Early Christmas?

Snow, snow and more snow....and it is snowing still.

We awoke this morning to see snow on the Velux...the skylight window we leave the blind up on in our rooftop bedroom. Talk about exciting! We have been anticipating the snow for a couple of days now, and we were a bit like kids in a candy store when we finally got up and looked out the window.
This is what I saw out the Velux window!

 And upon visiting the bathroom... YES!! Gorgeous!

 Back at ground level, I poked my nose outside...and yes, this time I remembered my neon orange hat. Sorry...no selfie!...yet.

I opened the shutters, wondering if it would make the house colder, but it doesn't seem to have mattered. At least we had bright white light entering the house:)
I should have moved the plants a little futher under cover...the snow was obviously blown in, as you can see by the table which is well under cover.

This is the chaos that starts the day. LET ME OUTTA HERE!! That's scruffy asking to go out. The cat door is open, but for some reason their brains don't register this first thing and I have to literally open the back door to let them out.

 Out they all went, and stopped at the edge of the snow line. Too funny!
Elsa and Alfie were the ones who ran out into the snow, straight for the bird feeder. No birds, but they did what they do every morning...sat underneath and waited. Silly moggies!

Now, I think the vege garden is done for, don't you?

 BUT...the lettuces which I was supposed to harvest yesterday, don't appear to have frost or snow bite, so I will harvest them tomorrow, I think...as long as they are still alive. I checked them carefully, and was suitably impressed to find that the snow was just sitting on top. I guess they might suffer if it freezes hard.

Scruffles on the left danced around, skittered, and charged off in all directions. She had us laughing our heads off. Cocoa was a little more tentative, and came back inside quickly.

 It had snowed, then frozen, overnight. I had to put my shoes on to go outside...vs my warm slippers, which I normally appear in to open the shutters, each morning. The snow definitely crunched under my footfall.
Looking out over the nearby fields...lovely!

 Elsa got into a bit of trouble when she went for a drink from the pool, first thing. She had trouble getting up the slippery pool cover. Eventually she prevailed, and then went back to do it again, after charging off into the snow and skittering around.

 Scruffles patted a hole in the pond ice, and was soon joined by Alfie for a morning drink. I put clean water out in a bowl for them, but they all seem to prefer to drink from the pool or pond.

Late morning we decided that if it was going to snow much more and for longer, we really needed to go to the Supermarket for weekend supplies. That way, if we are snowed in, we can eat! Right...off we go....but, we have to take the recycling to the bins by the Intermarche.
Waz took the photos on the way to Lidl to get some more boxes for the moggies. Again, I had prepared my little French speech to ask for boxes for my cats, lol. No worries, mate...just take the boxes off the shelves where they have run out of product. Waz rather tentatively walked through the checkout line and took them to the car. Nobody looked sideways at him, which was interesting, as I was in the back of the line looking on at all this. Had to giggle to myself!
The Marie/Hotel de Ville was looking gorgeous in her Christmas finery. What a striking building this is. So many of them are.

 And then it started snowing again. I had a brainwave to go down to the lake to take photos, as I thought it would look lovely all snowed down to the waterline. Ack! The temperature had risen to just above freezing, during the morning, and most of the snow had gone from the ground down there...hence no photos! hard to believe that just two weeks ago, we were almost in shirt sleeves, walking the way around the lake in bright sunshine.

 Having successfully found some more supplies and kitty boxes at one end of the town and taken a different way out of the lake area and surprised both of us by my sense of direction back to town, which I  was correct in taking...woohoo~....we were off to the recycling place. It is just a series of bins on a side road off the highway leaving town, and is horribly rutted...a bone rattling experience, for sure.
I got back in the car with snow still on my hood, as you can see. It was cold inside the car too!

 Oh dear...We went next door to the Intermarche...we had our Pain cereal (Grain bread) from Lidl...another reason to have gone there, so we were looking for some specifics from the Intermarche also.
Lamb! We found a small leg of lamb that would give us two to three meals for 14.euros and change, which wasn't too bad. We searched through the cookie aisle and found some for gifts and one in particular for us...see further down!
When we got outside, the snow was coming down faster than ever. This is what it looked like from inside the car.

We had been inside the supermarket for about 20 minutes. It was really busy today being Friday, and full of elderly people taking a long time to choose their list of products.
Waz had to put his window down to show how much snow we had collected on the side mirror, after 20 mins.

 The car opposite! lol.

 Because we would have a large circuitous route to get home, if we went via the main highway, we decided to chance the back farm roads nearby. Not a bad choice, as new gravel had been applied at some time during the day, perhaps for traction.  This farmer's wood supply didn't look so dry, suddenly. Normally you could see the highway from here, on this road, but it is snowing too hard for that, this afternoon.

 Yes, it was just after 1pm and time for some lunch. The driveway had been clear when we left, so this is all new snow! Waz went down to clear the mail box. Good thing these bricks give traction on the slope.

 Cookies....well, I don't know that you would call these cookies, but they sure are something special. Yes, another treat for us. Treat they sure are....wow! Pistachio bombs! YUMMMMMMMM! They are called Little Pleasures...Oh my goodness...how can you eat only one?

I made some butternut soup for lunch and we enjoyed that with some pain cereal, toasted.

On our return I had stuffed rugs into the boxes for the cats and placed them on the chairs where the rugs normally would be. I thought (am I nuts?) that the cats would then hop into the boxes and sleep on the rugs in the box instead.....well, any sane person would think this, wouldn't they?? ha! The best laid plans, and all that. Time will tell, but these moggies are creatures of habit.

The cats went in and outside all day. Sometimes they were all in at once, and then there were none inside. It was so much fun watching them cavorting in the snow.
Daylight waned, the temperature went down below freezing yet again, and the snow came down thicker than ever. Then it stopped. Cats went out again while I cooked some dinner...helped by the fact that I had now fed them!
When we were in Bretagne, the two previous years, we had discovered these lovely young chicken breast fillets. They are marginally more expensive down here...I remember them costing no more than 2.5euros a package, but here they are just over 3euros.
We have drawn up a calendar for the 9 remaining days we are here...yes, didn't THAT go fast!...and so we shopped for the appropriate food. We should make it through next week without having to go food shopping again.
This is such an easy and tasty dish. Lardons (Bacon pieces, basically), eschalotes sliced, browned together, add the chicken Aiguilletes (aye gwee ettes), add half a cup of white wine (good stuff) and simmer, Add courgettes and rough chopped chunky mushrooms, a couple of dollops of crème fraiche and allow to simmer until just tender (the veg.). Reduce the liquid on high heat and serve, after adding a few Herbes de Provence, salt and pepper to taste.

 Dinner, coffee and sweet treats all done, and all the cats are now inside...and all before 8pm. Woot!
I have shut and shuttered the back door, so they are inside for the night now.

I just missed a photo of Elsa hanging upside down off their climbing structure. She looks a bit stunned, to be honest, lol.

 Scruffles insists on sitting right beside my left hand, at the computer, when she is inside and I am here at the computer, of course. I put one of the boxes on the table to entice her inside, hopefully to sleep there instead. Hmm...nice try, Mon! She did investigate, as you can see, and I was feeling very smug and hopeful that she would settle in there. No such luck. She is now back beside me. Sigh!

 Meanwhile, Holly, who usually is found inside the fire cavity in the mornings, is sitting and watching the fire, until it sparked, frightening her and she ran somewhere safer.

 Waz has Alfie on his lap. He (Alfie) aggressively turfed Cocoa off said lap, and claimed it for himself.

How can you NOT be amused and fully occupied by these 6 monsters? They are delightful companions, and we will miss them. Animals give you a reason to get up in the morning, and comfort when you need it. They are so intuitive, and giving when we need it most. Keeping track of so many is a full time job, however. We have all fallen into a routine that works for each of us, and they appear to be thriving.
We find, when we animal sit, that we all find new routines, usually different from the owner's schedules, which is fine. As long as everybody is happy and well cared for, we all adapt.

That's it for tonight, folks. We will see what tomorrow brings. We aren't far from the town of Thiviers, which I badly want to visit...so if the roads are clear tomorrow, we might just venture forth. Decisions will be made on the morrow, obviously. Au Revoir.