Another month rushes past

Can you believe that it is nearly the end of November already? If we had

Sandy path near Domaine Fondespierre 

advent calendars we'd be opening our first door on Tuesday!

We are moving on to another new campsite tomorrow, not far from Perpignan, so it is goodbye to Castries. However, I found three photos taken around here on my phone that I want to share so thought I would write this little wrap-up post. We went for a shortish walk on Thursday, just around the nearby woodlands and sandy tracks, but were surprised to suddenly find ourselves alongside rocky outcrops. This area has random mini environments. One minute there's freshly ploughed deep red soil, then a dry-looking vineyard field or olive trees, then back to scrub ground that doesn't look like it can really support anything. We did find a pretty stream too.

And, having seen several small stacks of abandoned bath tubs lying around, we finally discovered why!

We worked out the off road cycleway into Castries. It does still involve maybe a hundred yards of the main road, but otherwise is quiet flat tarmac and avoids most of the hill. The turning is just outside a sports complex and is marked with green paint on the road, but looks to be heading out into the countryside which is why we overlooked it at first. We have used this twice now to cycle into town for shopping trips which seem much more fun when I'm zipping there and back on my bike. Maybe that's just me?

In other news, I am very happy that some lavender flowers I crocheted

My crochet flowers 

were featured in an Etsy treasury list this week. Thank you Shany!

Don't forget my book giveaway! A signed copy of The Judas Scar by Amanda Jennings. The giveaway finishes tomorrow (30th Nov) at midnight so there's still time to make that winning entry. Pick any of the five Ways.

Finally, if you're still trying to figure out what looks a bit different, I have changed the blog theme from tumbling autumnal leaves to bookshelves. I have added a couple more widgets to enable easy blog following too. They're up at the top right, unless you're reading this on a mobile in which case they might be anywhere! There's now a Follow By Email box - just put your address in and you'll get a message whenever I publish a new post. There's also a Google Friend Connect box - those two folks look a tad lonely up there by themselves so feel welcome to sign yourself up too! Of course, my Bloglovin follow button is still in the right-hand toolbar and, if you scroll to the bottom of the page, a Google Followers Box awaits you there

See you in Perpignan :-)