VILLAGE FISHING COMPETITION ON THE ALARIC CANAL

I didn't catch anything. It is difficult to ask for help with a jammed fishing reel when you don't have a French dictionary with you. They load hundreds of trout into the Alaric canal and people in camouflage - chaps actually - fish them out competitively with bait - no spinning - the canal is rather narrow as I discovered.

I was hoping to add fish to our menu and fill up our empty freezer!

BULLFIGHT

The South of France is serious bullfighting and hunting country. Here there are two sorts of bullfight. Traditional Spanish with Matadors and Picadors and the Course Landaise which we haven't seen but the bulls aren't killed. Not sure about people though. On Republic Day we went to a local event 'without death' that turned out to be three children training to be bullfighters with young steers or bullocks! The kids - two boys and a girl were about 13 years or so - I will upload a short video if I can - meanwhile an image perhaps if the internet connection allows.

ARROSAGE - JUST ABOUT THE SIZE OF THINGS

So you know.
When this photo is uploaded - currently each image takes 30 minutes or forever - you will see the reach of the irrigation spray and the size of our house. It explains the broken roof tiles we inherited and the current damp carpet in the bedroom.
The farmer whizzed around to correct the alignment of his system and no permament harm was done. The water was delicously cool but rather powerful.
I wish he hadn't missed the vegetable garden as our well is beginning to run dry and it is very hot at the moment.

BLOG OVER

It is time to end this blog – or is it?
It is a blog for you – and for John and me but does it work?
Does it serve any useful purpose for us?
We have been useless at keeping it up to date partly because we have had so much else to do but also because our internet connections are so slow.
Anyhow – whatever – whatever – I will do a few more blogs with pictures but very short and see if anyone notices or comments.

MIRANDE AND THE COUNTRY AND WESTERN FESTIVAL

So come and stay L and E and enjoy!
Another part of my Immersion course was visiting Mirande. I was taken to the centre of things by the redoubtable M-S, my tutor and host. There I acquired a cowboy hat for gardening and bought a Bad Boy hat for John to wear on the ride-on mower.

CIRQUE DE GARVANIE AND THE LAST GLACIERS

Isn’t it beautiful!
This trip was part of my French Immersion course.
The Cirque de Garvanie is a vast natural amphitheatre surrounded by mountains and cataracts. Roland with his great sword cut a great chip off the ridge in the fight to prevent the Moors invasion of France.

There was a grand spectacle being staged in the valley to which we were invited. Sadly I had the flu and we had to miss it.
From further west and higher up the Col des Tentes it is possible to see this glacier. ‘Those who know’ the “They’s of wisdom’ say the Pyreneen glaciers will have disappeared in 30 years time.

Balancing our two Bits*

We have two Missions. The first was doing our bit for towards kick-starting the World economy out of the credit crunch by investing in materials and equipment for our new home. It looks as though our efforts in this sphere - filling our home with White Goods, some of which are apparently manufactured in Europe – and consuming hectares of sustainably-managed temperate forests, are beginning to meet with success. So, with the arrival of our deep-freeze – expected for this week or next – this phase of our work is drawing to a close.

Our second Mission is to play our part in saving the planet. To this end Ruth has planted vegetables in our newly-created raised beds which should make us near to self-sufficient in fresh food. Organic and air miles-saving at the same time. Unfortunately this plan somewhat undermines our mission to spend as much money as possible since it releases us in part from the cash economy. A further disadvantage is that our garden is so productive that we are being threatened by a surfeit of good things to eat, up with which we cannot put. This week our tomato plants, grown to over 6ft. (2m) high and groaning with fruit which menaces to all ripen at the same time could begin to overwhelm us. The above-mentioned deep-freeze is part of our plan to counter the approaching vegetable tide by a battery of preservation methods including freezing, sterilising, drying, and the range of pickling in oil, vinegar, alcohol and sugar. We managed to withstand the onslaught of the courgettes without the aid of any of these methods but it was a close thing. The next crop to threaten is the French beans. Followed by the French potatoes, French melons, French marrows etc.

*This reference has nothing to do with our new kitten, provisionally named TwoBits for delicate anatomical reasons while we tried to think of a suitable name. The name we eventually chose for her was Topaze. She’s ginger, so you can see just how fitting this name is.

P. S. In celebration of the French National Day, 14th.July, we might have called our kitten "Catorze" Waddya think?