End of Another Year

The year is drawing in again - I'm not sure where the time goes, but it is always a time for reflection, wherever you are in the World.

We look back with pride on our progress, even though sometimes we get despondent with the lack of pace. At the end of the year, we remember what has actually been achieved, what has changed, what has improved - and there has always been just that - changes and improvements !

Joseph, our neighbour, a lovely man, who was in the Resistance during the Second World War, and has some great stories to tell, often advises us if we have any problems. He also always helps physically whenever he can. He is a font of knowledge when it comes to tree felling, so when Craig decided to trim/prune one of the bigger trees in the field, he was there with his advice. Sometimes however, things get lost in translation, and before we knew where we were, we had agreed that the tree would be better completely down, and Joseph was sitting on his tractor, ropes were tied, and the tree was down...................

This time of the year is always a little difficult, as my birthday falls in December, Craig's in January, and of course Christmas and New Year - so many celebrations, and no family here with us. We do miss them all, and are grateful for the Skype calls, and messages that we regularly receive. 

The weather is another issue at this time of the year - as I think I have said before, our weather is similar to the UK - we are not that far away, maybe a degree or two warmer. However, Brittany is the wettest area of France, and where we are, is the wettest area of Brittany. Some days, the rain is continuous, and the mud....well. However, December 2013, as in the UK, saw some of the worst, strongest winds on record. We were prepared, in as much, as we had sufficient fuel, food etc, but we also knew that the electricity was likely to go too - and we were right. Our power went off during the night of December 23rd, and we were lucky that it came back on during the evening of the 24th (lucky, as we had friends who had no power all over Christmas !). We were wondering whether we would have a Christmas lunch, but as it turned out, we did ! Turkey (reared locally) and all the trimmings - lovely ! However, we have a gas hob, so we could have managed a warm meal, and appreciate that others weren't so lucky.

The year ended - thank you 2013, and welcome in 2014 !