Week 14 (3–9 April 2023)

As bullet points again, so this doesn't end up published next week:

  • Garden: planted salads in the greenhouse. Removed ivy from a bunch of plum trees that now sprang out from where F threw out a bucket of moldy plums 30 years ago
  • Bouldering: Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Finished a purple project (purple = hard red in most Berlin gyms)
  • Parents are visiting for Easter holidays. Lots of apéros, lots of food. It's really hard to plan groceries (suddenly we eat 2-3x more bread, cheese, fortunately there's still enough wine in the cellar)
  • Galettes all together at Le Colibri in Joyeuses, been a while I was telling F about it (Le Colibri is our post-bouldering spot, when open on Friday evenings)
  • K drove here for the weekend too!
  • Hike to Loubaresse from above Valgorge (44.59523, 4.09170), a part of the Sentier des gardes (PDF). Uphill then across the hillside through pine, birch, oak woods and over many small streams, with a beautiful view on the Tanargue massif across the Beaume valley. On the drive back with F and C (the others walked), we stopped at C's luxurious garden in Le Chastanet for a visit and bought three strawberry plants that I put in a planter box on the terrace.

Watching

Not a lot this week! Only the one film:

Reading

  • I almost finished L'exil et le royaume by Camus. I like the very last story a little than the others so I'm taking another break, but overall Albert's stuff is great, I should read all of it.
  • Listened to Neil Gaiman's Stardust via the Libby app. It's a young adult thing (or as least I think it is?) but that makes it great for listening to during the long hours spent removing ivy.
  • A couple more graphic novels from the last library haul. First, The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg (read in its French translation), amazingly WTF, beautiful art, story somehow reminiscent of Avatar (The Last Airbender, not blue Sam Worthington). And second, Balades en philosophie by Janine, which was, to be honest, a bit of a disappointment: philosophy so applied in practice that it made no sense anymore. Obviously intended for a general audience (or children??), but not actually useful to learn about philosophy or even about the philosophers it covers—I wouldn't really recommend it.