Creuse gite blog spot

White Christmas?

Well we might just be having a white Christmas here in Creuse. It is snowing and it looks like it is in for the day. What a contrast to yesterday. The last remnants of the previous snow had just melted away and after the clouds cleared a watery sunshine broke out and managed to lift the temperatures up a bit. I should of know it was a false omen because when I awoke at dawn the landscape was bathed in the hue of a gorgeous red sky. You know what they say " A red sky at night a shepherds delight and a red sky in the morning a shepherds warning"

They were right and to back it up the local farmers had warned us that is was expected today. Canny wee devils these farmer types and they are rarely wrong. Sure they do get it wrong but only because the expected weather arrives a day later than predicted. The snow has well and truly covered the ground and our snow white geese almost disappear in to background. Their beaks and webbed feet look even more orange colored than normal.

It was very funny when I went to let the chickens out. Instead of the usual headlong rush for the freedom of the paddock the front runners stopped in their tracks when they saw the snow and the back markers who were a bit slow of the perches crashed in to the back of them in a flurry of wing beating and raucous chicken noises. Only a few of the brave ones ventured out and the others as the saying goes 'chickened out' and settled for a munch on the corn.

When it snows here in Creuse it can last for quite some time as we found out when we first moved in to our house. We moved in on a Saturday morning and it was raining like 'cats and dogs' We had no choice but to get on with the unloading and it took us a full two day to get the contents of the truck into the house. During that time it rained constantly and at one stage the water started to flow into the outside porch area. Then as if by magic it stopped raining suddenly and the sun broke out. We had about two or three days of good weather and then the snow arrived. It arrived with vengeance and within a few hours there was snow drifts up to a foot deep.

It continued snowing for several days and was so bad that even if we had got our cars or the truck to start we would not have been able to get out of the driveway. We had plenty of supplies and the previous owners had left us a large pile of logs for the wood burning stove/heater. We were just about coping with the snow and the cold weather when the electricity supply conked out and the water pipes in the village froze over and burst. We also had no phone and the phone in the village was broken.

Luckily we had a generator and we managed to organize a temporary supply of sockets and extension leads for the fridge/freezer and lighting. The burst pipe in the village had cut off our water supply but we did have some bottled water for drinking purposes. For the toilet duties I had to walk over a 150 meters through knee high snow to get to the well. Once there I would fill up two buckets and trudge back uphill in to the driving wind and snow. Common sense took over after several trips and we started to fill large pans with snow and put them on the stove top to melt the snow.

A week had passed bye and our supplies were running low but we could not get the cars started. We managed to get the French version of the R.A.C. out and after about an hour they got my diesel car started. The left and I let the engine tick over to recharge the battery which was pretty flat. I was just preparing to set off for the local supermarket when the engine stalled. I could not get the engine to start again. At the time we did not know it but the heater plugs on the diesel car were trashed and had to be replaced.

There was nothing for it but to done my Wellington boots, bobble hat, scarf and coat and walk the 9 kilometers to a nearby village where there was a car parts shop for some new heater plugs. When I got to the shop in the village it was shut. One of the traditions of little villages around here is to close on a Monday. Sort of like the old half day closing on a Wednesday but shut all day. Doooohhh. There was nothing I could do and so I had to trudge all the way back again.

I had walked about three quarters of the way back and a neighbor was passing and stopped to give me a lift. She agreed to come back the following day and give my car a jump start so I could drive to the shop. The next I got some heater plugs and we topped up on food and water and headed back to the house. There I changed the heater plugs and starting the car was no problem after that.

After a week the electricity supply was restored and a little later the water was back on. The snow in the meantime had stopped but did return later. In all we had snow on the ground for nine weeks and the electricity cut out again but only for 3 days. The lady who gave me lift came round to see how we were getting on and during conversation with her she told us it was the worst winter for 30 years. She remembers it so well because she went into labor at the time and she could not get to the hospital and so she had her baby at home.

The winters here in Creuse are quite severe but very short compared to Britain and at the time I did wonder why many of the house looked Swiss like and had steep pitched roofs. Well I know now and thankfully the last couple of winters have not been so bad. I am just beginning to think that maybe we are going to get a bad winter this time around. We will have to wait and see but in the mean time keep warm and by the fire.

www.french-gite-creuse.co.uk

For more blogs on food recipes, dark humour and non politically correct goings on in the hotel and catering trade between 1975-2000

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