Thursday 5th March

The winter is nearly over……well not quite.

I am now looking forward to Spring with a passion. I have had enough of the snow and just want some warm weather and green grass. The grass up here tends to go a murky grey during the winter and even when the snow melts on the lower fields there is no colour and a drabness descends on the ground. Up on the top of the hill everything is clear and bright and fresh with snow.

So in not too many weeks tiny flowers will start to appear out of no where. On the slopes as the snow recedes small flowers will push their way through the ground that has been pounded down by thousands of pairs of skis and tons of piste bashers. It never ceases to amaze me the strength of these fragile little things.

Other than my lust for the Spring things have been quite busy in the village with all the school holidays and visitors from many parts of Europe. Apparently there have been large numbers of visitors from Portugal this year, but I have noticed there have been far fewer English and Irish voices on the piste. I can understand the lack of Irish voices as the Shannon flights were wiped out this year but there has been a certain nervousness from the UK. I suppose they have all gone to Scotland to ski.

The high winds last Saturday sadly brought down a few more trees. You would have thought that after last years storms any weak trees would have already come down. But there are a number of them now snapped like matchsticks.

Our dog Lilli is still growing, I’m beginning to wonder when she will stop. For the last few weeks she has caused uproar in the village with every scraggy old mutt. They have been standing out in the lane giving her the “eye” and I have been chasing them with the mop. I never catch them and they are back a few minutes later with lecherous looks and a passion that I have rarely seen.

I suppose I should go and take madam for a walk as she needs miles of exercise to get rid of some of her energy. Actually she takes me for a walk and I don’t have that much energy to start with.

So until the next time………….

PS please don’t buy all the plants in the garden centres before I get the chance to grab a few

Tuesday 9th March
What on earth happened yesterday?

We have got roughly 3 foot of snow with drifts, cars are totally buried and the footpaths are covered in heaps of snow which has been shifted by the snowplough. This year we have a new snowplough driver who whizzes around the village leaving enormous piles of snow causing jams all over.

At the bottom of our lane, he has in his wisdom piled half of the old village’s snow to block our gate totally. It is about 6 foot high,12 foot across and 10 foot deep. This we feel however, is not quite what he is supposed to do as we have three cars belonging to guests stuck in the garden without a hope of getting out this side of July unless the village do something soon.

I am deciding whether I should complain to the Marie or put crampons on and do the first ascent of Mont Astres. Maybe plant a flag, swig some whiskey and write a book of my memoirs.
Hmmmm it is all worth a thought.
Hope you all get dug out soon

Tuesday 23rd March

Well March hasn’t been brilliant for us. As most of you have read and seen on TV A young man called Jonny Dorey has gone missing whilst doing his Masters on an exchange scheme to America. He is also our Godson. So it goes to say we have known him all his life.

He is a good wholesome clean living young man with a passion for mountain biking. What can have happened to him? Where has he gone?

I remember when Maddy McCann went missing my heart went out to her parents but I was at a distance and marvelled at the courage of her Mummy. I have now marvelled at the control of my dear friend. I know from the sound of her voice if it’s a good day or a bad day, the control it is taking not to cry on the phone. I do feel useless over here but she does have family there to support her and Alan and they are a very close family unit.

On a brighter note we are trying to look forward to the Spring I actually have three crocus in my garden. Everything else looks as though it has been ravaged by the frosts we had a few weeks ago.

I have ordered seed on line and they have arrived so I am chomping at the bit to get out and sow them. Although I did try to order some more today and they were going to charge over £47 for postage on £21 worth of seeds. How ridiculous is that? But I have learnt from experience not to jump the gun as I have seen it snow well into May and not just a flake. We can have up to a foot or so which plays havoc with lettuce plants one moment they look like proper little lettuce and then the next day they are just green slime. Not nice.

People are still skiing even though we are out of the holidays and it’s lovely to go and have the place to yourself, quite magic really and well worth a trip up.

So until my next Mumble take care of yourselves