A very quiet week. The tickle in my throat that I detected in the plane on the way over, quickly progressed to a full-blown chest infection, during which I lost my voice but managed to fill all the hours of the day and night with coughing!
Our only real outing was our required visit to Auch, about three quarters of an hour’s drive away, to apply for our visa renewals, on Monday. All went well in this stage of the proceedings except that we were short of a couple of documents. These, however, were on my computer so we came home and printed them off. When we made the return trip we took Nicky along with us and the three of us treated ourselves to an afternoon at the movies. We saw ‘The King’s Speech’, with Colin Firth as King George VI, and thoroughly enjoyed it. No wonder he has been nominated for so many awards – it was brilliantly acted.
Apart from that, we have kept very close to home and the warmth of the fire. When we have been forced to go out to shop, we have done only that, although on one day we made a slight detour on the way home. This detour took us through a little town called Manciet, where we were delighted to see the winter version of the ‘knitted trees’ which shade so many town squares in summer. All the wonderfully leafy trees have been severely pruned back to great arthritic knobs on the ends of the branches – so severely, in fact, that it is a wonder that they ever sprout again. In places, longer branches have been intertwined and allowed to grow together so that when the leaves appear, they will make a thick leafy canopy.
When I was describing the house last week, I omitted to mention that we also have two cats, called Geoffrey and Flo. I’m not sure if they are a special breed or not, but they are both very solid and stocky with rather short legs and short thick fur. Considering that they spend most of their lives running wild, they are very lovable and adore being given attention. Geoffrey, in particular, loves to have his photograph taken and will pose beautifully. Flo, on the other hand is far too inquisitive and always has to come and see what one is doing.
Being ill this last week has been a real waste of time as the weather has been quite remarkable. The days have been sunny with clear skies and no wind so it has been a shame that we have not been able to take advantage of them. The forecast for next week looks a bit grim with maximum temperatures hovering in the middle single figures, and minimum’s going down below zero, but hopefully, after that the weather and my health will improve and we can get on with the business of holidaying!
No comments:
Post a Comment