Staying warm

Sunday we went to another concert, this one with medieval music, voice, recorders, and other instruments, in a small church. It was lovely. When we left, it was pouring buckets for most of the way home.

Homes decorated for Christmas already were still visible through the rain. Monday morning the radio treated us to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and other holiday standards, all in French.

And brrr! now it's gotten cold, with light freezes overnight and daytime highs in the low single digits (C). (Scroll down to check the current weather on the right.) Tuesday morning was bright, but generally it's been pretty gray. At least it's dry. We took advantage of the sunny spell to walk our recycle glass up to Mazerolles again. Mazerolles is south of here, but it's uphill all the way. Just beyond Mazerolles is L'Arbre, with the highest spot in Charente at 345m. We're at about 270m.

The old stable part of the house is warmed with a fuel oil heater. This heat rises, so the mezzanine is nice and toasty, while downstairs is comfortable. This heater has to be filled, using a large watering can kind of thing, once or twice a day. The tank for the fuel is outside the front door.

The kitchen is reasonably well heated with a wood stove, but we can say that the romance of a wood fire burns a bit low when you're dealing with it all the time. In the morning, the ashes have to be cleared out, the stove's window scrubbed a bit, the fire laid and started. All messy work. Then you have to keep an eye on it all day and throw a log on every couple of hours whenever it's getting low. Your excursions need to be shorter than the time a log burns or you have to light the fire again.

The birds finally discovered the feeder and seem to be getting more used to our presence in general. Most of them no longer fly off in panic when we walk by a door or window.

Today Ed's going to bake a pumpkin pie for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner.

Sinterklaas is coming soon, and we have no place to get our chocolate letters!