Bonne année!

Slightly delayed New Year goodwishes - but 'bienvenue à 2018'!

Over November and into December the weather changed quite dramatically. Towards the end of November it was dry, with Winter sunshine and some ground frosts:

And on our morning walks Oska, and his friend 'Plume', enjoyed the crispness and snap in the air: 

This sort of weather throws the trees and field-lines into sharp relief - you may recall that in a previous Post I mentioned that the farmers here were doing some significant clearing work, removing trees and scrub in between small fields and so creating larger areas for crops. Now the unobstructed views that Winter provides showed how this has opened up the land:

For some time we have meant to take some photographs of our neighbours' beautiful Aubrac cows. I wanted to take some quite 'high resolution' shots, so they could be blown up to poster size. This November weather provided ideal light and I asked Marie-Claude if she minded my taking some photos - she was a bit surprised but was also pleased (they are very much her pride and joy) and she said to do so within a few days 'before the snow' arrived and the cows were moved inside the large barns. Over a couple of mornings, with some beautiful light, the cows proved very co-operative:

- although they did make it clear when they had had enough!:

When Marie-Claude said about 'before the snow arrived' I had thought it was more a 'figure of speech' than a weather forecast. Mistake! A few days l;ater, just as we were about to drive to the UK to meet our new Grand-Daughter, Sophia Luna, the snow arrived and our drive up through the high Cantal region proved an interesting experience:

- and we were even more surprised by the snowy weather conditions in England! But the prize at the end of the drive was worth many snowdrifts!:

We returned back home in more snow; and over Christmas and since, there has been plenty of rain - enough to completely refill the depleted ponds and lakes and although not very 'Christmassy' it is a very welcome development, as a third Winter without significant rain would not be a good thing at all. One outcome, related or not to the heavy rain on very dry ground, has been the 'return of the moles' - our neighbour Daniel, something of a 'taupe guru' has referred darkly to a great plague of moles and, it's true, many molehills have suddenly appeared in our garden and the local fields are increasingly thickly dotted with molehills. Hmm, time to start making polite notices to request them to go elsewhere I think.
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas we held our 'WinterFest', inviting the commune to the 'Treize Desserts' and 'Vin Doux' afternoon. This year our pronunciation has improved, so at least our neighbours and friends don't think they're coming for a plate of sand along with silent wine drinking. Not quite so many people this year, about twenty-five, as it was the weekend before return to work and school and people were busy - but it was a jolly occasion, people brought cakes, fruit and chocolates and most made the effort to join in our 'wear a Christmas hat suitable for a snowman' competition. There was a good selection of 'desserts', including a Christmas Pudding which when we offered it a couple of years ago the response was as if we had placed the progeny of Beelzebub on a plate - but now people munched it very happily, encouraged perhaps by witnessing us setting fire to it with a good dollop of cognac. Here's a 'photo melange':   

Now that Christmas and the New Year celebrations are over we're turning attention to the final stage of our development project - renovating the last part of the lower barn, to create a gite suitable for people with disabilities. The overall space is approximately 70 square metres and we aim to create a single 'studio space', with large sitting room, bedroom and wet-room, and a small kitchen. Work started last Autumn, with flooring and insulating the upper barn area that is above the new 'studio space'; and our French carpenter neighbour, Laurence, who had done the lovely work on the large French door in the sitting room (see Post November 2015), made and installed French doors and a window, working as before using chestnut wood and with the French door, using the old door to make shutters:

The two very small slit windows have been expanded and new double-glazed frames fitted. The room has now been clad and insulated, leaving just some areas of stone and the two huge main beams - so the space is now draught-free:

The interior door of the space leads into the existing Chambres Guest Dining/Sitting room, so guests staying in the Studio Gite will be able to have supper/dinner there quite easily:

So, our 'post-Christmas work is to concrete the whole floor, making it even and providing a gentle ramp up to the bedroom and wet-room side. All the measuring has been done and the shuttering (we will do the work in three parts) and the expansion joints are in place .... the cement and ballast await: we just need the weather to calm down a little bit (wet, with high winds at the moment) and we'll make our move!: 

We aim to finish the building work by the end of March and then spend a couple of months doing the interior finishing to have the Studio Gite ready for use from June. We'll do a Post on what we hope to do in terms of its use in a few months time - we would like to take forward some enterprising ideas: please watch this space.

À bientôt .....