We have never seen the lake as low as this at this time of year…..we hope it is because they have been working on the dam, and not just lack of rain……..
for those who have swum and paddled here…..we hope it gets better !
Fire ! Fire ! Oh no its not Frederic this time !! ……….This time it was Karl !! coucou ma puce !
Lilu’s Birthday 11 today ! ( Marie Odile is singing Happy Birthday )
Dont look at the next picture if you dont like SNAKES !!
This is a half meter long snake Dave found in our Grange (Barn) it is dead, although we were not quite sure at first (!) We think a cat or something had dragged it out from its hibernation, it is what is called a Couleuvre here, which is a grass snake.
Although I suspect this is not a grass snake, but a Montpellier snake, but Couleuvre seems to do for most non venomous snakes……….
Balcony at our studio.
At last we got around to tiling the balcony at the studio……for those who have seen the studio, you will appreciate the improvement.
As it is approaching the Chinese New Year……I thought we should have something very…… Japanese !! Having been introduced to vegetarian sushi by my son Tom, I was interested to try it myself.
I started with the dessert, and an experiment with sweets (bon bon’s) these TOTALLY not for Diabetics are almond paste, surrounded by ‘lace’ sweets which i washed the sugar from, and wrapped around the lump of almond paste, they stick well, the green bits are more lace sweets cut diagonally …and then bits of dry apricot to represent fish !! (it does get better……hopefully)
These are the proper ones stuffed with raw veg and some for the boys with smoked salmon….served with soy sauce and wasabi paste……..tres bon!!
Now for the guinea pigs………………
A Happy Eater ? Well Karl liked it !!
Some people who live up in the forest have this horse, he seems to prefer our grass and on several occasions has broken loose and made his way down to the nice grass opposite us………we phone and say, he’s here again, later they arrive by quad, and the girl rides him back up the mountain….about 5km !
Here he is on zoom !
And sometimes he likes a little nap !
New Years day, No snow, not too cold ……Blue tit feeding on new hanging bird feeder…
Some of the ‘wild’ flowers that i bought in a packet and sprinkled down the side of the road between Annick and us…….they seem to all be doing better during the winter, than they did during the summer, this is a small pot marigold.
Every year we go to play ‘lotto’ in the village hall on 24th…..we go with Frederic and Almuth…..we play with cards from the 50’s and the corn (used as counters) is probably older !!
We also have a meal together the same night, at ours as its en-route , this year we did roast beef, a change for a veggie, and a chance to practice the yorkshires from the Nigella Lawson book……..eat your heart out Delia !!
My two beautiful grandchildren……..
Good job the men were there to build the scooter…..
How very elegant !
New bag, scarf and scooter.
A bit big for that now !
The children's school play this year was A CIRCUS ! they had all been having lessons since October, and the whole school was involved, so several hours of circus acts followed, several of which I do not have photos of………but here is a taster.
Getting her hair done !! (by Granny, who has never done girls hair before!!)
One of the Clowns !
some of the equipment that the children used…….
These children are using Diablo's and they were very good !!
This one was the balancing, guess who’s good at that ??
Here he is again, in the chorus at the end…..
Later at the bingo, with Nuttella on crepes uuuuuummmmmmmmmmm
Nearly time for bed….
After we got home to Cailho, and before another round of lotto/bingo on the 24th, I did a full roast beef dinner, not bad on the Yorkshire pud’s hey ? Respond and i’ll tell you the secret !!!!
Our lotto/bingo, note the use of ancient bingo cards and maize as markers (which was probably used during the war, oh no i mentioned the war !!!)
Thanks Tom & Karine for our Christmas present, the birds are equally as pleased, they have been forming a queue, like at Heathrow airport !!!
Blue tits, Great tits and we think Marsh tits so far……
First flower of 2012………..in memory of Arthur ………….RIP 2/1/2012 .
Shame this does not capture the really intense colours of this double rainbow (Arch en Ciel)
Spindle trees (we have them EVERYWHERE)
In the mornings this is the scene from the terrace……..later as the clouds rise, they disappear (usually !!)
It’s like someone has poured dry ice down the valley…..cue for a song ?
The day before my birthday Dave and decided to go to Beziers to see the Christmas Market and the flower market, and have lunch in the new Polygone centre…………….we don’t know what has happened to the Christmas Market, it just wasn’t there, so we shopped for flowers and had a great time in the Polygone….here I am on my wheels !!
There is a glass partition behind me, and they tell me its very strong ! The Christmas decorations were fantastic, including this very large tree.
This is usually a water feature, now its an ice feature…..yes that is a C&A sign on the next floor !!
We have had a bread maker for 8 years and after we moved to France 6 years ago it has been in use 3-4 times every week…..it was getting difficult to remove the bread from the pan as it was scratched a lot. Also we had heard that the new generation of bread makers allow for such things as altering humidity !!!
So we searched for a bread maker and decided on the morphy richards daily……we wanted one which was good for making dough (for pizza) as well. The first one I ordered from Amazon .fr it was dispatched from WALES and after a few days I began to look at the track your parcel….thingy. after 2 weeks I rang and asked and was told it had come to France but had been returned as ‘undeliverable’….maybe the label got washed off in the rain !
Undeterred I searched for one originating in France so as it didn’t have to cross the ‘Dover-Calais Triangle’ I found one which was refurbished but like new, so I bought it and a few days later it arrived…….all was good it was very simple to use and did make dough as well…….only thing was I forgot to check to PAN size……it was a titchy 0.4kg compared to our old 0.75kg so unless we wanted to bake EVERY day then we had to sell it….fortunately a friend of a friend wanted one just like that……..here is the loaf, good, but smaller than our butter dish!
Some of these we could ID others only vaguely……needless to say NONE of these were eaten !!!
We think these are Monks Hoods ?
We are 99% sure this is a Wood Blewit, but having read that some people can be allergic to them, we gave them a miss too !!
The Fly Agaric or Tu Mouche as it is called here.
And this is a Cep but as for which sort ?……..it stained a very dark blue when cut and the tubes were yellow before turning blue when cut, the underside of the tubes were a deep brick colour…..there are too many toxic ones that also look like this for us to be sure, but would love to know for future reference……..if anyone out there is willing to eat this one please let me know for next year !!
