MysBlogging is such a strange and wondrous experience. Its a mystery really. There are some days that the title of my blog appears in another font that I didn't put there. Then just as mysteriously it is replaced by the one I did order. There are times when the colors of the background or... say the lettering... is not what I applied. ..... but just as soon as I notice it, it is replaced yet again by some unseen force. Or the showing on Firefox has a fatter font than the same one I am using to design my blog on Safari.
And then there is the automatic spelling corrector that replaces the word "tying" for the word "fishing" without any warning and when I correct it yet it again it goes back to it's own way. Machines as secretaries : not always satisfactory!
Another puzzlement is why do some posts get lots more traffic than others. I can understand just now why Giacometti posts are getting a lot of hits because I took some pretty decent pictures of that exhibition and people want those to pass forward, I suppose.
But why Eggs in Meurette is getting a lot of attention right now is a mystery to me.
My all time most visited posting is Cherry and Almond blossoms from Sat. May 2011 which as up to 80 hits by now. I think people are searching for that Van Gogh blossom picture all of the time.
There is a certain satisfaction from seeing one's all time hits. In my case it is well over 30,000 since I started. There is always the possibility that some of these are machines but most of my readers are American or French and then it breaks down pretty much into English speaking countries like Canada, Australia etc. I do get the surprise visits from Asia and the rest of Europe too.
I have to admit that the feedback keeps me going and I am disappointed that it is getting harder to comment on the blog. The letters and numbers when asking you to prove you are not a robot, could be easier deciphered if I were a robot. Now Google puts some illegible, scrambled letters and a photograph of a number. It takes several tries to hit it right. The machines out there are getting more and more sophisticated at spamming and this is one of the prevention strategies. I "feel" for those who make their living this way. It is not always understandable the machinations of a machine.
It is the end of another August which was pretty darn miserable as far as the temperatures went. The humidity has now backed off and the mornings are cool and perfect.
I just got back from another trip to the Valley of Marvels ( Val du Marveilles ) Park de Mercantour , our huge national park in the vicinity, where Jeanne and I stayed for a few days and hiked in Casterino , a ski station up higher than Breil sur Roya and agreeably cooler. Here are a few pics taken with the cell phone.
We took a refreshing hike, me with my plastic pool shoes as I had not scheduled to do any hiking this time and didn't have all my kit. But those little plastic shoes were fine for the sharp flint-like stone and I made it to the first destination on our trail which eventually leads to the Refuge to Valmasque.
The Valley of Valmasque is from a local legend of a witch called Masca who was accused of all the ills that had occurred in the village and was eventually chased into the deserted valley. But perhaps it was not such a bad location for her as there are three large lakes which make the 7 hour trek ( I hope they mean going and coming) such a sought after destination.
There is a hostel type " refuge" there where one can spend the night near the lake called Lac Vert or Green Lake. It is accessed by a trail where the marmots are little sentinels along your way barking one to the other as they do. And if you have your field glasses you might see a mountain goat ( chamois) as I did this time.
In any case the first big pond on the Roya River is reached after only a 30-45 minute trek from Casterino and is an agreeable picnic spot. We lazed about and watched the Vairon fish fingerlings, about 10 cm long, which act as food for the trout.
I have yet to see a Roya River trout being caught but I did see a few fly fishermen catching their line in the trees along the bank. It doesn't look easy.
Today we are waiting for some guests who have been vacationing in Italy on their way back home to England. It is the time of the "rentree" when everyone returns home after holiday and resumes their habitual life. I don't expect that habitual life for me however. I will travel and receive lots of travelers from now until Christmas. I'll keep you posted when I have my machine with me.
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