Feart o' Heights

Today Cro posted about repairing his roof. 

I am exceptionally wary of heights. 

I used to rock climb but only because I loved abseiling. Don't ask me why I had no fear of, and actually enjoyed, abseiling but I did. However climbing up in order to do it scared the pants off me.

A friend nearly died when he was us a step ladder and it slipped. He could not have fallen more than his own height. We all have many such stories.

Friends had a house in the Poitou Charente. He was not good with heights to the extent that anything over a few inches from the ground was a problem. So, in the early days of this century, he asked me if I would "walk the roof". I understand that is what the French call the practice of getting onto the pantile roof and walking along it putting back into place the tiles which had been dislodged by the winter storms. In this case my task was also to photograph any more serious damage.

So I duly, walked the roof. I repaired all that I could and photographed that which I could not. 

The plan was that the materials would be purchased at the local bricolage and I would repair the roof. 

I should now tell you, dear reader, that it was a large roof comprising the house and barn. To the front the drop from the roof was only about 2½ times my height but at the back there was a very much more considerable drop. So being the feartie that I am I got a climbing rope that could be anchored on the front of the building enabling me to repair the back of the building. If I slipped I would not fall off the roof and could be hauled back up to the ridge. 

As it happened my friend abandoned the plan for that spring and I never did have to get up and do the full repairs.

That is me!

Gaz and Antibes

After our visit to the Cinque Terre which I described in the last post we set off along the Riviera Highway through Italy and France for Antibes 200 miles/320 ks away to see Gaz and the super-yacht of which he is a Chief Engineer.

Diane, Mo and MY Ecstasea

We booked in at a splendid hotel Gaz had found for us: Hotel Josse.

The bland looks belied the interior

Comfy modern rooms with the best bathroom possible in an hotel

Reception area

Breakfast on the terrace served by the most chic person ever to have served me breakfast 

Then wandered through the wonderful old town of Antibes

Antibes Old Town

with the new work of art mentioned in Gaz's blog here.

Figure by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa

until we went for dinner at this delightful restaurant run by two ladies who seemed to do everything including turn away a lot of potential customers (because they were full) and treat each customer as the most important they had ever had.  The Girls decided this was the best restaurant of the holiday so far.

The unassuming entrance gives an idea of the friendly and informal inside

One can't have an untidy beach now can one?

An Antibes beach morning makeover

Snow in France

For once the Outer Hebrides seems to be getting marginally better weather - or perhaps I should say marginally warmer weather - that the rest of the UK and certainly than a great deal of Northern Europe.  So when I received these photos from a friend, Viv, who live in the Lot-et-Garonne I tried to match them with photos from similar spots taken during the early autumn this year.  I didn't have any direct comparisons but these provide some idea of the change a few months can make.  Thanks Viv.

I have no comparison for the road to the house but it's such a beautiful photo I couldn't leave it out!

A Door in Sainte Foy

It was a curious door.  Completely burned on the surface although nothing around it appeared to have been touched by the obvious ferocity of the fire.  Indeed the contrast between the surface of the door and the wood in the central gap between the surfaces would presumably tell its story to a fire investigator.

Memories of Warmth

One of Viv's neighbours has a large number of horses some of whom we met on one of our walks:

Fauna in France

When I was at Viv's in France we went for walks around her extensive property which is home to a feast of wildlife.  Given France's obsession with the rights of the common man to hunt and shoot anything that moves Viv's land is a safe haven.  The land around however........

These Chevreuil or Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) were not quite as near as they seem but had we been hunters they would have been in range of a rifle (but possibly not a shotgun).

A squirrel had been at work:

These tracks through the grass were either badgers or deer

coming up through the woods

I could have shown you all sorts of other things that trackers use to tell what's been where but you might be having breakfast as you read this so I'll spare you.  It's fascinating, though, being able to tell what the various animals have been eating.

Fungi

Adrian has had a good harvest of fungi fotos (or is it phungi photos - strange language, English) recently.  I've taken a few as well but I shall confine this post to a couple in situ and some in the Civray market and, one assumes, therefore of the edible variety.  They certainly looked rather more interesting than those on the shelves at the local Tesco.  I really have no idea what the fungi are and my attempts at identification might simply cloud the issue so I shall just hope that someone with more knowledge than I have will comment on them.  The fungi in the first photo was about the size of my hand but the second was half as big again.  Mind you I have fairly small hands.

Taken in the Lot-et-Garnonne

Taken in the Poitou Charrante

At Civray market

The Grape Harvest

Last year in the Lot-et-Garonne I tried to photograph the grape harvest but the grapes were pathetic specimens and certainly not photogenic.  I am always looking for the rich beauty of the grapes that I photographed in Tuscany some years ago.  This year at Viv's I had more success and the autumnal hues of the leaves were a bonus:

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for the luxury of being able to wake up with a view and being free to sit in a garden and look at the trees in the orchards.  For that is, to so many people in this world, a luxury beyond comprehension.

View from my bedroom in Maumulon, France

View over the orchards at Viv's in France

Butterflies

I went for another cycle ride this afternoon.  Just a short one.  It was 42℃ on the terrace at Maumulon this afternoon.  A record high for this time in September over the last 12 years that John has been taking temperatures.  So I cycled down the lane.  Having spent half the day chasing a Red Admiral on the Sedum in the garden I discovered a wild Sedum out in the countryside.  It was covered in bees, hover flies, things I couldn't identify and butterflies: Small Copper (to quote Adrian 'I hope'), Red Admirals and Peacocks in particular.  Having posted a Peacock already here's the other two:

Red Admiral

Small Copper

A Cycle to Mauprevoir

I cycled from Maumulon to Mauprevoir yesterday afternoon: a pleasant 25 k round trip.  I Googled the village and discovered that the name mauprevopir.com has been reserved on gandi.net and parked as unused.  So no help there then.  In fact no help anywhere it seems.  But then when I arrived it didn't seem that Mauprevoir needed any help from the internet.  It seems to be a thriving, if small, community in what must be one of the tidiest and prettiest villages in the Vienne.  I hope that all the other pretty villages are not reading this.  Don't think I need to worry.  If I have a French reader other than someone I already know I'd be surprised.

Anyway I thought that whilst I was at it I'd have a play with JogTracker the new app toy on my phone.  A click here (if you do want to open it I suggest you do so in a new tab) will show you my journey and a map - I hope.

I had an excellent coffee at Le Diament bar.  The English proprietors are working on it to open a café/restaurant in the New Year and to add letting bedrooms.

In the meantime here are some of the (inevitable) photos I took:

The Chateau of Mauprevoir.

The Church of St Impère,  a 225m2 structure with Gothic windows.

The Village centre with the bar

A window over the River Payroux

A touch of New Zealand's habit of painting pictures on any structure that stands still long enough.  In this case the bus stop and public convenience

The Marie and Bibliotèque

The inevitable Pétanque terraine

On the way back

The last few hundred metres

'Home'

French Indian Summer

We've just looked at the Météo France forecast for the next few days.  I go back to Scotland on Tuesday.  Quel dommage!  Even worse for John and Sue is that they are taking me to Poitiers for the train when they could be sunning themselves on the terrace on Tuesday - the hottest day.

Fast Food in France

Whilst I'm on the subject of things that amuse me as we were driving out of the supermarket this morning I spied a slot machine for hot pizza.  I thought that France was the land of haute cuisine and discerning eaters.  Hmmm.