Walk in the Snow

Lovely walk this morning in the snow. I wish the snow would go but it sure is pretty and everywhere is so quiet.

Our new little house is nearly at the top of a hill out of a medieval village which used to be a port on the river with chateau overlooking. All extremely beautiful. Only cars with chains or snow tyres can get up past our house and it's not on the way to anywhere so very little traffic passes.

This morning we walked around the top of the hills surrounding the village with fantastic views over the valleys and into the village through one of the ancient gates. I love it in the winter. There are loads of summer houses that are all shut up and the only people about are local french or the odd all year rounder like us. We slithered our way through the silent village down to the bar at the bottom of the hill.

Couple of guys downing a quick apero before going home to lunch. Fancied a nibble of something on the tourist snack menu but impossible apparently in this weather. Chatted a bit to the bar woman who (when she discovered that we lived there) offered us a taste of something she was planning for her summer menu. Walnut gateau with white chocolate icing served with caramel sauce and (in the summer) with some nougat icecream. To be honest it was a bit dried up but we made all the appropriate noises and it certainly hit the spot after our walk and sustained us up the hill home again. We met an oil delivery man who was asking if the roads were clear to the next village along the river. We thought yes (we had seen a snow plough) and he went off but we met him a bit further on coming back. J'ai capitule. Lot of chat about how it was much clearer on the Lot and what were they playing at here.

Trudged our way onwards up the hill and home to soup. Makes sitting doing nothing for the rest of the afternoon seem like a reward for something.

I may be gone some time

I'm tired of cold now. We are stuck on the top of our hill. There hasn't been any more snow since the first fall of 4 inches but it has been below freezing since (and sometimes way below, -14C this morning). Him Outdoors went off to battle the elements yesterday afternoon. All equipped with shovel, rope, backpack, walking boots he disappeared down the hill in the car.

Phoned from the supermarket to say that all was well and he had got there safely. Phoned again from the car park at the bottom of the hill (base camp) to say that he had got there but no further.

Eventually appeared with backpack of groceries. Yay.

Orange

We have had some dealings with Orange whilst moving from one house to the other and every single thing we have been told as fact is rubbish.

If you use a 3G cle (dongle) attached to your orange.fr computer in the UK it will incur no extra charges. (It incurs vast roaming charges.)

If you wish to cancel your telephone/internet on your old line write to an address in Lille. (You need to write one letter to an address in Lille to cancel your internet and a separate letter to the address on your bill to cancel your telephone line. It was only Elder Son ringing the old number and getting my answer machine message that alerted us to the fact that they haven't cancelled it.)

You cannot cancel your new account for 12 months. (Yes you can, if you are moving to a place that Orange doesn't cover.)

Oh and if you do send a letter, make sure it is recorded delivery or they won't acknowledge that it exists.

Snow

Yesterday we woke to snow and by the end of the morning we had about 4 inches. This morning it is lovely bright sunshine on sparkly white snow. Absolutely beautiful but very very cold.

Dear little house is all electric. (Well it shouldn't be, there is an open fire but you have to leave a window/door open to provide enough draught to get the smoke to go up the chimney which kind of defeats the object of the exercise.) Oh and the cooker is bottled gas.

In the last house Him Outdoors could have walked to the nearest shop to get emergency supplies, so the difference in our situation here hadn't really occurred to me. It's 7km to the nearest shop. Looking at the stores we have available for what looks like a week of snow is interesting to say the least.

Years ago we went on a sailing holiday for a week. We had spent a couple of weeks visiting friends and touring around before we got there so I decided to spend the money to get a box of supplies delivered to the boat for the week. On our arrival, there were two cardboard boxes on the table with all we would need. My first reaction was relief that this had worked and just ticking a box on a booking form had resulted in all this carefully chosen food.

BUT there was no indication at all of what someone had planned to do with all this food. No idea of the meals that this was supposed to make. By the end of the week the meals were getting more and more interesting!

Learning a new house

All the little things that become automatic very quickly

where the light switch is in the bedroom
which way to put the showerhead so you don't flood the bathroom
to turn the tap off firmly because it drips
which windows the cat can get out of/in to (vet said that the cat should stay in for 4 days. He escaped the first night and has continued as usual!)

and all the repositioning of things in the kitchen so that they are at hand

like being on holiday

Is it really only the 21st?

If I believed in star signs then this must be a year for change not just the year of the dragon. Although how all the different star signs involved could foretell the same thing is beyond me.

We have left the house in the photo and set up home in our sweet little rented place which has all gone pretty much as planned. There is sooooooooooooo much stuff, but we are in and I am writing this because I am tired of sorting boxes in the new place.

In between the last blog and now, we spent ten days in England (drove 2,500 miles) and have decided that we need to be there for the foreseeable future. After endless, endless discussions about whether to rent or buy in which place, to keep french residency or not, to move our euros or not, we have (for the moment anyway, reached some sort of decisions).

We will keep this rented place for the time being - can't face a total remove and we have to give 3 months notice anyway. In England, we hope to move into a little house owned by a very kind friend who will let us have it very reasonably in exchange for work from Him Outdoors. Yay, keeping him busy and less money, perfect. This will provide a bolthole for Dear Daughter and make us nearer most of the family (sorry Michael but at least we are in the same country). We just have to get rid of the nasty tenants who are in it at the moment who promised to be out by Christmas and now promise 5th Feb.

So nothing much happening then...............................

New note book

I have been given a beautiful new notebook for Christmas. Moleskin with elastic to keep it closed and bookmark. Beautifully decorated with special chosen pictures stuck on the front.

But starting it is really hard. What can I possibly write that is worthy of such a lovely thing. All that crisp new paper just waiting for profound words. Do I have a pen special enough?

Writing this down makes me realise how absolutely ridiculous this is.

Doesn't help though. I can't bear to spoil it's newness. What if I start a subject and then change my mind............

Oh for heavens sake.