A little warmth

Ste Angèle

The mornings have remained very cold. Deep frosts freeze the cat's water bowl overnight and the world is very white until about 10.30am.

Lunchtimes have been quite different for the last week. We've been able to sit outside with a cuppa or sometimes a beer enjoying the warmth of a January sun which has plenty of heat in it but which, sadly, disappears behind the hill far too soon. Sitting outside today (with a cuppa) we even heard the odd cricket quietly chirruping away in the distance. A couple of male chaffinches were arguing at the top of a tree and the distant squeal of a buzzard made us think that, just maybe, spring might be on its way.

A glance through last years diary though makes us less complacent. 22 degrees one February lunch time but I recorded that March 21st was 'the coldest day yet'. Brrrrr.

We've taken a day off today, which gives me the opportunity to catch up on some reading. For my sins I now belong to no less than three reading groups. The English Bookshop at Gourdon (http://www.booksandcompany.co.uk/) has two reading groups and I have recently joined one of them with a friend, we'll be going along to our first meeting on Thursday and I have a very interesting book to read. The Perfect Summer, buy Juliet Nicholson is a fascinating book about the summer of 1911; a new King will be crowned, the country has just come out of mourning for Edward VII and the difference between the rich and poor is wider than the Atlantic Ocean. I'm really enjoying the read which is so different from the second book club's choice for January 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'. This novel was dramatised on Woman's Hour on Radio 4 earlier this month. I avoided listening to it as I was in the middle of the book at the time and had been advised that it would be a bad idea to hear the end before I'd read it.

'Kevin' was a really harrowing read but I'm so glad I did get through it. Not to be read if you are feeling depressed (it would probably make you suicidal) but very well written, even though I did have one of the most awful American accents reading it 'to' me.

The latest group I have joined is a really good idea. It is a postal book group. Twelve people, all living in France and some of them French have selected a book each from their collection. The idea is that you send it on to one person on the list and you receive another book from another member. By the end of 12 months we should receive our own book back again. It's quite exciting not knowing what the next book will be.

With all this reading - and Jon is reading the books too even though he only belongs to one of the groups - it's a good job we are fast readers. The next job is to make a selection of books for our long flights - something gripping but not too heavy in weight.