Catherine Stock's Blog, page 24

Hérisson

Cycling back from Aqua Gym on Saturday morning, we came across this little critter in a small grassy lane. For years a hedgehog came into my garden in the evenings to rummage through my compost, but I have seen very few of them of late. Also saw a badger recently, only my second sighting in almost twenty years.

A scene of cool repose on a hot summer day

Summer in the Lot is in full swing. On Sunday I attended two vide greniers, literally translated as empty attics, meaning garage sales in the US and car boot sales in the UK. Also went to an annual arts festival in Lentouille- Lentillac that follows the twists and turns of a river valley. The theme this year was wood, and there were old steam tractors and cart horses dragging around logs of wood, people shaping bowls on lathes, treemen swinging about on ropes like Tarzan, trimming dead branche

Exhibition snaps from the opening

Chateaux tour- the southwest Lot

I joined the group at Labastide-Murat. The intrepid sculptor and achitectural connoisseur Jacques de Verdal and his wife Paule organise annual explorations of the area for a few lucky invited guests. First stop: a fortified fifteenth century castle.

Then we moved on to a chartreuse, an old convent, this one inhabited by an elegant patron of the arts. We munched on coffee and brownies while Jacques and our hostess ironed out details of a commission.

Next stop, was this sliver of building, an ol

Ballad à Bordeaux

Author/friend Karen Williams was here last week with her doctor husband in tow. They lived in Malawi and Haiti for many years and I have illustrated four of Karen's books. In my 20 years in the Lot, I had yet to visit Bordeaux and reckoned it was about time, so after lunch with a friend in Sarlat, we headed west via Bergerac. Big mistake: it's a rotten road, non stop feux rouges and ronds points and ugly to boot. After three hours en route, we decided to forego Bordeaux for St Emilion where

Barter

One of the things that made our exhibition opening a success on Friday evening was the music. Les Fausses Celtics came to play for us in exchange for the portrait I did of the wife of one of the musicians. Barter is making a profitable and amusing comeback in this economy.[image error]

La France Profonde

Thought I had better take a photograph of my verdant vegetable patch, just in case. Sometimes people ask me whether I ever get bored living in the countryside after spending all my life in big cities. Well, one of the things that keeps life "interesting" around here is my neighbour, recently retired Eugene. He doesn't have much to do these days, and he needs lots of attention. Sometimes he is nice, sometimes he is not so nice. Like now. He wants money for the use of the garden, and quite a

The Rocamadour Cheese Fair

Some images of the Cheese Fete on Sunday. Samples of cheese, wine, preserves and bread were handed out in generous portions to entice you to open your purses and spend those euros. If at the end of the morning you still needed a meal, grilled lamb was served up with lashings of aligot, a very filling traditional dish of mashed potatoes mixed with grated cheese, garlic, butter and cream. To combat indigestion, music livened the crowd who kicked off their shoes to whirl to the gypsy music.

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The Show

We were graced with a sunny, balmy evening for the opening of L'Esprit de Corps last night. Unfortunately my camera batteries died just as people started pouring into the gallery so I don't have photos Elisabeth, looking very elegant as she delivered her discourse on le nu, of the crowds devouring the platters of savoury and sweet goodies and chilled wine on the lawn, the celtic musicians strumming out their lively jigs, and the jugs of wild flowers and roses brought by friends. It was a fabulo

La recolt

I have been eating freshly harvested lettuces for a week now, and my courgettes are shooting out their first little sausage shaped squashes with large yellow flowers on the ends, but this morning I picked my first radishes and something about their firm plump red shapes as they came out of the brown earth was especially rewarding.

A few days of heat after lots of rain has made the garden explode in colour. The irises and wild daisies are battling it out on the top of a rocky wall behind the barn