Val Wineyard Publishing

When does one EVER get everything straight?!

I moved house from Couiza to Lézignan-Corbières over a year ago and I still haven't painted the landing!

I left Couiza because, although it was great fun popping up to Rennes-le-Château, Couiza was very quiet in the winter.  When I passed a whole nine days over Christmas without speaking to another human being, I decided to move back to the region near Narbonne which I had always loved since I worked there looking after holiday-makers, oh, over thirty years ago now!

They call Lézignan the "largest village in Aude" and indeed, the atmosphere is like a village with people saying hello to each other, and I chose it because now I'm getting a bit "long in the tooth" I needed all facilities such as shops and doctors to hand.  I was also missing all my old friends in and around Narbonne so the buses and trains are much appreciated!  And of course there are several bars and cafes and a most lively weekly market.

The house I chose is perfect!   A town house a short walk from the church and the town centre, with a tidy-sized garden in front of it that my little dog loves, except when she decides to help me by digging holes!!!  Indoors I have the front room as my "office", all lined with books, a large kitchen, there's a first floor with my bedroom and a second room in which I have made a Mary Magdalene museum and also a top floor which has made an apartement for visitors, with a living-room, kitchenette and a large bathroom.

Friends on market day.

My garden was nothing but wild grasses when I bought the house but I've since made a path of tiles from the veranda to the front gate, and planted no end of herbs and flowers either side of it, not to mention "bio" aromatic herbs.  I have some small cypresses and an olive tree planted.  So now there is little to do except keep the grasses trimmed.  Prisca loves running up and down the garden to the gate where she barks as people pass by; Lézignan is really not suitable for dogs but I take her on the lead once a day and if we stop at the café she sits under my chair watching everything that is going on.

And writing?  I decided to try my hand at a novel set in Biblical times.  Well, everybody else is doing it!  Which reminds me, I have yet started the 500 words a day target that I set myself but rarely reach . . .