The Last Day of the Year

And so we have reached the last day of the year. A lot has happened this year and a lot has changed, main change being the move into our new home in a beautiful and peaceful part of the country. As the year comes to a close,  there's a lot to be thankful for; we have all the space we could want now, to play and pursue our passions, clean air to breathe, beauty to gaze at everywhere we look and great tranquility that surrounds us. That pretty much ticks all the boxes I had on my wish list and therefore my almost non-existent social life doesn't really bother me too much at the moment.

As Muumipeikko puts it very eloquently...

Anyway, a little bit of socializing was on the cards for christmas; Mon Cheri's papa invited us to spend le Noel with them and so we packed our car, left the rain behind and whisked ourselves down south where it was 10 degrees warmer and sunny. Not exactly your normal xmas weather, but Mon Cheri was ecstatic; finally some heat and sunshine. Poor darling, he has been deprived from his climat prefere and taken into the freezer in the middle of nowhere. He must really love me!

 
We visited sunny Montpellier in the xmas eve morning and I realized that I hadn't missed it at all. Too many people, pushing and shoving, noise of the traffic, air that smells bad...Sure, it's easy for the shopping, restaurants and all the other things one might need, but I guess I was born a country pumpkin and will happily continue to be one. Put me in a forest and I'll be content. Mon Cheri on the other hand was eagerly sniffing the fumes of the cars and felt at home once again in the hustle-and-bustle of the big city. Needless to say, this has been a year of big compromises as well as big changes.

Back at the base the great preparations were on for the evening meal. And when the hour was upon us, we prepared ourselves for this great olympic-level event; warming up the muscles and stretching, wearing loose clothes and coming to the table with unfailing mental concentration.

First course: apéro. Meaning drinks and nibbles, kind of amuse-bouche, if you like. Champagne, of course, and saucisson and l'escargots. I can tell you, my bouche was verrry amused already!

Moving on to saumon fumee, foie gras and pate de forestier. Trying hard not to think what lies still ahead...

And when in France, les huitres are a must on festive season. With a sensational sauce of shallots, vinegar and few different oils to go with them.

The fruits de mer -theme continued and next we had les coquilles Saint-Jacques avec les crevettes with salad as a side-show. Tuck in everyone. I don't mind if I do!

At some point we had moved on to the red wine (apparently) and le fromage came out. We're nearly there! I can almost smell the finishing line and the coffee.

And last but not the least, le buche de noel, the yule log. Just coffee and chocolates to chuck down the hatch and voila! yet another xmas meal done. Maybe it's good that we do this only once a year...

And then finally the xmas gifts!! I am a big child when it comes to this tradition and I couldn't imagine a xmas without presents, no matter how few or how small. I must've been good since that pile looks quite impressive! And my mum has been busy in the knitting department (though I made the two pairs on the right, since I've got the knitting virus as well).

I can see why so many accidents happen at xmas time since we forgot TWICE that there was candles on the table when opening the presents...

Nothing to do with wine, eh Barbie??

Much fun was had by all and Mon Cheri got his vital dose of sunshine, but after a couple of days it was good to come back home again. And I know someone who was very happy to have us back. Sleepy cuddles with Papa are the best! Or is it just that he makes a good pillow....

Time to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new! Sante!

I leave you to enjoy the last hours of this year with this thought. Thank you so much for reading my blog and commenting on it. It gives me a lot of encouragement to keep going.

I wish you great health and blessings for the coming year, many big adventures, peace, abundance and every little thing your heart is secretly wishing for.
Happy new year 2020!

Winter Wonderland

Little bit more than a month ago we got our first snow which stayed on the ground about a week or so. And like a good northern girl, I go always completely ga-ga at the sight of this white wonder and want to go out and play. What beauty, what majesty, it's like the nature has been covered by a soft, white feather duvet and is sleeping quietly, getting a well-deserved rest after a busy summer and autumn.

I was out of the house like a flash, stopping every few metres to admire the view, taking in the beauty and of course, taking lots of photos. Everywhere I looked my eye got caught with breathtaking views and I was 'ooh'-ing and 'aah'-ing happily. If it could only stay like this the whole winter. But I knew the with the completely bonkers climate nowadays, the snow was more likely to melt within the next couple of days, so I'd just better enjoy it, while it was here and make the most of the fabby weather.

But the weather keeps playing hide-and-seek with us. I'm still getting used to this 'mountaineous' climate (we're at 1200 metres) and its' ways; I can't quite guess what comes next and obviously, neither can  la météo française. One fine day it looked like this...

...and the next morning, without warning, it looked like that. Go figure.

I was ecstatic, Mon Cheri a bit less so. Temps pourri, he calls it, as he goes and pulls yet another pair of woollen socks on and gets yet another cup of coffee to heat himself up. I see beauty and a wonderful playground where I can turn into a child again, he sees an inconvenience. An extra bit of work. Yay, at least a chance to try our brand new snow shovel!

I let my inner child lose and got on with making a snowman and a snowcat while Mon Cheri was shovelling. What fun! For me. But make no mistake, after that I did my fair share of clearing with the snow shovel, bien sure. Which actually was fun as well.
I can say that now, but it wasn't the same in my childhood when we got new snow almost every day and then had to clear the whole, big yard daily to get the car out onto the road.

And look at those huge snowflakes, aren't they amazing! Le bonhomme de neige seems to think so too. Let it snow, I say! I'm loving this winter wonderland.

In the afternoon I went for a walk and it was still snowing slightly whilst everything else was still and quiet. I love to listen to the sound my shoes make on the snow, funny squeaking or scrunching, depending on the temperature. The best sounds happen normally when it's -20°c or so, but we won't have that in here. According to the neighbours it gets about -10°c at worst, but like I said, with the weather going crazy nowadays, we could get just about anything.

 Later on I made a snowlantern out of snowballs, piled onto a kind of igloo, and put a candle inside. They are so cute! In Finland we also make ice lanterns by freezing water in a bucket, but it's not cold enough yet for it here. I'll come back to that later in the winter, if I manage to make one.

 The next morning the snowman was leaning south like the tower of Pisa, due to the strong sunlight and warmer weather. Oh no, don't die just yet, I want to keep you a bit longer! Urgent reparations on the menu, I think.

The little road in front of the gite and the blue-grey horizon.

Another walk in a better weather and the view of our little hamlet.

The cows are still outside but these are a hardy breed, used to all kinds of weather.

Not so with our cat. I think she wants to come inside...Not a fan of winter then.

Talking of snow, ice and all thing wintery, go and check out Jonna Jinton's page on youtube where you can hear the ice 'singing'. Eerie and otherwordly sounds. Her vlogs are great too; creative life close to the nature in north of Sweden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd-CwJa1SHE&t=371s

Firefire

It is the season when the heat has left us and gone south, so we have to just make our own. I mentioned earlier that a former occupant of the house left us a wood stove which is one of the most important features in the house. It has been in everyday use since September when the cold started pinching our toes, and does a really good job heating up the kitchen/living room space where we spend most of our time.

Every morning we come downstairs, the first job is to light the fire, obviously. So far, we haven't used the radiators at all since it is a bit costly way of heating. We just try to survive as long as possible with the fire. Let's see how that line of thinking works in January!

 So, in the stove goes some dried up broom branches (excellent for lighting a fire), newspaper, little sticks, middle sized sticks and some logs. And in no time at all we'll have a warm and cosy room. Though that doesn't stop me having my customary four layers of clothes on and a blanket around the shoulders for good measure. Strange behaviour for a Finn, one might think, but I like it to be warm inside since I mostly read, knit or sit in front of a computer and so feel the cold more easily. When outside, I don't really care how cold it gets, for I'll be walking and moving all the time and that keeps me warm.

This stove is very versatile; once we even cooked a pizza in the upper part of it and it worked out just fine. Good to know that in case of a failure of electrical supply, we will not go hungry and we'll have something warm to line our stomachs with. We've prepared also by lining our store cupboards with food items in case we can't get to the shops for few days. The former occupant told us that last winter she was stuck in the house for two days when the snow blocked the roads and nobody cleared them. Alaskan outbacks come to mind...Maybe I should buy skis after all.

So far, no great disasters but the wood is always on my mind. We have been collecting smaller pieces of wood and sticks all summer and autumn and they need working and ranging. One of my favourite things is to saw them into smaller bits, there's just something very relaxing and comforting in that. I've tried using the chainsaw too with the bigger logs but I much prefer the 'quiet', good old wood saw. Much more meditative and far less dangerous.

We ordered another lorryload of logs from our trusty logman way back in October, to see us through till christmas, if possible. We'll see. He came finally almost two hours late. Kind of what is to be expected in these parts, but we phoned him anyway to check what was keeping him and if he would arrive at all. He did, eventually, and explained through gritted teeth that he'd just had an unexpected rendez-vous with the police who deemed his trailer tires rather abimé, and hence parted him of pretty much equal sum of money that he would later get from us for his pile of logs. So he gained next to nothing from the trip to this neck of woods, and with one last black look at the aforementioned tires, he left us to our pile of logs.

The wood we got was semi-dry so we needeg to get some of it inside for final drying. I made a nice, neat pile on the right side of the stove, the other side being full already with the dry stuff.

All autumn it has been raining quite a lot but one day we got more than our fair share and by the afternoon even the road was flooding. And notice the neighbour's garden on the backround, it's a veritable river! Luckily we are quite high up so the chances of the house getting flooded are pretty slim. There are lots of areas in France that are not so lucky and the frequency of floods and other natural disasters is rather worrying.

Indeed we are very lucky to be able to warm up our toes in front of a good fire. Even Lili, the Cat, knows it and she often finds the best places to curl up for a wee snooze...

Or just a quick meditation session in front of the fire.

Here's another good word for you, something that describes us Finns very well. I think I'll be needing lots of that this winter.