Sheep injuries

Last evening we found valentine with a broken rear leg. Fortunately we check on the sheep regularly (at least once a day often twice or more) so the fracture was closed and I quickly managed to catch him before further damage was done. The vet came straight away and in a few minutes the bones were set and a resin plaster applied.

This morning Apple has a broken horn (probably decided to take on William who far out guns him). It'll heal (crookedly).

William's heavy duty horns

 

Flood

The rain pours and a good part of it is coming through the back wall of the bathroom where the rock boss was removed! Now I ll have to dig out behind the house and put in a drain! This wasn't what I envisaged when I said I wanted a "wet room".

 

Project bathroom destruction!

 Bathroom project continues...having gutted all the internal sanitaryware, plumbing and finishes, the next job was to remove the granite which was higher than the floor at the rear, then break though the concrete floor slab to find the below ground drainage and reconfigure it for the new layout. Lots of time consuming heavy duty work.

Pic de Montcaud depuis Les Cloutets

 Another walk with Sheri within our 10km radius of home, this time starting from the hamlet of Les Cloutets below Pares and climbing through forest to the open hill and Pic de Montcaud - a more modest 10km and 700m of ascent. No path through the conifer plantation but spectacular views thereafter and three encounters with a Capercaillie (Grand Tetras). As in Scotland they are very rare here and incredibly shy, but I was surprised by its size and the noise of its wings and feathers when taking to flight.

Pic de la Journalade

Pid Caumale et Pic Rouge de Bassies

Table des Quatre Seigneurs depuis Lacourt

Under lockdown (confinement) again and trips for exercise/leisure are restricted to10km from one's home, so trips to the mountains are out for us. So we looked to explore some of the areas we haven't visited. Table des Quatres Seigneurs is part of a large limestone massif called La Montagne de Sourroque, the cliffs of which dominate the view from St Girons towards the East.

We started our walk from bottom of the valley beside the Salat river in Lacourt. A long steady ascent through prairies, woods and then beech forest eventually lead to the base of the cliffs and an area dominated by potholes or "Gouffres" as they are called here. 

We picked up the "Sentiers des Falaises" des finds a way through the cliffs, with some cables for support and eventually reaches the Poudac de Hibou, where we had lunch.

The are on the plateau above is an enchanting (enchanted) beech forest and we traversed it from east to west. 

A pair of Egyptian vultures nest here but we didn't see them. We did however see a black and white booted eagle and a golden eagle, as well as a griffon vulture.

Booted Eagle

Golden Eagle

A long descent on forestry tracks detracted a bit from the day, we should have chosen a different way down, but still an enjoyable exploration with 1320m of ascent and 23km.

Plenty of fertility in the limestone soil!

A tree-creeper

 

Porch progress

The worst wasn't over! The stone wall of the single storey bathroom had been built with steel reinforced concrete intermixed with granite blocks, took a day and half to dismantle it! Door now relocated, old door blocked up and today floor insulated and screeded ready for tiling. Window next though.