We had a lot of snow in 2006

This is the year we found out it can snow in France. Our daughter and granddaughter were due to leave via Toulouse. The roads were too dangerous to drive on so the plan was to go from Lexos by train. After waiting a couple of hours for a train which never did arrive we discovered we could not get the car out to drive back. We did eventually get half way home before leaving the car by the road side and trudging home. The flight back was missed. We ended up having two days making wonderful snowmen and I think the snowman must have walked off with the gloves as they were never seen again.
Were you here 9 years ago and have memories of this?
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Laguepie this morning looking chilly

Lots happening

Vendredi 6 février CONCERT : JUR Salle des thermes – Saint Antonin Noble Val – 21h Plus d'infos : Asso Même sans le train Mercredi 11 et 18 février LES ENFANTS SONT LÀ ! C'EST LES VACANCES ! Activités, ateliers, projections... de 14h à 18h Médiathèque de Montricoux Plus d’infos : 05 63 67 39 74 ou surwww.la-cuisine.fr Du 10 au 13 février La communauté de communes du Quercy Caussadais vous propose : RACONTE MOI UNE HISTOIRE Médiathèque de Caussade GRATUIT Plus d'infos : CCQC 05 63 93 28 66

You can see why fair lady loved Bottom

So loveable donkeys, unless they are escaping
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The fences are down

Fortunately I noticed before the donkeys. I slipped on the first coat and hat to hand and shot out to get them back up straight away. The snow lays on the fence lines and the weight brings the lines down lower and lower till a hop skip and a jump and the donkeys could be out. Just got  back to find Malc sensibly feeding the donks keeping them occupied out of my way. Being nudged in the back is not something you want on a slippery snowy bank.
I felt quiet guilty out there in my late mother's Alexon pure wool tweed coat; she was very clothes conscious. I got back wet through covered in mud, slush and straw. My mother would have been horrified. "Look on the bright side" says Malc, "you could have been wearing her mink coat"
Turning over in one's grave comes to mind, and I do seem to mention labels rather a lot myself, which is odd as most of my outfits are now from the Laguepie charity shop.
The other donkeys out on a spree were not Anke's but we have been told of two possibilities.
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We are being promised loads of snow

Well for a couple of days we might as well have fun with it. Who has got sledges? Who is going to build a snowman ? Send any fun time snowy pictures to TAG. Malc, Bonny and I will definitely build one if we get enough snow.
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My car is under there

This poor chap in the Pyrenees would just like to see his car again
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Donkeys on the loose

Has anyone lost 3 donkeys. I have just had a phone call from  a lady who lives on the road from Varen to Cambou. There are 3 donkeys behind their garden on a path. I have checked mine are there,  but cannot contact Anke at the moment. If they are hers she could be out searching. I cannot think of any other local donkeys but you reader might be able to.
What a rotten morning for an escapade.
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It's just Monopoly money

Like footballers' wages we've all been rich playing Monopoly, picking up thousands of pounds for a hotel on Mayfair (or Champs Elysees in the French version). But a lucky buyer could pick up a small euro fortune by buying one of the 30000 commemorative issues put on sale yesterday. 70 sets contain real money up to 300 euros and one set has a full collection real banknotes worth 20580 euros.
There is a fashion for publishing "local" versions of the property game, such as Birmingham or Marseille and we wonder if there was a Varen version would Mas del Sol be the Mayfair?
Val says to Mal's report, only in our eyes would it be Mayfair.
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130 saleuses, now what is that ?

130 saleuses prêtes à intervenir au petit matin. 130 salt machines are ready to intervene and will be out early this  morning. Not sure I will ever remember that " une saleuse" is a road salter/ gritter Malc tells me anything that spreads salt is a saleuse, you could use one in the kitchen, if you were using sel/ salt.I might remember it now.Whilst writing this the snow has started falling here and I have the feeling that we will need a chasse neige and a saleuse before too long.

Nadette tells us

bonjour,non, Malcolm, une "saleuse" est une salière à la cuisine.... Sorry!

 Val says yes a salière à la cuisine is a salt cellar.

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Go on, tell me what you can see in this picture

OK, snow and some cars but yes you now know, we can see a CHASSE - NEIGE a snow plough.
Well done, it is a word I now know.
This photo in the Depeche shows the rocade around Toulouse at 7.30am this morning
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An unusual avalanche kills 5 young men

Not a normal avalanche happened at Mourtis a ski station on Haute Garonne. It was a product of the extra cold which made a huge block of frozen ice come tumbling  down the mountainside killing 5

Yesterday we saw experts at dealing with snow closing many ski stations whilst they expertly blew up snow making avalanches, rather than leaving the snow to topple down at its leisure.

Still on the subject of snow

We  have not  got snow this morning but we must contact friends at Puycelsi to see if they have succumbed. We have plans to go for a meal speaking French and listening and talking about the history of this pretty hilltop village. The advert for this interesting meal in a charming house at Puycelsi in on the side label of TAG. I am hoping we can go and have planned taking a pen and notebook for new words learned.

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Nous sommes mardi, le trois

aller aux urnes​​​​to go to the polls
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Neige- verglas, could be our turn tomorrow

15 departments in the South are now being placed on orange alert, with snow, ice and very cold temperatures forecast.
French friends told us " attention / beware Fevrier" when we said we thought the winter was passing quite pleasantly.
When we first came 13 years ago we had two sunny Februarys and went off to San Francisco and then the following year  to Los Angeles looking tanned for the book fairs we were there for. I do not think we have had a good February since.
The donkeys are safely in their stable with plenty of bedding. (including straw from the back of Malc's jumper) The hen closed up with a good layer of straw to snuggle in, the two outside cats have had their duvets shaken and an extra one added. The other pets are all tucked up with us in the house with the under floor heating at its highest.
Our assurer Allianz has just sent a  snow warning.
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Seven random facts from Elly Wright

• Once when my husband and I were in Mount Abu (India) I got talking to a Frenchman who was the son of the retired head teacher of La  Fouillade school. La Fouillade of course is the nearest village to our French home and not a place many people have heard of. 
• 45 yrs ago I used to scuba dive off the south coast or England (brrrrrr) and in the Mediterranean off Sardinia and Cyprus
• In January 2014 I took part in Sally Sheinman’s iPad project ‘What makes you YOU?’ I described myself to Sally in one sentence and she made an image of how she saw me (We had never met). I think she got me down to a T. This is her ‘portrait' of me http://www.wmyy.co.uk/212-elly-wright/   Sally has since gone on to win the Lumen International Digital Art  Founder’s prize for 2014. 
• Quite a few years ago I had to read out an email on BBC4’s  Open Book radio program. I had written to Mariella Frostrup to answer a request to tell her something about which book had changed my life. My choice was ‘The Women’s Room’ by Marilyn French - I read it in the early 1970’s.
• I fell in love with Najac in the month of March 1989 when it was drizzling and enveloped by mist. We went back a year later (raining again) and  within a week spontaneously bought a house in the countryside there. Best decision we ever made. Never regretted it. We figured if we like it in the rain, we would certainly like it when the sun shines
• In October 2012 I won the People’s Prize in First International Lumen Digital Art Competition with my iPad painting ‘Summer Walk beside the Hogsmill’. My winning piece was shown in art galleries in London, Cardiff, Riga, Hong Kong and Shanghai http://www.ellywrightart.com/news_showpic.html?image=0
• One of my greatest pleasures in life is doing something which people say you cannot do …..

Elly Wright

www.ellywrightart.com

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Next concert at La Seye et vous at Verfeil

Bonjour à toutes et à tous,
 Vendredi 6 février, à la Seye et vous, le groupe PALOCO nous apportera du soleil au coeur de l'hiver à partir de 19h30.
MARIKA PERROS, ZINO MIDJEB et PAUL GOILLOT(ancien Fabulous troubadour) adaptent des chants gnawa,afro-cubain,afro-colombien avec le guembri comme instrument central.
Agrémenté de compositions originales, le groupe PALOCO sur scène c'est l'énergie, l'émotion, la transe, la fête !
 Au menu : poulet korma ou tourte aux champignons et aussi des desserts.
Renseignements : 05 63 65 22 18.
N'hésitez pas à faire circuler l'info.
A bientôt.
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Can Bounty be saved

Hi all,
Can you help Bounty? The owner is having the horse put down because of financial problems.
He is a gelded anglo Arab, approximately 10 years old, has full papers but has articulation problems with his front knees so can only be a leisure horse. Please help him find a home before he is heartlessly killed!
Thank you,
Terry and Frankie Tippett
Hi Val,
Have just sent you the save Bounty appeal, please can you put it on tag for us? The vet was due to put him down tomorrow morning but we have had it cancelled for the moment and asked for more time to sort something.
Another needy case I'm afraid, it never stops.......
Thanks,
Terry and Frankie x

This is Eldo, he is adorable

ELDO, jeune chien mâle de moins d'un an! C'est le chien parfait, il s'entend avec tout le monde! il a été trouvé et personne ne l'a réclamé!il reprend du poid dans sa famille d'accueil! c'est un vrai pot de colle, la seule chose c'est que monsieur n'aime pas la solitude! il est très calme, marche sans laisse! adoptez le et vous ne serez pas déçu! télephonez moi au 06 77 35 28 30!!!
This dog is a male less than a year old.He gets on with everyone. He was found and not claimed by anyone. He is gaining weight with his foster family. He sticks to you - the only thing he hates is solitude.
He is calm, walks without a lead. If you adopt him you will not be disappointed.
Call Maeva on 06 77 35 28 30.
Val says  I cannot believe he has not found a home yet, he is just so beautiful. What company he would be. Needless to say I want him but  you got it... Malc says No.
But someone must want a dog  as handsome as this.
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Just one left, free to a good home.

ADOPTEZ-MOI

Bonjour, moi c’est Eldo, je suis un jeune chien de moins de 1 an et d’à peine 10 kg. J’ai été trouvé et personne ne m’a réclamé, je reprends un peu de poids auprès de ma famille d’accueil ! 

Je m’entends avec tout le monde, je suis un jeune chien très calme, propre ! Je suis un vrai pot de colle, doux et gentil ! On dit de moi que je suis le chien d’une vie, seulement je n’aime pas être tout seul, l’idéal serait un jardin bien clos et un ou une copine !!!

Vous craquez pour ma bouille ?? Téléphonez au 06 77 35 28 30 ou au 06 70 52 79 30 !

Je vous attends ! 

                                        (L’adoption est gratuite)

Val says Maeva is a wonder at finding homes for dogs that have been lost or abandoned in St. Antonin. She has one left at the moment called Eldo. He is about a year old and adorable. I must find a picture of him.

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This happened at a French school near to us.

A young boy in juniors took and eat too much salad for his dinner. He was told off by the teacher and  for punishment had to write lines " I must not take too much salad" The youngster explained to his Mum " but you know how I like salad"
One wonders what Jaimie Oliver would make of that!
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