Our place in France Chapter 84

A thoroughly dreadful week! This is far too early for deepest winter and yet here we are with daytime temperatures in the low single figure and night-times dropping down  to below freezing. If it is like this now, what will it be like in February, allegedly the coldest month! However, there is always a chance that we will get snow this year which could be fun for the young. I have to admit though that the supermarket seems to feel that Christmas is imminent and has erected a giant teddy bear in the foyer and an even larger Father Christmas in the parking area. There is no picture of the Father Christmas because I was just not prepared to stand in the rain to take one. I am pretty sure it will be there for a while and surely the sun will shine one day.

The chilly weather is not at all conducive to early rising and we have beaten all our previous records of staying in bed late. On Wednesday, we shamed ourselves into finally getting up just in time to shower and dress before lunch at one. Quite appalling behaviour! But why not? We both have good books to read, and under the blankets is cosy and comfortable, and all that finally gets us up is hunger and thirst. I recall a few years back that our friend in Peyrusse Vieille told us that she stayed in bed for three days because it was so cold, and she should be used to it. Not that that is any real justification; it just makes us feel better to know that we are not alone in our appalling behaviour.

Because of the bad weather, we kept putting off going shopping although we started running out of foodstuffs round about Tuesday. I am becoming a past master at concocting meals out of almost nothing. How lucky I am to have such a long-suffering husband. Of course once the weekend arrives and brings Courtney with it, I feel honour-bound to provide something more adequate, which is why we went shopping on Saturday morning in the pouring rain. Everyone was dashing into the store and the tiled floors were slippery with wet shoe prints but there was a sort of jolliness about it all, and no one (except perhaps ourselves) was complaining. As a bonus, we saw a deer standing in the road on the way home and Courtney tried to take a picture of it when it ran down into a field, but it was too far away and didn’t come out. What a shame! It is ages since we saw one anywhere close to the road.

I apologise for the lack of news this week but since we spent an awful lot of it in bed and only took the car out once…………. . You get my meaning!