indoor day. We were due to leave on Saturday but, with the forecast at home looking far too wintery for my liking, we decided to stay on here an additional week. Our apartment is the ground floor of the owners detached property and is in a wonderfully peaceful part of the town. It is spacious and heated and excellent value. The bonus is that Bonita loves to offload her excess potager produce and eggs on us. So far she has given us nearly 2 dozen eggs (omelettes anybody?!) and some delicious lettuces and salad onions. Fantastic!

Saturday, we ran 20kms of the track that runs from Alcossebre to Peniscola along the coast. The skies were still heavy after the previous day's rain and the seas decidedly choppy. But the forecast was for the skies to clear as the weekend progressed

Today, sure enough, clear blue skies but a hellishly strong wind that resulted in Andy cancelling his planned long roadie ride - it would have been suicidal! Instead, we headed further down the coast before cutting inland to the Parc Natural del Desert de les Palmes. I had downloaded the GPS data for a walk which looked appealing. The route initially took us along some lovely tracks and trails with views towards the coast

We passed several almond plantations with fruit still left on the trees. It would have been rude not to sample the nuts.... 

... and OK, I admit it, our pockets were soon filled! As for the walk, let's just say we have spent far too much time running and are out of 'walking mode'. The walk seemed to take forever and I was seriously wondering how much longer we would be out. I so prefer running! We only covered 13.7kms but it took us over 3 hours. But still, it was good to be out, exploring more of the area. And we did come back with some good bunches of wild thyme as well as a fair quantity of almonds