Springing into action
February 2007
Well this has been our third winter in France, but we do not really feel so far that we have had a winter compared to the two previous bitter cold years. The temperatures this year have been on average much higher, in fact some days when the sun has been shining it has felt like an early summer’s day. We have however experienced a much higher rainfall, accompanied by high winds.
The house has been much warmer to this year, possibly due to the restoration of the grenier and the extra insulation. As a consequence we have so far burnt half the amount of wood compared to last year.
The farmers have suddenly this week sprung into action so once again we have been surrounded by tractors busily ploughing in readiness for sowing. We are keeping our fingers crossed for fields of sunflowers rather than boring old maize!
The hunting season will soon come to an end, so walking the dogs at the weekend will become a less hazardous exercise. The hunters wear orange hats to avoid shooting one another, but after a two hour lunch with copious amounts of vin rouge anything that moves could become a target!!
We will soon be busy preparing the ground for this year’s vegetable crop. Last year’s crop on the whole was very good. We did have a few failures mainly due to some of them baking too much in the hot sun but we intend to plant them in semi shade this year. We hope to get as good a crop of fruit again this year, as last year was certainly a bumper year for raspberries, plums,Cherries and peaches.
In amongst all of the jobs on the house and in the garden there is the French language to be learned. So you see we do not sit around all day drinking wine. Don’t know how we had time to go to work!!