Spring 2012
Last winter threw some pretty viscous weather this way ….. -15ºC for two weeks and high winds as well ……… so Oleanders and Olive trees had took a lot of punishment and are only now showing the first signs of recovery. This was apparently the coldest sustained spell in this area since 1956 and that was the year in which the entire Department of the Aude lost all its olive trees. There was no Common Agricultural Policy in those days so they were never replanted on the original scale. Olives had been a staple crop in this area since Roman times.
So apart from dealing with winter damage the first major job was the completion of the platform for the Yurt on the side of the canyon. The major support beams were already in place …… measuring about 400 x 400 by ten metres long ! So the next thing was to fix the cross beams in place and then board the surface ……. luckily for us two tough guys from last year Paddy and Jo had already lugged most of the timber up to the site by hand …… (they build them very tough in Ireland) …… and so in a sense we had the easy bit. But even so it was quite a big job and had its moments of head-scratching and Philippe and Alex and I had plenty left to do.
The pics give you an idea and show the finished masterpiece …… much admired by all !
