Tag Archives: Winter

Taking every day

09 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by in Change is a coming, Goodbyes, Learning and Evolving, My family and other furry creatures, My home, Simple things, The continuing adventure

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We are going to move, our mind has been made up. But more of that in a other post. Because of that we are savouring our moments in our house.

Today France has been lashed by storm Ciara, and the winds are getting stronger, with the rain sleeting down. We have embraced the French culture of doing nothing on a Sunday. Last week we sat in our wingback chairs in our picture window reading blogs and Mark Nepo, so RD, after a week of hard work, asked could we do the same.

So here we are with the cats (this one is Diddies) watching the storm go by, and cherishing our time here.

Taking each and every day.

Rosie

Winter days: Sunshine, Wind and Bright Blue skies

28 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by in For the live of dogs, My family and other furry creatures, My home, Reflections, Simple things, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The good life, The seasons

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I am currently sitting in my spot that, it appears, so many people covet: my blue chair in the picture window of my house. I am driving Daisy the cat nuts because she chases light, and, with the brilliant winter sunshine reflecting off my iPad all around the room Daisy cannot resist the the urge to chase it; which then makes the Welshies chase her and chaos ensues. (They know their place with her though she’s also known as Daisy Pussy Upsy because she looks like a Bond Villain at times!)

Today is an incredibly windy day, with gusts of up to sixty kilometres and hour forecast. But where there is bad there is good and there is brilliant sunshine and phenomenally blue skies, one of those days that just blow the cobwebs in the mind away.

I have made the effort this winter to get out into our garden whenever possible, if only for fifteen minutes.

Since Molly died and we have started to consider moving on to pastures new, it has inspired me to treasure what I have in the here and now, with the countryside around me, and the two teddies that I am blessed to have running around my garden.

So today,after bringing in the wood I walked over to the field behind our barn on the other side of our chemin (lane in French), with two excited Welshies and Daisy the cat (she is also known as cat/dog) running around me.

I found myself just standing there looking across the garden, with the dogs snuffling, and Daisy, precariously balanced on a tree, and smiling.

There is nothing like hearing the wind rushing through the trees in bright winter sunshine, and I stood and I looked out and I took it all in.

Then I came back into the warm and shared it with you.

Let’s treasure the here and now.

Rosie

You can read our other other story about the things we went through that got us to today on my other blog.

Winter sunshine

29 Sunday Dec 2019

Posted by in For the live of dogs, mental health, My family and other furry creatures, Simple things, sunrises and sunsets, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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I get to a point around this time if year, it’s like ‘no-mans land’, a ‘waiting time’, for this year to end and the new one to start. I start to feel lethargic because my sleep patterns have been disrupted, and more often than not it takes a while for them to settle back down. Well not this year, from tomorrow we are setting our alarm and slowly it will get earlier and earlier. For some reason I feel an urge to do things, I just don’t know what they will be yet.

So I am writing this in the garden, on a crisp, sunny December afternoon. The birds are chattering, the puppies are running around, and RD and I are enjoying an early glass of red wine.

I persuaded RD out here, I feel acutely aware of how it us so easy to just hibernate indoors at this time of year, when every season has something to offer, and we should always embrace it.

I also realised how much I like solitude now, just surrounded by nature.

Rosie

Two Christmas’s

25 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by in Friends, Galavanting, laughter & giggles, My family and other furry creatures, People, Simple things, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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It’s been a whirlwind few days after our son Tom surprised us on Saturday. We have tried to cram so much into three days, because he had already committed to going to my sisters house for Christmas day, and it was only right that he fulfilled that commitment.

We decided to have two Christmas’s one with them and one on the day.

On the Saturday we went out to visit someone who has been nothing but kind to us. She is alone and for me Christmas is about understanding and giving something other than gifts: time. We had already arranged to visit her, and Tom and Chris (the boys) volunteered to come with us. Trundling into the back of RD’s van (totally illegal!) and moaning about their arses hurting them.

When we arrived these two young men were so polite and kind, even sorting out some technical stuff for her on her computer. I was so proud of them both: another gift.

We then took a detour to the medieval city of Domfront, with its beautiful lights, and had a few drinks in a quintessential French tabac. The weather was awful, but it couldn’t damp our spirits.

It’s strange how we can all revert back to being ‘mum and dad’ with our kids. Tom has a good job, lives in Newcastle, contacts me when he wants and needs to, and I pretty much leave him to his own devices. He is an adult I am not an ‘over motherer’. I had him to live his life. But on Saturday they went out late and drove to a town near us to see if any bars were open. We didn’t go, we would have ‘cramped their style’, and also we were knackered! But they said they were coming back for chicken burgers and we waited up for them, knowing the bars in France do not stay open late. But when they hadn’t come back by 1am we started to worry, wtf! I looked at RD and we both started to laugh, because he felt the same. Our son looks after himself in Newcastle all the time, and we never worry, yet as soon as he comes over to us we become worried parents. I gave in and rang him. A very pissed Tom rang me back from a house in Lassay, they had been invited by some French girls they had met in a bar (nothing changes!) Tom thought it was hilarious that his mum was ringing him. I cooked the chicken burgers and left them out for them. When we got up the next morning they had obviously cooked chips, because they were everywhere. Nothing changes!

We visited Mayenne on the Sunday, where Christmas activities were taking place, and had mulled wine and hot chocolate.

When we got home we had an alternative Christmas dinner, of roast lamb and all the trimmings.

Followed by an evening in front of the fire and TV. Bless Chris he had driven for over ten hours to get Tom to us, so that was him!

On Monday we went shopping, I cannot begin to tell you the amount of wine and cheese they bought! We played Monopoly, and ate spaghetti Bolognaise very very late.

It was a joy to see RD with them. I realised just how much he misses the banter of being around men. They always used to love tormenting RD, but they never won, he always got them in the end, and nothing changes. I love this video, it sums these few days up.

https://www.facebook.com/moira.swindell/videos/2869801423030602/

It was all going too fast, and Tuesday came too quickly. Very early in the morning, in the dark before dawn, we hugged them goodbye. Am I crying now? Of course I am.

So it’s Christmas day, and we are still in bed, even the Welshies are worn out from the whirlwind of fun.

We will have our traditional turkey dinner, and have a very quiet day. But we will have the greatest gift of all: memories.

Have a mellow Christmas folks.

Rosie

French Winter Gardens and Welshies

04 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by in For the live of dogs, mental health, My home, Reflections, Simple things, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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Winter arrived quickly, and for the past few mornings we have woken to frosts and temperatures below freezing, which means we are lucky enough to watch the amazing sunrises every morning.

We are up early for work, RD goes off and my day is full of the chores you have when living in an old stone house, in the middle of rural France, on a limited budget: the good old log splitting, hoovering, mopping, cleaning the kitchen, and today removing the mould that I occasionally grows on our old stone walls (I side). It’s just part of this life we chose, I don’t stress over it any more.

I have often said how winters can be long, and that we should all try and embrace this season. Today I took my advice. It is a cold, crisp, sunny winters day, and I am currently sitting in the garden on one of our garden chairs drinking tea; spending time with nature and my dogs.

I was pushing the wheelbarrow of logs across the garden, with the habit I fight every day taking pride of place: planning what I should do next, when I looked around and thought ‘what am I doing?’ I realised I should seize the moment on this glorious winters day, and take time to sit in the garden with my tea and spend time with my puppies, they remind me very day to cherish each moment.

Even Daisy the cat is giving me stinkeye because she wanted to come out and join us!

She looks like a Bond villain!

I don’t know how long I will live in this beautiful place, so I need to embrace it whilst I can, in every season.

As is my want, being brought up by people who worked hard to fill every day with work, to always keep going. As my counsellor said: I am a ‘doer’ I just will work and set myself what are often un-achievable targets, I don’t feel I have achieved if I don’t and often I don’t feel I have because the targets are un-achievable. Those ingrained habits are hard to break! Despite knowing that we should all take time; despite writing in my diary at the beginning of the year a quote from Deepak Chopra:

‘ set aside a little time every once in a while to experience silence…’

I still have to pull myself up short to do it. I probably achieve it once a month!

But today I have taken the time but sadly my teas is now finished, and the sun is now hazy, my fingers are cold and it is time to get on. Now where are my rubber gloves?

Rosie

Winter is on it’s way…

21 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by in Simple things, sunrises and sunsets, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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Depending on the seasons the sunrises and sunsets change here so much.

When winter takes hold and we have cold mornings the colours are vibrant and intense.

Since my Autumn sunrise post earlier this week winter has started to creep in and we have had frosty mornings.

So now the sunrises are changing, we were up early this morning…..

Rosie

Spring’s being blown in on a Hooley…

10 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by in Change is a coming, My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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As I sit here on a Sunday afternoon there are 80km an hour winds blowing around our house. They blew in on Friday and then subsided only to come back with a vengeance last night. I took this picture of our two chairs on Friday evening and now one is on it’s back!

The reason I took the picture was because the chairs had been positioned there last Sunday, for us to enjoy the warm sunshine after an afternoon of working in the garden. (We’re winning the battle with the tree trunks and gradually clearing the brambles)

It really was such a beautiful day, and as we sat there with a panache (shandy, a drink of lemonade,beer and a dash of lime) in the warmth it reminded me again of how all things change, and things go from bad to good and back again. As Rich said ‘there is nothing like warm sunshine to make you feel that all is right with the world again.’

I wrote only recently of how I thought that spring was going to come early (Spring and winter) and I was right. Although The Hooley is blowing it is not cold, in fact we’re into double figures and the forecast is we will hit fourteen degrees by Saturday, with sun and clouds all week. That is warm for February over here, and it is good to not have to light the fire really early every day, and to be able to leave the expensive electric heaters off. (They tax you on your use here and then tax you on the tax!)

So, after the lovely warm Sunday, winter tried to take a hold again; and all week we have had rain, mizzle (a Cornish word meaning a mixture of rain and drizzle, which is like a mist that makes you really wet!) Despite it all we have persevered with the garden because we have plans for the summer (more of that to come later: I told you I’m back!) I’m back! But some of the days it was just too wet, so I have been busy setting up a website, and finally took hold of all of our paperwork, four years worth!! All is filed away in relevant folders, every plastic docket is labelled, and every folder has an index.

I have also driven Rich (it easy to lose your motivation when you are down): So he has set me up a temporary light for my other light in my kitchen (been without it 2 years, so I keep forgetting to put it on now!) started to sort out our large wooden barn structure so that it is more efficient for storage and to work in;

And also started to strip the lining paper off our stairwell (a pig of a job) and has painted our fireplace; turning ugly to beautiful:

I think I told you, I’m back!

Where the weather is concerned Spring is winning this battle, and she is coming early: the crocus are now abundant in our garden, the narcissi and daffodils have buds and even in this hooley the rain is lashing on the windows one minute and the sun is shining the next. Persephone is coming back early this year.

I did say to Rich that we should go for a walk, but he has just brought me a cup of tea and said ‘enjoy your walk and when you get back I ‘ll have a nice cup of tea waiting for you!’ Bastard!

So just like nature I have realised that you have to use all that you have to survive in life, and that my lesson was to understand that one of my greatest gifts is my strength and fortitude. I needed to get back the old Moisy, that did what she had to do, and sometimes fucked people off! I understand now, let’s see what this year brings.

I am off for a walk in my garden now, and will be settling down for a film and roast chicken dinner I think.

Have a good day.

Moisy

Spring and winter

01 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by in Change is a coming, My home, Simple things, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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I have said for a few weeks that I thought we were going to have an early spring. Despite it being only January my clematis have buds on them (they are being cut back tomorrow) and the narcissi and daffodils were standing tall. In fact the winter had not really been that harsh so the crocus were few and far between but that may change now!

We have been working in the garden, clearing the logs from the trees that were cut down last year; cutting back the brambles,and generally making some final headway for our plans for the future in our garden.

At times the sun has been really warm, and I said to Rich that I thought we were going to get an early spring, and I still do, despite this happening this week..

There is nothing like a Welshie in the snow to make you smile..

Harley, ever the poser. Wiglet, ever the Wiglet!

But there is still a battle going on, today the temperature had risen from -2 to 8 degrees; the snow has melted here but not in other areas, but tonight we are due to go back to -2.

I don’t care what they are, as I sit in our new seating area, with a Welshie asleep beside me, and the fire burning I am counting my blessings: not least the amazing supportive friends and family I have, including the cyber community that I interact with.

So tomorrow we are back in the garden, it’s all part of the big plan now, we’re not going anywhere. As a dear reader said to me people would give their eye teeth to live where we do, problems an all. She was right, and I am thankful.

So, enjoy our winter garden, and the beautiful sunrise I caught this week; and look forward to seeing the spring photos soon.

Have a good weekend folks.

Moisy

Winter….. Cold cold winds and a smattering of snow

07 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by in My home, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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So the cold has us in its grip, my feet are like ice and I cannot warm them up, and I am currently sitting here writing this post with my feet on a hot water bottle. The room is warm but chilly old me, once my extremities get cold then they stay cold!!

The snow did come in a smattering and we have been wondering whether the pipe that is currently carrying water to our house, and above ground is going to freeze; but if we don’t keep thinking about it then we don’t give it credence and there bye  it won’t.

The chickens are loving the sunshine that has arrived with the cold, but not so much the fact that their water had over an inch of ice on it and Rich had to break it up and give them some drinking water in their Chicken Hilton Hotel. (Where there is good there is bad, and where there is bad there is good.)

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I have got loads of washing almost dry (although a tad frozen when I have brought it in) and we have embraced the cold and started to work on the garden; whilst wearing two fleeces and a woolly hat (I look so attractive sometimes, but then I look at Rich and so does he!!! Good jobs we loves each other!)

I have cut back my clematis that were starting to grow and were in a bad need of a hard cut; I also fed the hydrangeas that I bought last year, and went about the garden picking up the many many huge branches that have been blown out of our trees this winter during the wet and windy hooleys.

Add to that the precarious ones that were still blowing (unattached) in the wind…

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It made me realise just how much you are provided for if you just decide to get off your arse and get it!! As many philosophies say, if you just let go and stop looking what you need will be provided for you.

So Rich and I are now ahead of the game where wood is concerned, and will actually have a stock of wood for the next winter, and some still to be seasoned for the winter after. We have a ton of pine that needs cutting and we can intersperse that with other wood and use it safely if we do so.

I never thought I would be walking around my big garden picking up twigs to use to light my fire- but one of the biggest lessons I have learnt out here is waste not, want not; and now we have more wood to add to our pile and  enough kindling for the rest of this season.

As I was doing this I was thinking to myself and wondering if I had more money, would I still do this, would I still not waste things anymore? The answer was I would still do this; in my old life I would come home to my centrally heated home, it had real fires and we used the logs that could be bought already seasoned! Our’s are seasoned, the ones we picked up we had seasoned and, no, they are not pretty but they are real!

So yes, no matter how much money I have in the future I will still break up what my garden provides for us to survive the winter; it sure beats working in an office; and I know that I would rather work for nature than for my last employer!

It is a good feeling to  be ahead of the game for once, and we do finally feel as if we are getting there.

When we eventually came in from the garden, hands and faces stinging, the house was warm and welcomed us. I believe it is warming up every year because it knows we love it, each other, and all our furries; along with the friends and family who have stuck with us and shown us so much support; it knows we love living here; and love all the lessons we have learnt

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And we do.

Moisy

 

 

 

 

This Winter; it is what it is…….

06 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by in Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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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..

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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