Les poissons en France

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Not Boring but.........

Predictable. We have been writing this Blog for over 9 years and are heading towards a 1000 posts so inevitably we are concious that you've heard it all before. That doesn't mean that each day we do not continue to marvel and enjoy the natural world that surrounds us. This winter we have seen red squirrels every other day. I understand that this is their normal winter feeding habit, but we have never witnessed it before. We have not seen so much of the deer but then we have seen more of the hunters. Such is the cycle of life. As usual after a spell of winter rain the valley floor has flooded but (I say it very quietly because we are not out of the woods yet) it has been a very mild winter and it is a delight to see the signs of Spring, bulbs blooming, kestrels calling, buds bursting.....
Enough of this waxing lyrical. All has not been sweetness and light as John had a nasty gastric bug last week and I have had it this week. It is so annoying as it gets in the way of what we really want to do. John continues with his creative projects, writing and illustrating his work and you know what I do!! He is making progress in the bedroom, all be it slowly. however I refrain from showing you more pictures of plumbing pipes.

When we saw Guy off at Limoges airport after Christmas we knew we would not see him for a while but what we did not know was that it would be because he would be in Taiwan. He obtained a 6 month contract to teach English at a secondary school in New Taipei City. He seems to have settled remarkably quickly and thanks to the internet is having an incredibly interesting time - more exciting than his parents. Above all life and teaching is not so stressful for him.
Must go now to do something really exciting, can't let the kid beat us!!

Friday, January 15, 2016

This is our Winter

Sue has spent all afternoon out in the sunshine weeding.
This was at about 4pm and, although it was cool, about 5 degrees, she was well wrapped up!

Then, 2 hours later ...
... a sudden wintery shower with hailstones!

You have to grab the moment whilst you can.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

New Year

You may think that we are in hibernation but actually we are awake and active but have not been doing anything that you would find particularly interesting. However, as you will have guessed you are just about to be told about the uninteresting things.

We did pass a lovely New Years Eve with friends. You can tell it was a good evening because someone suddenly said its a couple of minutes to midnight and rushed to open the champagne - it felt like 9.30. Then another meal on Sunday with other friends and on Wednesday we celebrated Epiphany at the bridge club. In France it is the tradition to have the Galette des Rois on twelfth night. It is a tart filled with frangipane which contains a tiny replica of a king (I guess that wouldn't be acceptable in the UK these days - health and safety!!!). On the assumption that the person who finds the king has not swallowed it, they are crowned king or queen for the day and wear the crown provided, a gold version of cracker hats. Of course this galette is washed down with champagne. The celebration of the kings delivering their gifts to Jesus marks the end of the festivities although it can take months for the decorations to be taken down.

In between all this eating and drinking John has continued to work in the final bedroom. I expect I will be reporting this for months, even though he is working hard. In keeping with the rest of Europe the weather has continued very mild and I have been working in the garden most days. Although we have had a week of rain - which is most welcome - the sun has continued to shine.
We too have plants in flower totally out of season. I am particularly proud of my clivia which I bought in for its annual rest. Instead of resting it is flowering a couple of months early.
 The winter storage of the geraniums/pelargoniums has also been cut short; I have potted them up and as usual they have taken over our bedroom. Unfortunately their number has been somewhat depleted this year as a mouse found them very tasty.