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Taken yesterday on a trip to buy wine from Domaine d’Estève, about 7 kilometres away. It’s still definitely autumn here, with the leaves on the plane trees just turning brown and the temperature up to 16 degrees even on a cloudy day like this. The vine growers are beginning to prune their vines. This takes a long time – all winter for those who have large vineyards – as it all must be done by hand with secateurs.
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The vines in the foreground in the pictures above are the ones I photographed last month – here – which have now been pruned ready for next year’s growth.
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The dark green foliage on the hillside to the left is mostly evergreen arbutus and holm oak. There’s some nice old terracing in the photo on the right. I wish the sun had been shining, but we’re having unusually cloudy weather this week.
>Still lots of colour around Carcassonne too. We had a slight frost one night at the end of October but since then it has been mild so the leaves are hanging on. This cloudy "marin" weather is getting depressing – it's been going on for ages. The laundry is piling up – too damp to dry it outside and too mild to have the fires going for drying inside overnight!Still the colours are lovely and we are saving money on the heating.
>It's beautiful and colourful even in cloudy conditions. It's great to learn a bit about the vines. We have had virtually continual rain for some weeks now which is a bit depressing – though far more than that for those in the UK who've lost homes and loved ones with the flooding.
>I knew you lived in a lovely place, but seeing the scenery this time of year makes it come alive. Those grape vines look OLD! It's nice to see something that lasts more than a season or two.
>Some lovely photos of your surroundings, and gorgeous colours. Yes, pruning them takes a long time – I don't see how they'll ever be able to mechanize it!