January is always a hard month round here - it is either wet or cold, and despite the seemingly endless rounds of galettes, the mornings are dark (the sun doesn't rise until about 8:30 or later) and there is a never ending trail of dirty cat paw prints around the house.
With February, it is a bit more mixed. The weather is mainly still either wet or cold (or as today, both with a snow storm all day though nothing settled), but there are odd days of warmth and promise. At the weekend we did a load of pruning and preparing raised beds for this year's crops. For the past 6 days I have been doing a daily count of broad bean shoots appearing in one bed (the seeds were planted in early December), and can finally identify 3 snow drops starting to emerge around the quince tree. But yesterday the cloud rolled back, and while I have still done the daily count (up to 21 out of 100 sown), it has been done more quickly so I can get back into the warmth.
The chickens are starting to eat more as the days lengthen and we are still getting between 1 and 2 eggs a day from them, which is impressive. They were not so keen on playing in the snow however, and were sulking when I led them back to their run.
The cats don't know how to cope. They played outside for about 8 hours non-stop on Saturday in the sun, and then on Sunday were not inclined to do much as they had overdone it the day before. Today, between the three of them, 100 minutes have been spent outside - and none of them are three years old yet, they've just gone soft!
We know that longer days and better weather are on the way however. The weekend gave us a hint of the weather, it is nearly 6pm here now and it is not yet dark, and the other sign of spring has also started to appear. Second home owners are starting to drift over to stock up on essentials, see how their property has survived the winter and find out the gossip from the winter and make plans for later in the year. It is lovely to see people again, and to be reminded how lucky we are to be here all the time!
I am getting thoroughly tired of the winter!! It snowed here again today and there may be more to come. Yesterday I put on a skirt and shoes as I am tired of wearing trousers and boots - but guess what I was back to wearing today ....
Posted by: Anne Donald | 09 February 2010 at 07:30 PM
I must admit I was thinking of you when I wrote this entry, because however down I feel today about the cold being back (it was -5 degrees C at the market at La Fleche this morning), we have had it easy compared to you. On the way back from the market we saw the cutest black lamb ever,so
Spring will happen sometime!
Posted by: Jane | 10 February 2010 at 10:14 AM