Cork corns

A beautiful sunny morning, with a forecast for gloomier weather in the afternoon, saw us out for a walk before the nice weather left. So a cold crisp walk up in the hills above Ceret. We walked up to a 13th century hermitage, through a typical forest of scrubby vegetation and cork oaks (quercus suber). Some of the trees were clearly harvested for cork (the lower trunk is stripped of bark every 10 years or so to make corks for wine). You can see some more shots of the tree and its bark over here.

The Hermitage itself was closed, but very pretty, and with tremendous views over the valley both towards the sea (shrouded in cloud) and Canigou, our local Pyrenee. Canigou had been looking magnificent on the drive up the hills - with snowy peaks and wisps of cloud against a deep blue sky. Somehow I still don't have the sense to just stop and take photos of things as soon as I see them, and of course by the time we got up in hills and stopped for our walk, the whole mountain top was hidden behind a cloud. Next time.

Home for lunch in the garden. I'm sure I keep saying this, but I think that might be the last one for the year - quite chilly today!

Blips for yesterday and Friday posted too. I'm sure you can click back (I'm all linked out.)