04 December 2010

Maybe the last...

...snow pictures for a while. It's supposed to start melting today. The sun is out this morning but it's still very cold out. The rain or rain/snow that was predicted seems to have stayed to the north of Saint-Aignan. Rain is still expected tomorrow.

La Renaudière, a hamlet near Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher...

...and a view from farther out in the vineyard

The vineyard was frigid but picturesque on my walk with the dog earlier. I took my camera and my right hand got pretty chilly. I also had to be very careful where I stepped so I wouldn't find myself face down in the snow. Or on my fesses.

Callie surveying part of her domain...

...and then waiting patiently to be let in the back door

Callie doesn't worry about any of that. She just runs through the snow, stopping every few meters to sniff at something. She uncovers whatever it is with her paw. You don't know what it is! Then she eats it, and I yell at her: « Ne mange pas ça ! Tu vas être malade après. » She looks abashed, but then she does it again just a few meters farther on.

Snowy branches and vines

Walt just saw the woman who, with her husband, owns a lot of the vineyard parcels out back. She was walking down the road taking pictures. It's that kind of morning. I bet she's going to use them on her web site, or in some marketing materials. The winery is the Domaine de la Renaudie and here's a link to the web site in English.

10 comments:

  1. Interesting that you speak to Callie in French.Isn't she bilingual? Similar weather in my part of the UK, light snow turning to rain forecast for the weekend.
    Keep Warm!

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  2. my corgi used to feast on bunny poop and she regularly checked the kitty litterbox so I had to be very efficient in cleaning it

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  3. Callie is always cute :)

    Thanks for the snow photos. I've loved seeing them. I see that Amy H. (of Chitlins) said that during all of your snow, they didn't get any where she lives, until just yesterday or the day before. It seems funny that the snow would hit pretty hard in one spot, and miss completely a spot only about an hour away (if I remember correctly). Must be the wind, eh?

    Great photos.
    Judy

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  4. How do you stop the outdoor faucet from bursting? Are insulated faucet covers not used in France?
    Great photos!

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  5. Hi Georgie, like you, I was thinking, "Well, we really should have wrapped or otherwise protected that spigot before all this cold weather settled in." Usually, we just wrap the spigot in a towel or rag of some kind.

    Judy, I didn't know they hadn't had snow over near Bourgueil until later. Microclimates. That's the answer.

    Karen, I don't always speak to Callie in French. She also understands -- ha! -- English. I think it's the tone of voice that she understands, or the situation.

    Melinda, luckily Callie can't get to Bertie's litter box. I think we'll keep it that way.

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  6. Very pretty, but this is as close as I want to get to it.

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  7. I don't cover or wrap my outdoor faucets. I have two - one for the water hose for cleaning or watering the young trees ( au compte gouttes ) and the other is for the sprinkler system. The mercury does go down here and so far (crossed my fingers) haven't encountered any problem . However when there was an ice storm some 12 years ago and we didn't have electricity for 3 days -thus no heating - we closed the main valve, drained all the taps and flushed all the toilets and went somewhere else to stay - to prevent any water damages from broken pipes inside the walls. Same operations when we have to go away in winter in case there is a prolonged power outage during our absence.

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  8. Thanks for sharing the photos ~ I'm off to the Sud du Touraine on Monday so its good to see what's happening on the ground, as it were.
    Jim

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  9. I know I have to get a life but Jacques Pepin made a bread (irish, soda type) in a frying pan and I was thinking of you guys. It seems so easy to make. Voila! fresh bread in no time. Then at the open air market today, they had russian kale, avec de grandes feuilles qui ressemblaient a des geantes feuilles d'arugula.

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  10. Hi Nadège,soda bread is good. We have an American friend who is of Irish descent and she makes a very good soda bread. I make soda biscuits and those can be very good too.

    Hello Jim McNeill, glad to hear from you and discover your blog plus those of Julie and Colin. They are neighbors -- you are too, but a little farther afield. Thanks for the comment and I hope you have a good stay in the Sud Touraine.

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