Thursday 26th February

Finally I am having the luxury of sitting down at the computer and writing a
Mumble.
Time has slipped away in a flurry of family visitors and guests in
the barn. Life has been a hectic whirl of washing, ironing, cooking and
entertaining my Grandson.
Not that I am grumbling about doing any of it [well maybe the ironing] but
it is amazing how your time just flies by. I really don’t know how I ever
had the time to go to work. Retirement seems to have been a word that became
extinct the moment we arrived here.
Life is for living don’t you think?
With the huge amount of snow arriving a few weeks ago it has made it
impossible to plan or do any work outside and I do envy the folks on the
gardening programmes who say that preparation can be done in the winter and
seedlings can be planted in the greenhouse. Great……my allotment is still
under two foot of snow and as for a greenhouse…… Anything that had vaguely
looked like a greenhouse was blown down to Perpignan in the gales we had a
few weeks ago.
The wonderful thing we did have this week and I think it is worth mentioning
is an English newspaper. It is the first time |I have seen them on sale and
quickly grabbed it before some holidaymaker swooped on it. Even the lady
behind the counter said ” a miracle”
The slopes up here are still in good condition but are tending to go a
little soft after lunch so an early start is recommended. Snowshoeing is great as Mike went out yesterday with some clients and had a
superb morning. Today he has gone down to Montserrat with his friend Chris
to do some climbing. Chris is a long standing friend who comes to stay with
friends down in Spain so his wife can play golf and he then has a good
excuse to “play” out. And of course Mike never misses an opportunity.
Between this paragraph and the last I had a slight interruption. A friend
from the UK arrived with cakes for a morning cuppa. He had come over to
check on his house and see if there had been any damage from the storm. We
had seen none from the outside but I think it is always best for him to see
it for himself.
The weather up here now is warm and sunny, and makes you think of the coming
of spring and the abundance of wild flowers that will arrive.The new camera
I received for Christmas will be put to good use as I have always fancied
doing a bit of Macro photography and studying flowers at close range, so if
you are up this way and see a strange lump lying in the grass, that will be
me and my camera.
Now I don’t normally do a bit of publicity, well maybe the odd suggestion on
nice things to do but I feel I have to mention Puyvalador. I have always put
off going there because I didn’t like the look of the chairlift and thought
it was one of those that cracked into the back of your legs. And I also
thought it wasn’t worth going up. Well I was wrong. It is a superb place.
The scenery is breathtaking – the PO,the Aude and the Ariege seem to be
spread at you feet and the skiing is lovely.
OK, so Les Angles is great and Formiguères is great but Puyvalador has a
little something extra. I can’t put my finger on it but the higher you go
the more exciting it becomes.
It is also a little cheaper than the others and it is very quiet,Everyone
seems to spread out and you can have the whole run to yourself. Well worth a trip.
So until the next time or maybe on the slopes it’s kind regards to you all The Mountain Mumbler