saint Cirque Lapopie

Last Summer we were driving west when we camped one night near this fortified medieval village...It is perched above the river Lot. I imagine to protect from attacks from Barbary pirates or the like..
Nowadays it is home and workplace to many artists and artisans..We strolled around the place one evening after cycling past it earlier on that day..I liked the fact that the window shutters and the rooftops where a coordinated shade of Aubergine...
When I but my next house I intend to paint my front door a nice dark similar hue...

To the Woods!

Is the same tree, another perspective. Had an early evening spin through town last night, trying to get a feel for the place. I am wondering whether I like it or not... My new Spanish mate thinks it is dull and has plans to up sticks for Stratford...I told his wife to take him there on a bank holiday..She says she did and he loved it...

Try another perspective

Same tree, photographed from the bottom of the dilly..When the sun was still shining...

Woody Dell

Is a lazy Saturday morning, I just went out on my bike for a forty minute spin. Through the woods looking for mushrooms. There is a huge clump of Chanterelles in our back garden, but as soon as I mentioned eating them, wife went of on a rant.. She thought that we would all end up on dialyses..Hrmmph...
But I took a nice Autumnal picture of a Warwick shire Oak, with some exposed root hanging over a ledge..

Forest of Dean

We headed west this weekend, and ended up camped near the river Wye...We got a bit lost on a bike ride, and ended up walking to the pub in the dark...After walking in the totally wrong direction we asked directions off a local who kindly gave us a lift..
The pub was as bad as you can imagine, not quite the Slaughtered Lamb but a little bit Royston Vasey... The food looked terrible but fortunately they didn't accept plastic. So after a quick beer we walked back to camp for some Pasta...Drinking wine we could hear the Hogs in the forest Grunt/howling to each other...
Next day we were up early and off to Go Ape for some tree climbing. It was a lovely sun drenched day and we drove up through the Welsh borders in the afternoon...The countryside is very easy on the eyes around Hereford shire/ Monmouth. We left it in the early evening and drove East through Worcestershire with the Sun setting smoky golden orange behind us...

Aware of my own existance

Worked late last night..It is nice to stroll back to the car park, in the dark, picking out familiar stars..The moon was half full with Saturn aglow next to it..
Up early this morning and Orion was glowing fierce.. I took a minute or two and observed its familiar shape, reassuringly back in its place ,in an often chaotic universe..
Betelgeuse is larger than the circumference of the earths orbit and burns red in the top left hand corner.. Rigel burns blue in the bottom right and is larger than the Orbit of Mars..
Both names are Arabic, and were given by ancient scholars who perhaps observed them on caravan journeys across Arabia long ago...

negative rut

So I am trying to be positive still.. It is tricky and it is easy to snag on to other peoples negative feelings. If I hear my colleagues starting to slide I try to bring them around with a little humour or a random fact...
It is difficult though..The negativity is almost palpable, and is almost encouraged through the cultivation of schisms and cliques...Quite a lot of the contractors are finishing soon and they are all even more glum...
So this weekend I am heading east, and intend to walk for miles across deserted sand spits. And maybe even have a quick thrash around in the briny...Buy some fish and some Samphire, come back refreshed...