We have snow!

Ce n'est pas normale, I am told and certainly everything has ground to a halt! All the neighbours are out with cameras so I have to believe them. The mairie has sent out the little tractor to salt and grit the roads, with minimal effect. I can't get the shutters open on the north side of the house because of frozen snow, but I haven't tried very hard. It does at least give us an extra layer of insulation.

Last year we had the river flooding which was quite spectacular, especially as a house on the bank opposite gradually became surrounded. I don't think anyone was in it at the time, indeed I suspect it's a holiday home because I haven't seen it occupied very often at all.


These extremes must be due to global warming, something I really do need to read/learn more about. We do our best but not in any concentrated way. We try to watch our water and electricity consumption. We use energy efficient light bulbs but I have to say they are so bulky and ugly that I am loath to put them everywhere. I am still guilty of having a bath rather than a shower but at least I try not to fill it as much as I did. We recycle fairly assiduously which is made easier here with doorstep collections twice a week - but is that defeating the object? I wonder how much energy is used with the lorries doing the rounds twice a week, compared with the savings. In England they are reducing the collections to once a fortnight, which has its own problems.

Last time we visited our son, he showed us the film of An Inconvenient Truth. It should be made compulsory viewing, but don't you find the people who should listen are always the ones who won't. It's made me want to find out more, but it isn't easy. It's a field of science which isn't all that familiar to me. I can look at biological/medical articles and see where the arguments may be weak but not so readily with this subject. I'll learn.