Snow on the Pyrenees, DIY and singing

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Well, everyone told us. Just because February involved walking round in T shirts most afternoons, don't think it's all over yet. They were right. Bitter winds and frequent snowfalls mean that the Pyrenees are white once more, as are local woods and gardens.

We've used the opportunity to stay busy. Radiator for bathroom bought and fixed. That was Malcolm using his DIY skills. Old shop storage areas cleared and sorted as repository for DIY tools, paint and general make-over stuff. That was me using few skills but a great deal of energy in just trying to make things look better.

Unexpectedly this afternoon, the men came to fix window blinds. One of them remembered coming to our house as a boy to buy meat when the plavce was a butcher's shop. So we took him round to show him where the sausages used to be hung to dry. He was pleased to see we've kept the old technology, which he knew all about, used to prevent mice and rats getting at the sausages (hang broken bottles on wires above the sausages so vermin can't climb down and get at them).

Last night was another first for me. A walking companion had told me about the Choral Society he belongs to in in Lavelanet, and so I went to try it out. I had such fun. Everyone welcomed me with bisous and vigorous handshakes, and chatted to me before the conductor came (at 8.45 p.m. - doesn't do to start singing before you've got a good evening meal inside you, apparently).

Marie-Line is an expressive, likeable and amusing chorus-master. She had us taking our voices up hill and down dale with all kinds of exercises to warm our vocal chords up, and then rehearsed us for 2 hours or so till we were competent. We're singing a Garcia mass at the moment. No, I hadn't heard of him either. He was contemporary of Mozart and Haydn, a Spanish/Brazilan priest living in Brazil, and patronised by the King of Portugal. I love it so far.

At 10.30, the women were allowed home, but the men stayed on for a further half hour to do extra practising......

Can't wait for next week

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