Autumn has arrived

The weekend was the time for recovery, and while we were relaxing in the farmlands of SW France, several cities in France were under seige. It began with a continuation of the peaceful protests by the highschool students, who were seeking better classrooms, more relief teachers and a better maintained educational environment. Unfortunately the 'yellow vests' and other protesters used this peaceful demonstration to create havoc on the streets. I'm sure you've all seen the news and it doesnt need a description, but for me, the storming of the City de Ville (Town hall) in Limoges was particularly sad, as we had visited there in Easter this year and it was a particularly grand Renaissance building over 140 years old that had survived two world wars. The images of it on fire were heartbreaking, but it appears the community have come out en force and the Marie has pledged to rebuild.

Our simple country lifestyle has been maintained and we've started walking around the fields again, mostly fallow, now that winter is approaching. We bumped into a hunter one afternoon, shot gun over his shoulder and a lovely weimaraner. I asked him what he was shooting and he said pheasant and perdrix. Well we knew what a pheasant was and I'd followed one along the road the previous day, but we needed to search for a perdrix. Turns out it was a partridge, and believe it or not, a couple of days later, I heard a strange bird call in the garden and there was a perdrix. We do have a pear tree and Christmas is not far away so perhaps he was looking for a 'nest' for the 'first day of Christmas '.

There's more activity in the air than on the roads as the tractors are all locked up for winter and the locals aren't out and about as much but I've witnessed a few spectacular flypasts on my walks. The pilatus jet planes fly so low and so fast that I've yet to photograph one but an old slower military plane flew past the other day and I was lucky, I heard it coming.

The weather has changed and on Tuesday we woke to 4 degrees. Crisp and clear. Today has been wet and grey all day and the fire's been alight since 10am. Our walk today was as far as the new woodshed to restock the wood supply inside. We've now moved into the main house, primarily to conserve energy as the depandance has a separate heating system and having both running when we essentially live in the main house seemed futile. The builders have been notable in their absence - we are not optimistic about getting much chance to enjoy the 'new' kitchen. Guess we'll just have to come back next year!Read more