Autumn Begins

A couple of days ago there was a sudden change in the weather. We’d been having up to 30 degrees during the day and high teens at night. Suddenly, a depression from the west rolled in bringing snow to the mountains (Pyrenees and Alps) meaning anyone in the line of wind direction would have colder temperatures. That was us – but we were not the worst hit by any means. There was flooding up north, high winds on the coast, and other extreme weather.
Today it’s back to sun and warmer (25). So it was time once again to go blackberry picking while taking Cassy for a walk and exploring the region of our new home. We found an old railway track which is still walkable, so headed there with dog, bags and containers.

Wouter captured a lovely blue butterfly:

And we collected enough blackberries for a couple of pots of jam – yum!
We are happy with our new neighbouring villages as we find them very picturesque. Meanwhile we are ticking off the days until we can really move into the house. The date of final signing has been brought forward to this Thursday (18th) which is quite exciting for us. It means we could move into our new home – however, there seems to be some sort of hold up with our belongings in NZ so we will have to make a decision when we can move in and “camp” until our things arrive.

We won’t be totally without possessions as we have arranged for electrical goods and a bed, which will be delivered on Friday this week. After that, we still need to buy a gas cylinder and some new hoses to be able to cook – then some crockery, cutlery and cooking utensils and we should be just about there.

During the last week or so we’ve seen leaves falling from trees – we think it’s mainly because of the very dry summer weather – but fall is fall, so it is the start of autumn whatever the cause. The leaves left on the trees which have not dried out are beginning to colour, so in a few weeks we will have a palette of autumn gold, red, yellow, bronze, brown – my favourite time of the year. Our next outing will be to collect some walnut husks for Wouter to make some dye for his printing.

Lastly, the vendage (equivalent of the Italian Vendemmia) is well and truly underway. Tractors of every description clog the roads at some of the most inconvenient times of the day to take their crops to the local cooperative. It’s quite a sight really. Amazing that some of them have a crop at all after such a dry summer – I would have thought some could go straight to the raisin factory!