Monday, January 18, 2010

A snow story

It's rare in Horsham to find snow lasting for more than a day or two, so virtually no-one, and certainly not me, clears the stuff from 'their' bit of pavement. Actually, I think it might be that slush is more slippery - or slippy, which I've heard a number of times. I had managed ok in the snow but come the slush, four times it took before I could get the car over the pavement on to the drive.

Next snow, I'll be shovelling.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Christmas in France

A Christmas micro-trip to our house near Fontenay le Comte, primary purpose to transport G to Nantes, to continue his tuition of college students.

It was a surprise to be able to cut the grass in January. Even more of a surprise when it started to snow later that afternoon!

We stayed near Sable sur Sarthe on the way back, a farm offering Chambre d'hotes. The farmer's wife said that she was very worried about a chicken, whether it was keeping warm enough. Quite touching really and I had thought the French would only worry if their Coq au vin was warm enough. Actually, a problem of my language and over 1000 day-old chicks had just been delivered and it was minus 7 degrees.

Such confusion reminds me of when an elderly french neighbour told me that five babies had died in the village during some harsh weather prior to our arrival. I found it difficult to find a suitable reply for such awful news. And difficult to understand. It was a relief to realise that she had actually been talking about brebis but still quite sad.