Winter's here.

The year is drawing towards its close already. Just Christmas to fit in first, which we’re looking forward to as an opportunity to see more of our family and friends. Although we accept that we’re well into winter, the weather has been a little worse than usual, with some hard frosts, rain and gales. However, we’ve suffered no damage, touch wood, and have managed to progress a few jobs around the house. Rhys even got our ethernet network up and running. (Cat 6 / gigabit ethernet, for those that are interested!) Turned out to be simpler than expected in the end which is fortunate as our WiFi is not very good - it can't get through all the thick stone walls. However we've also had to commission some outside help for building works that are too big for us to DIY.  The harvest from our veggie garden is pretty much all gone with just fruit and vegetables still in the freezer or as conserves in jars, that we’re making the most of.

The new pool cover is earning its keep, keeping the water much cleaner than before and maintaining the temperature higher too – not that we’ll be using in in December!  Overall the garden has suffered a bit from the weather, with the hens' field and the potager rather muddy from the rain, though oddly we've still not had enough rain to fill the stream at the bottom of the garden.

Jeanne enjoyed a trip to the UK in October and since then we’ve been planning our next joint trip, but the cost and difficulty of doing these trips is becoming very stretching. However, we’ll keep going while we can. One or two more distant friends have invited us to go stay with them, which we’d very much like to take up, and hope to do so before we get too decrepit. 

Rhys’ mother had to change care homes suddenly as the one she was in couldn’t “meet her needs” any longer and we had her moved to one which seems to be better able to cope, and she seems to be happier there, although it’s hard to tell.

The Brexit fracas continues to loom over us, with ever more appalling ineptitude and incompetence on both sides being displayed, and not a little outrageous incitement in some quarters of the media. Citizens’ rights are one of the items close to our hearts and the blatantly false words from both sides are extremely worrying. However, our native neighbours continue to be welcoming and supportive and we continue to be very happy here.

We enjoyed a few more visits from friends from the UK and hope to see them again before long, and have starting to take bookings for next year for more visitors here. We decided not to make having visitors here a professional activity, so we still invite friends (and family, of course) to stay without charge. Let us know if you’d like to come over to stay with us and and explore our beautiful region.  Dusty, our cat, continues to thrive though she is getting a bit overweight, and the hens are continuing to give us lovely eggs in plentiful numbers.

Merry Christmas everyone, and a Happy New Year.