Winter is iccumen in

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Over the course of just 4 days, our glorious Indian Summer has been replaced by the onset of winter. The afternoon temperature in our courtyard has dropped by an astonishing 30 degrees Celsius. Last week’s strappy tops and shorts have been banished in favour of fleeces, trousers and especially socks. The haricot beans, peppers and tomatoes of late summer are losing place on the market stalls to celeriac, knobbly carrots, cabbages and chestnuts. Summer lettuce is giving way to rocket, black radish and the tiny soft leaves of lamb’s lettuce. The pleasure of the fierce afternoon sun has been replaced by the glowing comfort of the wood burning stove in the evening. The weather remains glorious however, and the autumn colours are out in force.

It’s wonderful weather for walking, and appreciating this refreshing change in season. On Wednesday, a local friend asked us to go with him over into the Pyrénées - Orientales to join him in one of his favourite tramps. He’s 75, but don’t think that meant we were on some delicate little stroll. This man, when younger, regularly cycled into Andorra and back for the day with his mates, just for fun. That’s a 230 km. round trip, to an area some 2000 metres higher than we are here. On a 1950’s bike. So we walked a lot, and scrambled and climbed a lot, in an area near the ski resort of Les Angles. Look on a map and you’ll see it’s peppered by lakes large and small, - we saw at least 4 in the course of our 6 hour walk. He navigated us there and back in the car on a series of tiny single track roads, for the sheer pleasure of showing us the spectacular scenery, made even more appealing by being clothed in the forest’s Autumn colours of ochre, russet and crimson

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Photos

We were reminded of the Lake District
...but on a much grander scale

...and so much dead wood!
The soil is shallow, so tempests uproot trees and fling them to the ground

‘In the midst of life we are in death’
The cow’s skull, surrounded by a living wreath of Autumn crocus, reminded us that life can be tough on these slopes