mad in the attic

TC often used to worry ( or was it a threat?) that I would end up a mad woman in the attic from getting overstressed at work. Then we moved here and when I saw the spare room in the attic, with its big skylight windows and lovely view of the lake,  it was love at first sight - that's going to be my den I promised myself  (well a girl has to have somewhere to retreat to especially if she's married to a musician who likes to practise).  And so, out of the visitor season, MY room is a haven where I can escape and listen to whatever I feel like. The sewing machine can stay out and I can make as much mess as I want to.

I've been up there a lot lately since I got bitten by the patchwork bug. I have  loved sewing and making things since I was small but it's something like 20 years since I did any patchwork and then only one design (grandmothers garden  English patchwork style)and  I've never got as far as quilting so there's a lot to learn. My sampler quilt blocks are going well - well at least I'm pleased with them - the old hands at the patchwork group are very difficult to impress although always encouraging.

So far I've done 8 of the 20 blocks I need for my quilt. I had intended to quilt each block separately and then join them ( a perfectly respectable method according to my patchwork book) but a tentative enquiry soon made it clear that would be totally disapproved of in the Laguepie patchwork group and I should not even think about it! Apparently when the top is finished all the tables will be pushed together and it will be all hands on deck to get it backed ready for quilting - there's a great element of community in the quilting tradition which is lovely.

I also love the names of the patterns, so far I've done log cabin, tumbling blocks, maple leaf, corner to corner, card trick, spiders web, strip rail, and attic windows. It's fun working with the different colours and prints and fascinating watching the patterns unfold. I shall enjoy having another creative outlet when its too cold for the garden.

So this week maybe grape basket  and drunkard's path ? ( no rude comments please)

how time flies when you're having fun

Three years ago this week we moved into Ségala and the fun began. We woke up to our first Ségala sunrise, the first of many, and pinched ourselves to make sure it wasn't all a dream.

Our furniture had been in storage for 3 months so we improvised !

 

 

 

I never have been good at keeping diaires but a blog seemed a good idea as a way of recording our progress. The problem is finding the time especially during the summer months when we live out of doors most of the time.

Looking back over the three years it has just flown by. We have made Ségala well and truly ours, inside and out, and have a very busy social life all year round. This year we have even met some English people! I could never have settled for the six month in France, six months in England option which many choose, we would miss out on so much real French life and I'm sure I would make worse progress with the language.

Another reason to be here all year round is that many associations only run in the winter. One of our dancing courses has just begun again and this week I have started going to a patchwork and quilting group - its a very long time since I did any patchwork and I have never done quilting but I was inspired by the group's exhibition in the Spring and am already hooked. The next exhibition is in three years just enough time for me to learn enough to make sure I have something on display! ( I already know it will be a wallhanging called Ségala sunrise and the design is coming together in my head). It is good for me to get out and meet more new people and practice my French without having TC in the background to help and as always when meeting a new group of French people with a common interest everyone was so friendly, welcoming and helpful.

So now we are preparing for our third winter here, the wood is being stacked, the garden cleared and bulbs planted, the swallows have left and Bernard is chucking sheep poo around with abandon. Hopefully afterwards he will bring us a nice pile of our own as in previous years. The potager has been very productive this year thanks in some part at least to the addition of copious amounts of "fumier de brebis".

In the meantime the Autumn sunshine and blue skies are keeping the pool around 20degs so TC is still getting his swims although cooler nighttime temperatures are forecast for the end of the week so there may not be many more opportunities and I think I'll be waiting til next year!

a morning in the market

This winter has certainly held Northern Europe tightly in it's grip and been reluctant to make way for Spring, with blizzards even now in the North of England. We are feeling very lucky that we made a visit to family a week earlier than we had originally planned - there was a glimpse of Spring sunshine and I went out without a coat- but just a week later and winter has returned there with a vengeance, we would have had huge problems traveling around the country  on our tour of family and friends in the North.

winter too much for this palm even under its protective fleece

Even here winter has been long, cold and wet with more snow than is usual but at long last I have been able to discard  layers some layers of clothing ( great for instant slimming!) and I've even washed my winter coat before putting it away. There have been a few opportunities for al fresco breakfasts and lunches, the daffodils are out and the blossom is beginning to open on the cherry trees. I think we can say that Spring has finally come to Ségala.

On Thursday our weekly trip to the market in Villefranche de Rouergue was a real treat for the spirits. It was a beautiful day, blue skies and sunshine, the market was buzzing and we were able to sit outside beside the square with our morning coffees. Before we moved here, or "autre fois" as we refer to those times, our idea of a perfect holiday moment would have been just such a morning in the market. We reflected, not for the first time, how lucky we are to have a lifestyle in retirement which basically matches our idea of a great holiday. Of course it wouldn't work quite the same if your perfect holiday is sitting by the pool/beach sipping pina coladas - that way leads to alcoholism I should think! After struggling to beat the winter blues, chest infections and dodgy joints for months that morning in the market was just what I needed.

 Mind you its not all play - the arrival of Spring brings lots of work in the garden and we have plenty of projects planned.

potatoes in

dead trees to fell

start of the pond

and...............
 

 watch this space!

Not over til it's over!

Winter that is.

We've had some really warm days and had started to think Spring was on its way. After all we had been promised by that nice French lady we met on our walk that the "grand hiver" was over. OK there would still be frost at night but we could get started in the garden, I could start sowing some seeds - even the grass looked like it needed its first cut

first sighting of cornellian cherry in bloom

then what ..........we turned our backs for just a few days and went on a birthday jolly for TC in Rome ( the plan was to enjoy some nice early Italian sunshine). In Rome it was wetter and cooler than we had hoped but there was worse at home. Le Grand Hiver paid another visit and there was more snow.

When we got home the house was freezing - these stone houses are great in the summer months because they stay cool but its a different story in the winter. The stones act a a heat sink and it has taken a couple of days with every heater we possess on full blast to make it feel habitable again. The cats' food was frozen in the dish - it was lucky they also had biscuits especially as the lady who comes to feed them had broken down on the last day and never arrived.

We also arrived to find we have another problem. I went to let the hens out, including our two recently acquired arrivals, only to find one of them indulging in some very "unhen" type behaviour with one of our older girls. Further investigation plus some exuberant  morning crowing convinced us we did indeed have a cockerel in the henhouse. He will no doubt be a very handsome bird but I keep hens for the eggs alone so he will have to go! Luckily for us the lady who sold him to us is willing to have him back.

The weather is not the only thing that can't make it's mind up. I seem to have been fighting off a chesty cough for months and thought it had really gone before we went away and now it seems to have sneaked back and most unwelcome it is too. My dodgy knee, which had settled down a lot, has also flared up again so much so that I was seriously limping around Rome - maybe because we had enjoyed three nights of dancing in the week before we went but I'm not going to admit to that! Maybe I'll go the doctor when something gets better - can't go about two ailments at once.

In the meantime - that's quite enough of winter. They do say its not over 'til the fat lady sings - you have been warned - today I am going to sing A LOT!!!

Farewell snow - time for the snowdrops!

Yesterday was just  glorious - one of those sunny winter days to lift the spirits, the sort of day to let you know the end of winter is not too far away! As we drove out of Puylagarde we had a fabulous view of the snow covered Pyrennees in the distance, the clearest we have ever seen them.

It was a perfect day for a walk and we chose one which involved quite a bit of road walking ( normally we avoid them if we can) as we were concerned about just how muddy everywhere would be because of the recent weather. The "roads" were small and quiet - many hardly more than tracks - and the weather wonderful - temperatures well into double figures, clear skies and no wind.

The highlight of the walk was a small diversion to the abbey at Beaulieu to see the annual snowdrop spectacular. Snowdrops grow in great profusion here, especially along the roadsides in the river valleys and I had heard that Beaulieu was a good place to see more and sure enough the woods behind the Abbey were carpeted. They were certainly a sight to behold especially if you like a bit of photography - we saw one keen lady lying prostrate with some very impressive equipment! My "apparatus" is a little more basic but I got some nice pictures anyway! Here are just a few:

I have always loved the the English country name for snowdrops "fair maids of February". They grew well in my cold wet Stoke on Trent garden but often waited for the beginning of March to appear. Here they are called "perce - neige" ( literally pierce snow) and are a happy and timely reminder to me that the winters are shorter here - even if this year it  has seemed to drag on!

 Towards the end of our walk we passed  a French lady who was single handedly clearing leaves from  the drainage ditch on the hill above her house  to make sure that the water would stay in check. She cheerfully assured us the "grand hiver" was over though there was plenty more frost to come. Lets hope she was right - we keep reminding ourselves that the really cold snap here was in February last year - we 're really hoping we don't get a repeat of that.

one more for luck!

bonne annee bonne sante - not yet it aint!

I don't like January - never have done , only one worse month and that's February (but that's not so bad living here as Spring arrives earlier). Yep - looks like I'm having a bumper attack of the January blues.

When we moved here we avoided houses in the river valleys as we had seen during visits to the area the Autumn fogs so it was frustrating to find ourselves this winter shrouded in hill fog day after day for the  first two weeks of the year doing no good at all for the nagging chesty cough which I have been unable to shake off properly. That coupled with the usual post Christmas " down time" plus family worries (as parts of my family take dysfunctionality to a level which would rival an Eastenders Christmas special) I've been feeling a touch sorrier for myself than I have any right to be. Trevor is having a tough time with the current DIY project ( it involves plumbing - say no more) but at least he has his music and as he himself says has "never felt so respected as a musician".

All in all then it was a change for the better when the snows fell. It snowed all night last Tuesday and all day Wednesday leaving us under a blanket of 8 inches of the white stuff. Thursday dawned a beautiful sparkling morning - clear blue skies over a black and white world- great day for a walk and some photos With hindsight ( forever a wonderful thing) perhaps 13 kms was a bit much in the prevailing conditions underfoot - either glassy and slippery or deep snow to wade through. The scenery was beautiful though and it was great to be out and "enjoying" ourselves.

 By the time we got home my back was seriously suffering - a result of walking clinging on to my walking poles - and I felt at least a hundred years old! It was necessary to cite the "cold weather " "I've just done a long walk" ""I even made a fish pie when we got back" and "sod it who cares if its a weekday I need a drink" amendments !!!

OK so enough's enough  - very pretty and all that but I should have been dancing tonight except the roads are impassable and everything is annullé. Want to get on with looking forward to the Spring - I need my garden!

Oh and seriously - bonne annee everyone!

 

Wenceslas never had this trouble.

Last weekend after a mild winter the sudden drop in temperatures had caught us on the hop and we found our stock of logs was getting very low. No problem, we had plenty in reserve at Pavillon our old holiday home just 40 miles away. Snow was forecast later in the day but again no problem, we were ready early and would be there and back inside 2 hours in time to snuggle down in front of a blaze!

How wrong we were! We were about halfway when it started to snow, nothing too bad at first but by the time we arrived it was coming down thick. We didn't dare drive down the steep drive into the garden so kept the car on the roadside and barrowed the logs up through a steadily thickening snowfall.


We didn't hang about and set off hopefully towards home. It soon became clear that the journey would be very slow as despite de-icer the windscreen wipers were freezing constantly and making visibility extremely difficult. We had to keep stopping to break the ice off the wipers, stopping becoming a challenge in itself as the roads were so slippery.

The road along the gorge is at least a reasonable width, and it was looking spectacular with frozen waterfalls and gigantic icicles hanging from the cliffs, but once past St Antonin Noble Val the road towards Caylus is much narrower and very bendy with deep ditches on each side of the road. We negotiated it slowly, all the time aware that this was nothing to the difficulties we had to come! Caylus nestles on the side of a hill in the valley with steep hairpin bends in and out of it - we live on the hills at the top of one said steep hill! We approached Caylus from the south up gentle hills and at our junction we could see the chaos at the foot of the hairpin bends so we took a quick decision to stay as high as we could and continued across country where the road rises but quite gently and is at least straightish. As we drove through Lacapelle we started to feel a little more secure - we have friends there so if we had to give up there was at least shelter.

A little further and we were at St Projet ( the next village to ours ) now we were within our walking distance if all else failed! The hill into St Projet didn't seem like much but it was also on a sharp bend and after several failed attempts we had to give up and drive onwards , once more out into the country. Having walked a lot around the area we knew if we carried onwards we would be able to avoid any steep hills but we were actually now driving further away from home. Eventually we had gone far enough to be able to approach home from the north gently downhill and slid gingerly through the gates of Segala -and there we stayed most of the week.

At least we have had plenty of logs to keep us warm in between unfreezing the water pipes - but that's another story!

Ségala snowfall

The news has been warning of snow expected all over France so we should not have been surprised. Yesterday was cold but very bright and I spent a glorious day working in the garden, reshaping beds which we want to change, clearing up leaves and hedge cuttings and wrapping plants against the cold.Just in time it seems, as we woke to that strange silence which seems to accompany snowfall and a winter wonderland view. We walked down to the village and found the roads were still passable, also the snow was melting fast. Also just in time to edit the Carter Christmas card!


We are discovering the best ways to keep our stone house warm - the office is the easiest room in the house to get warm which is great for spending "too long" on the computer. We do not have central heating so we can concentrate on heating the rooms we are using and the log fire is very cosy.








Tomorrow we are due to have lunch with some friends in a village nearby. It is too far to walk really so we hope for a further thaw. More important we hope that driving conditions won't be bad on Thursday when we are off to Limoges airport to fly to England for a few days pre Christmas visiting.