Detox on the moor

A wander around Sheep Tor with Susie and Ruby.

It's been a long time since my last post. Two weeks refurbishing a flat in London, preparing for Christmas, three architecture projects and a forthcoming building project have kept me rather busy. Some R and R over the holidays should provide some post worthy news soon.

Stormy Weather

My flight back to the UK was delayed by three hours because of the storms in Scotland. Author and comedian Tony Hawks was on my flight (he has a home in Bagneres de Bigorre which he wrote about in his book "A Piano in the Pyrenees").

Christmas shopping at he weekend, during which Susie found some lovely shoes for me which are great - ergonomic, comfortable and stylish.

Starting the bedroom makeover

With the new parts of the house almost finished (just bathroom joinery and tiling, and Susie's wardrobe doors to do), our bedroom is next for some attention. Started by painting the ceiling white and having a big clear-up.

A chance meeting

A trip to Foix this morning, to the prefecture, to change the name on my driving licence from Inglis-Sharp to Sharp. Which was very straight forward (am I getting used to french bureaucracy?). As I walked back to the car I heard a shout of "Lee!" and there at the door of a café were Donna, Sheri and Sam! Old friends who I hadn't seen in the flesh for a couple years and by chance all together. Was good to catch up over a coffee.

I called in on Minsou on the way home, who was in fine form and we chatted over a glass of Port.

It was a glorious afternoon and even though there is snow everywhere the temperature in the sun was in the mid-twenties...the advantage of living so far south. Spent the late afternoon painting the bedroom ceiling white.

A short walk around the fields this afternoon and there are trees and boughs in all them to be cleared up, some of them sizeable and some hung up. It's not quite on the scale of 2010 but at least then it was May and the winter was over. I won't be able to tackle most of these for another 4-5 months.

Still the firewood supplies are looking very healthy...could probably sell some!

Avalanche!

Woken by two avalanches last night, one off each side of the roof. This morning with the cone of debree up onto the roof, I had to do about 2 hours digging. These photos are afterwards.

Fortunately the car wasn't parked on the 'wrong' side of the house but safely in the garage.

Skiing

It's been nearly two years since I last went skiing (other than one morning touring from my house last winter), so it was great to get out on the skis so early in the season this morning. I headed over to Ax-les-Thermes where there was a lot of snow and almost everything open. I couldn't resist jumping straight into a black run and although my technique was ragged after such a long lay-off and the snow deep and heavy, I got down with no problems. Skied all day but as my technique improved so did my fatigue. Fantastic weather!