Blog Archive

Friday, 29 August 2025

Towards September

 

We have just heard the very sad news of our friend Clare McCarty.  She and I met through young Quakers when I was working in Friends' House in the early 1970s, and later Mary and I met her husband Norman and stayed with them in their home in Lisburn.  Clare became a leading figure in the housing sector in Northern Ireland.  At our age the death of friends is not uncommon, but to lose a friend so much younger than me is a shock.  She was one of 2 of two women friends with the distinction of receiving an OBE for her work in the crossover sector I also worked in, linking voluntary, community and statutory sectors and I feel proud to have known her.











last month's red high risk map in the Aude - Lunel is on the far right, still orange and therefore still at risk a few days ago.   The Aude area is apparently still smouldering underground
 
The very hot weather of the past months seems to be waning thank goodness, and we have had a couple of short storms, but in the very dry conditions here the risk of fires continues very high, and it is not just folk rumour that many such devastating fires (such as the one which destroyed an area the size of Paris a week or two ago) turn out ot have been started deliberately.  It is really shocking when an already dangerous situation is aggravated by such vandalism.  We read that in the UK too there are fires, in Yorkshire for example.  Hre in France, water supplies are running low - the Canal du Midi may have to close  to navigation because of lack of water.  We need more rain - only 30mm in the past two months, most of it in the past couple of days.


Over the summer months our usual conversation groups (mixed French and English people, improving our understanding of one another's languages through reading and discussions together) shrink as people go on holiday, fmaily visits etc.  So our group recently has sometimes been reduced to single figures, but those who are free still like to meet and reward our morning's work with a shared meal.

skies clearing after a noisy storm last week - most of the rain fell to the north of Lunel




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About Me

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I retired to Lunel in the Languedoc region of southern France with my wife Mary and our Norfolk Terrier Trudy in late 2006. I had worked in the British voluntary sector for 25 years. We are proud parents of 3 sons, and we have 3 grandchildren.