I have always had a saying in life, never knew where I got it from, and never really fully understood it until now, and that is “It is what it is, and it ain’t what it ain’t!!”

This winter has been the wettest winter in France for over one hundred years!!

Most of the rivers have burst their banks, including the tributary that runs along the bottom of our valley to the Varenne River in Ambrieres Les Vallees; where the weir is now a raging waterfall..

The volume of rainfall has not helped our moldy walls and, up until this week, the ground is literally sodden. It has only been since the weekend that our terrace has actually been dry for the first time in three months!!

But due to this the good thing is that it has not been freezing cold, and in fact has only gone below zero degrees about three times all winter.

Two weeks ago we went for a coffee in Mayenne and parked by the river where the benches that I sat on in the summer were in the river, and half of the car parking facilities had disappeared; and, guess what? It was raining!

We met a friend and walked the dogs into the town, had a coffee, walked back to the car and the topic of conversation was the rain and how both Rich and the friend wished it would just stop raining, how the rain was making them feel down, just grey and wet all the time. I didn’t join in the conversation, it was raining nothing I could do nothing about it, so no point in harboring on it.

As we were driving home Rich asked me “Doesn’t the rain get to you? Isn’t it getting on your nerves?” To which I replied “No, it is what it is and it ain’t what it ain’t.”

“How can it not get to you?” Rich asked, and my reply was because I cannot change it; what is the point in stressing about something that I have no control over? I cannot change the weather, I like the colour grey, the weather is not hurting me, it is just wet, and I knew that when the sun shone again (which it has but more of that in a moment) it would just make me appreciate it more. I apply this way of thinking more and more in my life, if I cannot change it (like the cesspit) then why sit and worry about it? It won’t change it but it will stop me having an open mind and letting other things, good things come my way, it will make me miserable.

So this week, for the first time in a long time the sun shone, and it has got really cold; and guess what? I really appreciated it!!! I appreciated the stinging that I felt in my hands and on my face when I came in from the cold. I appreciated being able to peg my washing out (a favourite thing of mine all my life, you cannot beat the smell of line dried washing) I appreciated the warmth of my home when I came in – because it is warmer and gets warmer every day, because we go with the flow and and take life as it comes.

Snow is now predicted this week, and extremely low temperatures.

It is what it is, it ain’t what it ain’t!!!

Moisy