Turkey Curry and Party Poppers

The river from the 'high village' at
Angles-sur-l'Anglin. Spectacular!

So Tim, Amanda, Liana, and James have departed and we are left with the remains of a very large turkey. And it is true that the party poppers are all popped, but we are still recovering their remains from under the furniture!
So, turkey curry it is tonight.
And a day as a tourist for us. We visited Angles-sur-l'Anglin, an ancient medieval town, home to ancient cliff carvings, and called the "English Town". On the way we explored Chauvigny, also medieval. There are plenty of ruins in each of them, and tremendous views from their high places.
So why is Angles-sur-l'Anglin the English Town? We wondered this and finally read a history that recalled a cleft in the cliff that allowed the English to climb up and take the fortress. Perhaps this was it, but the history book at home claims the name is derived from the word "English" (French 'Anglaise') and the fact that to this day the inhabitants are called "les Anglais". Whatever the reason, the town is well worth a visit, even in the winter. And the carvings are strange!

A Sacrifice Forever

June and I had a lovely time at the 'Little Stone Church' Christmas eve service in Chef Boutonne. This was the first such service since it's renovation by Steve and Liz: Their web-blog. My few photos.

Steve explaining a dog's life

Whilst it was all fun, enjoyable, and great to worship together with new people, I also enjoyed a new understanding of an aspect of the Christmas story I had not seen before.
Perhaps it helps that Steve has an engineering background, he explains things in ways I understand! He explained that in order to understand something bigger than ourselves, it is sometimes helpful to step back and think in terms that start smaller than our experience. So for instance, to try and consider 4 dimensional space, one could first consider what it is like to be a 2 dimensional being, and then try and consider what that 2 dimensional being would think of our 3 dimensional space. Well it made sense to me anyway.
So then he went on to explain Jesus' view of the Christmas story, that is the Greater God becoming the lesser man.
He postulated us approaching a planet of dogs. And considered that our father wanted to sort out the planet. The plan was for us to go there, but as a dog. Once there the other dogs would finally tear us apart, but never fear, our father would rescue us. And then we would have eternal life- but as a dog!!!
I am not sure I would want to be a dog forever; not having known what it was to be human. But Jesus, having known what it was to be God, has accepted being a man forever.
Now that's amazing.

Christmas in Narcay

One can relax
once one has arrived

December 22nd and Tim, Amanda, Liana, and James arrived safely. "No snow here" we had told them, but from Le Mans to Tours was travelled in a snow storm at just over walking pace. But arrive they did despite this, and about 'on time' for the journey.
Christmas has started.

Car Wash, a Dry Clean!

With the cold weather, washing the car can take second place. But there comes a time when the car just has to be cleaned and, here in France, hand washing just does not work. A hand washed car ends up streaked white which is why all the French use car washes.
So I went down to the car wash and bought a ticket. "But the car wash is not working at present" I was told, "when the green light comes on, the car wash will be unfrozen, probably this afternoon".
And sure enough, that afternoon, the green light was on. I drove the car into place and started the process. It went through all the processes but without any water assistance. So the brushes re-distributed the mud, they did their best but the result was a still dirty car!
The attendant who gave me a replacement ticket explained that the air temperature has to be over 4 Centigrade for it to be unfrozen properly. The green light comes on at over 3 Centigrade. A fine judgement, but an important one.
I still have the ticket in my car. I am sure I will use it soon.....

The Hunt

The dogs (bottom right) are way behind their game which
went out of shot a long time before!

Saturday Morning, and no snow until suddenly there was a cold flurry about breakfast time. So whilst we were at the cottage I went out to take some snow photos.
What a racket! Shouts, barking, and a horn blowing. So I looked out over the countryside to see a deer coming out of the woods over the fields. The sound of the dogs remained behind the trees so the game escaped this time. A long time later the dogs appeared but clearly, even for a non-hunter like me, it was too little, too late.
Here's to one who got away, then- though, as June said, we do enjoy the meat. We have some in the freezer ready for Christmas in fact.

Minus Five

At minus 5, the frost is 4mm thick.
At minus 5, the cats stay in all day.
At minus 5, the foam scooter seat feels like a block of wood.
At minus 5, even warm bird water freezes in 10 minutes.
At minus 5, the stone we usually use to prop open the gate cannot be moved from it's frozen place.
At minus 5, the birds will risk coming closer for water that is not frozen.
Tuesday morning was centigrade minus 5.

Ok, some snow, but not no-go

Overnight flutters. Then warming by the afternoon- today reached nearly 10 Celsius.
A photo.

Del Zotto

No Snow still; which was good because the pastor and his family came to visit from some distance. There is snow all round - even at Barry and Pats place just 30 minutes away (they came too) - but not on the pastor's route. All clear.
We were a little surprised by the youngster, aged 3, but he fitted in very well, as often French children do. Did the food go down well? June was very 'English' for the occasion, but we have not a lot of feedback to judge it. However the 'vin chaud' was popular.
And an interesting evening which required English and French language skills to communicate fully.
Then the next day a covering of snow over, mainly, the road. We were out to collect our repaired car, and by the way, the last tiles for the rear patio, and logs from Domazan back to Narçay ('cause it is so cold and the fires are eating the logs real fast).
So now we hole-up for a while, but a thaw is forecast here over the weekend....