Coming home

Home now and back to work tomorrow! We had an interesting drive back, breaking the journey on the way up by staying at a bed and breakfast near Limoges. We have stayed there before and I can recommend it; especially the three course meal in the evening, which is exceptional value and very good. As we got to the Limousin the weather got worse and the snow started falling. However, we made it there quite safely and fortunately there wasn't much more snow overnight. Even if there had been there wouldn't have been a problem as the local farmer attached the snowplough to his tractor and cleared all the roads in the commune, making it easy to get up to the main road. The temperature did not go above -2 degrees centigrade all the way home but the journey was fine.

As we left the land we drove past the former mayor and his hunting mates butchering a deer that they had shot that morning. He called us over exitedly and told Ian that they had shot the animal on our land and amongst other things, that we could have a quarter of it! Ian nodded and we drove off. "We will have a quarter of that deer for our freezer when we are next here" he said matter of factly! "But we don't have a freezer or an oven?" I said. I felt a bit strange about it all as we love seeing the deer running across the land and although this one may have been older and in need of culling I don't feel that great about it. However, the creature is dead now and we should eat it.. Ian is planning to stop the hunters coming on the land when we are living there. It won't be a popular move but their presence with all their dogs is not good for the llamas or horses.

Snow is expected here for the next week. It is the coldest spell for 20 years. I remember the one in 1981. I was living in London and the cold spell  lasted 2-3 weeks  with the roads remaining  icy and snowy for most of the time. It was turned into a disaster by the media then and the same is happening now. It is just snow! We will survive.

Ian sent me this picture and said it was very sweet. I said it was unless you were a French hunter when you just see two meals with one shot!