Cold as Ice

While you Kiwis and Australians have been sweltering in the heat (especially Auckland, with a heatwave of at least 20 degrees...) you might be pleased to know that we have been shivering in our shoes, literally. We do feel sorry for the Melbournites who are currently struggling with temperatures into the 40s and are having to deal with bush fires and destruction of property.

Last week on Thursday the snow started coming in and is still here. The last few nights have been bitterly cold at -8 or -10, with last night being our coldest since we arrived here, at -12 celcius. The sharp air cuts through your lungs and seems to bite hard. The ice wave of UK finally made its way down to south of France and caught us up in its grip.

street in the village

chemin du relais towards reservealong the Southe oaks retain their colour in the reserve

We have both been knocked out with the flu or a cold or something in between - lots of sniffling and not being able to breathe properly, hacking coughs, headaches and just feeling lousy. But, Wouter is a few days ahead of me and is well on the way to recovery. I am feeling much better too, so it's all good.

During the snowy weather we also got some sun, so Wouter took the opportunity to go out and take some photos. You can't tell from some pictures, but the snow was around a meter deep in places. According to Wouter he had to shake out his boots several times. As the snow starts to melt, icicles are formed and today we saw some which were at least a meter long. If snow has been compressed on the ground, walking can be dangerous if the compressed snow has turned icy so it's best to walk in softer snow.

view from the front window

snow drift on east of property

hope the broad beans make it through....

I think this looks like woolly mammoths climbing our hedge (we just saw Ice Age...)
and the tobacco plants look rather glum under the snow

Cassy has enjoyed the one walk I've made with him in four days (due to flu) - there were so many new smells to sniff out - he was almost in heaven. Although he later showed his true labrador traits when I felt sorry for some birds who could not find food, so made a melange of rolled oats, pumpkin seeds and breadcrumbs and bacon fat. Cassy made sure the birds didn't get a taste for this new cuisine as he found every single crumb. But he paid the price by having sore gums later on - having spent a lot of time with his snout in the icy snow.

The forecast for tomorrow is for up to +12 degrees so no doubt it will feel absolutely tropical!

Hoar Frost

On 12th January we had fog and cold temperatures which Wouter suspected would be right for a hoar frost. He had a quick look outside and couldn't see anything obvious, but when I took Cassy for a walk down the road I told him what I saw - hoar frost - so he quickly headed out with the camera to take some pictures. Here are a few examples of what we saw that morning:

coils of wire

firewood

rain meter

grass

vineyard

neighbour's pine tree

Frosty the Snowman

A few pictures to update you on the current status of weather here. November has literally been a gloomy and dreary month, with hardly any sunny days - luckily there was still enough autumn colour around to brighten things up but not much rain, apart from a couple of good falls (the rest I call fairy rain).

Frost on car:

We didn't mind so much as there was plenty of work to do inside, as well as the delivery of our container, the boxes of which we are unpacking slowly. But must admit it was great to see the sun today and enjoyed some time outside.

Today we awoke to -3 degrees, which we've had only a few times in Waimauku at the start (1990's). You may not think this is anything exciting, but for us it's part of our adventure. A short walk down the road gives us a view towards Limoux where you can see snow on the hill/mountain, and more snow behind that.

One very interesting thing today is the tree which they call the mulberry (it's really a Murier) - as soon as there was frost on it's leaves they dropped to the ground. It seems likely there will be another frost tonight so I'm guessing by tomorrow there won't be many leaves left on the tree.