February 2026 and the Days are getting Longer

1.2.26: No comment!

 

Here's to a Happy, Healthy 2026!

Off to a Promising Start, n'est-ce pas?

Where ever you are, whatever you're doing, I hope you're having a great day with people you care about. May this coming year bring many happy memories and few hiccups along the way!

1.1.26:

 

This year's calendar brings a change; scenery and nature have given way to humour.   

15.1.26: 

With the café and restaurant closed until mid February plus a dip in temperatures the village is quiet. JJ, Jacques and Michel are away so social life is pretty quiet as well! Or maybe I should say quieter. Françoise took pity on me and gave me lunch; Henri and Michèl.e took me with them to Collioure so that Ben, who's over from Oz, could have some English conversation.

 

While Henri took refuge in "Les Templiers", we went for a wandered round to walk off the lunch we'd had at "La Marinade". Just as well as we all came back  here for tea and Christmas cake.

I  started the year well with invites to my neighbours for an apéritif dinatoire. Shame it had to be done in two parts due to a bit of friction between a couple of them. Jacques was back earlier in the afternoon and Camille forgot so we were only six!

Even though it's not the Epiphany until tomorrow, Galettes des Rois have been in the shops for days and two made an appearance this evening. Marcelle and Anna both found a charm and got to wear a paper crown. 

And there were more to come . . .

Thierry found the charm at Kapka's birthday lunch which Jacques laid on. My Torte Royale had the candles and thank goodness it was not the catastrophy that yesterday's Whole Orange Cake was. Had to make a last minute dash to the mini mart for a replacement to take to Lynn and Colin's for tea. Double ignominy; I should have been hosting the tea but concerns about my stairs for Terry resulted in them stepping into the breach. There was, however, not a galette to be seen.

The tables at the Maire's New Year wishes were laden with them; MsF's less so though Françoise did find a charm. We didn't stay long as JJ is now back and sharing left over tapas from a soirée the night before.  There were more after the Twinning AGM but I didn't partake of either food or drink. Bumped into Lisa on my home who reminded me that I should be at the not knitting "knitting group" at Monica's. Angela had forgotten, too, but she didn't make it at all.

Luckily it's not been all food; a walk above Paulilles with Françoise was welcome though not strenuous; maybe it was welcome because it wasn't strenuous! The weather was clement, found a plant I'd never seen before and came across a shepherd and his 450 sheep that were eating their way between the vines.

Apart from that, English conversation with Lisa has been in Céret and I met up with a couple who live in the States and have bought friends' house on the outskirts of the village. That makes 2 Scottish couples, an Irish couple and an English woman who've sold up this last year and another who's selling .

16th - 31.1.26: Best laid plans and all that . . It's the 19th February and here I am, shelving a load of things in favour of a bit of Chitchat. 

First up was meeting up with Pilar, a language teacher who wants some English conversation in exchange for Spanish. This promises to be a whole different ball game to my sessions with Lisa. I'm going to be way out of my comfort zone. Pilar's an interesting woman; Catalan, a singer, politcally active, feminist, of course, and has a fun personality. Oh, and I must forget patient! Guess who's got the best end of the deal. Despite my years of dabbling , some would say massacring the Spanish language, I have made ziltch progress.

 The highlight of the long list of lunches, dinners and apéros and the only one with a photo, was Henri's birthday lunch. A good meal followed by champagne back at their house, they don't stint. I didn't slack either. Did a lunch, an apéritif dinatoir and two teas. not as much as I received but an imrovement of late.

Less interesting was a trip to the dentist for an extraction. He appeared with full PPE and a visor which made me do a double take but he did the job. Whats more, I had no pain and no infection.  And also a shopping trip to Perpignan proposed by Nicole, that turned out to be a search for her new matress! Won't fall for that one again. The search, which was to no avail by the way, was broken up by lunch at a Thai buffet. Plenty on offer but not my choice and nowt out of the ordinary. To cap it all, she had a puncture as we were leaving so there wasn't time for me to go to Action, the Dutch cheapo store that I'd put on the table as something I wanted to do. As they say, you win some, you lose some.

What else? There was a mini, my-era concert, given by a multinational trio (French, Belgian, British) followed by an apéro in the village hall.  

Being Burns' Night I wore my red tartan scarf and did a bit of on the hoof cultural education. Political tracts for the upcoming Municipal elections in mid March have been appearing and there was an introductory meeting to the EvS (Espace de Vie Sociale) but more of that next month. Suffice it to say, that it ended up it with a slice or two of Galette!

Notes of Nature: blue skies, snow on Canigou and a splash of mimosa to cheer up drab January

As for the weather we've had temperatures ranging from -1 overnight to an unexpected daytime high of 18° and a lot of rain. In fact, there was more rain this month than we've had in the last three years! That is something to celebrate.