Demob happy

Our season officially came to an end last Saturday with the departure of 15 Finns - part of a singing group called Utopia who visited for a week to work with Francis and Kevin Smith (counter-tenor and all round drama/voice person) on a bunch of new music. They performed two concerts locally and generally made themselves very popular. A highlight for me was a Finnish olympics: events included carrying a colleague around the garden, left-handed boule-putting (like the shot-putt but easier), and a silly walks race - the winning team got a massage from the losing team. Actually for a group who had described themselves as "grim, and we don't do all that kissing lark that you do in France", they were really very touchy feely. They hugged and massaged their way through warm-ups, rehearsals, concerts, dinner, and left me with the impression that Finland must, indeed, be a rather cold country.



And before that we had our own course - the Renaissance Consort Workshop (see above, in a full group session). What can I say, other than it was a joy for me to sing with excellent singers who also happen to be friends, and who make the "work" element of the week so pleasurable. One participant has written an on-line journal if anyone is interested in finding out more about it - http://habes.livejournal.com/53402.html.

Now we await the arrival of 6 volunteers this weekend who are going to help us garden and decorate over the next week. The weather has turned a bit chilly, so I'm particularly looking forward to congenial evenings around the fire in the big living room.

What do we do all day?

We have two weeks "off" (laughingly so called) before our next group comes in on 13 September... people often say "what on earth do you do all day when you have no groups around?". Well, at this time of the year, less than at some others: by this time of the season we are very, very tired, feeling our aches, stiffness, injuries and - well - age. But unfortunately there is always something that needs doing; the next 6 loads of washing to put out, or take in, the new acacia shoots to dig up before we have another 12 fully grown trees, watering, cleaning, mending, sweeping - and that's before we begin on the new round of decorating in the autumn; we got through 6 or 7 rooms last winter (with the aid of friends) and may be we can do that many again this year...





But sometimes there's a job that's a real pleasure to finish because you're working with something beautiful to look at in the first place and which is a real team job. These chairs were picked up for a snip years ago at Emmaus by our predecessor here. They survived for a few years, began to rot, fell apart and finally we hid them in the back of the winebarn intending to throw them away. But our pal Simon who's been out twice (and was also responsible for refurbishing our washing cart) stripped these down, made them sound and cut new slats before he had to leave. Francis finished them - decorated, varnished, drilled new bolt holes - and they look beautiful. And so gratifying that something this nice in the shops costs serious money. Simon will never be forgotten.

Cambridge Chorale

My old choir from Cambridge visited La Maison Verte last week for what was pretty well the perfect week for me... I got to sing with them again (more than I deserved, but they were short of altos so I did my best).




It was a great moment to see 28 smiley, familiar faces turn up on the first Saturday and pile through the front doors with lots of oohing and aahing at our lovely house. I'm always rather amazed to find that a bunch of random people can come together and have such fun and - more to the point - make such a beautiful sound.

Their two concerts at Margon and Roujan were packed to the rafters with stunningly appreciative locals; highlights for me were American composer Whitacre's Lux Aurumque, Tchaikovsky's Dostoino Yest, and Victoria's O quam gloriosum.

My only setback for the week was pulling a ligament in my hip attempting to find some dance movements to accompany an African song (nice, middle-class, white choir from Cambridge... I ask you!) Hamba Lulu.


This really is the perfect place for a choir tour/holiday - urgently crossing my fingers that they come back again next year.

Tour de France

For the first time in memory, the Tour de France this year not only came through Roujan but passed directly in front of La Maison Verte. I was sceptical about the benefit and fun to be had out of this but it turned out to be a veritable street party. For two hours before the cyclists flashed by a series of sponsors' vans, cycle support vehicles, police and indeed any old Tom, Dick and Harry who had blagged their way into the procession honked their way through Roujan throwing out sweets and gifts to the children (most of which were scrabbled for in an undignified way by adult tourists pushing small children into the gutter in search of a souvenir).

I spent part of that 2 hours taking glasses of wine up the street to friends who had bagged their spot on dangerous corners... Pretty well everyone we know in Languedoc was there and there was much gossip to be exchanged and cheering and shouting to be done. And then we had about 7 seconds of incredibly sleek and fast cyclists (4 of which I spent taking photos and not watching at all!) before it was all over. C'est le tour de France!

It goes down as a very jolly occasion and probably won't be repeated during my sojourn in Roujan.

Volunteering

We had a spectacular week at the end of May when 11 fit and energetic people from Canada, Germany and the UK came to La Maison Verte as volunteers. The group included an actor, a company director, a doctor, two professional decorators, a PhD student, an antique book archivist and a master gardener (what joy was mine!).



During the space of 6 short days, they decorated a bedroom, a bathroom and loo, and completely cleared and replanted our acre or so of garden, which included shovelling 6 tons of gravel around the paths in the lower garden (see picture below - fresh new path and brand new bed).

Sue did our cooking - and provided the calories deliciously that we lost doing our hard labour. It must be one of the best weeks I, personally, have had this year because it was huge fun, and the results at the end of each day were spectacular - I so often find I have slogged all day without much to show for it; many hands really do make light work. Looking forward to the next volunteer week in October.

Manna from Hungary

On Sunday, 54 Hungarian girls between the ages of 15 and 25 descended up on us in a chattering deluge. Apart from the problems of providing accommodation (we officially sleep 30) and food (the most I personally have ever cooked for was 20 - coq au vin for 54 tested me somewhat), the whole experience was a delight.

They are members of Pro Musica, a fantastic choir from the Zoltan Kodaly school in NYÍREGYHÁZA, who were on their way to Oviedo in Spain to take part in a Festival. Francis (my business partner, and for 30 years a professional singer) has worked with their director Szabo Denes over the years and has coached other choirs from their school, so when they asked if we could "put them up" for a night, we didn't hesitate - well not for long! And to say thank you they gave us a most sublime concert in the local church. Roujan has rarely seen or heard anything like it. It was astonishing to see the church filled with people who were truly lifted by the beauty of what they created; not a dry eye in the house. My personal favourite was Kodaly's Evening Song, with Biber's Ave Maria a close second. I was stuck at the back snuggled up with my four-year-old telling her the story of Gabriel appearing to Mary ("what are they singing about mum?") which is why the photo doesn't do much justice.

And afterwards, Francis and I were overwhelmed when 15 of the older girls - who were allowed to stay up late - sang for us alone in the rehearsal room. As singers ourselves, we could appreciate the extraordinary skill of the timing and tuning of this group. What joy was ours! Look out for them on Amazon as they have released 4 or 5 discs.

Waterfalls and Acacia Trees

Our main employment at the moment is pollarding the 15 acacia trees in the garden which have somewhat starved the centre of it of air and light. Getting the chainsaw up the tree is not the worst of it - when the branches come crashing down you then have to get rid of all the debris (bonfires mainly, though we take lots to the local dump). Still, the centre of the garden now has daylight for the first time in a while.

Eliza (4-year-old daughter) and I went up to St Guilhem le Desert on Sunday "to explore". It was a beautiful day, and after all the rain we've had recently, the whole village resounded to the torrents of water draining off the hills and into the ancient chanels that mediaevel predecessors were kind enough to provide (see photo above). It was lovely to see this charming village without the hordes of tourists who are (quite rightly) attracted there in the summer - you could almost imagine the pilgrims stopping off for a glass of wine on their way to Santiago de Compostella. We, however, had crepes in the square (Place de la Liberte) next to the wonderful Abbaye de Gellone before running all the way back down the village and heading home again.

Our volunteer scheme is now up and running, and we have 3 weeks this year when we will invite all and sundry to come and help in the gardens and house;

30 March – 4 April
18 – 24 May
5-11 October

We're asking people for 5 hours work a day in return for free board (accommodation and 3 meals a day), so we're hoping that expert gardeners and builders see this blog!!

Christmas is over

Our first Christmas at La Maison Verte is over. Bright sunshine (see above - our garden) and shirtsleeves followed by (at the last count) 3 days of driving rain... Shop keepers in the village greeted me with a cheery "just like England eh?" to which I could only reply that we almost never saw driving rain like Roujan produces - fits and starts, yes, but not stair-rods for 72 hours; in such weather we discover just how leaky these lovely old houses can be.

However, we've been cracking on with the massive pruning jobs in the garden, and decorating the kitchen of the main house, interspersed with trips to the astonishing Cirque de Maureze (dolomitic pillars) and to the beach at Vias Plag with friends escaping the pressure of British New Year celebrations.

Looking forward to school beginning again on Monday and normal life resuming...