Goodbyes, too much rain and a happy hello.

Goodbyes

January gave us a sad goodbye, RIP Sam,  but for me, there was a welcome farewell. The change of President in the US brought the hope that dignity can return to politics.  

My worst memory of Trump among so many bad souvenirs was when he whipped up a crowd by mocking the physical disability of a journalist. The reasons for his appeal to supporters has been much discussed and it is futile to ignore the dissatisfaction that has enabled him and other populists closer to home. I read somewhere ' Populists are dividers, not uniters. They split society into “two homogenous and antagonistic groups: the pure people on the one end and the corrupt elite on the other,” and say they’re guided by the “will of the people.” I hope that with the change of President a new way can emerge that will lead to solving problems rather than adding to them.

Too much rain

This has been the wettest winter for almost thirty years apparently, It has certainly been the wettest we can remember. November is usually a wet month and we hope for its rain to fill up the lakes, waterways and water table ready for the hot days ahead. Then December usually brings bright, cold days just right for walks with the dog and short forays into the garden. This year it has been wet, wet, wet and then wet again. Our department, the Lot et Garonne, is one of the many in France that has been affected by floods or threat of floods as rivers rise. Many roads are closed and farmland underwater. We long for cold, dry days and can't wait for Spring to turn up and erase the wet memories once and for all. 

Some jobs can go ahead despite the rain. We have taken delivery of our annual half a pig and been busy butchering and transforming it. The freezer is heaving and we look forward to homemade sausages, home-cured bacon and many delicious pork-based meals. 

Kevin took delivery of 4 kgs of bitter oranges, a Christmas present that he had to wait for. He has transformed them into 38 jars of delicious marmalade and the smell of them cooking cheered a very gloomy couple of days. For me, it has been 'sew' far so good as for the first time ever I have met my target of using the winter days to get on with my sewing projects. 

Still, we are getting itchy fingers and want to be back in the garden getting everything tidied up and ready for Spring. Our fingers are crossed for goodbye to wet, wet, wet.

A happy hello

February starts with happy memories for us of our first hello when we met on the 3rd February 1996. It was a wet, wet February that year too. Invited to dinner a forty-minute drive away I was reluctant to leave a cosy house and an absorbing book. The invitation had included the rider 'you'll meet my brother ' and the matchmaking agenda wasn't appealing. How wrong I was and that rainy night was the start of an adventure that has amazingly brought us to our 25th year together.

A bientôt