2013-10-28 Early morning on the mountain……

To all of you  who live in the valley……….when you are looking up at the cloud in the morning, this is what it is like looking down !

MAGIC !

2013-10-27 More fun with Fungi

 

27th Oct thru to 10th Nov we found these mushrooms/ lichens …………

This below is one mushroom, a hen of the woods……over a kilo and after i finished cleaning it 600g of very tasty mushroom.

We have also found a lot of “Pied de mouton” this year, hedgehog mushrooms in UK. They are easy to recognise by the tiny spikes they have instead of gills or sponge.

underside showing “spikes” and the top…….

 

These below are “trumpet de mort” or “horn of plenty”…never found or eaten them before, so they made a good addition to pasta with a cream sauce………thanks M & D for the present, ( and recipe!) we have yet to find our own !

 

All cleaned and ready to cook….

 

2013-10-26 Strawberry tree and toad…

New camera not very good in the dark……..a big fat toad on the doorstep.

Strawberry tree….Arbutus

Well at least one thing seems to be happy this year….the strawberry tree which we have had about 5 years, is now flowering and fruiting like mad, if anyone knows a good way to eat them please say ! (I like them straight from the tree, but Dave finds them a bit “gritty” )

 

 

 

 

 

2013-10-24 Progress on the terrace/sun deck

Temporary decking, for our first guests !

 

 

 

The gutter in place……

2013-10-23 Daves Birthday

 

Dave’s present, a Makita drill !

Followed by a lovely curry at friends …….Purrrfect !

 

 

Meanwhile…………my new gadget !

Peels, cores and slices…..what more could a girl want ?

2013-10-17 Pics. miscellaneous …..

 

Dawn in Cailho, and a snail sneaks across the sky !

 

This was dawn the next day, and probably the strangest sky we have ever seen……almost as if someone has used water colours in the sky………I must stop eating mushrooms :O)

a rather large pink garden spider….

This picture is in case my son Tom looks at the blog…….

Here is proof, the “real fart (pompet) of the Tarn” is a pastry……well it is here !

Virginia creeper…….in October, just before all the leaves get blasted off !

Lastly  (for now) this afternoons haul of chestnuts in about an hour we picked up about 6kg…..so after red pepper & tomato soup, mushroom duxelles and more apple peeling…….I then have chestnuts to prepare for the freezer……good job rain is forecast and i need to stay indoors !

2013-10-16 The Terrace (or Sun Deck :O))cont………….

 

Floor (OSB) and felt goes on….ready for the decking !

The last one is taken looking down from the top of the stairs….the old concrete top step is in the right of the picture and the new terrace floor in the left…..the bit in the middle is the bit you have to jump over……and yes that is the old rusty rails….. !

 

after a great deal of hunting and pricing up new balustrades, we found these on “le bon coin” normally balustrade like these are about 100€ a meter…..we got this lot for 150€ (over 6 meters) trouble was we rang yesterday morning and the guy was just going on holiday….but if we could collect them now…ok no probs…….he lived near Toulouse, nearly 2 hours away……….still we are very pleased with them…..i’m so looking forward to cleaning them :O)