Merry Christmas!

Since our kitchen installation in 2008, two ceiling lights have remained as bare bulbs glaring away on electrician's wires. Recently, in a fit of bravura, I promised Henny there'd be proper light fittings up by Christmas. They arrived just in the nick of time.

We've had a superb run-up to Christmas. We've sung carols, drunk mulled wine, played games, laughed ourselves silly, received sweet gifts and dined gloriously. Thank you one and all for a great week. To those further afield, we wish you the happiest of holidays. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good light.

Devil-in-a-Box

Fab Five in Montpellier

GT's love of Mahler provided an excuse for us to go the symphony in Montpellier. We sat in the gods at the Corum, where the temperature was more hellish than heavenly, but we all really enjoyed the concert. It was Mahler's 3rd which has a choral movement, meaning about 200 people were on stage to entertain us. Here's Alex's iPhone picture as proof. Eleven double basses. I like that the Montpellier audience appreciates a good concert or opera and pays the performers a proper tribute with long applause if they've earned it. I guess it's different than London in that way, no rush to catch the last train.

We made a weekend of it. Dinner after the performance. A nighttime stroll through the cobbled streets. Breakfast the next day. A mooch around the Christmas market, followed by lunch at an outdoor cafe, in the sunshine of the Midi, on December 10th. 

The boys stayed at the apartment of friends, which couldn't be more centrally located. Here's the scene from their balcony. I'm glad we've ended up near this vibrant city. I feel like we had a real little holiday.

Pyro Day

Today the annual visit of the tree surgeon, the aptly named Simon Wood. Here he is up our splendid olive tree. This tree is actually about 4 olives planted so closely together they behave as one. Probably 60-70 years old. We worship this tree as we snooze in its shade in summer, hear the sound of its leaves rustling in a breeze, and watch the way the leaves part and flow like a silvery green wave. Today it had a good going over, taking away the dead branches at its centre. The guideline to proper pruning, a swallow should be able to fly round in the middle. It looked mighty pleased after Simon's considered pruning.

We spent the entire day dragging cut branches and leaves from all over the garden to burn. Our bonfire was roaring away for hours. The garden's nicely tidied for winter. We're the good kind of exhausted and have almost gotten the smell of the wood smoke off us.

Master Baker Taylor

Today, my actual birthday, our beloved friends Greg and Alex came bearing cake. And what a cake it was!  In a restaurant from my distant past I remember a dessert called Death by Chocolate. This beauty coulda been a contender. Mr. Taylor, the improbably svelte patissier in the grey turtle neck, says there is a full kilo of chocolate involved. It was amazingly delicious! We enjoyed it with coffee and Grand Marnier. I'm still on the sugar rush 8 hours later. Thank you darlin' GT.

Birthdays-by-Sea

Margaret and I are the Sagittarian girls, our birthdays 5 days apart. Some years we're very fortunate when our celebrations are combined and we're taken to the coast to scoff shellfish. This year we were treated to La ferme marine where they have a help yourself buffet of oysters, mussels, crab, prawns, little clams...well, you get the idea. Margaret and I took up the challenge to eat our weight in crustacea. It helps to be properly attired.

A warm and gloriously sunny December day, the restaurant overlooks the blue étang where the stuff you're eating just came from.  A fabulous lunch, topped by flaming sundaes for the birthday girls. 

Finally, a word of thanks to my darling Henny, who'd practically cross the street to avoid an oyster, yet annually suffers this feast, dodging stray lemon squeezes, just for us.

Eleven eleven eleven. It's official!