Good news from Ellie

...John has been operated on and is in recovery.
No alarm bells are ringing.
Much love to Ellie and all the very very best to John
She writes:

I spoke to John this morning, and then again just
recently. He seems cheery, although tired of course.
He told me the surgeon said we can see him tomorrow
afternoon. John says ICU is great, cuz the TV is free,
unlike in the rest of the hospital where it costs
something like a euro per day. He says Hi to all you
well wishers.

Lost and gone...

Lovely weekend. Allenna came from Canada and Clair, Rick
and Jack came with Bob from London.

We got up to lots of stuff. We went chestnut hunting and
questing at Rennes le Chateau; we had apero with Toby and
Leo, with Peter and Nel and Kat and Ian and Andrée; we had
lots of food.
We did the market. We walked and enjoyed the weather.

I took many photos, some of which looked rather good.

In the process of downloading, I managed to delete them
before they arrived on the computer. All are gone.
The above is a totally baffling picture I found while looking for
them.

hospital news from Ellie

Ellie has written;

"......
some bad news about John. He's in the cardiac hospital in
Bordeaux awaiting triple bypass surgery.
It's all very frightening and stressful.
I've arranged a place to stay here - luckily one with wifi. "

Alarming news but these ops are standard and he will be
up and renewed shortly, for sure.
E-mail Ellie and cheer her if you can -

bad blogger

Its not that I forget my camera, its that I forget to use it...

so yesterdays drive with Hilary - direction Puivert to near
Mirapoix - goes unrecorded and it was beautiful. You'll just
have to imagine snow capped mountains, rolling forested hills
dappled with sunlight looking like a kids drawing - marvelous.

The evenings extravaganza was at Le Cantou with Adrian and
Maggie and Leo. We started with a Blanquette apero at mine
and moved on to the good local red with our pretty good meal.
Le Cantou is still good value. We each had the 15 euros meal
and all were pleased.
Le chocolate mousse au maison is enough for me but I managed
the onion soup and salmon with red pepper corns as well.
And a certain amount of red wine.

Adrian and Maggie had had nightmare journeys too-and -from
Nice, caught in the strike action.
They'd just got back and were knackered, full of stories of
their voyages.

This morning, remembering that I shouldn't eat cheese at night,
the market beckoned... in an attempt to escape work and my
ringing head and dodgy tummy - oh la, that cheese - I followed
the call.

There Dermot told me that Kate had been Kayaking -???- and
done her back in.
Msr Charlie had the wild boar I'd ordered -dead- and told me
that if my guests couldn't get here because of the strike, to
freeze it.
Pascal told me that if the government didn't alter the pension
reform legislation he would end up on the street. (Hes a stone
cutter, there is no work, he cant get dole, has no pension)

Everybody complained of the cold.

Back home, Peter G came round with the newly arrived
beautiful Nel. Both radiantly well.

Later on, in the sunshine, I met Debs - who had done her knee
in hydrofoiling in the Aude- Edith, whose adorable girl Tita has
announced her pregnancy- Vivienne, who is looking masses
better after her illness- Stan, who doesn't mind being painted
as a nude cellist .
'OMG You've got that French hair disease', he said, which is
an improvement on 'you've dyed your hair red'-

Visited Kate with biscuits understanding that she was
paralyzed but pleased to say she was out, presumably better
- thence to Andy and Lou where all was calm and Lou was
crocheting a baby blanket in lilac. Baby due 9th Dec., gender
as yet unspecified.

Finally had to do some work.


My weekend guests are braving the strike. Dear Allenna has
rung from Lyons - can't get to Toulouse - and heading for
Montpelier, hoping to find somewhere to spend the night,-
should get here tomorrow.

So should Toby, flying back from Amsterdam.

Bob and the London end, Claer, Rick and Jack, should get here
tomorrow afternoon.
Beds are made up, wild boar is simmering in a red wine sauce
Andree's cauliflower and banana soup is ready to slay 'em.

Life is an adventure, eh.

seasonal snaps

Heres this mornings sunrise over the hub of Tilling and
illuminating Rennes le Chateau...


Later from the hill you can just see snow on the high mountains.

And below you can see new flowerbeds in our garden, thanks
to Jenni with help from Ian. Won't know the place next year.

hairdresser par excellence

here is Virgini, my hairdresser,
who today laboured to make my
red hair less of a hat and more
of an integral part of my head.

Though as she said, shes good
but she doesn't do miracles.

She has one of those chairs that
massage you while you are
being washed.

I feel like a happy jellyfish now
despite the grey cold windy
weather.

There are rumours of snow.

Kat in the kitchen

Dear Kats diligent hard work has paid off - for her friends at
least, who benefited from her new kitchen last night. Leo,
Pete and I shared an excellent meal and a deal of good humour.