A varied day

View from the bedroom at dawn

Today was perhaps the hottest day of August here. A small fire below Mont Valier some time in the mid morning sent a plume of smoke into the atmosphere which created a gossamer veil of haze around the mountain, very beautiful.

I started early to split most of the logs cut around Philippe’s ruin earlier in the week, but Claude and his son Yves were playing ‘tag team fat chewing’. No sooner had I finished chatting with one of them for about 45 mins than the other would turn up for some more small talk. By 11 the sun was hot and I gave up – only about 2/3rds of the logs split.

I returned to Quelebu and laid the tiles in the shed. The tile adhesive ran out with one tile to go but I managed to improvise with some grout as glue. I erected the structure for a boardwalk around the shed then headed for the field for a little more clearance work.

At 5 it was time to visit Claude for 'l’apero' but first we went to collect some gentians for the roof of the shed (now complete with soil). Susan (his wife) also gave me some succulents for the roof and afterwards I got some heather from the fields below the house.

Tomorrow, as the weather is fine, I’ll complete the traverse of the skyline from the Col de la Core to the Col de Crousous. Then on Saturday I’ll finish the boardwalk and gravel to the perimeter of the roof.