Posted by: LizzieBG in Le Couvent Roujan, Books on
Friday 29 February, 2008
For the past week Ali and I have had rotten colds. We've done no pruning, no gardening and very little that involves standing up. On the other hand, when the eyes have stopped streaming, if only for half an hour, we've ploughed our way through endless books. Even when preparing supper, Ali finds it impossible to stop. That's not a cookbook you see her with, it's The Indian Clerk , which she obviously can't put down.
I, on the other hand, have been reading some tripe so bad that it made me think perhaps we should start a 'plant a tree for every crap book you've read scheme'. I'm sure we'd have a forest in no time, and each tree could be labelled with the name of an atrocious book that never should have been published. That way we'd soon know what to avoid and the trees wasted printing the trash could be offset with freshly planted ones. Whaddya think?
Posted by: LizzieBG in Roujan, Le Couvent Roujan on
Sunday 17 February, 2008
First a new roundabout appeared at the Pezenas end of the village, by the Cave Cooperative, last summer. It was pretty ugly, and well, just round. Then another popped up at the other end of town on the road to Gabian - slightly prettier this time, with lots of decoration in the middle - as is usual for French roundabouts. As if that wasn't enough new pavements and a squillion laurier roses found their way along the road to Neffies - Avenue Henri Mas.
At the end of the summer all the pavements were torn up, heavy machinery caused chaos in the main road, traffic was diverted round various routes (one of which saw pantechnicons wedged on the sharp bend by the bank) all of which were fairly disastrous and nearly caused the local garde champetre a heart attack. No two days saw the same road diversions as each 'plan' was as flawed as the next.
Then just before Christmas the first roundabout had lots of new planting and interesting stonework installed to end its summer-long building-site look.
The reason for this flurry of activity? Yes, the municipal elections. Every six years towns elect a new council and mayor. So they hang around doing nothing obvious for five years then make major changes in the sixth year. We're about to start voting on 9 March (it's a dual-pronged process) so Monsieur le Maire recently sent to every household a newsletter giving details of all the major achievements of the council. Just to remind us.
Anyway, for those of you who've stayed at Le Couvent, Roujan before, we hope you like the changes. Just watch out for the axle-high speed bumps all the way up the main street. Oh and we're not alone, the same phenomenon can be seen in all the towns and villages around here - and probably throughout France.
It'll be a relief when the elections are over, then we can all go back to sleep.
Posted by: LizzieBG in Le Couvent Roujan, Gardening on
Tuesday 12 February, 2008
We're about to start preparing the Le Couvent gardens for summer. The current warm weather is forcing on the roses, so the pruning is pressing. The main job, however, is weeding. I find the rule below quite helpful, although frustrating.
When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.
We've had our lovely Cambridge friends Sarah & Dawn visiting for the past three days. No-one gets to stay while Le Couvent is closed during the winter unless they put in a bit of work, so they pruned olives, bushwhacked thistles and planted salad & strawberries.
Their reward for all this work this was taking us out to lunch in Meze where we had stunning shellfish looking out over the sparkling sea. The Picpoul de Pinet was almost a finely chilled as the sea. Ali & I passed on the latter. Our sweet guests got soaked, but reckoned it most refreshing.
Hope you got home safely - come back soon eh? Happy birthday Sarah!
Wow, today has been just beautiful. Ali, Alex and I spent the day pruning at Chateau Mal Au Dos. Ali & Alex were working in the Vineyard With A View and I pruned the espaliered pear trees. With the temperature running at 19 degrees it felt very summery - we peeled off until we were in our vests for the first time this year.
It was a little less peaceful than usual as Jean-Marc the shepherd, who'd brought his sheep to the crest above our vineyard, spent the afternoon yelling at his wayward collie, Bouffe. Bouffe took a shine to our dogs Kit & Flynn and spent his afternoon rounding them up rather than look after his flock.
The daffodils and almond blossom look fantastic against the current cloudless skies.
Have you booked your summer holiday yet? Why not come to Le Couvent, Roujan? You can contact us here .
Posted by: LizzieBG in Family on
Tuesday 05 February, 2008
Please excuse my absence. I've been in England with my brother, Justin, helping my Mum and her husband, John, clear out their loft, shed and garage. John starts chemotherapy tomorrow and the junk in the roof was one burden Justin and I could lift from their shoulders. It was something of a revelation. You may have noticed that supermarkets have stopped dishing out plastic carrier bags. Like me you might have thought it was a 'green' move, but you'd be wrong. It is so that my Mum can't collect any more. She had what seemed like several thousand in her roof, just in case. They were there with the ancient carpet off-cuts, dozens of sets of non-working Christmas lights and at least eleven suitcases. I am so glad no-one's clearing out our loft here at Le Couvent; it's much, much worse.
Good luck for tomorrow John - we'll be thinking of you.
On the other hand one family member had the most superb good luck today. On the pretext of needing help with shifting a large and heavy box one of our friends (with Ali & I and as pre-warned accomplices) invited my nephew Josh to her house. Once we were there he and I lugged the box outside to reveal a sheet-covered scooter just behind it. Josh has been saving for a scooter for a while, but didn't expect our wonderful friend to offer him a brand new, 3kms-on-the-clock, Peugeot VivaCity. Who would? Josh is a sweet boy and yesterday he got to meet a fairy godmother. Life gives and life takes. Naturally he was speechless and breathless with shock and gratitude. Lucky, lucky boy. Thank you St Faith.
