Field 4 (down in the woods) often gets little attention in the summer as there's so much grass for the sheep nearer the house, but today it got a good clean up...I'll put the sheep down there next week.
After spending the morning almost finishing off the Financial Times cryptic crossword (2 clues still to get), a walk this afternoon provided wild mushrooms and strawberries.
The works to my Remington Model Seven are now complete. The stock looks fantastic (click on the photo for a closer look) and hopefully with the action glass bedded it'll shoot better than ever.
On the way up the footbridge was missing below the cascade, on the way down it had been miraculously replaced (by helicopter?).
Hot dry weather for the foreseeable future so this morning I started cutting hay. More to cut tomorrow. Cutting it now, rather than late June, means that it is easier to cut, I'm not plagued by flies and I can get another cut in August. The smell of drying hay is lovely. More tung/linseed oil mix is going on the rifle stock and that smells lovely too.
The vegetable garden is also doing well - potatoes, onions, spinach, courgettes, strawberries, tomatoes, cauliflower and cabbage all doing well. Carrots go in tomorrow.
After a day of sanding and then raising the grain, the stock got it first coat of oil today - 2 weeks of finishing still to do but the grain and colour look very promising.
After Sunday's trip to Tuc de Bignau, I decided to do it again, on skis. Clear skies last night but the snow wasn't frozen this morning. About 40 mins of carrying before I hit the snow (Refuge Forestiere d'Areau) then continous to the col below the summit (right hand skyline in photo above). Spring snow and a fun easy descent. Arriving at the sign post at 1998m I ascended Cour Vic (on foot) for another descent (on skis) back to the Cabane d'Areau. Back at the col de Pause in time for lunch. 1000m ascent/descent 3hr 30min.
All the sheep are now sheared - what a job! Wool was very waxy and very dense and fine - couldn't push the electrics shears through it (think I need to get a different comb for next year), so did most of it with hand shears - difficult when engaged in 'hand to hand combat' with a sheep. Two sacks of wool to be washed and carded.
Raining today so spent the day at Pont de la Taule painting and wall paper stripping. Need to build a fire place next week.
On the way back I watched the kayak race down the Salat river.
A trip to St G market for some seedlings - then planting out tomatoes, courgettes, onions and lettuce. These join the potatoes (now sprouting) and the strawberries Emily gave me. A fence around the veggie plot will hopefully keep the chickens out. The grass seeds in the new field 1 extension have finally germinated so the nettles and brambles were scythed down to hopefully let the grass dominate.
Whilst looking for mushrooms a few evenings ago I was crossing a stream (which had eroded a deep channel after the recent storms) and I noticed a short length (6" or 15cm) of dressed stone crossing in the stream bed - after a bit of poking around I realised I had stumbled across an old lavoire which was now completely buried under the hillside. I went home for a spade and began to dig. After two evenings and most of today I have unearthed the old Pinsou/Quélébu lavoire at Gouteto. There's some more digging still to do (getting all the clay out is hard work) but John said he'll give me a hand. It's about 30' x 10' x 2' deep (10m x 3m x 60cm deep) with two interconnected pools and twin outflows. The back is carved into the white limestone at the springline and I even found an old stone spout through which the stream used to flow (it needs to be refixed).
Very changeable weather at the moment...but a chance to catch up on household chores, scything, servicing the chainsaw, tidying the workshop and admin' like my french tax return!
Having prepared plans to double the size of Justin and Emily's house in readiness for the impending arrival of twins, I have been lending a hand with the construction. This morning I jumared onto the roof and demolished the chimney then abseiled back down (we didn't have a big enough ladder). Then he and I started on the construction of the new balcony. Using oak sawn a couple of years ago from trees felled at Justin's, we managed to build the first bay of the new balcony (which will eventually wrap around the enlarged house) by the end of the day.
After skiing through wet concrete yesterday I went for dinner at Anne-France and Magnus's place in La Trappe. They are over for their Easter holidays from Sweden and it's the first time we've met in the flesh - we knew of each other through our respective blogs. Fellow blogger Penny came too as did my neighbour Dani from La Bordasse. A relaxing evening after the 'ski'.
With 30cm of fresh snow having fallen yesterday, a quick trip to Guzet this afternoon seemed like a good idea (even though it's been closed a few weeks now). Unfortunately the snow proved to be very heavy. After breaking trail to skin up to the top of Picou, we tried to descend what is normally the black run called Coombe. Trying to move forward even on steepest parts was difficult and turning more difficult still. The snow stuck to our skis and tried to set like concrete. At one stage I fell over and couldn't move for the weight of sticky heavy snow on top of my skis and it took me some time to release the bindings before two handed I heaved to withdraw the skis from the snow. I wouldn't want to be avalanched in this stuff!
Outside it's been snowing all day, inside I've been busy baking Pyrenean Pasties for future packed lunches.
