greener and greener

Someone keeps posting comments on the blog ‘Greener and greener’  and ‘Greener by the day’.  It got me thinking of all the possibilities that these comments may mean:

They could be talking about themselves in an environmentally conscious sort of a way.  Being the modern day ‘Tom and Barbara’ in their house in the lakes, fully equipped with glasshouse, orchard, fields and allotment, I imaging compost bins being built, new methods for conserving energy being introduced and endless packets of vegetable seeds being chosen from glossy catalogues for the coming season.  Jars of bottled produce and conserves lined up in the pantry ready for consumption and muddy wellies in the back porch.  I don’t think that they mean this sort of green.

Maybe they can see the hills and mountains here in the Pyrenees.  Each time a comment comes through the ‘fohn’ wind blows and warm air  blasts up the valleys, chasing the snow to higher ground.  The picturesque landscape turns from Christmas card white to green and a dull dirty grey, drifts of melting snow cling to the sides of the road like grubby shammy leathers and the trickles of mountain streams turn, for a short while, to tumbling torrents, as the thin layer of snow is banished yet again to further up the mountains.  The peaks stay white and frosty but the zero isotherm rises and falls around us here at 1550 meters.  One day the air is filled with the clatter of ski boots on the tarmac with people heading up to the ski station, cars climbing the hill to jostle for parking places in the huge car park opposite, then as the green reappears, the sounds diminish and the guests mill around the chalet, disheartened by the effects of the warmer weather and the lack of decent snow to play on.  Fortunately there have been very few days where there has been no skiing at all and the ‘fohn’ wind soon dissipates allowing the weather that we want and need to return to the valleys.  Or this sort of green.

Perhaps it is another sort of green, maybe green with envy.  It is a possibility.  With both of them enjoying a good bit of skiing.  There is no need, there is a solution.  (You know that you want to do this.)  Check out a cheap flight to Toulouse, Pau or Lourdes, a short train ride to Lannemezan and a bus up to the resort.  Simples.  There are plenty of rooms available midweek through January and anytime in March and early April at the moment.  February is going to be crazy here, french half terms and busy busy busy, so the slopes will be full too and best avoided. Two ski hire shops within a short walk of Chalet Lou Rider and you can even buy a day lift pass at the bar, avoiding the queues in the morning, the mountains are waiting for you.