More water, gushing rivers and good news

St Alexandre

We were lucky yesterday evening that Jean-Jacques came around to see us at the time when the water had risen to it's highest around the pool. He and Martin, who is working with him this week, immediately set to and diverted the water from the pump and they and Jon then re-routed the water tumbling out of the upper field, across the road and onto our garden. They created a further three waterfalls which tumbled musically for the rest of the evening. We used bricks, an old paddling pool surround and anything else we could find to create miniature dams around the chalet and pool. The pool guys sealed the pump block and we are waiting for it to dry out completely before they come back to commission the pool.

We had been invited out to lunch today and travelling along the river Lot we stopped to take some photographs. The Lot is usually quite a lazy river but this gushing torrent was taking huge tree trunks with it on its way to the Atlantic Ocean. We read in the local news that the Lot, our very small babbling brook the Céou and several other rivers around here are on yellow alert for fear of bursting their banks.

Super good news tonight. Tree surgeon man came round and says he will take our horse chestnut down next week!!!!!

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.

France is closed, come back in April

St Sébastien

January can be an odd month here. In November we found that some places were closed, in December more were closed and now in January it seems that everywhere we go doors are closed, the shutters are down and a handwritten sign on the door proclaims the 'fermeture annuelle'.

The annual closure can last from two weeks to three or four months apparently. Some restaurants are closed from November until February, others just for January. Shops are the same. One noted restaurant here is open from Easter until the end of October and some only open for July and August.

That's all very well for the vacanciers - but what about us residents, do we not merit the same options all year round? Well not if you are trying to make a living, it appears. Which makes us wonder what these people do all winter? Do they jet off and spend winter in Australia or the Bahamas? Do they have another business in a ski resort somewhere? Perhaps they are really there behind their closed shutters, sitting there by a fireside in the dark waiting for the warmer weather to appear. Perhaps they have a radar alarm that goes off when the first tourist appears, probably along with the first cuckoo and when the first cricket sings.

This morning we rather fancied a Sunday lunch out for a change. Not having had the foresight to book we headed out early for a well-known touristy village where we know locals go when they fancy a tacky trip out - some of the restaurants there are a cut above the usual touristy menu.

It was a beautiful sunny day here in our little valley and we headed north to admire some views before turning west. As we passed through a delightful little village that we had never driven through before (must remember that one), we saw Gourdon in the distance. The twin towers of the church of St Pierre were clearly visible but below the town was in total fog as if a huge cloud had settled itself into the valley. We were tempted to turn around and head south or east but we carried on hoping to pass through the cloud which we eventually did. Up and down hills we drove and in and out of foggy clouds. Arriving at our hilltop destination we parked and walked to the normally bustling square.

Yes, you've guessed it, the whole village was closed for the fermeture annuelle. Even spookier, the fog that was beginning to lift by climbing the hill and beyond made the village seem more like a ghost town. We could hear people talking somewhere but couldn't see a soul.

Feeling rather let down we came home. Having been unusually prepared for this eventuality, I splashed a leg of lamb with garlic oil, sprinkled it with rosemary and threw it in the oven. We may not have had a nice lunch out in the sunshine, but at least we still managed to eat well.

New Lake

Ste Prisca

I mentioned we'd had a little rain lately. Fortunately there haven't been any more indoor streams running through the cave but we have just become the owners of a new lake in the commune.

Here it is at the bottom of our driveway.


Normally this is a very green and lush field. Now we know why it is so lush.

The stream is gushing away down there at the bottom of the hill. It would be great fun to play Pooh Sticks with the grandchildren but of course by they time they arrive in the summer it will be completely dry again.

And just a few days ago it was so sunny we took this photo from our favourite 'supermarket with a view'


It's worth popping out for a pint of milk just to be able to admire this view, don't you think?

Weather again

St Gatien
Yesterday's weather: ........

I'm fed up with saying that it is cold, so I thought I would look for an alternative in Roget's Thesaurus.

So the weather yesterday, the day before and many days before that has been algid (?), arctic, below freezing, below zero, benumbed, biting, bitter, blasting, bleak, boreal, brisk, brumal, chill, chilled, cool, crisp, cutting, freezing, frigid, frore, frosty, frozen, gelid, glacial, hiemal, hyperborean, icebox, iced, icy, inclement (to say the least) intense, keen (keen??), nipping, nippy, numbed, numbing, penetrating, piercing, polar, raw, rimy, severe, sharp, shivery, snappy, stinging and wintery. (I missed out sleety and snowy because it hasn't done that - yet).

There, now I'm not going to mention it again until it warms up and the frost finally disappears from the area below the trees which doesn't get the sun.

Chilling with blue tits

Ste Lucie
Yesterday's weather: cold, cold, colder

Happy birthday to Vikki x x x x xx

The fig tree outside the kitchen window has always been full of birds. It's lovely watching them, blue tits, great tits, chaffinches, robins - all sorts of small birds come and visit.

Sitting watching them the other day, Mum suggested putting a bird table in the tree. I was worried that the cats might enjoy this as a new playground but Mum seemed to think that they would just ignore the birds.

Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, Jon immediately got up from the lunch table and went to the garage to create a bird chateau for gourmet feathered friends. He duly put it in the tree and we waited for the visitors.

And waited.

And waited.

Aiming to tempt them a little Mum had put out some cheese, bacon scraps and bread for the little dears. I added a fat ball which I bought in the garden centre and some bird seed, interstingly labelled 'Meusli' - well, we thought we would attract the gourmet birds with this house.

A lone blue tit appeared, ignored the chateau and headed straight for the fat ball which it seemed to like very much thank you.

A week later and the blue tit is still visiting.

No other birds, just the one.

I just have this feeling that one day I'm going to look out and find a blue tit bigger than the tree shouting at me to feed him.

A river runs through it

Ste Guadelupe
Yesterday's weather: Nice morning, wet afternoon

We always dreamed of a little cottage, roses around the door, you know the sort of thing, and a stream running by.

It's a chocolate box image and when we found this little house and saw the roses around the door we thought we were almost there. The stream is missing, unless you want to walk down the lane to the road where there is a little stream running, except in the summer when it dries out completely - very annoying when one wants to partake in a little game of Pooh Sticks with the grandchildren.

We also have a little 'source' a freshwater well complete with pump just opposite our land and on the communal footpath that runs alongside us. So who could ask for more?

Well, obviously we did ask for more.

The problem with living in a house that is built into rock on the lower level is that you have to put up with the occasional indoor water feature appearing.

Thus, this morning when I went looking for milk in the fridge in the cave (cellar) I found a newly created stream running down the back wall and across the floor.

Anyone got a spare fishing rod?

Walk the cat

St Rufus
Yesterday's weather: warm, overcast, occasional drizzle

It's amazing how different you feel when it's not freezing cold. Suddenly we felt spurred once again into doing all sorts of little jobs we had put off.

We even took the cats for a walk for the first time in a couple of weeks. They enjoy a good walk, in fact we believe that they think they are dogs - if not people. Waiting at the door for us if we've been out. Checking out all new visitors. They even chat to us (no I'm NOT totally mad, they really do talk to us, Misty even answers back when I tell her off!).

We really miss Jazz, wherever she may be but these two are really good company. They seem to feel the same as we do about the missing family member and have become much more clingy in the last few weeks.

Our long-distance cat sitter arrives at Toulouse airport this evening so we have been in a mad whirl of bed making and re-arranging this morning. Off to the airport this afternoon with a stop off for a few shopping items in the meantime.

Another tequila sunrise

St Tanguy
Yesterday's weather: Cold



I don't know if the photo does it justice but this was the sunrise this morning.




Stunning. It's still cold but at least it has stayed above freezing today.

Brass monkeys

Ste Elisabeth
Yesterday's weather: put it this way, we saw a couple of brass monkeys outside and they were crying.

HAPPY SAINT'S DAY TO LIZZIE

Happy Birthday to Beryl.

Yes, I do know the origin of that saying.

You have to keep pretty busy to keep warm, or pay the electricty bill. We have only electric convectors and one bottled gas fire but we're managing to keep the place pretty warm. Luckily we don't have many rooms to heat and it's usually a challenge when it gets to bedtime as that is one room we don't heat.

The double glazing has been worth every penny already. Once warm the house stays warm for longer.

When we got up this morning the garden thermometer was reading 12 degrees.

I'll correct that immediately. It was reading minus twelve degrees. So we decided not to work outside today but to keep indoors and cook some nice warming soups and a couple of cakes as we had people round for afternoon tea this afternoon.

I only ventured out twice; once to put the washing on the line and once to find that instead of drying, my sheets and pillowcases were frozen solid.

Happy winter, everyone.

One day, two worlds

St Sidoine
Yesterday's weather: bright, sunny, cold.

We've had wet stuff falling out of the sky on and off today. We've not seen any of that sort of thing for weeks so it came as a bit of a shock. The cats found it a bit surprising too and after their usual disappearance through the kitchen door first thing this morning, they drank from their usual flower bowl, sniffed around to make sure there had been no intruders and headed straight back indoors.

We went out to market and the cats decided to stay home making themselves comfy, one on the sofa the other on the bed obviously also taking advantage of the fact that we weren't here to throw the wet, muddy one off the bed. More washing for the pile!

On our way to town the world looked lovely; the sun was shining and the trees were golden brown. We stopped at the post office to collect a parcel that the postman (known as Mr Smiley because he never does) didn't leave the other day even though we were home all day, then we took the 'pretty' route, the back roads down to town. The rain held off while we were shopping and we took advantage to have a quick lunch in town too.

On the way home the hills and trees looked entirely different with black clouds hovering over them; the trees that were golden looked sludgy brown and gray and the air just seemed so much colder. The rain is back again and I'm sure I can hear a cat scratching to be let in again.

Eek!

St René
Yesterday's weather: Beautiful. We went out and the views were wonderful, looking down on the Dordogne valley which was still misty - looked very romantic.

We had a nasty shock today. The temperature is -4 degrees outside and we've had our first frost. It is clearing quickly and didn't get as far as our patio so the plants are all safe, but it has given us a reminder to put all the more sensitive plants into sheltered areas.

I went out late last night to call the cats in and the sky was magnificent. There were hundreds of stars and the air was still warm so I expected a fog this morning rather than a frost. Before the sun came up this morning the stars were shining brilliantly through the bedroom window, until I realised, I thought the sun was coming up. Apparently we have both Venus and Saturn visible this month and next week (21st) there will be a further meteor shower visible so that should be worth getting cold for!

It's the second biggest rugby match tonight - France vs Argentina. I wonder if it will be as popular as it would have been in France were playing in the final? I hope that the Paris transport system has managed to get itself up and running again in time for everyone to make it to the match, today and tomorrow. I'm sure that if the workers were inclined to strike on a Saturday (heaven forbid, since that won't create nearly as much chaos as a weekday) they would be delighted to strike tomorrow and get their own back on all the English fans!

Who got all the talent then?

St Hermann
Yesterday's weather: Lovely

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to:
Catherine Zeta Jones
Michael Douglas
Felicity Kendall
William Faulkner
Sir Colin Davis
Declan Donnelly (of Ant and Dec) (?)
Will Smith
The late Christopher Reeve, Glenn Gould, Ronnie Barker, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, Mark Rothko

AND ME!

I'm in good company, aren't I?

I would love the musical talents of Shostakovich, Glenn Gould and the wonderful Sir Colin Davis, the looks of Catherine Zeta Jones and Felicity Kendall, the writing talent of William Faulkner and the humour of Ronnie Barker and I would like to paint better than Rothko who I never could understand.

So, we share with St Hermann. It brought to mind Herman' Hermits a 1960s pop group who I loved at the time. Peter Noone was the lead singer and very good looking too. That leads on to a 'whatever happened to ...?'. You can find out on Wikipedia if you are that interested. Annoyingly I will probably be humming 'Mrs Brown you've got a lovely daughter' all day now.

I've been keeping an eye on the weather as usual and I am extremely disconcerted to see that Mr Meteo is forecasting WHITE STUFF for the Aveyron region on Thursday. The Aveyron is not so very far from us and looking at this morning's lovely sunshine and warmth I find that very difficult to imagine. I can't remember ever seeing snow in September before. Please let them be wrong!

I've rambled a bit today, haven't I? You'll have to put that down to my advanced age.

Back to normal?

Ste Raïssa
Yesterday's weather: Warm, sunny, cool breeze

Happy Birthday to Jack. 6 years old today. Lots of love to you xxxxx

Crikey! I'll need to keep an eye on the garden if this keeps up. It's only 2 degrees above freezing this morning. The figs on the tree outside our kitchen window look rather shocked, but it is warming up quickly now that the sun has popped his head over the hillside, so I hope they will soon recover and continue ripening.

The best news is that, finally, the chalet floor arrived yesterday afternoon only six weeks late. Unfortunately it didn't arrive in time for us to erect the chalet for our visitors to sleep in as planned. However, it will be ready for next summer. Actually we hope it will be all erected before this weekend as we plan to get going on it today. We need to get all the wood off the grass before it gets damaged by water or frost(!).

It feels rather odd now that our little flurry of visitors have left. The cats are looking round to see who is sleeping where and finding no-one. I spotted Figgy wandering into the tent this morning to see if he could wake Joe up. No-one is expected now until the end of October (unless you know differently) but at least it will give us the chance to get on with some decorating. That is assuming the replacement windows turn up in the next 10 days or so - but I should really know better than to assume anything here now.

Too darn hot (not complaining!)

Ste Sabine
Yesterday's weather: hot and sticky

Yesterday was one of those days when just to walk from one end of the garden to the other left one in a very unladylike state of dampness. I remember my mother saying that ladies never sweat or even perspire, they 'gently glow'. Well, I was 'gently glowing soaked' yesterday! So, naturally it was a day for strimming, trimming back overgrown shrubs and wheeling the debris back and forth in the wheelbarrow. A long cool shower made me feel normal again - for about twenty minutes. If I go outside today I will get wet for a different reason. It is still really sticky but there is thunder around and it has rained - only a little so far. Also, someone has stolen the opposite hillside. I can't see it at all this morning. Could be fog, I suppose.

The cats are all grumpy too, which is a sure sign that a storm is brewing. I feel so sorry for them in their fur coats when the weather is so hot and sticky. They all have their favourite places for their afternoon nap. The kitten has taken up residence upstairs by the front door, in the fork of a tree or on top of the garage. All three are hot places even if he finds what little shade there is, so we are always surprised that he settles there. Misty tends to follow us around a bit but usually settles in amongst the rosemary and lavender right by the back door where there is shade in the afternoon and Jazz, who used to be found on a garden chair has now discovered the best place of all, a cool ledge in the cellar. She particularly likes this one at the moment because Figgy hasn't found it yet and even if Misty did discover her, she really can't be bothered to jump all the way up there. So Jazz is quite safe.

Today I will be mostly looking for fig recipes (hoping that Figgy doesn't get upset and think I mean him). The figs are suddenly ripening and there are hundreds of them. Not wanting anything to go to waste, but at the same time not needing to eat too many figs at once, I will be looking for ways to cook them, freeze them and preserve them. Unfortunately they are, as usual, very small. I have been reading up gardening tips to see if there is any way I can prune the tree or thin out the branches to encourage larger fruits but I think the tree is so old, like the apple, that it is probably beyond help. I don't know yet whether we will keep the tree forever, but at the moment it gives us a lot of privacy in the summer. I love the shape of it and it brings the wrens and robins close to the kitchen window (only when cats aren't in evidence) so we would certainly have to replace it with something if it went. But that is a decision for the future.

Weather the weather

St Louis
Yesterday's weather: Getting better, much better

I'm sitting here this morning watching the sun pop its head over the hillside. It looks like it will be a beautiful day at last, but I don't suppose the weather will stay with us for long. It's very sad that most of the holidaymakers will be going home this weekend having had the worst holiday weather they can remember. Many, especially campers, gave up days ago, fed up with wet tents, muddy shoes and miserable kids who couldn't go in the pool.

Many years ago when we were holidaying in Frejus we had mixed weather, which was only to be expected at the very beginning of June. It was lovely and warm though and even though it was overcast we thought it would be nice to swim, especially as the pool was fairly empty. We gathered up children, towels and water wings and trekked off to the pool. As we arrived it started to rain, which didn't bother us , but the lifeguard said to us 'Oh no, you can't swim now, we are going to close the pool because of the rain'. I never could understand the reasoning, after all we were going to get wet anyway. I suppose he just didn't want to have to hang around in the rain himself, even though he had a nice dry hut to sit in!

On another occasion we were running low on fuel in the car and needed to fill up to get ourselves back to our campsite. It was raining and we had heard one clap of thunder. We pulled in at a garage in a small village in the Dordogne where we were told that they had shut the pumps off because of the storm. We never did get to understand that one. The garage patron took pity on us though and turned them on again just for us. Mad English people that we were, fancy wanting to fill up with petrol in a thunderstorm. How strange.

A 46-er!

St Barthélémy
Yesterday’s weather: Brightening

The Méhari became a ’46-er’ yesterday. That is, it got its new local number plate, so people don’t look at it (as we do any vehicle without a 46 at the end of the plate) and think ‘Huh! Tourist!’. Although we had made an appointment and given the garage the details of the new carte grise they hadn’t made up the number plates and were embarrassed that they weren’t ready for us. Not to worry, we went for a walk round the village in the meantime and caught up with how it has changed in the last 15 years since we first started visiting.

An English Estate Agent has set up there and, locals complain, this has pushed up house prices in the immediate vicinity. But at the same time, and possibly because of the influx of immigrants from Northern Europe, other things have smartened up. There are now two restaurants, two hairdressers, the ironmongery shop has moved in with the florist and sells all sorts of kitsch and the supermarket has had a huge make over. Unfortunately the dogs haven’t yet learned to clear up after themselves and there are gutters with an overwhelming smell of something unpleasant, but this is France. You cannot go for a stroll in any town or village without watching where you put your feet, unfortunately.

When we got back home with our new number plates, we found that our verges had been trimmed back again. Because of the rain this means that the lane is now covered in wet grass and weed cuttings – and we don’t know where Figgy had been hiding but he was wearing a very fetching green camouflage outfit so that he could play at ‘Commandos’. He decided to stay out last night, along with Jazz, probably because it was the first warm-ish dry night for some time. Misty did come in but got lonely in the kitchen all on her own and at about 3am Jon got up to let her into the rest of the house. Consequently she (who is a very heavy cat), came onto the bed, purred very loudly in my ear for half an hour before going to sleep on my feet.

The weather promises a good weekend but it is still very grey outside. We need it to dry up so that we can mow the lawn, strim, and all those other nice jobs that need a dry day.

Happy Friday everyone.

Three drowned rats

St Christophe
Yesterday's weather: Read on...

I said something was bound to happen yesterday. The sand, gravel and paving was delivered just after lunch by Zinadine Zidane. Well, he looked very much like ZiZi so we didn't upset him since we didn't want to be head butted.

ZiZi was a master with the crane and managed to get everything off his lorry safely without bringing down the phone line which is not best placed. We planned to work off the large pizzas I had made for lunch and set to filling the chalet base. Jon and our friend took it in turns to shovel and wheel barrow loads across the garden and I was tasked with raking it all into place.

At that point the heavens decided to open wide and pour gallons of water over us. It didn't stop until after dark so we worked for three hours in the rain. It may sound odd to say that all three of us really enjoyed ourselves and had a great sense of satisfaction when it was done. I have been feeling very sorry for our guest that he has had awful weather and we haven't been taking him out and about to see the area, but he claims he has been happy as we have fed him well (apparently) and he has finished the book he brought with him.

Still no news about the missing floor though. I'll have to chase it up again all day today. And it's raining again.

Storm

St Julien
Yesterday's weather: 35 degrees mid afternoon. Sunny and lovely

We had an amazing thunderstorm in the middle of the night. It was right overhead. Normally we would leave the windows open and enjoy the spectacle but last night we got up and shut them, it was just too close and noisy. Then it was too hot in the bedroom, so you just can't win.

An electrical storm then upsets all the electrics in the house. The power tripped out for a while which means that the satellite dishes both need resetting, clocks and timers need checking, and the internet router which also runs our phone system needed rebooting, so it's lucky that we don't have to rush off to work first thing this morning, isn't it? If we had had to get up for work then the alarm clock wouldn't have gone off anyway so we'd be late.

It's so good not having these little worries any more.

Planning frustrations

Ste Elvire
Yesterday's weather: the same as Saturday. Lovely.

I'm at the kitchen table with floury hands this morning. We don't need to go out and the baker is closed anyway, so I'm making bread, and sausages for the freezer, and a nice pasta sauce, also for the freezer. A busy day ahead.

Jon is doing the preparation for painting the last few windows and the next job will be the foundations for the outdoor room. I've just heard back from my application to be exempt from getting a planning application that I haven't supplied enough plans. I have now to do another, three-dimensional plan of the area we want to put it on complete with all measurements. Pain in the backside! I've never drawn anything like that before, so it'll be a first. It certainly won't be totally accurate as we can't get to our boundaries to measure them exactly. Too many brambles and nettles in the way. In fact, the chalet that I submitted planning for isn't the one we have on order, although they are roughly the same size. Now I'll have to check that we have the measurements of the other one stored somewhere!

Jazz decided to take a night on the tiles last night but she hasn't been home yet today, and it's almost lunchtime. I'll have to take a walk and find her later on. The latest she's been home after a night out is 2pm, so I won't panic until then.

It's very hot again but more cloudy that the last few days. There's no rain forecast during the day so I'll have to get out with the watering can to try and keep my remaining plants alive. The unblighted tomatoes are cropping madly now and we are promised a good crop of green peppers - I'm keeping a close eye on slugs and crickets to make sure we don't lose anything else.