208 Pays Basque Autumn

1st November 2013. Today is Toussaint.. a day to keep off French roads. It's a public holiday here and it's a time when families make their traditional annual pilgrimage to visit family graves - something that can involve elderly people who are unused to driving long distances driving hundreds of kilometres to the cemetery in the family village in their region of origin. 
Once there, magnificent displays of chrysanthemums will be left by the thousand at the graves of loved ones. Following the observance of this annual ritual, the local restaurants will be packed with white haired clients for a good lunch, following which they may or may not take to the highways again. It's widely recognised as being one of the most dangerous times to be at large on French roads. 
I walked by the flower shop this morning at the bottom of our road which has, for the last few days, sported a beautiful display of potted chrysanthemums like the ones above. At lunchtime today, only a handful of bedraggled specimens were left - looking akin to the last chicken in the supermarket at closing time on Saturday evening! 
Walking into town this morning to the one baker that is always open come what may, it was odd to see how quiet things were.. Very few people out and about apart from a strong contingent of Spanish tourists who, fed up with closed shops in Spain, had come here to see what closed shops look like in France. Even the cafés were closed here.
Question for someone: I was out walking the dog yesterday in a nearby park when I saw a butterfly.. Knowing zilch about such things, surely this is an unseasonable appearance? Are butterflies usually out and about on 31st October? It was a white one - I'd be tempted to call it a cabbage white.
I don't usually watch rugby league but as the two codes have become almost indistinguishable these days I'm tempted to see if I can find coverage of the France - New Zealand match tonight in the Rugby League World Cup.    
I doubt if the inside of the garage has been cleaned and painted for 20 years – there’s flaking paint, cobwebs and dust everywhere.. So a few days ago I started clearing assorted junk from two walls and sweeping the floor and walls and then filling holes and cracks.. Then when that’s dried, I’m going to paint with some heavy duty paint – then it’ll the turn of the other two walls.. After that, the ceiling – except it’s very high.. Not sure yet how I’m going to get up there. Then I’m going to paint the concrete floor with special paint for concrete. While I’m at it, I’m going to be having a clear out to get rid of some of the junk.. It’s a job I’ve been meaning to do for a while. (Did someone mention retirement?!) 
Another job that needs doing is sorting out some trees.. The palm tree (must be 50 ft high) in front hasn’t had its dead branches pruned for years; then there’s a yew tree at the side that’s grown out of control.. that needs cutting back to a size I can manage each year and finally the big tree down the garden – think it’s a cypress – is too big. It's dropping needles all over the grass and it’s killed the lawn there – so it’s going to come down.. It’s no loss as it cuts the evening sun.. plus pigeons nest in it and they've been pecking holes in the lawn.. We had a firm round to give us an estimate for the work.. 1150€! This included 400€ just to take all the wood away..
Words you'll never read here:
Movember, chillaxing, staycation & innit.