02 October 2010

Hoping for summer, preparing for winter

Just a picture today: it's busy here. We have people coming to spend the afternoon. Bill is a guy I've "known" on an Internet forum for years, but we've never met before in person. He and his wife Sharon are spending a week or so in the Loire Valley and we get to meet them.

The weather is still gray and damp, but Saint-Aignan seems to be on the northern limit of some good sunny weather. In other words, the rain is north of us and moving away, I hope. I'd love for us to be able to sit out on the front terrace for a couple of hours this afternoon. We'll see if it's warm enough.

Stained glass in the church at Péronne in the Somme
Click on the image to enlarge it, and then click on it again...

Meanwhile, the heating contractor's crew came back yesterday for the last time. They hooked up all the radiators, bled the air out of them, and turned on the boiler to see if everything was in working order. The good news is that there were no apparent leaks and all the radiators got warm. So we are good to go for the winter.

6 comments:

  1. glad that you've got heat for the coming winter. Have fun with Bill- I bet he is excited about meeting you and Walt.

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  2. Good news on the heating :)

    That stained glass is beautiful... so much color! It looks to me like it was done in the 20th century... kind of in the style of medieval but with almost a cartoon look to the people. It's gorgeous. As I'm writing this, I'm wondering if you maybe already mentioned something about this church being redone in the 20th c.?

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  3. Hi Ken,

    I hope your family in NC stayed dry during the latest flooding. Wild weather...and a small earthquake in NH!

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  4. We're having 10 - 20 degree cooler weather here in Eugene Oregon as well. I've managed to NOT turn on my heating, so far. We may still get close to 80 in the middle of next week. Our pétanque potluck has been cancelled for tomorrow because of the cooler temps. We will still play, thank goodness.
    I hope you do get to enjoy more conversation sitting outside with Bill.

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  5. Good to go for the winter.... just as the weather gets warmer again!!
    Pauline et moi were at the Vide Jardin at Valmer today and it just got hotter and hotter... lovely... got back here and sat on the bench with a cup of Yorkshire tea.... basking in the late afternoon sun.

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  6. Tim, it's true, yesterday turned out to be a beautiful, warm day. We sat outdoors and stretched our lunch until 5 p.m. Our visitors were impressed, I think, with the great weather we have on this side of Tours, after having put up with rain for several days over near Angers.

    Mary, our high temperature today is supposed to be 80F. Wild. We've had pretty erratic weather this season, but we aren't complaining at this point.

    Judy, yes, very cartoonish glass. So many of the churches in Picardy had to be rebuilt after the 1914-18 war. I just liked the colors, like you.

    Bill in CA, I'll talk to my mother today and see how she fared. The local newspaper (local to my home town in NC, not Saint-Aignan) said they got 20 inches (!) of rain in something like 48 hours. That would be unbelievable here in the Loire Valley, where we get 20, maybe 25 inches annually.

    Evelyn, we enjoyed a really nice afternoon out on the terrace with Bill and Sharon. They are interesting and very easy-to-like people. Bill said he had never met anybody from the Francophiles forum before, in person.

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