Sniffling, and we hit minus one!

Well the thermals are piling on now....

minus one tonight,

and the flipping new goose down quilt is being a bit of a rascal.

What it should be doing is keeping us nice and warm at night.

What it actually does is the opposite....

it is two quilts in one....a thin summer one and a thicker winter one,

to be used individually,

or not,

depending on the time of the year and the temperatures inside and out.

Minus one outside tonight, nearly the same inside,

there being no heating on indoors,

because we don't put any on.

Oh we have electric fires,

but do not seem to be able to make ourselves switch the things on.

And the wood burning Rayburn is still work in progress.......

but........the floor tiles are done.

Wahoooo!!!!!!

OK, so they don't heat the place up,

but they do warm us up inside because now we can get on with getting the Rayburn sorted out.

But the darned quilt.....

what happens is that the summer and winter parts refuse to become a whole.

What I mean is, that the two quilts do not like being buttoned together to make a whole, 

preferring to be apart, that is what they want to be,

which means that they slide off each other,

like a couple who do not want to breathe the same air.

It makes the bed cold.

Or hot,

Depending on which part of the quilt / quilts we are under.

Not to worry,

spring soon be here, just got to get through a bit of chillyness,

and as long as I keep my big toes warm.

(they can go nearly purple in the cold and get chilblain itches so socks and boots on all the time now, except in bed, when my other half takes over the foot warming duties, bless him)

and keep my scarf wrapped round and round my neck,

then the cold is do-able.

We are, after all, living in a house rather than a tent and gazebo,

which is how we spent our first winter here. 

It is, I think, that experience which has hardened us up in regards to the cold.

However, and I do not want to keep banging on about it,

but that new duvet set was supposed to ensure us a warm night's sleep.

It isn't, and so I have developed the sniffles, perhaps a cold, or might be the dust in the house.

Either way, I have a feeling of vague unwellness upon me,

not sufficient to take me to my bed,

but enough to remove all energy and motivation from myself. 

So we had lunch out today.

It was nice to sit in a tidy space,

and eat other food,

and be warm.

Tomorrow is supposed to be chilly, but dry,

so instructions issued from Lester for tomorrow are:

- we need to get the pig paddocks sorted out again.

A week ago........

Lester had managed to separate the girls from the boys,

his plan of making gates and walkways to move the pigs about having now seemed to work:

Boys in one paddock, mum and trainee sows in the other.

And then we became diverted onto the house to get the kitchen floor tiles laid,

so the paddock fencing was not electrified, and the pigs knew this, and broke through the separating fence, and now Mum and all are together again. But the boys are getting frisky,

and have been seen to already practice their reproduction techniques on the girls,

which is not good at all, so out we must go tomorrow, to separate the pigs again and get the fence fixed.  We could do with a lollopy day tomorrow,

but not to worry, it will be nice to be out in the fresh air, which might convince my cold that it doesn't exist.

Meanwhile, we feel ten steps behind ourselves, but also ten steps ahead, and all at the same time!

And little Ditsy being caught, yet again, raiding the pig food buckets....

.... and Lissie just about ready for bed.....

..... and Bonny almost asleep on her feet.....

.... and the mists rolling in over the fields....

.... and so signing off from down here in SW France....

Sending blessings to you, 

and wherever you are in the World,

 hoping that your duvet is working efficiently for you.

Vx