We woke this morning to a surprise…snow!! Yes believe it or not it does occasionally happen!! The pool is also frozen. The snow doesn’t usually stay very long usually after lunchtime it is almost all gone.
The children wanted to make a snowman I dont actually think there would be enough it would at least be a mini snowman!! Anyway school took preference and off they went much to their disgust!!
My office companion (a.k.a .Percy) loves to sit and watch me tapping away on my laptop sometimes putting his paws on the keyboard and adding extra content!!
The main reason for him sitting to the left of my laptop is that the heat is vented out that side on cold days he is quite happy to cuddle up to my laptop!! However I am less happy and have to constantly move him away a little much to his annoyance.
Percy is now 10 months old and the sandy colour on his chest and stomach now more visible when it first started to appear I thought he had lay in something so he was given a bath only to find it didn’t come off oops!! Poor Percy!!
He is still very playful I often find my fruit and vegetables all over the place his particular favourite things to “pinch” are keys and mobile phones!! I now have to hide them!!
In all of the time that I have been in France (since 1992) I have never actually seen a living wild boar (sanglier) in the flesh! I have only seen the damage to our “lawn”. You can imagine my surprise on Christmas Day evening when it was just getting dark I closed Luc & Sebastien’s bedroom curtains as I did so I could see something moving down on the riverbank! Not just one but lots!! i.e 8-10… those are definitely not rabbits I thought!! As I closed the curtains further they became clearer …definitely a family of sangliers led by Mum and Dad and their youngsters. A definite Christmas day surprise
We had a flying trip to Holland to go and see Oliver and Valerie before the winter months set in.
This is a picture of the bridge across our normally babbling brook taken after yesterday’s storm. At its height it was just above the hand rail!! The last time we had seen this was in September 2003 (just after we moved in here)
The river rises (and falls) amazingly quickly and just takes everything with it as you see I have a bit of clearing up to do !!! After the waters had subsided I took a look down by the river where are garden pump usually is, thankfully I removed this the day before as we had heard the storm warnings from TV and friends. On wandering a little further I found a stone musket ball this is the second that I have found so far this one being a little larger ( 4cm) than the first I presume it would have been a missed shot at a sanglier (wild boar) Of which we get around here sometimes ,like a few weeks ago …. although I have never actually seen one I have seen the damage they have done to our lawn it is like a tractor has ploughed across it!! Three times they have done this! We have given up trying to flatten it .We did think of a fence but we were told this would be a complete waste of time and that the only solution would be a shotgun ( to date we have had no further attacks on our lawn!!). Our little vegetable plot down by the river has just about survived and the connecting pipes for the pump are still there ( I wired them together just in case!) Although during the storm we lost power a few times there was no Thunder and lightning just stair rods!! At least the water table will be replenished …it really needed it after our long hot summer. www.villeneuvette.com
On the 8th June as promised to Luc and Sebastien (after one of our two cats died last year) We now have Percy Percy (name from Blackadder). He was just two months old and tiny compared to big fat Foxy who still wont come near him and has taken to staying upstairs.
Only coming down if absolutely necessary!! When if they do meet she growls and hisses (bad Foxy!!) Hopefully she will get over it soon!! Anyway Percy loves to play,cuddle and is completely mad!! He literally wears himself out the finds a nice lap to sit on and sleeps. We have to shut him in his room at night so he cant chew cables….
Sebastien now having changed to a “big bike “enjoys a cycle ride around Lac Salagou with Luc. Much to their delight there are two streams which run across the road which get cycled through a lot!!!
It has now become their number one thing to do at the weekend. Although the weather has now started to get much warmer now (33C yesterday …quite cool compared to Bahrain!!)
Just a couple of weeks ago I noticed a damp patch on our driveway near the house. At first I thought it maybe just from recent rain we had.
So then off to the water meters to check, making sure there was no water being used in the house first. Sure enough the meter was still turning!! Armed with pick axe I first uncovered some badly damaged pipe from which I could see the water flowing down.(due to it being placed far too near to the surface ( not by us I might add!!) After a few more holes, cutting into pipe that housed the water pipes and pictures sent to Mark in Scotland by skype. (The wonders of technology!!)
I finally found the leak ..it was a tiny tiny split in the pipe. The cause unknown but certainly not from exterior. Anyway the leak is all now repaired. And my shoulders recovered from the digging!!
The pool cleaning commenced during the school holidays as the weather was very sunny and warm. Luc and Sebastien helped too. It took about two days to empty the pool. Eventually after getting up all the dead leaves and dirt. It was also karchered to get really clean then the pool could be filled again..a slow process. We finally got the pool full after a few days. Anyway the chemicals are now all added and the pump turning. All we need now is the sun to warm the water then we shall have one cool pool!