Remembering Uncle Donald

This is another catch up sort of blog...one of those I’ve been intending to get around to.

After our 6 months ( with a break back in England for hospital visits and Le Tour’s Yorkshire depart ) in Caunes, we drove back via some WW1 war graves.

2nd Lieutenant Donald Barten, Royal Fusiliers.

We have often intended to but somehow flying south has seemed a better option than driving, or the motorway exit we needed was closed, or time was just running out. Anyway, this time, we made it.

Our main aim was to find Mark’s great uncle Donald’s memorial. We knew there was no grave for him. He was involved in the Battle of Cambrai, and his body was never recovered or never identified amongst the thousands who died there in  November and December 1917.

We found it easily, on the edge of the village of Louverval.

It was a grey droukit sort of day. The rain was fine, and drenching, the clouds loomed and we both felt fairly subdued as we parked the car just next to the Cambrai Memorial.

It is not one of the huge Lutyens designed memorials, and  is not surrounded by hundreds of rows of symmetrical graves which remind you of the outrageous number of dead young men lie beneath the ground in this part of France.

It was small, elegant, beautifully maintained, sombre and incredibly emotional.

We were the only people there. However, messages written in a book at the entrance indicated that people had visited that day, and the day before. When we finally drove away, we saw another car draw up, and clearly other people were visiting after us.

We found Uncle Donald’s name on the wall. We left his picture and an entry in the visitors’ book to mark our thoughts, and we wandered among the few surrounding graves in the , by now, pouring rain. 

Donald Barten was a Second Lieutenant in the 8th Royal Fusiliers when he was reported missing on 30th November 1917. He was 28. His body was never recovered and a year later his mother was informed that he had probably died on the day that he was reported missing.

An exert from the war diary, indicating that Donald Barten, among others, was missing.

He had served in France in 1914, in Egypt in 1915. and back to France in 1916.

Uncle Donald, on leave, back at home in August 1917.

From the memorial site, all you could see were miles of flat, agricultural land. It was easy to imagine what had happened in these fields, based on all the films we’ve all seen, books we’ve all read, and poetry we all know. However, the sombre dignity of the place still took us by surprise.

We drove through some of the villages nearby, hardly architecturally changed in the last 100 years. We stopped at a few other small cemeteries and memorials. We knew about the big cemeteries, and the Lutyen’s Somme Memorial, with over 70,000 names of unidentified dead honoured...but somehow, these small spaces, littering the farmers’ fields, clearly making turning tractors more difficult, and needing pathways and roads across fields for visitors like us, were just incredibly poignant.

I had just read “Empires of the Dead” by David Crane, which is about the man who is largely responsible for the building of the British and Commonwealth war cemeteries.

 Fabian Ware had been a volunteer ambulance commander in France in the early years of the Great War, and was horrified by the way the war dead were left on battlefields, or unceremoniously buried where they fell, in 1914. He began to record the identity and position of graves and was responsible for the establishment of a Graves registration Commission. His work, in getting politicians, the army, writers and architects together finally meant that people were able to honour and commemorate the war dead.

It is an interesting read, but really brought to life by our visit to Cambrai.

( Thanks to Julian Barnard's web site, commemorating Uncle Donald's life)  http://www.julianbarnard.co.uk/1Donald_Barten/Barten-Cambrai-.htm )

Thoughts turn to the garden

Our Virginia creeper...as I left it in late October.

When I left France at the end of October I had plans to organise a garden book. It was to hold photos and drawings of various parts of the garden , with my plans for how each area would be developed.

I was inspired to undertake this project ( as well as the actual proposed garden developments to be documented in the book) whilst attending a gardening course held at La Petite Pepiniere in Caunes just before I headed back to the UK for the winter.

La Petite Pepiniere is a magical specialist garden/nursery  owned by Gill Pound in Caunes.)

( Gill's web site is http://www.lapetitepepiniere.com/ ) and shows what a fabulous place it is.

Gill, during one of our classroom sessions.

The course, was a 2 day event, run by Gill, and concentrated on gardening in a Mediterranean climate.

Much of the course was spent walking around the garden at la Petite Pepiniere, with Gill, showing us examples of the successful planting she has undertaken in her Caunes garden.

I learned so much. I learned that the less than 3% of the world’s surface which can be categorised as having a Mediterranean climate ( areas surrounding the med ...surprise surprise, California, Chile, S Africa and SW Australia) produce 16% of the world’s plants.

Our bit of the world does suffer from extremes though....heat, drought, wild winds, cold winters, snow, hail, frost and difficult soils. It seems miraculous that anything grows and survives at all. One of the things I learned from Gill was about how plants have  evolved and adapted to their environment......and as the climate has only been like it is now for 3 million years, many plants are still evolving . So...things in the garden are basically unpredictable.

Our garden in Caunes is beautiful.....but difficult.

The pine forest behind the big oak....a cypress, and some prickly pears hiding behind the ivy and virginia creeper.

We have terracing, virtual rock, rather than soil in some parts, evergreens, conifers, a few broadleaf plants and trees, bulbs, ( hundreds of wild irises) orchids, native garrigue shrubs, vines, and my annual attempts at vegetables in the potager.

beyond the potager.....the start of a playground area....see-saw and sand pit planned for next year....the grandchildren want a slide and a climbing frame as well......mmmm, we'll have to see.

We have almond trees, a wide variety of oak trees, green fig trees, a gorgeous purple fig tree, olive trees of various ages and sizes and a couple of small apple trees which fruited for the first time last summer and newly planted cherry trees which have yet to crop.

We have enormous succulents, aloe veras  to die for, a rather pathetic looking palm that replaced the huge 25 year old one that was killed off by the 2 weeks of snow and freezing temperatures in the winter of 2011, rose bushes, lavender and large rosemary hedges throughout the garden.

Some of the succulents

When we first arrived in Caunes, we asked Gill to come up to the house and walk around the garden with us, telling us what we had, and advising us on what we should do with it all.

Her advice was to live with it, watch it, see what happened with each season and gradually develop sections at a time, as we worked out how the land surrounding our new home could work best for us.

We determined that some of the huge fir trees surrounding the pool should be removed.

 Doing so enabled other plants to grow in their place, removed the huge shade area from the pool, and gave us fabulous views over the village.

We kept many of the cypress trees as well as the most beautiful of the firs...giving some architectural structure to the pool surround.

We cut back and then removed the prickly pears that bordered pathways, enabling us...and visiting grandchildren to walk through the garden without being impaled.

We removed some of the wild iris bulbs....they bloom when we are not in Caunes, and leave untidy browning foliage for the rest of the year....this is great in the parts of the garden we have left “wild”...but in front of the house, we replaced them with some native salvias which bloom all summer and provide a gorgeous backdrop to sitting on the terrace, sipping the odd glass of wine.

My garden book project has not even been started yet....just as my planned blog about the wonderful gardening course run by Gill has not yet emerged. My last blog....a month ago, was mainly about my inability to get things done, and things don’t seem to have improved. So I thought I would make a start and include a little about Gill and her beautiful garden, her brilliant gardening courses, and get my mind working on thinking about the garden in Caunes.

It is good to think that already the days are getting longer.....and spring isn't too far away. Although we wont be going back to Caunes for our next 6 month stay until May, we are popping over to do some pruning during the first couple of weeks in March......not long now.

Anyway....for Christmas, I received an excellent gift from Mark....no, not some amazing piece of jewellery, but a Bosch garden shredder. Mulching will begin as a major operation, when I get back to Caunes and start shredding all my prunings. 

Buzzing around

Beautiful Stoodley Pike

I have so many potential posts buzzing around my head at the moment.

I have been wanting to blog about gardening in the Minervois, comparing it with the Yorkshire gardening I do, including some details about a wonderful gardening course I went on in Caunes, just before I left.

I want to write about some of the walks I've done since being back in Yorkshire.

I have loads I want to write about working in the Hospice shop.....although, the manager and I have joked about the TV sit-com we could write....so maybe the blog will have to wait until we have become famous as writers of the latest block busting TV show. Now Miranda is ending her show...maybe she’ll be available to play one of the volunteers.

Christmas meal with the staff and volunteers from the Overgate Hospice shop in Hebden Bridge.

I have made some breakthroughs in my family history research and want to share some of that. Discovering the dying words of a great uncle and aunt, through a “War Cry” article from the 1920s, was quite something. So I now have the urge to share a little about the life of my great uncle Leopold his wife and his amazing children.

Miriam Murch....one of my great uncle Leopold's children, who devoted her life to the Salvation Army

Today I became livid to discover that the law supposedly ending the use of wild animals in British circuses has been stalled due to the outrageous ignorance and stupidity of 3 Tory mps. I blogged earlier in the year about the awful situation in France, when I stumbled upon tigers and a hippo being caged up on a traffic island in Carcassonne prior to being dragged around the French countryside in wagons no bigger than a postage stamp. Now I find that the Brits are just as bad. Aggghhhh.

So.....as all these things pile up in my head, and Christmas approaches, and there are walks to go on, French to practice, my up and coming 60^th birthday party to plan, grandchildren to spend time with, concerts in Hebden Bridge to attend, and of course, the shop to work in......nothing is getting written.

I am reading blogs, perhaps not interacting through commenting as much as I’d like to.....but time just seems to dash on.

Anyway, if I don’t get around to blogging again before Christmas, I hope you all have a really happy one.

 I will write the things I am thinking about.....but  it may be a while before I get around to them.

In the meantime, I’m just going to include a few photos of my very small and crowded “workspace”. Calling it an office would be overstating things. It is more like a very crowded cupboard. I hope to be spending more time in it soon, so I can get these buzzing blogs written.

All of the above photos show my "workspace"......the last image being my grandfather, with his 3 wives. Technically, only the first, Hylda, was really his wife. My grandmother, on the right,Queenie, was the third.

Attic emptying and the joys of other people's junk.

I think I can do without this in my home.

I rarely visit car boot sales in England. I used to go to antique fairs quite often, but now,only go to one if it is very local and the parking is easy. Partly this is because I believe I have conquered my hoarding tendency, and am realistic enough to know that my little Hebden Bridge house is already stacked so high with much loved treasures and there really isn’t any more space !

France is somehow different. The house is bigger I suppose, so there is more room to display amazing finds. The real difference however, is that vide greniers are just so much more fun than car boot sales......and the weather tends to be better !

A gorgeous old French board game.....ludo with horses.

I have made some great buys over the last 3 years at vide greniers. Children’s toys are always available, and our grandchildren have benefited from many French children growing out of their toys and buggies.

Liam...thrilled with a 1 euro purchase.

 I have also started a pot dog collection,

This was the first dog ...the pack now consists of 4 of them.....and I reckon I've got space for another few.

 I have found some other great pottery, acquired fabulous casserole dishes and remain constantly on the look out for framed photographs of soldiers. I am also seriously upset when I see old photos, no longer wanted by family members, for sale for a few euros. So far I have resisted the temptation of providing a home for hundreds of strangers photos. Mark is hoping I manage to keep resisting that particular temptation.

Here I am trying to decide whether to give this portrait a new home. I resisted...this time.

I have used vide grenier visiting as a way to discover new villages in the Aude and in the Herault. Every Sunday, from May until November, I have been spoiled for choice as to which towns and villages to visit. Sometimes I manage to fit two or three in on one day.

The Bram vide grenier was held in the grounds of a chateau.

The moment of purchase, captured .....buying a gorgeous jug and bowl set.

Sometimes, the stalls are spread out along a river bank, or the canal. Sometimes they are just in a car park or a field...but usually, they wind around the village streets. Some people set their stalls up outside their own home....others arrive early and set up with a picnic to sustain them through the day.

Some people sell all their old rubbish, and there are usually some dealers who clearly make a living out of taking their stock from one village to the next. Those are the boring stalls, with the unrealistic prices. I think I've seen that sanglier ( wild boar) at several vide greniers over the last 3years.

Sometimes you wonder who on earth would buy some of this stuff !

The best stalls are where the family has had a sort out and is getting rid of things...emptying the attic.....which is what vide grenier means.

There is usually an old tool stall....dealers.....who come to each vide grenier

Some displays are brilliant

This tile pot stand has lovely little rounded feet....and I love it. I splashed out on this one....it cost me 5 euros.

People chat, people bargain,  I practice my French and most of the time everyone smiles. Sellers being happy to not have to take stuff home with them, and buyers pleased with their bargains.

There is no doubt about it...other people's junk can be fascinating....not sure that the crib looks very inviting with the fox in it though.

I love this pharmacy jar. It is Limoges pottery, and cost me all of 2 euros....and I love the idea of having a pot of the elixir of long life sitting on the piano.


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Yorkshire catch up time.

Amazingly....this is in Hebden Bridge, not Caunes. Sun shining, window boxes still blooming away.

It is well over a month since I posted a blog. It is weeks since I returned to Yorkshire. Since we arrived back, life seems to have been very hectic. So this is a bit of a catch up on what we’ve been up to.

I spent some half term time with Jess in Liverpool, seeing her classroom for the first time, since she started teaching in September.

Jess in her classroom

We have ensured we have seen plenty of the grandchildren, including having 4 of them to sleep over for Halloween. The question is, will we cope with all 5 of them next year...or maybe there will be even more by then.

I have returned to working my shifts at the Hospice shop, and am loving seeing all the people I enjoy working with, as well as the excitement of never knowing what treasures have been donated every time I walk through the doors. The customers are pretty wonderful too.

We enjoyed putting an Armistice day window together at the Hospice shop.

I got another “all clear” from the hospital.

There have been a couple of Christmas shopping trips,a meal out with women from the shop, coffee with a few friends to catch up, parkruns with the children and grandchildren, dentist visits, hairdresser visits and even a first session with the personal trainer I worked with before I was ill. I've also managed to spend a bit of time doing some family history research and have made a couple of breakthroughs that are very likely to become the subjects of future blogs.

My cubby hole office ( how dare the estate agent call this a 4th bedroom ! ) where I wallow in my family history research.

So, all in all, I’m not surprised there has been no time for blogging. I had various blogs from Caunes planned, and one or two of them may emerge over time....but at the moment, it’s just a matter of enjoying the new routines of being back in Hebden Bridge.

It is a little strange. We felt more emotional leaving Caunes than we expected. We are missing friends from the Minervois ( looking forward to seeing them at Christmas, when they are planning a quick trip to Hebden Bridge), but we are really enjoying Yorkshire again.

The fact that the weather has been lovely ( until now) has helped. The Calder Valley is stunning this time of year.

Hebden Bridge last week.....looking so beautiful.