Christmas walks 2011

A little hamlet of Limousin granite cottages and barns, with the red Roman tiled roofs we have here, sitting in the winter sunshine.



Some bullrushes - one or two have 'popped' their seedheads. This little pond near us is spring fed and very seldom runs dry - it did this year though!




Sunset over Le Lac, St Mathieu - pretty isn't it - and getting quite cold as soon as the sun disappeared.



Just 20 minutes before - the kids, with Charlie, the Amazing Climbing Poodle...



One of the 20 or so exercise stations dotted about the lake. Charlie trying to climb again...



A couple of young Limousin cows - rather anxiously watching us walk on by



Another shot of the sun just starting to go down - already the temperature is falling fast in the shadows, but still plenty of light on the other side of the lake.



It is one of our favourite places to go - but you should see it in summer - packed with people swimming, sunning themselves, boating...we were the only people there on Boxing day.



Long shadows - the black blob is Charlie, yet again. He never goes far, always likes to be one of the gang - speaks fluent English and French!



These whitish blobs are nests of processional caterpillars - horrid, nasty things, dangerous to lifestock and pets. In the last ten years, we have seen nests appearing like this more and more - the caterpillars apparently moving up from the south, each year another mile or two north, all due to global warming.


We are determined that Christmas excess will be walked off and surprisingly for us, have managed a long walk - a least an hour - every day since. How long it will last, I don't know, but I'm going to keep on looking at the photos to get us to go out every day - my first New Year Resolution!

Thank you Kim!

Wow, look what Kim at Lavender Fields For-ever has sent to me - I've never had an award for anything before! I am really touched she thought of me - please read her blog here.




I hope she, and everyone has a good 2012, full of health, wealth and happiness...

In the meantime, put the thinking caps on for all those New Year resolutions...

As part of the award you have to copy and paste the award to your blog.

Thank the giver and post a link back to them.

Reveal your top 5 blogs with less than 200 followers and let them know.

So here are my five .

thelifeofaneccentricenglishbooklady - a lovely, gentle blog about books, poetry, country life, family - a delight to read.

olgaswan - another ex-pat in France, she is a writer and her blogs are full of interest and wisdom.

swedishbullshit - fabulous photography and humour from another ex-pat - dividing her time between 3 spots on the globe!

our-front-plot - a hardworking smallholder who writes about her garden, her crafts and charity shop bargains.

And, that's it folks - my 5th is back to Kim at Lavender Fields...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I would like to thank all my customers, family, friends and fellow bloggers for following my little blog this year and to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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Christmas Pensioners' Lunch

Well, we have just staggered back from our village Christmas lunch, having consumed so much food and drink, it's taken us SIX hours to do just that.

My daughter said I was dressed suitably to go to the pensioners' lunch (cheeky madam) so I told her in that case, I was going to get a body piercing or tattoo. She said then I would look just like a pensioner with a body piercing or tattoo...oh well...I wouldn't mind, but I'm only 56...

Anyway, I thought you would like to know what was on the menu:

Apéritif
(with nibbles)

Potage Périgourdin
(clear vegetable soup with noodles)

Délice de Foie Gras
(Foie Gras, 2 sorts, with fig jelly and cherry jelly, toast, orange slices)

Queue de Lotte a l'amoricaine
(Monk fish in a tomato and pepper sauce)

Sorbet
(Peach sorbet with peach spirit, hic)

Civet de chevreuil et sa garniture de légumes
(Young venison stew with, puzzlingly only boiled potatoes, but divine all the same)

Salade
(obvious)

Fromages
(selection of cheese)

Buche maison
(French Christmas cake - Yule log, 1 slice of chestnut/marron glacé sponge, and 1 slice apricot sponge)

Chocolates

Coffee and liqueurs
~~~~

We had champagne with cassis or chesnut liqueur for the apéritif, a different wine for each course, then with the coffee four different liqueurs to choose from - or cognac - which were all home made by people from the village. Of course, we were pressed by the Mayor to try them all...

Phew!

This is the second time pensioner friends have invited us - they can invite whom they wish providing it's paid for, and the money goes to the poor elderly folk of the parish so we feel it goes to a good cause in this time of austerity and yet festivity.

Well, all I can say is that the elderly folk of our village certainly know how to pack it all away and not a single 'ooh, I couldn't possibly' or 'well, just a little one...' amongst them...it was just the new kids on the block - like us - who were complaining of having eaten too much!