No its not a great day for rambling in the South of France, well not unless you have got some snow shoes. But there is one thing for sure, you will never be bored.

A week or so ago the trees were leaning over at about 90° due to the wind lashing the entire country; all the way from the Pyrenees to Brittany in the North. Anyone caught in that will know what I am talking about.

We actually got off quite lightly where we are, it messed up the satellite signal a bit and we had to be careful when we were taking our daily walk through the woods. There were a few trees straining at the leash for sure so a little care where you were walking was required.

A few days later we had a little excursion up to the lake at St Ferreol, a change of scenery and some new smells for the dog were the order of the day. We couldn’t believe when we got there just how many of the really mature oaks had fallen foul of the storm.

A bit sad really to see them all lying down, especially as the process of sawing them up had already started and many were just torso’s with their limbs removed. It is an arboretum around the lake so I guess they needed to get cleared up relatively quickly, but from a state of grandeur to a pile of logs in a couple of days. What a way to go after all those growing years!!

Anyway, with the sun coming out and a pressing need for fuel, it wasn’t long before we took the opportunity to stock up the woodpile ourselves. It’s hard work logging when the sun is shining, so off came the fleece and out came the chainsaw as we got stuck into a few fallen trees and some others we helped on their way so that they would be seasoned for next year, just like having our own little arboretum really especially with the accompanying pile of logs and some woodland management.

We have actually been thinking that we could start gardening duty as well pretty soon and bought some nice 12″ pots ready for our tomato plants. The tomato plants we will have once we have managed to get around to sowing some tomato seeds that is.

Might have to put that off for a few more days though, because when we got up this morning,as you will have guessed from my opening statement, there was another major weather turn and we were right back in the depths of winter.

So where have those sunny days and soft sunsets disappeared to, heaven only knows. From recent events though, I am pretty sure that it won’t be here for too long and we will be back to the spring like weather the last week or so has been promising.

So if you like the idea of a rambling holiday in the South of France without snow shoes, then all you need to do is wait a few days.