It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

The weather has been difficult this week …    We have had huge quantities of rain falling on the already quagmire-like field, making it almost impossible for me to consider walking around up there as now, with my osteoporosis, I cannot risk falling.  We have had bright sunshine too, thunder and hail.  Everything except snow has arrived in St André.

Last Sunday St Nicolas du Pélem had its Christmas Market in the town.  It was lovely!  Lots of different foods to try and a good atmosphere, as usual very well supported in spite of the weather.  

Alexi tried something from every food stall, I’m not sure how he managed to eat so much – a cheese and egg galette, six oysters, wine, scallops, wine and lastly sweet crèpes. 

Most of the week, outside tasks have been impossible so, Alexi, my current Workawayer, has been painting instead.  When the weather was kinder Alexi and I built new compost bins and he has been transferring the “still to rot” stuff into these.  

Dan has also been over and fitted a new landing floor and changed the base of the Middle Cottage bedroom basin, so we are now ready to finish decorating and start cleaning up. 

On Wednesday I joined a group of Facebook friends in a Rostrenen café to meet them face to face and have a coffee or, in my case, two hot chocolates.  

It was good to actually see people and have a pleasant and interesting morning with them.  We will do it again.

There is a small triangle of land at the end of my garage belonging to my absent neighbour.  The branches of the three trees on this plot, two elders and a scuffy small oak, were all interfering with the electricity cables which cross the area.  We felt that this might be what was causing the frequent small power cuts we get and so another neighbour, Ronan,cut them down completely. 

I have benefitted in having the wood which yet another neighbour, Christian, chain sawed for me to season for a year or so before using in the woodburner.

My GP had decided I need to monitor my blood pressure at home for three days.  I did this and the results were not good.  It has been gradually increasing and so after seeing the results prescribed medication.  It is a two-edged sword  - I have lost weight/fluid but get up too many times each night to pee.  I am already tired, so this isn’t a good effect.  Not sure why I’m so exhausted, but I am and hate not having any energy to do anything – it’s just not me.

My neighbours delivered a cord of wood this afternoon and Alexi stacked it away in the log shed.  It's very handy having my log supplier as my next door neighbour.  

Nilly, my new kitten, sat and watched as they threw the logs threw the air and seemed quite disappointed when they had finished and driven away.

As usual, Maggie helped me sort out my Christmas tree and I decorated it with just a few of the glass decorations I have made this year - not the best photo as it was daylight.  I was too worried about Nilly knocking them out of the tree to use too many - so far she has behaved well, so I may add more ...

Three things I like:

1.  All Christmas presents have been bought and wrapped - always good ...

2.  Christmas cards arriving and being arranged on the mantelpieces and windowsills ...

3.  Food and wine sorted pretty much, except for the last minute fresh things ...

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Christmas? Already?

Not sure where the days are disappearing to anymore.  I can’t see anyway that it is over a month since I last posted.  Time seems to have taken on a completely different dimension and I can’t catch up at the moment.  

Currently, I have a Greek Workawayer, Alexi, who is knocking stuff off my To Do List.  

The weather is awful so at the moment the work is inside and he's painting and sawing wood.  I was lucky to have two great German Workawayers, for two weeks in November.  They're all good company and work so hard.  Here are Steffen and Sarah loading feedsacks and also putting up the Christmas trees in the driveway.

I finally succumbed to buying my Nordmann Fir Christmas Tree and it is now having a long drink from the fish pond before coming in to be decorated.

Here are the men getting ready to net it for the car.

This year I have been attending glass classes in Caurel and have made decorations ready for the season.  Here are just a few of them ...

The weather has been either wet and warmish or cold with frost and hail.  Luckily we haven't had snow yet and I hope it doesn't come before Christmas as my son is coming from England by car and driving and snow are not a good combination.  The cold days do provide some interesting sunsets though.

The trees were late turning colour this year as it was so mild, but finally they did change and it was beautiful everywhere.

Our Bowls Club had a competition this month and here are the competitors in their Christmas hats.

Our presentation lunch at Jerome & Virginie's bar/restaurant in Lanrivain was well attended and I was surprised to come home with three trophies.

My neighbour's kitten, Nilly, has officially moved in with us.  Occasionally Claude and Purrdy allow her to share the same plate but usually she sits quietly until they have had their fill.  

She is so lovely and I am pleased she's chosen our home!

Less welcome is my neighbour's goat, Gascon, who I looked up to find standing on my quite high boundary wall.  

They have had a tree surgeon here this week cutting down some very, very tall trees ...

Friends, Maggie and Bea, laid on a Harry Potter Murder Mystery supper and I was given the character of Dolores Umbridge.  I have to admit to never having read or watched anything Harry Potter related so was at a slight disadvantage when it came to character reading!    Here I am dressed predominantly in pink, as Dolores.  The game pie Maggie served was absolutely scrummy!

The Writers' Group had their pre-Christmas lunch at Le St Antoine in Plemet which was thoroughly enjoyed as usual.  This was my starter and the whole meal was as perfect.

The  weather has also produced many rainbows during the month

I am usually driving when I spot them and it's not always easy to stop, but here's one on my way to Bowls.

My last photo is stolen from Facebook, but I believe it is the best snowman I have ever seen and I couldn't resist posting it here.  If we do get snow I shall be endeavouring to build one just like this.

Three things I like:

1.   Seeing Christmas cards in my post box instead of bills
2.   Finally, finding the Christmas presents I bought earlier in the year
3.   Collecting from the barn, a goose egg laid in November, they usually don't start until February

Autumn has arrived late in St André

The blackbirds and thrushes have been gorging themselves on the remaining grapes still hanging from the vines along the cottages and my house.  Whenever I walk towards the cottages the birds come flying out in panic and yesterday I found a sparrow hawk feather on the ground under the vines.  

They have also stripped nearly all the shiny, red berries off the holly on the terrace.  I pruned the honeysuckle hard as soon as they’d enjoyed the fruits on that and it is now a bare, reduced frame of branches against the garden wall.

My amazing cosmos, outside my sitting room window, had over 90 blooms when I counted earlier in the week.  Even the first frost we had didn’t knock it back and due to it’s location I can enjoy it from my chair inside too.  

Thanks to the BBC Breakfast Weather team I have remembered, this year, to cover my Echium pininana with fleece to protect it.  Being a biennial, or sometimes a triennial, it grew to about a metre high this year and, if it survives the winter, will produce a spectacular 16ft/5m column of tiny blue flowers in 2018 or 2019.  I grew them in Cornwall and can remember my mother, who sat in the upstairs sitting room window above the flower bed, saying that she could almost see them grow.  In the Isles of Scilly on Tresco, they grow like weeds in the favourable climate there.

When Marianne was staying we drove around one afternoon and ended up at the ruined Abbaye de Koad Malouen.  

I had been there once before but this time took photographs.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and the Abbaye looked particularly impressive against the blue skies.

A few months ago I bought a dehydrator to preserve food.  I hadn't used it, but after buying a couple of pots of mushrooms from the supermarket to grow at home, I harvested a large bowlful and sliced and dried them.  I was very pleased with how easy it was to do and with the results, which I have put into sterilised jars until I need them.

The Autumn is bringing changes everywhere in the lanes.

The first frost on my strawberry plants.

These nasturtiums are growing on the village garden waste tip.  

and parasols on the verge in my lane.

A neighbouring family enjoying the sunshine

and someone in a nearby village having an afternoon walk

I've found something I love eating and I can't stop making these prawns in batter dipped in soy sauce.  The sweetness of the prawns with the saltiness of the soy is lovely.  Do not try them if you have an addictive personality - you have been warned ...

The neighbour's kitten, Vanille, who I now call Nilly, has virtually moved in with us.  She is very cute and is more than welcome to stay.  My other cats, Claude and Purrdy are not entirely happy about this but no fur has been flying so far ...   Here she is waking up from behind my laptop lid ...

Three things I like:

1.   I think I have a Workaway couple arriving this time next week to help me.

2.   My friend, Jac, bringing me back streaky bacon from England - I was running low.

3.   This orchid, which I bought, reduced in Tesco in 2014, for just £3.99, and which has bloomed every year like this since.