Kieran’s words – not mine, to describe himself after he’d overreached, using the Stihl saw and ended up attempting to amputate a leg! A quick trip to the local A&E department, where he was stitched up (at three levels, apparently, because it was such a deep cut), followed by a 90euro trip to the pharmacy, which doesn’t include the price of the leg brace for which we’ll be billed separately and we were home in less than 3 hours, including a half hour drive each way. Everybody was friendly and helpful and explained everything they were doing, as well as what Kieran needs to do next. Apart from being more careful next time, that is.

He has to wear the leg brace whenever he’s standing for the next 10 to 14 days, so no motorbiking for a while; it’ll be an impressively clean and shiny bike by the time he can ride it again.

Statues, by their very nature, are stationary; they don’t move; right? Well, unless that statue  is the Giant of the Tourmalet! The giant in question is a massive, steel statue of a cyclist. For some reason, it’s removed from the mountain and put into store over winter; it’s re-erection in early summer is something of a “must be there” event for cyclists all over the south west of France. The col de Tourmalet is one of the toughest climbs that regularly feature in the Tour de France. It’s a gruelling 18.6km climb with an average gradient of 7.4% and some sections up to 10.2% on the side we did on Saturday.

It was an early start; at 5o’clock on Saturday morning, when the alarm went off, I really did question my sanity, but we set off at 6 and headed into the mountains. I dropped Nick off just south of Lourdes so that he could ride the 16km from there on the Voie verte, a tarmacked, disused railway track, to Pierrefitte-Nestalas, the starting point of the statue’s journey. By the time I arrived in Pierrefitte, it was already hot, but the atmosphere was great, with about a thousand cyclists milling around the lorry containing the statue and a Bandas (a popular local type of band that play the most horrendous music!). Because I knew I’d be slow, Nick and I set off , with others, a bit before the official departure time. We rode the first part of the route, the 14km to Luz St. Sauveur, together and separated at the start of the col de Tourmalet itself. Nick rode the remaining 18.6km to the top comfortably, with enough breath left to chat to various people as he overtook them on the way, and arrived before the lorry and statue so he saw its installation. I, on the other hand, got to within 9km of the summit and just couldn’t make the pedals go round any more, so I turned round and went down, very disappointed with my performance, though I suppose a 24km climb isn’t bad really.

When we got home there was time for a quick shower and a bite to eat, before heading out to the Caupenne music festival, at which our friend Adrian’s band, Mister Teatime,  was playing. We tucked into magret and chips hungrily during the evening, as we listened to the various bands, until it started to rain and everyone had to run for cover. Ade, his wife Julie and the  band members were staying at our house for the night and I was most peeved that, having pushed myself too hard on the climb, I had a migraine and had to go straight to bed, instead of sitting up till the wee small hours with the rest of them, playing guitars and singing. But the following evening I spent a few hours learning a few new songs from Adrian, some of which Kieran recorded and if you really want, you can follow the links below to hear the result. The sharp eyed amongst you will notice that the Cawthray kitchen remains as chaotic as ever; the only difference being that now I don’t care what people think! 🙂

Kieran arrived home on Sunday afternoon, just in time for a barbecue, tired but happy, having thoroughly enjoyed his ride down from Harrogate on his shiny new motorbike. He, Nick and Adrian spent a long time admiring and discussing the new steed. The general consensus seemed to be that it’ll do nicely, thank you.

I’m beginning to understand the people who say that they only do DIY in the winter and spend the whole summer working on the garden. We decided it was time to cut the grass in the field behind the house this week, as it was nearly as tall as me; it’s taken most of the week, Nick strimming, me raking and taking it to the compost bins. We’re getting up early to do the gardening before it gets too hot, but usually work straight through to midday which has been pretty hot this week, about 30ºC in the shade. The back garden could hardly be described as a lawn, but it’s tidier now than it was.

We’ve also done a lot of work on the potager; we’d been rather enthusiastic in planting rocket and had to pull most of it out today as it had gone to flower. We’ll know next time! The same could be said of the spinach, which we’re eating in huge quantities; we’ll start looking like Popeye soon! Our visitors this weekend will be treated to a spinach quiche, I think.

We’re now getting two eggs a day from our adult hens, Sage and Onion; Sage’s are a normal size, but Onion’s are humungous! I weighed them today, just for interest; Sage’s eggs weigh an average 51g, whereas Onion’s are 82g!

Nick’s been watching the local bird life and has found that a family of Redstarts are nesting  nearby; it’s fascinating to watch the parents find food for the babies and deliver it.

We’ve got a very early start tomorrow and a hectic weekend, so watch this space on Sunday or Monday. That’s all folks!