Terrace Log 2012

We spend a lot of time on our terrace from where we have a good view of sunsets, the Pyrenees about 160 Km away, the village square and views right across the Orb river valley.
13 March Buzzards & House Martins return
During breakfast we spotted the return of the Buzzards after the winter. I counted 19 heading up the Orb valley towards the Massif Central. We saw them leave last September. They came in twos and threes flying at about 300 feet. At the same time I spotted the first House Martins of the year. There are three Buzzards in the photo below (click on the photo, if necessary).




12 March Jupiter & Venus
We spent most of the day on the terrace it was 12C and sunny for breakfast and 20C at lunchtime. It hit 25C in the afternoon as we repotted plants and moved our plant pots about. This was our first evening of aperos on the terrace and sundown was at about 7pm. As it got dark we noticed (with the aid of our Stellarium App) that Jupiter and Venus were very close together an uncommon event - per Simon Mitton's blog. You should just be able to see the two planets on this photo. The bright planet is Venus and Jupiter is to the left of Venus. You will need to click on the photo to enlarge it, click the browser back arrow to return to the blog.




February
During the first two weeks we had really cold weather down to minus 8 C and so we lost all our geraniums one of which had survived the previous winter. For the last two weeks, the sun was on the terrace by breakfast time and unless it was windy, we were able to have breakfast on there.




The sunsets are moving northwards away from the Mairie. The photo above was taken on the 26 February.




This was us on 24 Feb after we had returned from our trip to Spain and London.

17 Jan Lunchtime
We see many aeroplanes passing overhead, high in the sky. Today something befell one of these as we saw it do a complete circle in the sky and head back from whence it came.

5 Jan the big gust
During the night of 5/6 January there were severe gusts of wind and we lost 4 tiles from the edge of our roof. They landed on the terrace and also onto our neighbour's roof breaking his tiles.




January was unusually warm with the lowest overnight temperature -2C. We were able to lunch on the terrace quite often.




Winter sunset behind the Mairie, bedecked with Christmas lights.
John on our terrace