Aahh, winter in France

The photos from our week in the cottage in France on the last post showed our hill top all misty and grey, and the world around us gone, lost in the sea of clouds below us.

A couple of days later though, it all changed quite dramatically. The dogs got me up quite early. It was still dark outside, but by the time I had almost woken up, gotten dressed and bundled myself up in winter gear, there was a hint of sunrise showing on the other side of the valley. And the sky was clear above us, hurrah, even though the valley below us was filled with a sea of clouds!


When we stepped out of the house and onto our little lane, I saw that the full moon was still high in the sky and incredibly bright

( not entirely sure how I ended up with a second moon, lol, but it appeals to my sci-fi loving mind )

It was incredibly peaceful and serene and quite magical walking down the lane in this half light, crisp morning. In the next photo, you can just about see our our cottage on the left hand side


Ahhh, the views at this time of the morning, you don't know whether to shout with joy or just admire it all in quiet reverie


It was the start of a beautiful day with bright blue skies, and glittering snow. The next pic is looking from our garden across the dip to one of our neighbours -


The valley below us was remarkably snow free and looked quite green -


This is the view on the other side of the hill


And this little strip of tarmac is the main road going past one end of our lane


We had quite a dramatic sunset that evening, not quite what you would expect, it wasn't all orange and red and purple, it was just black and white, quite strange really


Yep, thats the sun. I got really disorientated for a second when I saw this, I thought, hang on, whats the moon doing there?? Quite a weird moment. It was definitely the sun though, lol.

Next morning, same story, the dogs were raring to go just before sunrise. It was so worth getting up early, I tell ya, look what was happening across the dip, on the little hill next to us -



Was't long before we had beautiful blue skies again, I loved walking in the crisp snow -



Sigh, it was so beautiful, and what did I get today? Here in England? First rain, then sleet, then a few snowflakes, then sleet, then rain again...........

To finish off, just a silly little picture of the cottage roof, but I liked it, the slight, hazy covering of frost, a bit of snow and these rows of icicles -



See you tomorrow! xx

A White Week in France

It was glorious. I know we had snow at home here in England not so long ago, and that was lovely, too, but how long does it stay pristine in a town? It gets so depressingly yucky so very quickly. Where we live in France, frost, snow and ice stay looking gorgeous for so long, because apart from the occasional tractor going down our lane and a few animals leaving their tracks, the beautiful countryside stays untouched.

When we arrived, it was really frosty and misty. There wasn't much in the way of snow, but everything was covered in a thick layer of sparkly frost and looked so pretty, even in the thick mist -


After spending some time sniffing about and enjoying all the yummy country smells, the doggies made off down the lane to one of their favourite spots, a big tree under which they often find a lovely, deliciously flavourful muddy puddle


The puddle was of course frozen solid, but they went at it for a few minutes and managed to break off some big pieces. Boy, do they love their ice lollies! Hector especially goes absolutely nuts for chunks of ice, just look at that enormous piece he is chewing on -


Then it started snowing in earnest. We usually have such wonderful views all around us, being at the top of a hill, but when the weather closes in, the rest of the world just disappears -


DH and DS did take the doggies for a long walk despite the heavy snow, they looked such a sight when they got back! Thankfully, the fire was roaring, and everybody snuggled down for a cosy evening.

I tell ya, sometimes I wish I was a dog, what a life, eh, just look at this pics -

After spending ages frolicking about in the snow, investigating, running like crazy, playing.....

they just conk out on the settee. Aww, butter wouldn't melt in their mouths, my sweet little bookends -

They really do make me laugh sometimes. I was happily crocheting away sitting by the fireplace, and occasionally glancing over at the sleeping doggies. Usually they are curled up together just as in the above photo. Occasionally though they change position. One minute I was confronted with Poppy being a right old tart with her legs up in the air -

Next time I looked over, Hector was displaying his all to the world, lolol, I had to do a double take, huh, wasn't it Poppy a minute ago?

Mind you, they don't always want to be next to each other, sometimes one just has to be comfy on one's own -

in DH's favourite chair of course

But, if somebody dares to occupy the chair, they make do with snuggling with/on/under/around us -

Don't you sometimes wish you were your pet?

I'll leave you with one snowy picture taken a few days later, when the mist had cleared away and we had a gorgeous day with golden sunshine, blue sky and crackling snow


More in the next post. xx

It had to happen

We had been quite lucky until a few days ago. Most of the UK seemed to be buried under a blanket of snow, while here we only got a fine sprinkling every now and then. When we got the first "proper" snow here as well, it was so exciting, and we took full advantage of it ( see previous post! ). It might have taken 5 mins and some burnt rubber to get out of the parking spot, but we managed to get out and about. But yesterday, it finally happened - we got snowed in!!! There was absolutely no way we could get the car out of the parking spot, let alone up the hill to get to the main road -

That meant we had a long walk ahead of us to get our granddaughter back to her mummy. And we loved it! We carefully trotted down the sloping path to the road -

It was exciting, slogging through the deep snow, feeling the snow flakes stinging our faces, and getting covered in the white stuff. You know, I have never seen so many happy smiley faces in town as we did yesterday. People were having FUN!

Whilst we were in town, we decided to make the most of it and visit a few estate agents to start the process of finding a flat for DS No.1. In the middle of a blizzard. Great, because we had every estate agent's undivided attention, lol. And crazy as we are, we even made an appointment to view a flat later in the afternoon. Which we did, again in a blizzard. And on foot. It was just such a very pleasant day, very little traffic, so many smiley people having fun in the snow, and then coming home to a lovely warm and cosy family. Bliss.

I spent a little time in the afternoon just admiring the lovely crisp white stuff in the front garden, the way it hugged the bushes, and all those glittering icicles hanging from the vine -

And the dogs? Well, we couldn't take them to the Firehills or the woods, but they had a grand time in the snow in the garden anyway -

No more snow today, and what there is seems to be disappearing now, I can hear steady drip drip drips outside and its getting very slushy. Ah well, lets see what tomorrow will bring.
xx

Frolicking in the snow

Our granddaughter Paige was spending the day with us today, so we decided to take her and the doggies to the Firehills for a bit of fun in the snow. I may have gotten a bit carried away with the photos, lolol, but they were having sooooo much fun, I just kept clicking away. And then of course I couldn't decide which ones to delete so I ended up with a biiiiiiiig bunch of them on here. Ooops. Perhaps if you flick through really quickly, then looking at them won't seem quite so daunting a task, lol. Or you can ignore them completely, of course ;-). But as the blog is a kind of record of our days for me, I want them all on here!


These French shopping bags ( 1 Euro ) are indestructible and work rather well on snow -
The dogs thought it was great fun knocking DS off the bag -

Poppy meeting a friend


The dogs went completely loopy in the snow, chasing each other -


This is Bowser, their bestest friend, whom we have known since he was a little pup many years ago and living next door to us -

Not sure whether Poppy is trying to rescue Paige or delighting in knocking her off the bag -

Hector flying over the snow -

Doggie convention -

Nick found what looked like half a huge plastic container, which was excellent for sliding down the hills -
Poppygirl -



My gorgeous handsome Hector -


DS pretending to be 10 again -

And this is DH pretending to be 10 again. He is rather good at that, and not just in the snow -

Anybody who doesn't know Ridgebacks would think they are having a seriously scary, vivious fight here........ nope, thats how they play, lol, they love their boxing games and chewing each others' faces off. Somehow they never hurt each other -


My gorgeous Poppy girl -


If you have made it this far down, you are a STAR!!!!

xxx