Sky Watch

We braced ourselves for rain or snow or high winds but in fact it rained just a little then the sky cleared.

Head on over to the Sky watch site to see the skies from round the world.

Summer Nights: the upside of pollution!

I took this on Sunday out in our back garden. We have a nice view towards the west so are often spoilt with glorious sunsets but somehow this one seemed more special than most.
I know it's all down to pollution but still it's quite spectacular...

Thanks to everyone who mailed me about my computer. It'll be put in the hands of an expert repairman later this week. If the disk was corrupted he thinks he may be able to save some of my stuff so keep your fingers crossed for me, please.

Summer Nights: Tropical Zouk

ge
The concert got going just after dark. The music was salsa inspired and perfect on a warm southern night.
The band was into their third song when the oldish couple in front of us jumped up and started dancing and then bit by bit half the 250 strong audience was up and boogying away. There were children, teenagers, parents, grandparents and the teachers of the local salsa class all dancing together, everyone having fun.
I tried to capture the scene but, you know, they just wouldn't keep still!

Summer Nights

My computer which has been throwing hissy fits for a while now finally turned up its toes and died this week and, of course, there was a huge amount of stuff, photos, lessons for my English courses, family tree, which I hadn't backed up. Mea culpa. You can all guess the moral of this sad story...

Not being one to sink into a decline, though, I bought a new hard drive, started things rolling and headed for the village party. The entertainment was provided by a band, Tropical Zouk and the entrance was free though the tropical rum punch was not which was probably a good thing!

Opio

It's raining heavily again today...good...and I hate getting my feet wet so let me show you a view of my village from the shopping centre that I took last Autumn.

The oldest part of the village is the Church and some of the houses grouped round and was built on the hill for defensive reasons like many other villages round here. The village has since spread over the plain and the whole has become part of the ribbon development that has spread inland from the coast. Opio retained its rural character until recently by insisting that building plots were large but this is now being eaten away by a need for housing, preferably cheap housing for young people and those on lower incomes.

Much of the new development has been done with a sensitive hand, the shopping area has been beautifully planted for instance, but this, of course, depends on budget and the local administration.

Chateau Begude

Golf is big business here and I can count three good golf courses within a 10 minute radius from where I live.

I don't play myself but because the courses attract lots of foreign visitors the restaurants are usually pretty good.

I took this photo from my table; now who could resist eating amidst all this greenery?

Almost Nice: Le Moulin A Huile Michel

We're still in Opio, the village where I live. This here's our olive mill and it's been in use since 1848 as you'll see if you enlarge the photo. The building is attractive enough from the front but the really great thing about it is that it is a working mill which means that if you collect up your olives, usually before Christmas, and take them to the mill they'll give you freshly pressed olive oil in return. It won't necessarily be from just your olives but olive oil is olive oil. You can also watch the process which is gaggingly smelly.
Turning olives into oil is pretty much a winter activity so the rest of the year the family run a successful shop selling their olives, their oil and objects made out of olive wood. It's a great place...
A part of me thinks: Gosh this sounds so touristy or guide book-y but I buy my olives here. Touristy or not it's part of my life.

Almost Nice: Cake, Anyone?

I thought I'd give the blue skies a rest today and show you something closer to my home and to my heart.
There's something very special about French patisserie, I think, and one of the joys of living here is buying a gateau on Sunday morning resplendent in its white box and tied up with ribbon...one of life's pleasures.
This is a sample of the weekend cakes at my local Boulangerie/Patisserie. I can highly recommend the three chocolate cake above. Which one would you choose?