Break in the rain

We are having quite stormy rainy weather at the moment, but there are enough breaks to make it not unpleasant. We had a nice walk this afternoon and sat out for lunch. We only got a little bit wet! The view from the front door looks dramatic.

View from the kitchen window

No it is not meant to be a photo of a lot of weeds! It is Hainoa, currently residing, with Islay, just outside the kitchen (at the back of the house). What a cool view!

Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning

Really this is just an excuse for a pretty photo. It did snow later this day so maybe the saying is right!
We have had very changeable weather with some wet windy days, a bit of snow and then the very next day beaming sunshine so warm we had lunch outside.

Snow and the view

You can see we have had a fair amount of snow. It falls on the fields and the animals are unhappy in the morning - not being able to get at the grass. But most of it melts by evening.
The ski area was going to have a special early off piste open day today but unfortunately it was cancelled due to too much snow (!) and the avalanche risk. It sounded good and we are hoping they will either run the bus during the season or at least do another day. The plan was to open the bottom stage of the cable car so you could ski either back to the bottom of it, or you could go right down the valley to Artigue from where there would be a free bus running back up, every hour. But still it is good there is so much snow suddenly. A few weeks ago we were worried they would not be able to open end of November as planned but now it looks good for the 30th.

Busy day but no skiing

Red sky at night, skiers delight.
Or perhaps not because there was so much snow the resort couldn't open! But the sunset fhs night before was pretty anyway.

Instead of skiing we did a number of useful things.
We popped round a friend's and cut up a tree that had fallen on their drive. The council luckily did the hard part of cutting it from over the telephone wire and we just cut it in to logs. It was good to be useful as they have been very helpful and lovely to us, looking after the animals when we have been away and looking after Doug while I was away as well as generally being helpful about where to buy things around here.

We then had the roofer round to look at a few bits of the roof that are leaking in the never ending rain and snow. We are keen to get bits fixed as soon as possible so we can make sure it is water tight before we insulate under it and can no longer see what is going on. Apparently when it is windy we will always get a little bit coming in as it blows up under the tiles, but if we can minimise it then the vents that are going to be put in should deal with the little that does get in.
There are a few things allowing the water in. The pointing on the chimney isn't good which means water is leaking an around the chimney flashing, one corner catches the wind which means the rain is being blown in to the corner and through the tiles and finally one of the chimneys doesn't have a shelter on it. So the roofer is coming back 'soon' to repoint the chimney, add some flashing to the offending corner and measure up for a cap for the chimney that doesn't have one.

Finally we spent some time inspecting and fretting about the driveway as there is one particularly dodgy bit that is getting worse fast. Earlier in the day I managed to drive in to the ditch just beside the dud bit because I was so busy inspecting it out the window. Oops. So then we had to unblock the ditch as well. I will write about our conclusions separately when I have taken some photos.

Sunny weather and the view

We have been having very warm weather here. The snow is melting worryingly fast, so hopefully it will get cold again soon. Although actually I am confliced whether to wish for that or not as it has been nice having warmer weather, we have been having lunch outside and the house is (obviously) much less cold and damp, but equally we want cold and snow for the skiing.

Lunch outside in the sun

Poppy loves sunbathing

Pretty sunset

Our house and rainbow

The view at night

First skiing in the Grand Tourmelet

The ski area isn't due to open for another few days, but there has been a bit of snow recently and as the forecast was nice and sunny in the morning we decided to go for a walk on our skis with the dog and then ski back down.

View of the ski area from the house

View of snow from the house

Walking up

Att the top with faithful hound

Looking back the way we came

Poppy helping take Doug's skins off

Skiing down - little bit rocky Doug not skiing best but Poppy cute

Autumn Colours

We have had fabulous autumn colour here. They are very hard to capture on film as it often ends up looking dull and boring. These photos don't do the amazing colour justice. We have watched, day by day, a band of colour move down the mountins opposiste.

There have been some amazing sunsets too

Chickens in the mist

This was taken this morning after discovering the pigs were gone, but I had to stop for a moment because it looked so atmospheric and lovely.