.....and then it snowed properly!

howdy,

we were pretty excited when we got 20cm of snow last week and then, just when the novelty was wearing off, it rained and cleared up the remaining snow leaving a blank canvas.....just in time for a really big dump!

the day before yesterday (we haven't posted about it until now due to being without power for two days!) we had 50-70cm (20-28 inches in old money) of snow in one go - how cool is that?

here's a couple of nice shots of the sunny weather the day before the big dump:





this is a nice shot of our footsteps and a bit of the view behind:



and here's how things looked yesterday morning:



the bird table:



so, with fresh food supplies (we still have enough dry/tinned food to last weeks) running low we decided that it would be a good idea to walk 12 miles (5 miles there, 7 back via a less severe route) to town to get some shopping.

we walked down the track to the road and then straight up from there as we didn't want to risk trekking off-piste (what piste?) until we knew how bad/good (depending on your criteria) the conditions were.

here's a shot of the trees under enormous pressure from the weight of 70cm of snow:



and a shot looking back at a house on the road:



shortly after this shot was taken nikki realised that she'd forgotten her wallet/money and so, feeling a little deflated/annoyed/amused (that it wasn't us who did it - ha ha!) we continued hoping to be able to convince the bank to give us some money without any I.D.

but.....as we all know the bank is closed on monday's which left us a little bit buggered!

finally, nikki had one last idea to try out.....she went in Cocci Market (our local organic/wholefood supermarket) and they (without even thinking it was out of the ordinary) agreed to let us do our shopping and pay them next time we're in town (try doing that in the UK!) - result!

so, backpacks stocked with supplies we set off back.

here's the 'road' from the nearest village to our house:



keep in mind that whilst it looks road-esque that snow is over knee-deep all the way.

and here's some rosehips which gave a nice splash of colour in an otherwise monocrome scene:



the day before (when most of the snow had gone and just as it was starting again) we'd tried to move the car but abandoned it as an impossible job after a couple of hours of digging it out, driving 10 meters, getting stuck, digging it out, driving 10 meters, getting stuck etc...

here's the boo looking well and truly snowed in on the track back down to the house:





and finally, here's nikki on the 'road' which now more closely resembles a fairly decent off-piste black run:



here you can really see just how deep it is:



it's been amazing seeing so much snow around and it's definitely cured nikki of her snow-snobery (she'd been spoiled by too many skiing holidays) - she's now suitably in awe of the conditions we've got here - brilliant!

we've no idea when we'll next be able to get out by vehicle but we're in no hurry (well nikki is - to get to see her family next week) but we're sorted for food and warmth (we've been helped out by the large number of trees that have fallen from the weight of the snow! one crushed the fence in the vegetable garden, another narrowly missed demolishing the big greenhouse and we've lost an old apple tree!).

stay tuned for more extreme weather adventures!

cheers, gairy and nikki.

icicles

this morning we awoke to some brilliant icicles on the house - take a look.....

the view from the door:



a close-up of a biggy:



looking left out of front door:



and a nice shot of the front of the house:



pretty impressive no?

enjoy.

oh the weather outside is.....weather!

evening,

here at simple headquarters today we had a big fat dump..........of snow!

in total there's been about 7-8 inches (17.5-20cm) of the fresh fluffy white stuff since it started snowing late last night and we're loving it!!!

here was the scene from the front door first thing this morning:



and one seriously unimpressed little cat:



the toilet is looking pretty (if not wind-proof):



and.....a shot looking back from the big barn towards our house which we think captures the scene here nicely:



with the weather as it is/was it made sense for the plans for the day to be wood-chopping and snow-enjoying!

there were unfortunately no photographs taken of the wood-chopping but here's some shots of the two walks i/we went on today.

here's a nice shot of the river at the bottom of the track from the house:



a little movie clip is of the other river:



and another river shot:



me and nikki walked over this old railway viaduct this afternoon:



inside a tunnel looking out towards the viaduct:



and finally me and nikki stood on the viaduct with nikki holding the camera out to get a shot of us both with a nice backdrop (which you can't see at all in the photograph):



all-in-all a splendid day was had by all.

monkey boy's been working on mark II of his home-made snowboard and there's talk of a 'night snow walk' after dinner - we'll see how it goes - should be fun!

ok, that's enough from us.

later.

muca and hobo continued.....

afternoon all,

we thought you'd appreciate a cat update!

both of the little dudes are doing well and enjoying the ardeche winter weather (hmmm?).

here's muca in the afternoon sun:



and, as much as i hate putting images of myself up here, muca enjoying some quality cat-lovin' on my knee:



hobo's now becoming a fat little fella indeed:



and looking 110% better/healthier than he did when we got him:



enjoy, gairy.