Percentage of one billion

14th. February (which besides being Valentine's Day and the day I booked our trip to India) was the day of One Billion Rising; an event scheduled to demonstrate against violence to women around the World. There didn't seem to be anything organised around here so, largely promoted by Femmes d'Ici - the group that arranges the annual celebration of International Women's Day on 8th. March each year locally, of which Ruth is a prominent member - a proclamation-and-dancing demonstration was held under Maubourguet's Market Hall. I have to say that a great deal more people attended than are shown in the photos. (Me included. Except that I was at the bank, trying to find out how they had lost my 300 Euros, when the photos were taken.)  Still, it got into the newspaper. Every Little Helps!

 

Carnaval



Here are some pics taken at Labatut's annual Carnival shindig in the village hall. Along with another couple, we were the only Brits there. Some, at least, of the others are not too keen on the duck carcasses ("demoiselles") which were the main course. The first two photos show Ruth and Claude - the deputy mayor of an adjoining village - with his glove puppet. The third one shows me looking rather (but probably accurately) chubby.

 

The last picture shows one of the manifestations of the night's band entertaining the audience. Very good they were too.

90th Birthday

On 2nd. March the Krama Singers - the choir from the villages of Labatut-Riviere and Mazeres - were invited to sing at the 90th. birthday of Madeleine, the mother of Genevieve, our chef de chorale. The photo shows Madeleine holding the patchwork quilt, made by Irene (second left), surrounded by the British members of the choir, who had contributed to the gift. Not shown is Graham, Irene's husband, nor Ruth who took the photo.

 

 

That's water in my glass. 

 

 

Frost in February

I don't remember these pictures being taken in our garden. They're quite pretty, though, aren't they?

 

The upstairs is finished. Premier etage fini

After 4 years of work, the First Floor is finished. I completed the bedroom, bathroom and study last year (the spare bedroom was done 3 years ago) but had left the landing for a suitable point. That point arrived last week when rainy weather caused me to look for a job inside. And here it is. The top rail of the balustrade Ruth got from a second-hand shop and most of the infil is from parts of a cart we found in a junkyard. It was stripped and I assembled it amid much swearing and varnished it. A few carpet tiles and that was that!

 

Floods

We had two bouts of very heavy rain in February, both leading to flooding alongside the Adour. The river rose 2 or 3 metres and roads were covered in various places. The last picture is taken looking downstream from the main bridge in Labatut. That wasn't when the flooding was at its worst, since, at that time it wasn't possible to get to the bridge. At least not with dry feet. Which reminds me that the rains were another factor in interfering with my road-running training.

 

 

SNOW

Despite our relative proximity to the approximately 7m (22ft.) of snow on top of the Pyrenees, it's pretty rare that it snows in Labatut. Nonetheless yesterday morning we woke to 50mm (2in.) of snow. It snowed lightly virtually all day but by mid-afternoon it was all gone. Luckily I managed to get a few snaps around the garden after breakfast and I hope they are worth sharing. The one patch of colour in the garden was Ruth's roulotte.

 

Last week we had a barbecue. As you can see further down, that wasn't a strong possibility yesterday.