Winter

We returned from our holiday in the Var to a few days of lovely, warm weather which enabled us to chainsaw to length and stack two more stères of wood ready for the cold spell that was forecast. It also enabled me to dig over a patch of the potager in anticipation of some frosty mornings which I hoped would help to break up the heavy soil a bit. I have now got my sowing/planting plan sorted and am impatient to get started on the production of this years veggies!

The snow arrived as forecast on Sunday and, for the first time, it actually settled here at our level. Our little hamlet looked very pretty in its snowy setting

 We had a couple of lovely pretty snowy walks

which the pooch enjoyed

Then my thoughts turned to skiing. It is three years since I last skied. Looking back at my blog posts, for some reason I just lost all of my confidence and, instead of enjoying time on the slopes, I ended up stressed and tense and having a thoroughly miserable time. Not fun. But with the arrival of fresh powder, the anticipation of a blue sky day and some amazing ski resorts in this area, I was keen to see whether my feelings had changed or whether I should seriously consider selling the skis. So, with Suzanne and Steve and a couple more of their friends, we headed across the border into Spain and the resort of Baqueira. I have to admit to being pretty apprehensive and nervous but thanks to the conditions those feelings were soon put to bed. The snow was stunning and the skiing an absolute delight. The resort has a massive choice of wide, sweeping blue and red runs which enabled me to find my ski legs, to relax and actually enjoy the experience. Baqueira Beret is also a spectacularly beautiful resort which probably helped!

Fiona and I were of the same mindset and were quite happy just cruising down the easier runs, whilst the others went off to explore some of the harder stuff. But despite spending the day there, we only just touched the surface of what Baqueira has to offer. I am keen to go back before Winter ends and explore some more. I think I'll hold off selling the skis for the moment ;-)

On the house front, we have now decamped from our bedroom into the gorgeous guest room in anticipation of starting work on the former. It will be lovely to have both rooms done and it's nice not to have any time pressures to get it done.

Spoiled

Twice this week we have made it 'up high', determined to make the most of the glorious weather while it lasts. On both occasions, the snowshoes were left in the car, such are the conditions at the moment.... the south-facing slopes in particular are bare of snow right up to 1700m. On Monday, we headed up to Luchon and walked up to the Lac d'Espingo (1967m) via the Lac d'Oô. I regretted not taking trail shoes and microspikes as it was hard work in B2 boots! Our starting point was the Astau Valley at 1100m ....

... although the forest track soon led us up to the lake at 1500m which was bathed in sunlight. After a quick bite to eat we headed on up the twisty turny path. Lovely views back down to the Cabane at the head of the lake. 

Heading on up ...

As we got higher, we crossed 2 lots of wet slide avalanche debris on our path - thankfully the slopes had purged a few days ago and it was now safe for us to carry on!

Eventually, we could see the Col d'Espingo up ahead....

... and then 'wow'!

We were surrounded by 3000m peaks which we must come back to explore in the summer. It was simply stunning up there and surprisingly little snow - we had only needed crampons on the last section of the walk, from around 1800m. All this may change next week however when more snow is forecast at higher levels.

In the meantime, we got out again this afternoon, up to the Col des Ares which is just 20 minutes from us and headed for the Pic du Gar (1756m), this time choosing the 'fast and light' option, trail running shoes with the microspikes in the pack just in case..... much more comfortable! We were able to reach the Pic in 2 hours (6kms/1000m+), only needing to don the microspikes once we emerged from the woodland into the open. It was a stunning run out. The photos say it all.

The pooch was delighted to stumble across a deer carcass on our descent and even more delighted that we brought part of the leg back home with us as a treat!

We were back at the Col in just over an hour - what a cracking afternoon! We'll have to see what the weather brings over the coming days, but next week is not looking fantastic.

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.

A smile on my face

We have just had another spell of glorious weather so, with the leg making great progress and having been effectively cooped up for nearly 3 weeks, I was determined to get out for something resembling a decent walk. So yesterday, we drove the 35 minutes up to the Col de Menté and then took the steady track rather than the steep path up to the Cabane d'Escalette

...which has amazing views towards the Mourtis ski station opposite and Mont Valier behind it

We had a bite to eat for lunch by the cabane and were joined by several vultures which circled overhead, picking up the thermals on this warm, sunny day.... an impressive sight! The leg was feeling good so I thought I would have a bash at climbing the steeper path that leads from the cabane up to the Estives d'Escalette. I was very conscious of my leg and had to make sure I didn't do anything to tear the wounds open again as they are just starting to knit together. I was pleased we made the effort as we saw some fantastic sights including a flock of about 100 alpine choughs  playing amongst the rocky outcrops - I just love the chattering/squealing noise that they make! I wish I could have captured them on video. But more excitingly we spotted a lammergeier/bearded vulture with its distinctive spoon-shaped tail! Fantastic!

From the top of the climb we had the Pic de Cagire in our sights...

... but that would be for another day. It had been an amazing afternoon out in fantastic weather and in a stunning environment with some great bird sightings, but it was quite enough for my first proper venture out in 3 weeks. Andy's hand and shoulder provided welcome support as we descended the slippery path and soon we were back at the car, both with big smiles on our faces. More please!

Progress report

On Monday, the installation of our new sanitation system was signed off. A 4000L fosse toutes eaux and a 30m2 sand filter bed satisfies the authorities and means that our household waste is no longer fertilising our field! This may or may not be a good thing, as Andy found a cracking tomato plant with ripening fruit in the midst of the lush vegetation down here. Hey ho!

We took a much needed break from work on the house for the week that our friends Jenny and Mike were with us. During that week we celebrated both Jenny's and my birthdays and Andy, as in-house chef, did us proud with some truly delicious dinners. The weather during the week wasn't full-on sunshine every day and was a lot cooler than we have been used to of late, but still only Wednesday morning and Saturday afternoon were wet, which was a darned sight better than the UK weather last week which sounded truly miserable, so our friends were happy. The relative dry weather meant we were able to get out on the mountain bikes on three occasions which was fantastic fun

We also had a lovely walk from Artigue above Luchon up to the Spanish border at the Col des Taons de Bacanère.

One foot in France, one in Spain....

Spain, and the remains of an old cable winching building, probably used in WW2 by Franco's army...

Since the weekend, a wonderful high pressure system has taken up residence over us and we are enjoying clear sunny days and temperatures into the high 20s. It is just glorious! Unfortunately, we know this will not last and the nights are already cold, so we are having a big push to get the woodburner and central heating system installed before the weather turns. Lets hope we don't have any major hiccups along the way.

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.