time at the convent

The convent that I stayed in next was on the edge of a large village up in the hills behind Tarragona, about 20 minutes from the sea.  It was the first time I had visited the area and I was pleasantly surprised by the natural landscape.  There were high hills/mountains inland, lush hillsides and vineyards, I use lush loosely and to compare it with other areas of Spain, it was still fairly arid and dry compared to the UK or my little patch of France, but pleasing none the less.  

Disappointing though, plenty of industrial areas with huge huge warehouses, factories and commercial buildings.  They tend now to be gathered into specific areas which is good news but due to the giant oil refinery on the coast there is bound to be a large amount of associated manufacturing in the area.  I didn’t let all of that put me off as the landscape undulated and there are still many beautiful areas with unspoiled views, interesting villages and properties to be found.

My hosts are in the process of partially restoring the convent which had been abandoned for many decades.  The plan is to renovate the two side aisles of the building, shaped like a church, leaving the central nave roofless as a courtyard within.  There had been some work unsympathetic done, before the building was protected as a historic monument, by a recent previous owner, that has to stay.  But the rest will continue in a more harmonious style, mainly to consolidate and secure what remains of the building.

The land around the building had long been a dumping ground for the neighbourhood, fly tipping and an accumulation of years of junk has already been cleared and the transformation back into a garden has begun.  I was tasked with weeding, strimming the waist high vegetation and to help guide my hosts into planning a suitable garden for the convent.  

I toiled each morning, took a short break then trawled estate agent web sites and their offices during the afternoons.  Timings in Spain are different again to france, with the majority of shops and offices closing at around 13.00 and reopening anywhere between 16.00 and 17.30 through till 20.00 or 21.00.  I began to take full advantage of a mini siesta, even though the weather was not that warm, to ward off the tiredness of constant late nights, easy to adapt too and very useful.

Discovering houses all over the region gave me an excellent opportunity to find out where felt good and what I was really looking for.  I soon became aware of the eye sores and the unattractiveness of the local industry as well as the quiet hidden villages nestling in the countryside.  Unfortunately the houses that I was drawn to on paper were not in appropriate places for what I have planned for the future.  Access along miles of dirt track or through industrial zones won’t be conducive to people visiting for holidays or to attend gardening courses, not the appealing to me either with my quest for easy access and involvement with local community.  I saw some lovely and very reasonable properties but my quest continues.

pretty, but rather weedy

what is supposed to be there

amazing courtyard

spring in sitges

I’m having a bit of time away after the winter, partly holiday and also a bit more of a nose into the possibilities in Spain.  I have mentioned my ideas in previous posts from last autumn.

For this trip I have decided to HelpX again, It’s been a while since I gave a hand to folk and decided that it would also be a better way of getting to know the area in a bit more detail.  Thankfully I had made arrangements in advance, as Percy was still in the garage, waiting for a new wheel bearing to be fixed, when I was due to leave.  

I am away in my new, old Golf, a great vehicle and a joy to drive.  Nippy, easy to park, more economical and much less stressful than the van for the journey I am making this time.

My first stop was in Sitges, with a german family who relocated to Spain many years ago.  It was good to hear the stories of settling in and integration into a new way of life and to marvel at the flexibility of languages, with the family speaking german or spanish together, the two boys tended to use catalan between themselves and everyone spoke amazingly good english whenever I was to included in the conversation.

I painted for them, firstly the front facade of the house, which wasn’t at all difficult, just the distance from the ground in some instances, the house is built into a steep hillside so it feels high up even before climbing a ladder.  It was great to make such a fast transformation to a property and the results were immediately appreciated.  Then, after, refreshed one of the guest bedrooms in the house.  I discovered quite how poor low cost paint can be, it was taking five or six coats to give decent coverage so it was soon replaced with a higher quality product and progress was much faster.  I easily got everything done within the week that I was staying.

I made full use of my free time, heading to the beach most days to soak up a bit of sun and for a glorious swim in the sea, I spent much time touring estate agents, checking property websites and heading out to visit potential properties.  It’s interesting to see how different planning laws have affected housing here and how the enthusiasm (greed) of the last property boom has changed the landscape, particularly as it was stopped in full flow when the most recent financial crash hit the shores.  There are unfinished estates of houses all over the place, strange zones of cramped housing where the city folk once had allotments and a tiny shed that have since been developed, often without permission, over the decades, leading to fairly smart, pricy properties squashed together with completely inadequate vehicle access and an almost shanty feel.  Not cheap either, until you discover that there is little other alternative in many places without being completely out in the sticks.  I found nothing that fitted my criterion during the week that I was there, so headed off, as planned to my next host an hour or so further south.

woody, my golf on holiday in the sun

the sun setting over the catalan hills

freshly painted facade 

5 june 15:00 2014

Tomorrow is a big day.

My nomadic lifestyle comes to a close.  For a while anyway.  I don’t imagine that I shall never venture again, but not again for a while, right now.

I pay and sign for that lovely piece of land that I found all those months ago, that land I have been looking for, more or less seriously, for the last four years.  The land where numerous projects may start and end, hours of deliberating, of clearing, planting, building, laughing, cooking, sharing and sleeping.   The land that I plan to call home, the last time I lived in my home was in October 2006, (it seems like a thousand years ago now), when a very different person left to travel for a year to find focus, regroup and start over.  It’s taken a while, been the most amazing journey of discovery, amazement, wonderful people and places, revelations and realisations, courage to go on time and time again.  

Now I stop and start to think, it really has been a remarkable period of my life, a time for which I am very grateful.  How ever-so fortunate to have realised the funding, to have been unencumbered with dependents or relationships or other commitments to allow me the freedom to wander our planet.  There is still the vast majority of everywhere to see, I was curious, but not ever so.  It wasn’t the time to be cramming everything in, but a time to dwell, to take note and to follow intuition and instinct, for I knew not where the journey would lead me or mould me or teach me. But I let it take me anyway.

So tomorrow I arrive, for the time being anyway, at a new beginning.  The start of new projects and discoveries, with a plan well formulated yet still fluid in my head, some aims and objectives decided and others waiting in the wings for when the time is right.  

I feel good, no, great.  Excited and eager to get started, pretty well equipped from my years of HelpX volunteering to begin.  Confident that I am doing the right thing, for the here and the now, in the knowledge that life changes and there is no knowing what may be in store.  With good friends close by and further afield to turn to for support.  It’s going to be amazing, planning a site from scratch.  My garden, my house, my latest dreams and ambitions.   I will find the energy and determination when the going gets tough, and enjoy the achievements as they arrive, however large or small.  I will enjoy the process and share it with many others in the hope that some may even be inspired themselves.  I will take the time to relax and savour the down time too,  life is for living, there’s plenty of that to be done too.

So tomorrow at three I become the new owner.  I shall prepare a picnic and a bottle of fizz ready for the evening, I shall drive there and set up camp.  I don’t intend to do anything at all, just sit and contemplate and listen to the birds singing in the trees, get a feel for being there and enjoy the moment, in preparation for a big new start the following day.  

May the sun shine on you where ever you are, it’s going to be a wonderful day.

and she's up

moving a house

 Two weeks in for me, the rest of the team have spent much longer preparing the foundations and much of the wood that we have been working with, and the framework is completed and ready to put up.  It all appears to be a bit fast, but the woodsman is sure it’s all OK and is keen to get on.  Each section is loaded onto a trailer and ferried across a field and down a country track to the building site where it is reconstructed.

ready to lift

The tractor then hoists each frame upright and it is temporarily secured in position with numerous cross braces.  Sounds easy, but with each part weighing a good eight hundred kilos, it is no mean feat to get each one in exactly the right position, ready to receive the rest of the precut timbers to complete the framework.  A centimeter out of place and the whole building will be compromised, there isn’t much room for error.

keeping the posts in position

adding temporary support

a little mechanical help

 Two days later and it looks like a house, well, from certain angles at least.  The frames looked tiny when they were lying on the ground in a huge field, but now, upright, they’re massive, much larger than the house itself, as it has a rather interesting design.  You can see from the photos, the roof extends way further than the verticals that will eventually become the walls.  The idea is to have a wrap around terrace that circumnavigates the house, allowing shelter from the sun, rain or wind on whichever side provides the most comfort.  

With the timbers it looks a bit top heavy, but I imagine that it will evolve into something rather stunning.  I’m part tempted to copy.  I won’t, but will certainly develop some of the ideas, isn’t that partly why I’m here?  To learn, discover and improve on the ideas that I already have, before I start on my own.

all up and secure

nestling into the landscape

Lamastre

Another week has passed with no news from the Notaire, it must only mean that everything is going smoothly!!!!!  I tried to phone last Thursday, but it was a public holiday, forgot my phone on Friday and on Monday they are closed anyway, so I’ll give them a call tomorrow and find out what’s going on.

In the mean time, along with the continual work on the building site, I’ve had chance to explore Lamastre, the local market town a bit.  An old mining town from years ago, a bit grim and grey but pre most industrial action, so the coal was shipped out and the area is now quite and calm, the mines closed years ago.  It reminded me somewhat of Dartmouth, from the steep narrow streets lined with granite houses, though miles from the sea and rising on both sides of the valley.  It’s remote here, three quarters of an hour drive to the nearest large town of any note, so it’s similar to Dartmouth in that respect too.

Spotted an interesting fence, rather a fun idea that creates a bit of character to an otherwise bland back street.  

As time is moving on I am becoming increasingly anxious to get my garden planted before the summer gets underway.  A challenge, I know, being hundreds of miles away from a property that is not yet mine, but I’ve done a fair amount of seed sowing this last weekend in preparation.  My mad february purchase of thirty or so packets of seeds in Aldi one evening has come in handy at last, rows and rows of tiny plants are starting to appear from the compost, a mixture of vegetables and flowers, that’ll be ready to transplant within the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully they won’t get too large to untangle or too stretched by being planted so close together.  The whole thing is a bit of an experiment so we’ll just have to wait and see.  I keep reading my permaculture gardening book and have some interesting ideas to try out once things get going. Less work and more produce - can’t be such a bad thing to try.

the biscuiterie

Swaan cutting biscuits 

straight from the oven

never enough biscuits

part shop, part kitchen

wooden framework

Two weeks in already, time is flying and I’m partly wishing that I could stay here for ages and see this project advance much further than I will be able too. Mainly though, I am excited to be getting closer and closer to the magic date when my own project can start in earnest.

It’s great to be working on a project with a good team of knowledgeable people who know what they are doing, with plans to be followed and a decent amount of organisation.  The foundations are already in place, we took off the formwork last week and since then have been flat out building the five  wooden structures that will hold the weight of the building. 

foundations

 It’s been touch and go with the weather as its been cold and showery, but progress has been swift between the showers.  I am now becoming expert at using a router, a drill like machine that we are using for cutting notches in all the beams and rafters so that they hold together and for supporting the rest of the structure once it is in position.  Hopefully this will become clearer once the structure is upright and the next stage is underway.

We’ve spent the last ten days or so constructing five very similar structures, all slightly different, from massive lengths of timber.  The wood comes direct from the saw mill which, fortunately, is a stones throw from the building site, tree trunks are fed in at one end and our pieces, along with an impressive quantity of waste, comes out the other end, directly to where we are building the forms.  A lot of the offcuts are resized for planks and smaller posts, the rest is being rescued for building raised beds for the garden.

the sawmill

one of our beams

Our timbers of varying dimensions are then cut precisely, fitted together with varying joints and marked to ensure that they are complete before they are transported to the building site.  It involves a lot of maneuvering, sawing, cutting, planing and moving, just as I wanted, an opportunity to improve my carpentry skills, it’s great.  Everything is now done for this stage of the build.  

technical bits

even more technical bits

Next week the frames be transported, reassembled in site and lifted into position, bolted into position and then we’ll immediately see the outline framework of a new house.  It’s going to be an exciting week.

In the meantime, when the weather has been less kind, there’s been plenty to keep us occupied indoors.  Swaan and Bert are starting a new venture at the same time as building, to keep money coming in.  Making biscuits.  There’s a cute little building in the village that they’ve rented and turned into a ‘biscuiterie’ so we go there and get stuck into baking.  It’s a completely new project that’s been going for just a couple of weeks and a great opportunity get warm and dry out from time to time.  (the weather has turned much colder than it was a month ago, the usual upside down spring that were becoming accustomed to)

two frames nearing completion

revisits to Nic and Brigitte and on....

And then to Nic’s for a week, more of a catch up visit and to see how he’s getting on with the various projects that he has on the go.  I haven’t been to the tower for a couple of years so it’ll be interesting to see the changes.

In fact Nic has been concentrating on another property he has in the village with the idea of selling it on to finance further developments of the main building, that way he can do it properly without scrimping to get decent materials.  He has spent most of his time refurbishing the house, which is coming close to being ready to go on the market.

It has been a great week,  sorting out the ground outside and sowing grass seed for a lawn, scraping ceilings in preparation for a coat of paint, putting up stair banisters.  He enjoys me being here as I take over the kitchen and give him a good break from cooking, which he finds tedious and struggles with inspiration for meals.  I’ve loved throwing together meals with minimal ingredients on an ever more healthy theme.  Each time I visit, we find that our knowledge of food has increased and we both err towards a more natural, home produced diet.  This time cows milk products have been struck off the list, goat and sheep cheeses and yoghurts are still allowed, the reasoning being that unless very locally produced, the poor cows are now fed an increasingly unnatural diet of grains, industrial food processing waste, live inside for most of the year and are kept going with antibiotics and a range of productivity enhancing drugs.  The natural grass diet of a cow is becoming a rarity rather than the norm.

Enough of that for now.

I continue writing ten days later, having not had chance to use the wifi before moving on.  

The last week at Brigitte’s was wonderful, so nice to return and help a lovely lady and good to see that she is well on the mend after a winter of illness.  The aim was to help get the garden up and running again, but I was beaten to the post by Gareth who had arrived earlier in the year for a couple of weeks  but has decided to stay, almost indefinitely by the sounds of things, and is busy settling into the region.  

Gareth is a great gardener and he’d gotten most of it under control, a botanist by training and brilliant at wild plant foraging, so as you can imagine, our conversations were in-depth, endless and fascinating for the two of us, both learning loads from each other.  I don’t think I have eaten so many different wild plants in such a short period ever, mainly a tasting, but occasionally more of a meal, including the ever popular nettle soup and several almost completely wild salads.  

We got on and did several jobs that were much easier done with a couple of pairs of hands.  Replacing the roof on a sun terrace awning, clearing and strimming an enormous patch of semi wild land near the property and burning loads of garden waste, chatting on for most of the time. A third helper arrived too, Trina, a canadian, who helped out more with spring cleaning and sorting out the cellar and summer house whilst I was there.  It was as interesting week language wise, with Brigitte and I being accustomed to speaking french to each other whilst Gareth and Trina in the early learning stages, we swapped back and forth between english and french continually which was great for everyone.  

I was sad to leave after a week, two or three would have been much more agreeable, but I was on a promise and have had a long long drive to get where I am now.  It’s not that far on the map, as the crow flies, but climbing mountain roads takes time in a van like Percy, going up is slow and down is no better, gently does it so as not to overheat the breaks - it smells terrible and is slightly worrying when smoke billows from the wheels when you stop, so a low gear is more the order of the day.  1200m was the first pass then a long descent before climbing almost immediately to 850m and down again.  

I’m somewhere in the Ardeche, south of Lyon, high in the hills with marvelous views, helping a Belgian family build their first ever straw bale house that has only just begun.  I’ll tell you more next time......

here and there

I’ve been to the UK and back.  I spent a wonderful fortnight visiting family and friends, caught some great weather after all those storms and headed back to france with a suitcase full of soft fruit bushes.

Since then I’ve spent two action packed weeks in the mountains, spending time both with Pierre and with Clare at Lou Rider, it was lovely to see out the last of the winter season with good friends and say good bye once and for all to the chalet as it has now been sold (I’m waiting to hear for sure that it’s gone through before posting, so as not to jinx things for Clare).  We had a fairly substantial snow fall just as I arrived back in the mountains, so had amazing ski conditions for a couple of days.  The two remaining helpers at the chalet, Kieran (sp?) and Brian were excellent skiers so it made a change to have to work a bit to keep up.   

The warm weather soon put pay to the amazing conditions and the snow soon turned wet and sticky, catching me out on several occasions resulting in a couple of spectacular wipe outs.  Shaken but not particularly injured, the aches and pains have now departed and am left with the memories of some wonderful descents.  

Clare was busy cleaning and preparing to leave whilst I was there.  I gave a hand, with the tidying and ended up leaving with a van stacked full of useful items for my next project.  It’s all safely stashed in a neighbours barn in Vieuzos now, so don’t have to cart it with me for the next two months.  Thank you Clare.  We ate too, to empty the cupboards and freezers, as nothing could be left this time, a week of scrumptious food, frequently with an asian twist was a real treat and the never ending Sticky Toffee Pudding, that was always such a hit with the guests, finally came to an end.  MMmmmmm.

Somewhere amongst all the excitement I lost my camera, so no photos for the time being, unless I cheat and use some old ones.  I left my name and phone number with the piste services but can’t imagine it’ll be found in a working condition after being outside for so long.  New one ordered, it’s winging its way to me as I write, so won’t be imageless for too long.

It's starting well, 2014

I know, I know, it’s been over a month since I last wrote and I am starting to get emails from close friends checking that I am OK.  Yes, all is well with me, I’ve just been rather busy and not often with internet access.  

The second week of January, I stayed with my good friend Pierre in the mountains, we skied twice, went out on racquets in the snow and generally enjoyed a few cold and sunny days in winter wonderland, though, after November the scenery wasn’t quite as spectacularly snowy.  We even spent a day at Chalet Lou Rider with Clare and her team which was great.  A really good crowd, great fun, but with all that is going on with my land purchase, I am glad that I’m not there this year. 

On that front, things are progressing slowly.  Problems with a farmer neighbour (involving the present owner) have been sorted and all that is needed now is a reply to a legal letter confirming the outcome.  I met the farmer a couple of weeks ago and we have agreed ongoing rights of passage and his use of part of my future land, for an indeterminate period of time, this is an additional area that the present owners are pleased to sell rather than the initial plot.  

For two weeks I have been working flat out with a semi professional team, endeavoring to finish the ground floor plastering of Pierlo and Sandrine’s house as quickly as possible due to a change in family circumstances..  I’ve helped them periodically during the last four years and when I discovered that their son, Jules, had been in a swimming accident last autumn and is still quite disabled, decided to lend a hand.  He suffered an apnea attack as he dived into the pool and was without air for some time before he was rescued.  His lungs did not fill with water, so he had not drowned, but still, spent a couple of months in a coma.  He is slowly gaining his senses, movement and comprehension, but it appears that it may take several years before he returns to some sort of normality.  A huge shock and life changing for the family.  They hope to get Jules home as soon as it is in a fit state to receive him and a great group of friends are rallying round to give support. I’ll no doubt be back to help from time to time, but for the moment have committed myself to another project.

I am back with Cherry and Chris, where I stayed over Christmas and the New Year, where I planted over a hundred trees in the autumn and house sat on a couple of occasions.  They move house at the start of March and have an enormous list of chores.  The offer of £££ for extra hours was a tempting one, so I am working more than full time for them till the end of the month.  The new house is in the process of being renovated and will be no where near ready , so I shall be heading back to  give Pierlo a hand when I finish here.

Looking further into the spring, hopefully I will have signed for the purchase of the land by then, I have 2-4 months for searches and official paperwork before completion.   There are already three possible straw bale building projects available that want help (more arrive as we get closer to spring) and with Percy at the ready I am easily able to move from place to place to head off and lend a hand, learn still more skills and better formulate how I plan to proceed.  Hopefully the current owners will allow me to plant a vegetable plot during the transition period so I am not too far behind with the season and then in early summer there is the possibility of a 6 day professional course in straw bale building near La Rochelle.  I can use the trip north to visit other friends on route and then head back to the UK for Percy’s MOT and a long awaited visit.

Not sure how it’s all going to pan out and in what order it’s all going to happen but its going to be a challenging, exciting and demanding year.  I am almost bursting with anticipation and am finding it difficult to hold back on planning and getting stuck in to my next chapter.  I must be patient and bide my time until the formalities are over.  There’ll be plenty of time afterwards for it all to unfold.

snow capped Pyrénées

winter sunset

my current abode

Suzy, the bestest french dog I know

stripey

Suzy

newly planted beech hedge

the new residence

no skiing this christmas

My plans haven’t been going to plan since I last wrote, but it’s all worked out extraordinarily well.  I had been invited to work on constructing a wooden house back in October, but a few days before I was due to arrive, heard that the owner wasn’t there at all, but working away on a humanitarian project on an island in the Indian Ocean.  Thankfully I emailed to confirm.

By chance I had called in to see Cherry and Chris the week before, hosts that I had stayed with in 2010, just to see how they were and they said that they were in need of help should I become free. I said I’d let them know but didn’t imagine things would change before early next year.  One mail later my plans changed and I returned to Las Bourges and a new project that is probably going to last me well into 2014.

More tree planting to start with, along with remodeling a garden, putting in hedges and reclaiming the potager from an autumn of neglect.  I initially suggested a couple of weeks, but their location is excellent in regards to my proposed purchase.  About half an hour away from the land, twenty minutes from the notaires and in the right area for discovering everything I may need in the future.  In addition, Cherry used to be a property dealer, so knows all the ins and outs of buying land, how to approach negotiations and speaks very well the french.  We have had plenty of interesting discussions and I have modified my requirements for proceeding with the purchase with her guidance.  To keep me here for longer, there are a variety of interesting and challenging opportunities to help on their latest venture.

Their project is half an hour away in the other direction.  A new house purchase, well, an old farmhouse in need of much renovation and alteration that they intend to move to next spring.  Initially they’ll live in a converted outbuilding whilst being on site to oversee renovations and keep an eye on things as work progresses.  Their current address is sold, so will need to be vacated fairly early in 2014.  Once I’ve got the major planting and garden maintenance up to date, I’m hoping to work along side Ben and Mattieu as they install wiring and plumbing in the barn conversion, help with continued construction work and maybe even finishing if I stay around long enough.  I’ll learn plenty, get to practice my french whilst on the building site and have time to concentrate on my own project.  The woodworking’ll have to come at a later date.

It’s slightly unnerving being so calm and relaxed over Christmas after the last four years in the chalet.  I do wonder how they’re all getting on up there in the mountains and the snow and have the occasional pang of nostalgia, though with my long term project about to start feel happy to have the mountains in the distance and a calmer workload to contend with.  No mornings with thirty beds to change, or sacks of spuds to peel, or mountains of ironing to contend with, no digging snow and waiting tables or mending broken toilets and taps.  I've been missing the camaraderie, the clients, the snow and the skiing, but the calm is lovely.

Instead I have a more regular timetable, with chickens to feed, Suzy the dog to walk, wood to fetch and frequently, a house to mind, as Chris and Cherry travel frequently for business and are often away.  Free time to chill with a book or walk in the countryside, the weather has been amazing.  Cold and clear with wonderfully warm afternoons in the sunshine, great for gardening and getting things planted.

Christmas has been great, christmas day, a family affair, with a smoked salmon, scrambled egg and bucks fizz breakfast, plenty of snacking and a delicious main meal starting with a hot asian prawn salad, followed by beef wellington and finished off with traditional english christmas pudding all washed down with plenty of suitable wine chosen by Chris, a veritable connoisseur.  That saw us good for the rest of the day save a slice of cake early evening when other members of the family arrived for present exchanging.  A lovely relaxed time with folk coming and going, popping out with Chris and Cherry to shop for plants whilst the weather is being kind and the bare root stock is still available.  More delicious meals, a choice of english or french TV, a real treat as I hardly see the screen whilst I’m away, walks, chats and plenty of fresh air.

It’s been quiet on the property purchase front, I expect that everyone is otherwise occupied through the festive season, but I do hope to have news as we head into January that things are proceeding. 

It’s New year’s Eve as I write.  Home alone again just with the dog for company.  We’ve had a good long walk in the sunshine this morning, I’ve prepared dessert and Simon, who I’ve probably mentioned before in my writings, a great english guy who keeps himself busy on building projects and traditional style restorations, is turning up in a while to welcome the New Year in.  He’s picking up a rabbit on the way, we’ll drink and prepare and cook and drink, chat about allsorts and probably watch a bit of TV and toast 2014 as it arrives.  Happy New Year to each and every one of you, may you be healthy, wealthy and wiser through the coming year.  Embrace and enjoy it all with my love.  xx

ferme de hameau de pau

I returned to Francoise and Vincent in Pau for an autumnal week.  It was great to see them again and I was welcomed like a good friend.  As we chatted away during the first evening I was surprised and very pleased to hear that Francoise thought that my french was better than it had been in the spring.  Slowly but surely my grey cells are absorbing a new language.

Vincent and I got on with chores around the property, pruning hedges and shredding the resulting branches, picked the last of the raspberries and prepared the fattened rabbits for the freezer.  It was great to learn a new skill, though sombre at the same time.  I can give a graphic account if you want or just say that I now know how to dispatch, skin, clean and prepare a rabbit for the oven or pot.  It wasn’t as difficult or complicated as I had imagined and to see how fast the whole process happened not as onerous a task either.  So, in the future, when rabbits decimate my garden I shall know exactly what to do with them..

percy in front of the gite

the route up to lac bleu

lac bleu

We spent a day trekking in the mountains, took time out to check out the second hand stores in town, cycling out into the country to find a café, which was closed, a great ride anyway. Visited the opening of a community gardens. Helped some friends with their self build eco house.  I could stay with Francoise and Vincent for ages, but as they live in the wettest town in France, I have to move east to find somewhere somewhat drier.  That said, I left with plenty of leads and a gathering of estate agents to visit.

amazing autumn colours

Vincent and Francoise harvesting beans.  Haricot de Bearn to be exact.

interesting landscaping ideas, mixing old with new

cycling out, with the mountains in the distance

the first raised bed for Vincent's new no dig garden

straw bale rerevisited

I left the mountains in a snow storm, concerned that the roads wouldn’t be clear enough for the car.  Fortunately Pierlo arrived with a sturdy 4x4 which managed the conditions without a problem.  The weather has now changed for the better, the storms of the weekend have ceased and it appears that spring has decided to arrive.  

After such a snowy, cold winter it is surprising to see that lower altitudes in the area have already sprung into life, there are flowers everywhere, the fields have a new flush of green, the first buds are bursting on the trees and the bees are busy restocking their supplies as fast as they can.  Life continues even though the mountains are still covered in meters of snow, they are a view now, distant, cold and uninviting, rather than the purpose of being there.  The ski season over, a new chapter begins.

Straight back onto building mode, the early part of the week mixing earth plaster for the final indoor phase, finishing the walls of the living area downstairs.  The first floor rooms are now finished, decorated and well lived in, the rest should be done this summer.  It was great not worrying about being clean and tidy all the time, getting clay on my clothes and living in a house that is still under construction.  The straw bales, that had been visible  walls since the house went up, fast disappeared under a couple of layers of mud plaster, along with the strapping and electricity conduits, changing the appearance dramatically, giving the space clear flat walls.  The final coat will be added later on, when all the walls have been given the initial treatments and have had time to dry.  I’ll be back again to see the finished result and the transformation of the earth floor into something more durable and suitable for modern living.

The latter part of the week was taken up with gardening and starting a structure for some newly planted kiwi plants.  Part support for their climbing habit and part a shaded dining area for the family.  Constructed in a similar fashion to the greenhouse that I erected here a couple of years ago but a lot quicker.  Firstly because I only had a little over a day to get it done and secondly the wood needed a lot less preparation as it wasn’t going to have plastic stretched over the top, none of the knobbles, buds and pointy bits needed to be trimmed away.  Elsewhere in the garden I planted onion starts, harvested nettle tops for use in the kitchen, wild garlic for pesto, weeded, reconstructed a badly leaning compost heap, spreaded manure and transplanted hundreds of tiny seedlings.

It was great to be back at the house to see all that had been done the last year, to catch up with Pierlo and Sandrine, both of whom were on form and, with much improved french, have some much more indepth and interesting conversations.  Jules and Maryon have grown up a lot in the last couple of years and are mainly great fun to be around.  

The families’ diet is somewhat radical, but I love it for the time that I visit.  Mainly raw food, fresh preserved from the garden and market, minimal cheese, milk and meat products, minimal wheat, no alcohol or stimulants (tea, coffee etc) or refined sugars.  Amazingly I feel different after  just a few days, lighter , with more energy, more eager to get on and do things, less tired and infrequently hungry.  Each time I stumble on people who eat like this I am more and more sure that it is the way to go for the future.  I feel great.

Having said that, I did catch up with a friend, Simon, who took me along to a bbq one evening where the combined spread was amazing.  Everyone invited took a plate or two and bottle and something to cook on the fire.  Wonderful evening, a great group of alternative people, delicious food and drink Simon did his famous bbq roast chicken on a string, it’s always delicious, even more so when it is shared between twenty hungry people, all eager to try a bit.  MMmmmm, the quandary of eating what’s good and what’s nice. 

the morning I left the chalet 

sunrise from Esconetts

straw bale house from the garden

transforming the walls with clay render

living in a building site

finished wall and ceiling with bird detail