Any which way you turn

It may sound like the title of the next Clint Eastwood movie, but it's not. It's autumn and everywhere you look lovely colours are appearing. But first, many thanks to those of you who sent birthday wishes. That Monday was supposed to have been a gloomy day, so we thought we would leave taking a trip in the car until later in the week. So it turned out to be a low-key day. Pressies included a Larousse Illustrated forWouter and a collection of Jaques Brel's 100 most popular songs for me - but of course we both share these things. As we had been painting and tidying for a few days, we knocked off early and got stuck into the wine, seeing we had a good reason to celebrate! (look carefully below)

To continue - we thought we were missing out on autumn colours elsewhere, as in our garden it is like Mother Nature suddenly turned on a switch and everything started changing colour. Leaves have been falling off some of the trees big time. So we took our promised trip around a route which takes you roughly 20-25km radius of Cambieure. To our surprise we found few autumn colours except for the grape vines. However, we did enjoy a break and Cassy managed to get some play and adventure time in, much to his delight.

We found a place just up the road from us where they are selling pick your own apples, and what a pity to see heaps of apples lying on the groundso we will check it out further on the weekend and pick some to eat now and some will go in the freezer for crumbles and pies over the winter. But we have to make another trip or two around the local villages over the coming weeks to make sure we capture all the autumn colours.

After spending a while gathering up leaves on the driveway, what a shock to see it totally covered again the next morning! We love the colours and only raked up the leaves because we were supposed to have some rain. The rain didn't eventuate but a small breeze did which blew more leaves off the trees!

Thanks to Marlana who confirmed the mystery insect (of a previous posting) is indeed a humming-bird moth. Now we have another item to identify, a tree:

It has lovely white scented flowers which have rosy pink bracts. Once the flowers are finished, they produce a dark blue/black berry which sits inside the bract. Please let us know if you have a name for it.

More pics below of autumn colours in our neighbourhood over the last week or two as we've been travelling around. Snow will fall in the next day or two to 1000-800m so we're pretty sure it will become cooler quickly. Having said that, all the things we've planted in the garden seem to be doing well, and we have already been eating the radishes. Most of the grapes have been harvested as have the old sunflowers and maize.

Introduction to the Village

A few snippets which don't really fit with other blogs but thought you would be interested to read.

Village Celebration:
Last week we were invited to the inauguration of the village primary school for primers. Actually, we turned up the week prior, after being told by our lovely, friendly Maire that it was on 3rd October. So off we trotted thinking we would be in nice time - couldn't see many people and started to feel a bit sorry for the few children still in the playground that not many people had bothered to turn up. It didn't really look like anything official so we walked around the corner to the Maire's office to check the notices, and met Mr le Maire himself, who politely told us it was 10th.

OK, no problem. So 10th we did the same thing, and this time it looked more promising. A few official looking people who would conduct proceedings and Mr le Maire was there to greet everyone. There were about 150 people, which is a fantastic turnout in a village of just over 200 inhabitants.

We met some lovely people and we will make more contact as we are here longer. After a tour of the school, we headed in loose groups (we were in the pelaton) up to the village hall, which was nicely decked out with a spread of goodies (some of the younger children couldn't wait for the official speeches to finish and helped themselves to nibbles) and wine and lots of hand shaking and greetings. Lovely. After the speeches there was a humerous apology for the mix-up about the date, and also an apology for those who didn't receive an invitation..... We came away feeling like we are real Cambieuses.

Phone:
And now a story about our phone. We have been expecting some calls this week and noone called on our home line, only on the cell. Funny, we thought until Wouter's brother emailed saying he was trying to call but couldn't get through. So we did a test - 09 number works fine, 04 number doesn't ring at the phone even though it sounds like it's connecting. Why is that?

We realised that when the telecom technician came to connect the phone line, he told us, once you get the codes for the internet and are connected, change the phone plug so it goes into the livebox (that is, voip - voice over IP). So we did that, thinking both numbers would work. But it only works on the 09 number (of course!) and now we realise that when we spent a few hours at telecom setting it all up [I must add, with millions of things to remember], why the woman asked if we had enough phones - yes, we said, we have two (but little did we know they should not be one system, but two completely separate phones. Another frustration of language barrier, but luckily nothing more serious came out of it except a funny story.

Pole Dancer:
And another story before I forget. A few weeks ago we were out for a walk and Wouter decided to measure a tree - without his trusty tape measure (one already lost so he had to buy another) he had to measure it by putting his arms around it. Then he came up with the line - - "hugging trees is the next best thing to pole dancing". A man of so many talents - this one had completely escaped me. After I stopped laughing and caught my breath back, I made him promise to show me what he knows about pole dancing, but I'm still waiting..... (I'll try to have the camera ready if it ever happens and promise to post it on the blog!)

Bottoms Up:
Lastly, we have taken advantage of an old saying. A friend of ours told us about the Dutch saying 'the five is in the hour'. I'll explain this for non-Dutchies. Telling the time in Dutch is a bit different to in English. We say 4.30, but the Dutch say 5.30 (30 minutes BEFORE 5). So once it's 4.30 in the afternoon it is an acceptable time to have an alcoholic drink. Hence 'the five is in the hour' means let's drink. We have adapted this when we're ready for a break and a glass of wine. We now say - the 5 is in the hour when it's 3.05, 3.15, 4.25, and so on. After all, we are in the south of France and surrounded by vineyards and can enjoy the afternoon sun fully relaxed.

The New House

Most of you will know that we were offline for a couple of weeks (story in itself further down the page) so this is a running commentary of how things have been for the first couple of weeks in the new house.

We had our first visitors late in the first week who promptly highlighted a problem with the toilet. The problem - flushing fills the bowl and then the bowl empties and sort of surges back. Next morning Wouter was outside digging around the inspection holes to see where the problem might be. The first hole showed no obvious problems, neither the second. Coordinating flushing with inspecting proved the problem actually lay between the second hole and the road. So Wouter took some buckets of water and filled the second inspection pit to see how quickly it filled and drained. After filling to the brim with water and not draining away, all of a sudden the water drained. It seems something must have been stuck further along the pipe - we don't really want to know what was stuck, only that it now drains properly and we don't have to call out the 'plombier'.

[2 days later] Spoke too soon! The loo is playing up again which meant Wouter had to figure out where the problem was again - different place this time so we're wondering if it's just the goose neck in the toilet - not too concerned as replacing it would be quite cheap. However, until that happens we'll have to be careful with what goes down there as it doesn't seem to be able to handle too much at once...

There was a sudden cold snap start of October - we were supposed to get some rain, but that was very short lived. However, it has been very windy, which is typical for this part of the region - close to Carcasonne and a sort of east-west wind tunnel over the plains to the coast. We wondered why there were so many trees on the western boundary, and now we know! So they will stay to cut down the blast from the west when we do get it.

On the northern boundary there are lots of leilandis, which we thought we'd seen the last of in NZ, as they were fairly high maintenance there. They cover quite a long boundary and do keep the wind at bay, so we will keep them trim. The leilandis on the eastern side will be replaced with pyrocanthus - the fire thorn - when we get chance. They are a bit like cotone asters in their bright berries at this time of year and make a great hedge. My favourites are the bright orange ones, but we plan to mix the reds, oranges and yellows as they give a nice effect. The only disadvantage is the thorns, so we'll have to watch out when pruning...

In the northern garden Wouter has managed to even out some of the ground which was rotary hoed before we moved in. It's quite a large area and we're trying to decide what is the best thing to do with it. Maybe just a lawn? Anyway, we won't rush into this decision as whatever we do, we need it to be low maintenance.

Wouter made some seed beds in the southern garden to plant some seedlings. The first shoots of radishes are through, and hopefully it's not too cold yet for the others still to make an appearance - I have beetroot, onions and chard (like a sort of silverbeet with red stalks). In the last couple of days we've also planted more yellow and red onions, garlic, shallots - lovely.

Over the next week we plan to get an electrician in to check all is ok. The other person we need is a plumber to see about the central heating - it may be ok but we'd rather not use it until it's been checked over and we know what we're doing with it.

The next person we need fairly quickly is the chimney sweep - Wouter has replaced the worn chord inside the door of the fireplace and cleaned it up ready for use. We also have had some firewood delivered as we both like a fire when it's colder. In fact, we're trying it out tonight to see if there are any obvious problems so we can tell the person who comes to check it out.

Our other immediate need is a settee - we have 2 chairs at the moment until our container from nz - one is a borrowed chair and the other is a garden seat we found here when we moved in. I've sanded it down and painted it - it looks fine and is usable, but neither is comfortable for sitting on for longer periods of time.

Wouter has been designing our new kitchen - using a programme called "SketchUp" by Google - it's a free download, and you can draw and design heaps of things - buildings, gardens, etc. It's really great once you get used to the tools and what you can do with them. The weather has picked up again, so we've been out in the garden trying to finish off some chores which need doing before the next lot of rain arrives and another cold snap. Wouter had a burn off a few days ago which cleared a couple of big piles of weeds, branches and other garden rubbish. Great.

We have finished doing undercoats of paint in the first bedroom which will eventually be ours. It is looking much lighter - heaps different to the previous paper and cupboard doors - there is so much more light in there now.

On Wednesday the guy from Orange (telecom) came to connect our phone and internet and cable tv. The phone now works, but apparently we don't have a decoder to use the tv - thought it was too good to be true. Anyway, now we have to go back to Carcasonne to get the decoder and find out what happened with our code which enables us to use the internet. ..... [After our visit to Telecom, we were sent the codes by courier - once connected, we found a lot of emails from Telecom telling us the courier couldn't find our place - imagine, no internet connection and we are contacted by email...]

Problem with the roof - we had a rain shower yesterday morning and suddenly drips galore from the dining ceiling - reason - when our dish was connected by the delivery people, he installed it on the roof but managed to break one of the female terracotta tiles on the roof - so Wouter had to buy a ladder to get on the roof then he had to find the tile, replace it - in the meantime he broke another 3 tiles as they are so fragile. Hopefully that leak is now fixed. We are learning all the time how to manage French property and how to fix it as well!

There is a sudden surge into autumn. Two weeks ago when we moved in, it was still hot during the day and evenings, now it's much cooler at night, but still warm during the day. The leaves on the trees were still very green, and now quite a few have fallen and there are heaps of colours appearing the garden which we both love:
Cassy has made himself at home and absolutely loves the fig trees - he knows how to slip away when we're not looking and scrump at the 4 trees which are bearing fruit - some dark variety figs which are really tasty - no wonder he likes them!

One last little item for this blog - we found an interesting insect - at least that is what we thought at first. Then we thought that because it was feeding intently on the pineapple sage with a probiscus that it could be a very small humming bird. Next time we saw it, Wouter took lots of photos to see if we could enlarge it in Photoshop and see what was feeding. It moves so fast that it was hard to photograph, but then suddenly we managed to get pics and I saw that it had feelers - out with the bird theory and back in with insect. However, we still don't know what it is, so any feedback would be appreciated - size about 4cm length:
Thanks to all for the well wishes - much appreciated.

Moving to Cambieure

Well we are on the move again this weekend from Limoux to Cambieure. We have collected a lot of things over the last 3 months, and it’s surprising how we got it all into the small flat in Limoux.

After doing some cleaning up in the house and tidying the garden a bit, Wouter has done some McGyver work on the bathroom and kitchen so we now have:
working shower with curtain, table (made from an old piece of hardboard and the legs are from the supports of the overhead kitchen cabinets).
A working kitchen – plugs, hotplate for cooking (we cannot use the current oven as the element is very loose and the cooktop is unusable as the gas hoses are condemned and we’ll replace them when we redo the kitchen). We removed the overhead kitchen cupboards to make a kind of sideboard (the legs went to the bathroom as above) – I now have a working bench top and the difference in light in the kitchen/dining area is amazing!

Wouter has also been doing a lot of work in the garden – I have a couple of raised beds to plant some winter crops – we just need to fence it off against beast (Cassy – as some of you may not know he loves radishes, beetroot and lots of other vegies straight from the garden!) and other possible wild critters.

There is so much to do, but it seems to be coming together. That is, we can see some sort of plan on how we can manage to do everything which needs to be done, but the tunnel is long and the light at the end is faint. But we’ll get there. It will all be much easier when our household goods arrive from NZ – they sailed Friday 26th and we should get them (all going well) at end October or beginning November.

After the first cleaning up, our work on the house starts with painting most of the woodwork (doors and windows), removing all sorts of wallpaper – a variety of colours and patterns which I will post later.... getting plumbing and electricity sorted, curtains and rods, repairing door locks and shutters, to name but a few. The outside work is a huge task but we feel we can get on top of it if we do a couple of hours a day.

For those of you who email us regularly, we have no internet connection until 8th October, but do keep in contact as we plan to check emails in the local cafe in between.

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!

Side Shows

This morning Limoux was very quiet until late – the reason? Last night was a huge side show and other entertainment – so grand they closed all the major roads around the city so that everything could be set up in the streets.

In the main square you could do some old time dancing, which was very well attended by a variety of generations, on the main drag into town you could see performances of Beatles songs accompanied by stage dancers, alongside there were many food stalls where people could satisfy their hunger.

Further along and in front of the local college were lots of sideshows. The sideshows were frequented mainly by teenagers but not exclusively – the music was louder than loud with thumping beats, lots of laser lights, and plenty of other teenagers hanging out and enjoying the rides, shooting galleries, pick a prize, punch ball to test your strength, floating dicks and so on.

The 'Cake Walk':

The 'Dodgems':

Some nice friendly gendarmes showed a presence but there was no hint of any menace while we were around and they seemed to enjoy watching the young ones having a good time.

Wouter heard people leaving about 4am this morning, hence the late public start. This afternoon after our little outing the roads were closed off once again for tonight’s events. Alors, some more pics of the things we saw during our walk around the shows, starting with the cups on a saucer:

Then by far the most popular attraction for the teens - 'Move It', for which there was a long queue - before 'take-off':

and you can see my legs on the left hand side, 3rd from the top:NOT!!!!

Upside down:


and spinning around (where'd I put my stomach?):


faster spinning then hanging while they pump up the smoke screen - here'e where the screaming starts!:

laser lights, spinning faster and faster, more screaming (especially the girls):

everyone watching then making a beeline for the queue to have a go - if there's any scaring going on, they want a part of it:

Hunter Gatherer

We had to collect some mail from the donkey farm today so decided to take advantage of being over that way and fulfill our hunter gatherer needs. Practicality told me we’d need some pine cones to start the fires we will have in our new home. So armed with some shopping bags, plastic rubbish bags and the song “here we go gathering nuts and May” – yes, Wouter thinks I’m mad - we found the place we’d already spotted a few weeks ago on one of our many walks.

As it’s still warm we were careful to make a lot of noise and stamp our feet to give any resident snakes time to disappear. We kept another eye and ear out for any possible forest beasts like pigs and deer as well – and next week we’ll have to watch out for chasseurs (hunters, the real ones!) as hunting season starts this coming weekend. Wouter went up a big hill and kicked a load of cones down, which was really helpful. In all we have a few weeks worth of fire starters which will be very handy.

On our way back to the car we found some blackberries – so with one of our plastic carrier bags I started to collect. Memories of my childhood came flooding back as I recall going out with my sister , the two of us with a bowl each from our mother’s kitchen, to the local railway bridge and the blackberry brambles you could find there. We used to go home with both bowls full, purple hands and a few scratches, and our mother would make blackberry and apple pie, which was delicious if you could eat it while it was still warm....

We didn’t realise how quickly time had passed and Wouter came up with a Dutch saying (of which he has many) – “gezelligheid kent geen tijd”, which is the equivalent of ‘time flies when you’re having fun’.

This evening we enjoyed a pudding (those of you who know Wouter will know that he ALWAYS enjoys pudding!) of blackberries, the fruit of the passion flower, gathered yesterday from our back garden and no one else seems to like, topped with yoghurt.

Last, but by no means least, here is the first batch of “Pam’s Jams” made by gathering the figs from the back garden where we are staying: