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| Freshly emerged small copper in our butterfly meadow yesterday |
It wasn’t
until we were reading the news on Tuesday evening that we found out about the
floods in south west France along l’Aude around Carcassonne and Trèbes. It’s always sad to hear about loss of life
and it sort of puts your own problems into perspective. Our first thoughts had been around the lines
of, “Wow! We were camping there and cruised the Canal du Midi with Mike &
Aileen – weren’t we lucky to avoid the floods”.
Then we realised there were lives lost and it sank in how devastating it
must be for those who have lost their friends and family members.
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| The flooding Aude in Trèbes – we were camped inside the red circle six weeks ago 😒 |
When we were with Mike & Aileen in Trèbes we went for a meal by one of the three écluses (locks) in the town. Looking back, it was so peaceful that evening, eating on the veranda by the lock; how different it would have been if we had been there this week.
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| The lock by the restaurant: Six weeks ago (when we were there) and a couple of days ago (from France 24 website) |
Believe it or not, the brown stuff is actually water flooding along either side of the lock and down the sides.
Wednesday was a 'no do' day so we went for a longish walk in the woods above the house. As we were going to be climbing and there was no sun it was on with the walking trousers and fleeces which was a really strange feeling. Karen commented that it was probably the first time she hasn't worn shorts or a dress since April; we really have been lucky with the weather this summer especially considering we were in Yorkshire on the Leeds & Liverpool canal for a lot of it.
We find it quite eerie walking in the woods here as there are very few sounds. In the UK, even in the remotest woods where there is no traffic noise, there always seems to be birdsong. Here, although we see birds, they seem to keep their song muted. Other things give it an eerie feel too, like the enormous boulders that are dotted around the place.
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| Posing for size 😉 |
What we did hear on our walk was the sound of woodcutters' chainsaws and the occasional crack as a trunk finally snaps when a tree falls to the ground.
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| The sun glinting through makes it almost spring- like |
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| A mature sweet chestnut orchard |
The sun
came back out when we got home so we spent the rest of the day on the patio
reading and planning our final five month’s cruising in the UK. We are getting really excited about cruising
again and we have quite an ambitious plan (for us) to get down to Aylesbury by
the end of November. This means cruising
for an average of four hours a day which is not always easy in the winter with
the shorter day lengths.
We have
also been researching and ordering stuff on-line ready for the move to France, so that adds to
the excitement of course!
Thursday was our last full day here so, other than Karen going for her run and a visit to
the supermarket at Castel del Piano, we did very little else other than
starting to pack up for the journey home and just sitting outside enjoying the warm sunshine.
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| Our last morning view from the bedroom (we will be up and off before the sun comes out on Friday) |
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| Buddy waiting for us to come out and have our breakfast on our last morning |
We did
have a wander around the butterfly meadow by the house and these are the 17 species we saw – not bad for 18th October 😊:
- Large white
- Small white
- Southern small white
- Green veined white
- Clouded yellow
- Small copper
- Small heath
- Wall brown
- Speckled wood
- Meadow brown
- Grizzled skipper
- Common blue
- Lang’s short tailed blue
- Brown argus
- Queen of Spain fritillary
- Red admiral
- Comma
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