A Goat and a Geyser

Hello All

I hope you are all OK, especially those of you reading this in the UK where I understand the weather is atrocious?

I hate to say it but after torrential rain here, a lot of which managed to get into the house, we had a couple of warm sunny days – almost spring-like! The rain then returned, but hopefully not for long so the wet floor gets a chance to dry out a bit.

Last week was a week of disruptions, nothing new there. In between work and helping our neighbour with trips to the vet as her cat was unwell, and collecting some friends who have returned from being away for the last few months, we did manage to get out on a very wet Wednesday. We went for a lovely walk around a lake we hadn’t visited before, but had seen on our return from Rodez the week before. The Lac de Fontbonne is about 30 minutes from us and not far from another stunning lake, Lac de la Roucarié. Both have dams and are part of the water supply in this area but also offer beautiful walks, with paths around the perimeter of the lakes. The entrance to Lac de Fontbonne boasts a fast flowing waterfall, a quite fantastic water spout, or geyser as we called it, and a roaming goat (who sadly evaded the camera but was great to watch)!

The weather may have been wet but the scenery and colours were still stunning, muted by the grey day, the moss and lichen shone in such vibrant varieties of shades of green. I even came across an extraordinary yellow fungus – so bright in colour and shaped like a rose. Quite amazing, probably not in the least bit safe, but a bit of sunshine on a subdued day. We had planned to picnic and prepared it all, but once we were back at the car took the decision to have a picnic supper at home, in the kitchen with the fire. We then played the board game Settlers of Catan with my son, a lovely evening, although I wasn’t really focussed so played very badly! (If you know the game I was nowhere near wood or brick so struggled to build anything – back to Bananagrams for me!)

I also managed to catch up with a friend for a walk around the afore-mentioned Lac de la Roucarié – a 7km circuit, again on a grey drizzly afternoon but great for the soul! We sat on the edge of the boot of the car afterwards for piping hot coffee and cantucci biscuits. It was so nice to have a natter, a good walk and an afternoon away!

House and garden-wise it has been so wet and dreary, plus I have had quite a bit of paid work to do, so as ever we are behind schedule. However items have been ordered for house and garden alike and now delivered or collected. We are now the proud owners of rechargeable extendable hedge-trimmers and branch loppers, as well as another heated towel rail, this time moveable and some extra radiators, having decided to relook at heating plans. We will get some experts in over the coming months to advise us on how best to heat the house, but potentially look at leaving the second floor off the system and using electric ceramic radiators there when we use the rooms. Maybe, just maybe, we will have just been through our last winter without heating. We’ll see!

I have produced yet more marmalade, blood orange and clementine this time, and made that old 1970s faithful, rock cakes – love them! We also found dark chocolate kit-kats in the supermarket this week – couldn’t resist!

On a cheery note, the garden is waking up now, spring flowers are in bud, our first primroses and primulas have joined the snowdrops to bring a little colour to the garden. I have finally bought a mimosa – they had them in the supermarket of all places and as I buy my lavender there every year, I am quite happy with their plants. I have always wanted a mimosa, although I am not sure where we will plant it. I just couldn’t resist it. It is even in flower so looks very pretty. They also had lavender plants so we got some of those too, to continue the lavender lined path down to the house. I took a little time out on Friday afternoon to list down all the garden jobs that need attending to soon. 4 pages later….!

Valentine’s Day was at the beginning of last week, and we had bought ourselves some lovely chocolates from a favourite shop in Albi, Jeff de Bruges – such a colourful selection of squares in the tasting box and a pretty box with heart shaped chocolates. I do love heart shaped things – this will make a great earring box, now the chocs are long gone.

We have been treated to numerous owls calling recently. I am not great at identifying which owl might be calling, but suffice to say we have at least 3 different types of owl around and seemingly in couples. It is amazing to listen to them at night, so close but rarely seen. Maybe they are back nesting in our pigeonnier, as was the case when we first moved here. I hope so although I daren’t take a peep just in case. Little Owl is also back – we spotted each other the other day. He or she was also calling and getting a reply – very exciting.