Trois Seigneurs par Goutets

A late start with Sophie, Sheri and Michiel from La Foulie, heading up to the estive at Goutets. From there we were hoping to head up to Trois Seigneurs via Col de Pourtanelle and Cap de Gragnots.

view up valley from above Carol

lunch at Goutets

 Goutets with its preserved stone Orris's (round stone shepherds huts with stone roofs)

Choughs

Cap de Gragnots

Sheri and Susie having a laugh

Sophie from the Col de Pourtanelle

"Prada darling"

Plenty of snow after Cap de Gragnots, but we lacked time and equipment to press onto the summit of Trois Seigneurs which was in the clouds anyway, so stopped half way between the two peaks;

Fields of wild daffodils below the Col

Just before the return to Goutets I spotted a pair of bearded vultures (Gypaete Barbu) high in the cliffs and managed to get a few telephoto shots

Descent through the beech forests

After a week of hard labour the new parcels linking the two fields is finally clear.

Today the south wind heralds stormy weather tomorrow but creates wonderful skies.

After a week or so of recovery from the Pyrenees Contemporary Dance Residential (which went very well indeed), it's back to work. Clearing more land to feed the swelling number of sheep - now 29 after the late arrival of another lamb on Sunday.

Clearing the scrub woodland and coppice between the ampitheatre (left) and the new field we cleared 18 months ago (top right).

Apercu de Spectacle MJC OUST ce samedi 19h

Lambs and Morels

Continuing exploration of some areas I haven't been to for a while for the map which is now nearly ready for the first daft print.

View from the North ridge of Joubac with the Arac far below

4 more lambs including twins for Thelma. Possibly one more to come?

 Thelma and twins

Nanouk and her white and black lamb Pingo

The dance residency starts tomorrow, so glad most of the lambing is safely out of the way. Several lambs this year have been "pasted up" and required a warm soapy wash of their rear end to unblock them, but all seems well. 6 females and 2 males.

After several barren years for morel mushrooms, a nice haul today.

Lambing

5 births so far this year including a set of twins for Apache. Alas Thelma's baby ram (first photo) was "wrong" from the start and despite all our care and medication he died this afternoon at just 40 hours old. Thelma is distraught and we are heartbroken. Another 3 or 4 lambs expected, hopefully they will be healthy and strong.

Port de Barlonguère (ski)

At the weekend, an overnight ski trip in the mountains. Ambitiously (considering how little skiing I've done this year), I hoped to get to Pic des Trois Comtes. The first day we made the Cabane Trinqué in good time to dig it out, as only a little of the roof was above the snow - but after more than 2 hours of digging we were unable to open the door, so had to retreat back downhill to the Cabane de Peyrelade. Next day we re-ascended reaching the Cabane de Barlonguère before we were engulfed by the rising cloud. We pushed on to the Col and lucked out with a brief clearing of the skies. Most the descent was in little or no visibility....but good to get out with a new group of people.

Today its been snowing and our first lamb of 2019 was born.

Que 4 places for les pro-danseurs locaux

Chateau Mirabat

A stroll upto Chateau Mirabat to look at the fire damage from the recent mountain fire and of course the view!

Quite a few square kilometers of scorched earth beneath the beeches and oaks which seem mostly to have survived, though some older and dead wood was still smouldering.

Chateau de la Garde, which has undergone some surrounding tree clearance in the last year and is now much more visible - does someone have plans for it?

Sahusset

Alet Valley 

Cirque above Etang Hillette

Swallowtail butterflies where already flying at Mirabat, but then the sunshine temperature was 35 degrees at Quélébu - a new record for February.

Birthday walk

The glorious February weather continues and for Susie's birthday a Champagne picnic under Cap de Bouriex. We wondered whether we could drive to the Col de la Core but eventually snow blocked the route so we slogged straight up through the woods - not the easiest or most pleasant of climbs as there was no path, deep snow in places and it was hot but eventually we cleared the tree line and found a lovely spot for lunch in the sun.

A spare afternoon and the last 130 heddles for the weaving project are made, so now threading the loom can finally be completed.

The hot dry weather has lead to quite a few fires in the mountains, the biggest of which is between Pont de la Taule and Ustou and has been burning for the last 3 or 4 days, last night another above Soulan.

The chickens who don't much enjoy the snow and cold are loving the sun and sunbathe outside the back door often all together.

A longer term project to make a 1/5000 map of the commune is slowly taking shape but requires a lot of leg work to check out the state and positions of paths and trails. This afternoon I was near Coste d'Asprex, where more "marginaux" seem to have set up a camp last year and now departed leaving tonnes of rubbish, two old caravans, furniture, gas cyclinders, etc all for someone else to clear up. I hope a special place in hell awaits them!

Porcherie at Asprex

Hot

Glorious high pressure has settled over the Pyrenees and we have clear sunny skies with temperatures in the sun of 29° and cold nights with just a hint of frost. Perfect ski-touring weather but as ever I m struggling to find others motivated / available to go.

The fine weather is good for outdoors work and Susie and I have been filling the raised beds in and outside of the poly-tunnel with manure from our new neighbour at La Coste Christian, who has bought the farm from Manu. I've also cleared the band of woodland between two of our fields of all the fallen trees (mostly from the May snow of 2010) and brambles. The sheep love the new terrain to explore and I've been able to remove the fence which was always being engulfed by the brambles.

The fish which we feared had died in the cold weather are slowly emerging from the murky depths and we've now seen most of the bigger ones at least once, though some of the smaller casualties occasionally float to the surface.

The symbiotic garden has had a good tidy up and looks ready for business - just need to keep the chickens out!

After the snow

Another quick ski up and down Joubac in rapidly warming conditions on Monday and then down came the rain. The sun has blessed us with its heat and suddenly nearly all the snow at Quélébu has gone. A couple of gloriously warm days have allowed us to carry out the fence repairs to the fields (50 new posts) as well as a few realignments. The vegetable plot terraces have been repaired and Susie has moved her Goji berry bush (hopefully without killing it).

I also made a new ratchet for the tractor handbrake (the old one was worn through) and the readjusted brakes. On our land working brakes are pretty essential!

Ski tour from the front door

More snow yesterday, so another trip out, this time on skis for me and raquettes for Susie and Sandrine.