During October and November I spent some time decorating plastic and terracotta plant pots. I painted some larger terracotta ones to put out the front of the garage where the old flower bed once stood, and I wanted more blue pots. I also painted some smaller ones to put on the terrace during the summer.
Most are stencilled but the one pot on the right is decoupaged - with the same paper serviette that I used for my Christmas tree baubles last year. The smaller pots were initially painted with chalk paint, then stencilled (or decoupaged), and finally finished off with several coats of clear varnish for protection. The larger pots were painted with an exterior paint so I just varnished over the stencilled portion of the pot.
This is the other side of the pots.
Work in progress - the two terracotta pots to go outside the garage are on the left - note the dragonfly! And of course there are some butterflies, too. 😀
The next photos were taken at New Year of my orchids which are mostly flowering again - it seems like they never stop! The white Phalaenopsis had just finished flowering when it put out another shoot from the old stem! It just goes to show - don't cut off the stems of Phalaenopsis after flowering.
In the foreground is my Jewel Orchid (Ludisia discolor) which really needs repotting and is starting to suffer and lose its leaves - I'm a bit worried about it. But I can't repot until it finishes flowering.
Two different Phalaenopsis plants - there's another with spotty leaves in our bedroom and with the white one, that makes four flowering at the moment!
This is my Dendrobium which is my favourite orchid and it has been flowering since September.
By the time they finish flowering all the wild ones outside will be popping up so living here I will rarely be without orchids in flower. 😁
Two weeks later - unfortunately we had a surprising minus 6C and minus 4C the following night and I think most of my patio plants have been killed. My Kaffir Lime looks dead although the Meyer Lemon still has a few green leaves amongst the brown ones. Everything else looks brown and trashed, even the plants well under cover on the covered patio where normally they survive winter without any problems. So all I can do is wait and see whether my lantanas come back to life (as they always lose their leaves in winter anyway) and hopefully my lemon will survive, and we will see if anything else comes back to life. My fault really for not checking the weather forecast, although I wouldn't have had enough horticultural fleece or bubble wrap for all my plants. Geraniums can be easily replaced after all.
In keeping with the last two years of visiting the local large towns at Christmastime with my brother, this year we headed to Perpignan, the largest town in the Pyrenees Orientales department. Perpignan is not far from the sea and is part of the plain of Roussillon, the Catalan part of the department. It's not far from the Spanish border with Catalonia.
Being larger than Narbonne and Beziers we found parking a bit of a pain - there are plenty of underground car parks, only they were not very well signposted. We started off walking along beside the Christmas market, which wasn't very interesting as it seemed to be 90% either food or jewellery.
Behind the market stalls was the little river Basse, which runs into the larger River Tet on the edge of the centre of town. There were still quite a few plants flowering in this mild southern town.
There is a covered food market which we had a quick look at, and a drool over the various olives....
... and all the dried and candied fruits!
A bit further along the river we came to Le Castillet, which had a big wheel next to it, which I had hoped to have a ride on, only we never found ourselves back here again later on.
Le Castillet is a 14th century red brick gateway tower and fortress. At one point it was a state prison, but nowadays it houses a museum.
I was impressed by these red marble pavements!
This beautiful C14th building is La Loge de Mer - the Sea Lodge. It was once Perpignan's stock exchange, then its maritime tribunal.
Opposite is this statue with a red marble surround. It was the planting which caught my eye!
One of the places we had hoped to visit, an ornate hotel, was unfortunately closed on Mondays, so we headed to the Indian restaurant which we had chosen as the only one in a central position. Sadly, it was crap. We were told that as it was 1.30pm (late in France for lunch!) we could only have the set meal. The chicken curry had the same sauce as the veggie curry and the lentil curry. None were nice. It's a shame as we've had some really good curries in France - when we can find an Indian restaurant!
After lunch we headed uphill to the Palais des Rois de Majorque - the Palace of the Kings of Majorca. Way back in time Perpignan was a part of Catalonia and in 1276 it became the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca. A fortified palace was built in the gothic style which was completed in 1309. Perpignan did not become a part of France until the Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed in 1659!
From here on are Keith's photos as my phone was running low on power.
Below, the Great Hall.
All but this room were empty, which was a shame. This was the Queen's chambers, but the room was closed. K got this photo through a glass window. There was an interesting narrow passageway which linked the King's chamber with the Queen's so they could avoid the main passageway and prying eyes!
Here and there were some original wall paintings.
One of the two chapels.
Back in the town, a bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) flowering - in December!
I'm suffering again with my hips and after walking to and from the palace and walking up and down steps, my hips and knees were killing me so I couldn't manage to visit anything else, so we headed home. It is a real nuisance - my tendonitis had got a lot better before our trip to Italy which was good as I suffered terribly during our Spanish holiday. However using an alpine stick does help a lot with steps and rough ground, only I didn't think I would need it in Perpignan - now I know better.
As we only really had a whistle-stop tour of the town it is hard to say what I thought of it (especially given our awful lunch!). So far I much prefer Narbonne out of the three towns. Next Christmas I hope we get a chance to visit Toulouse, which is a much bigger city than the previous towns we have visited; in fact it is the fourth biggest city in France. So far we have been to its airport multiple times and to Ikea on the outskirts so after six years it is time we headed to 'centre ville'!
I hope you all had a great Christmas and a wild (or quiet) New Year's Eve, depending on which you prefer. 😀 For me, as usual I slept through midnight French time, then was woken by Keith to watch the fireworks at UK midnight an hour later. My brother had left earlier in the day to go back to England after spending Xmas with us.
We had a lovely dawn this morning, and I took a few photos with K's phone. Then funnily enough, on Radio 2 they were talking about it being a thing in Japan to see the first sunrise of the new year. Can't remember what it was called, but I have photos of it - and not only that, what was most surprising was to have the moon in view too!
The moon, just rising up into the band of cloud! The sun was just behind the wall on the right.
Again, a cropped version. Best clicked on to open up larger to see the details.
Well that's it from me - enjoy the rest of your day. I'm looking forward to having roast beef - not French beef which is always tough, but delicious tender Irish beef via Bacon in the Box, a mail order Irish food company. You can get British food from Tescos through them too, but being Irish and part of the EU, it bypasses the ridiculous Brexit rules on food from the UK. And then there is a new series of Traitors this evening. Wonderful. Happy New Year! 😁