Autumn arrives

Oh yes, Autumn has arrived, up this morning to the mist, but the sun is starting to break through. And break though it did, what a glorious day it has been, the sky could not be bluer.

I took this photo while lying on my lounger

Ok its 20th Sept. and I have been outside on the lounger having a snooze. Pure Utopia, excuse the pun.

This time of year everyone is getting things ready for the winter, and we are no exception. Today I telephoned our wood man, ha! what a laugh. When you don't have a good command of the language it is even more difficult on the telephone.

Wood burning fire

We have a wood burning fire and it takes about 5 steres of wood, which is about 5 cubic meters. A lot of the people here go out into the forest and get there own wood, bring it home and cut it themselves.  But we don't have the transport for that, so we get it from a man who delivers for us, cut into logs big enough for the fire. Anyway I telephoned him and ordered the wood, and he said it would be next week, and he would phone me to confirm which day. So you always manage. Then we decided we needed the chimney cleaned.

When we were up visiting Francois and Michel last week we mentioned about getting the chimney cleaned and told them we had gotten someone the last couple years to do it. It cost us around €65. Well their face said it all, they were astonished and said they did it themselves. So off we went to the DIY store to buy the necessary to do it ourselves.  My husband put the long sticks with a plastic brush on the end up the chimney, but when it was almost up to the top it seem to stick. When looking up the chimney he could see a bend, were the brush wouldn't go, so he had to get up onto the roof. I was laughing as he looked like an old fashion chimney sweep. But it wasn't possible to get the brush down the chimney from the roof. So fingers crossed, when we light the fire, everything will be ok. I must say, there is nothing like a big wood burning fire in the winter.

I love to watch to see what the wild life are up to this time of the year. Autumn is when birds form flocks, there are conkers and chestnuts covering the ground and plenty of sweet chestnuts which are delicious roasted. The French go berry picking, and they also make a lot of jams, which is called confiture and preserves. In Autumn the valley is bright with colour as the leaves change every shade of orange, red and yellow.

The Tarn in Autumn 

My quote for today:

"Tis the last rose of summer,

left blooming alone,
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone"