do a bit of good today

http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=11962

Amnesty (who are generally reliable) are campaigning to prevent the execution of an apparently innocent geezer in America - it seems possible that you can prevent this barbaric action by adding your name to a campaign found above.

Tuesday...

wandering about reflecting on the nature of life here - for months its crowded, you cant move for tourists and holidaymakers, when suddenly, bouff! They've gone. Where to?
Heres the deserted cafe du pont - eleven o'clock, not a soul in sight -


Pam went this morning, here she is outside the townhall - back in October - rotten luck having to leave our sunshine for the UK's stormy weather.

Then of a sudden, Trebha appeared !!! Safely back from his adventures.

Saturday so far

Here is Gala teaching me and Pam to remove unwanted facial hair using a reel of cotton. You tie a length around your thigh and arrange the other end into a twisted triangle which you then run over your chin, scraping and pulling as it goes. This is an Iranian method and it clearly hurt so Pam and I didn't have a go. But we enjoyed watching Gala suffer:)

And here is Gomez, the sole survivor of Tuesdays cockerel massacre. His harem will join him today so he'll look less insecure soon.

Todays big event - non-event really - is that Le Capt has missed his plane and wont be joining us for the weekend.

Alas.

Caravan in the hills anyone??

Muriel from the chemists has a caravan to let in St Ferriol - its remote and freestanding, 2 bedrooms and bathroom, air con and tout confort. Its on a wooden terrace in an olive grove, with views of Bugarach and Rennes le Chateau. Great for a rest or a holiday break or escaping your over-zealous public. 400 euros a week all in - get in touch and I'II put you touch. If you cant just pop into the chemist, that is.

latest...

The latest is that Phil and Gala are here cooking dinner... hurrah!

--And before that, guess what??
Andrée got a ticket for speeding!!!
(Her second offense in 50 years. The first was a parking ticket in Carcassonne when she was 30. Whatever next, the anarchist---)

Its nearly autumn here but the sunshine carries on - the hens are laying (we don't mention the cockerels) - Pam is back for the week - Steve's grapes are delicious and we are doing are best to eat them before he comes back. He'd hate to see them rotting on the vine, surely. Bieke is back here with Willem, Gods in her heaven. Captain H arrives Saturday for the night to see his brother and sister-in-law, the gifted cooks I'm currently exploiting, see above.

forthcoming attractions

This is Tommy (according to Mike), a large snail who joined our coffee table this morning. It rained a great deal and the usual market distractions were absent - we all rather took to him. He was a cautious and thoughtful creature of a discrete charm.

Diary dates abound - Sunday at 4.00 Tillings own G.e.s.s.p.e * will be singing in the church. Its free! And a good idea to get there early. They are singing occitan songs from the Pyrenees.

On Monday 26th at 11.00 there will be a fundraiser for SCF here at Tilling Towers; a 'Bring and Buy' event featuring coffee and stuff. Please bring the customary fairy cakes, arts and crafts, clothes, books, bric-a-brac and then buy some more. Everything a euro - bound to be some bargains, probably. The main thing is to raise some dosh - check out the SCF, who are a Good Thing. www.cancersupportfrance.info

*Dunnarsk, can never remember what it stands for. But they rehearse every Thursday at the Centre Culturel and are an unfailing pleasure.

After the huricane; news from Barbara

Barbara and Larry were in Vermont for hurricane Irene. Here is some of Barbara's letter -

"Funny how the storm went. Was pretty westerly in New York but here it roared up the east side of Vermont so the greatest damage was on the east side. It has been heartwarming to see how local people got right out on Monday morning and began work of clearing roads, feeding people. Our village, for example, set up an emergency shelter, served hot meals to anyone who came in, made clean water available so you could take buckets there. Run by volunteers. Our own road damage was first repaired by a neighbor who brought his own machine and plowed enough for 4 wheel drive vehicles could get through. All our deep wells require electric pumps so we were all without water here in the country. But in many towns as well the town pumps couldn't work.

The damage is amazing. Several towns were cut off from the rest of the world. Wardsboro, our neighbor town, is still cut off because the roads were devastated. Big bridges generally held. It is the small bridges over creeks that were torn apart and often the drainage culverts that carry runoff under the road were overwhelmed and the water ate around the culvert pipe and undermined the road.

...sorrowing for all the people who have lost their businesses or jobs or have big repairs to make to houses or outbuildings. One thing that made it hard to restore electricity was the need to clear the road enough for the electric peoples' trucks to get in. New Jersey and New York have big damage and it affects thousands more people. Only a half million live in Vermont. That is probably why it is so neighborly."

I'm sure that all Larry and Barbara's many friends in Tilling send love and all the best in the clean-up.