Where did the road go?

As this is the view at the rear of our farmhouse, and Arthur is positioned to show where the edge of the lane should be, it is probably no surprise that on Friday I became chief picker upper and dropper off in my Land Rover.

Every year two events happen locally, one is a charity telethon held in Pontaumur, our nearest town, to which (normally) kids and parents flock to play table games and buy raffle tickets for cakes etc. On Friday I did the cake round, fetching all the lovely choccie, sweet and gooey goodies and ferrying them down for others to win. And no - I did not pretend I got stuck in the snow and had to eat the scrumptious goods to keep my strength up.

It is currently reading -1°C in my studio so I have not been hanging out much in there.

The second event is held by our commune, the village that we are part of. The centre of the village is decorated with nativity scenes from around the world and people flock to take a tour of the scenes in the snow, drink a glass of warm fortifying mulled wine and a slice of gateau.

   http://www.landogne.fr/attachments/106_105_depliant_creches.pdf

Brendan and I have been involved every winter we have been here, putting up Christmas trees, decorating them, setting up nativity scenes and helping out in the bar. Friday afternoon I took my contingent of helpers down to the village to get our huge nativity scene set up, it features a village in Provence complete with working windmills, automated characters drinking wine, grinding coffe, making bread and hanging out the washing. It has 8 large buildings, and over 20 characters. It took 4 of us most of the afternoon to set up the buildings and the backdrops and we are nowhere near finished yet.  I have another building to make over the weekend as well as some repairs to hands, feet, and clothing.

Saturday was very very very cold, -12°C when I let the chickens out (they were not impressed I have to say), -7°C in the middle of the day was the highlight.

But on the up side it was sunny and looked very pretty and the first weekend of December is our family's traditional time for putting up the decorations so now the inside of the house is also pretty with twinkley lights and fluffy feathery decorations.

Bring on Christmas.

On the flip side, Arthur seems to have developed a serious addiction to snow.