Spring!

[mint]

[quote user="mogs"]We have been here for 10 years after living in a damp and grey climate in Brittany.

We moved further south for an improvement in the weather.

Of the 10 years here, this has been the coldest, wettest and gloomiyest winters and spring that we have so far experienced in France.

I don't mind cold but can't bear the rain and grey sky.

Please weather God let us have summer.[/quote]

Coldest, wettest and gloomiest.....that is about right, Mogs, and is also borne out by the bilan that Betty has posted.

It said March was "mausade" and I couldn't have described it better; also lack of sunshine and cold.  Had heating on just about every evening and some mornings in March.

I know that people from both my walking clubs have lamented an unprecedented number of walks having to be cancelled.  A group did go to the Arcachon for our spring weekend away and they told me that it rained the whole weekend.

Note to Richard:  If you want to think that it was "normal" and that we are simply used to warm springs and can't accept a few wet days, I can assure you that in this instance you are completely wrong[:P]

[Patf]

Maybe the quote from Shelley's Ode to the West Wind should be changed to

If spring comes, can summer be far behind?

It's not so bad here (SE England) but we've had a few thunderstorms and a lot of rain too.

[mint]

Have been eagerly awaiting an evening walk tomorrow (even better, being taken by my neighbours so don't have to drive myself) and having dinner at a chateau.

Just looked at the forecast and, yes, you've guessed it..........thunderstorms and hailstones[+o(]

Feel sorry for the people whose place it is and especially if they are wondering how many (if any) dinners they'd need to cook.  Had the same walk and ate at the same place last year and it was something like a daube so will take forever to cook.  I suppose they can just freeze the mains but there will be a lot of bread and maybe desserts wasted........

[richard51]

Ooops - hopefully will pass quickly before evening.

Otherwise perhaps you could just skip the walk!!

Double meaning intended.

[mint]

Nah, no walk, no eat.........it's out in the open in candlelight[:-))]

[mogs]

A beautiful couple of days 28° warm and sunny. It was wonderful to see a sky so blue.

Pool temperature reached 28 also so, in we went.

[woolybanana]

Berloody awful weather forecast for most of France, chaps, so batten down the hatches.

[richard51]

Mmmmmm - bit wet here now. Perhaps Mint has a smidgen of a point.

Even worse when a couple of tiles fell off our roof yesterday leaving a hole. Its a typical périgourdine roof with no felt underneath. Did manage to get into the attic and put tiles in upper row to cover the majority of the hole. (Strangely enough rain was forecast!)

Did email the roofer (french) who had re-done the roof 9 years ago and a couple of years after we bought the place but didn't expect too much of a response. When there was the storms a few years back we had only one side tile broken and he did not respond. Others had massive problems though.

He came this morning and fixed it totally by replacing the fallen tiles. No problem.Also fixed a suspected leak caused by a leaking window in the roof and I was so grateful that having seen how he managed to fix the tiles from outside I found the courage to fix the side tile myself - it was actually very easy to get to. I think he would have done it if I'd asked.

What a différence to the English people we have employed for some jobs. This week, the plumbing under the double sink ( a joint under the sink) was leaking after I had to clear the trap with gunge.

The joint had been a problem for a while but I had managed somehow to stop the leak. This time couldn't and so thought that I'd have to replace the whole double sink drainage. Looking on the internet the pipes used were actually first class and were designed for additional inlets for dish washer and washer either side.

I eventually discovered that the problem was that the very good fitting had been put in by the "plumber" had not got the pipe to the outlet aligned correctly with the expensive bit and so was causing pressure on the joint. By pushing in a small wedge to align the bits the joint stopped leaking. Success again.

I won't blame the proprietor of the english company but he had employed english sub contractors who plainly didn't give a damn about quality. Same with the tiles put up in our shower room. The same proprietor had selected good tiles but had an installer who was rubbish.

Not quite sure what the moral of the story is.

Anyway - did you get your meal young lass?

[mint]

Well, yes, thank you, Richard.

Incredibly, it bucketed down but only for about 20 minutes.  We started off after it stopped and there were only some drizzles.  Had l'entrée at one farm and mains at the chateau.

Hélas, it wasn't outdoors by candlelight on account of worries about the weather.  But it was OK because, instead of eating outdoors where the serfs would have eaten, we were admitted into the dining room.

Sat on uphostered chairs that were certainly Louis-some-number-or-other in a room full of .....er....meubles.  Don't quite know how to describe the mixture of bonnetière, desserte, armoire etc, you get the idea.

 The food was excellent but unfortunately I have some medical complications and couldn't drink any of the wines.

After I got home about midnight, the heavens opened again and there was thunder, lightning, gales, rain all through the night;  couldn't get to sleep until the early hours of the morning.

Then Sunday night, same combination of thunder etc and today again it was grey and raining all day until towards evening when the sun came out and it was so hot and humid that I might have been in Singapore waiting to see if Trump and Kim would fall in love with each other and declare their bromance to the world.

[richard51]

That. mint, sounds superb. Even the night sounds good - I love listening to a really good thunderstorm when cosily tucked up.

I think that the Trump/Kim show had only one ending this time. Two egos boosted with nothing substantive. The Wests swing to the right exemplified by Trump and east européens is truly frightening. Don't think F35s are the total answer for the world.

Hey, it was you who wanted thread drift!