Christmas at Causses

Season's Greetings everyone and best wished for 2014. This year we've foregone a Christmas tree, but have still displayed some of the favourite baubles and decorations.

Meanwhile, Shadow and Wellington aren't showing much interest in Christmas. Since our return from NZ and Cambodia, most of their time has been spent sleeping, either on our bed or in front of the fire.

Wedding: 23 November 2013

Our marriage. An absolutely wonderful day in Wellington, New Zealand, with family and friends. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day weather-wise; warm, sunny and no wind! The wedding was at Zelandia, a beautiful native bush and bird sanctuary. Guests could take a boat ride on the reservoir to see the birds and native bush while there was champagne, canapes and some photos on the lawn. We then moved indoors - unusually for November in Wellington an escape from the heat - to a cocktail reception. More photos of that to follow. A great day.

Autumn activity

Today we cycled via the Orb river to Valras Plage - a lovely beach on the Mediterranean coast. Stopped for coffee in the sunshine - 25C in November! Then along the coast to the Aude river, heading back inland. Lunch (omelette & frites) at Colombier by the Canal du Midi and back to Beziers. A 50km round route in superb weather.

Yesterday afternoon we went for a walk in the garrigue, surrounding the village. Gorgeous autumn colours in the vineyards and lots of berries, rosehips, acorns etc. 

Painting over … for now

The entrance hallway doors are now painted. Here's the before:

 And the after:

Bath

Exterior of the bath now painted - anthracite. One more coat to go on, and then the problem to solve of how to get it moved back into place in the bathroom …

Magnolia fruit

The magnolia tree in now laden with 'fruit'. They eventually turn black with bright red seeds in them and fall off the tree - hopefully when you're not underneath. Where the fruit has been, a flower will grow in spring. Looks like we're in for a lot of blooms next year ...

And last night we had a stunning sunset.

More bathroom progress

The bathroom lights have arrived and are now in situ. This week radiator was put back in place and over the weekend we've painted the door (Rolling Fog Mid to go with the walls - Rolling Fog Pale). The towel holder is also up. 

Still to do: painting the bath exterior and getting it back into the bathroom from the cave. Plus regrouting the floor tiles - firstly removing the previous grouting, which will be a really fun job to do ...

We've also started on the entrance hallway doors (five doors in total). When Jane's mum stayed in September she did a sterling job in taping round the small windows, making painting a lot easier. At this stage we are just doing the hallway side of the doors, the other sides are for rainy days over winter.

Meanwhile, Shadow and Wellington found watching us work quite exhausting: