Ça caille...

...ce matin. Le froid est revenu. Selon le gadget que j'ai sur mon écran et qui me donne la température à Saint-Aignan, nous avons eu –8 ºC tout à l'heure. Je veux bien le croire.

Repeated freezings and thawings are slowly breaking down
the apples we dumped on one of the garden plots last fall.

I just came back from my walk with Callie. She saw or heard an animal — probably a little deer, un chevreuil — down in a wooded ravine that a stream runs through (when it's not dry, and it often is). She got her sing-songy, yelpy bark going, and she ran around like wild for 10 minutes.

The pond is frozen over again.
Minus 8ºC is about +18ºF.

I finally called her out of the woods, and she came to me. I never saw or heard whatever got her so excited. My camera battery had given out, and I was ready to come back home. It was just too cold out there to stay much longer, but it was beautiful — the sun shining brightly low on the horizon, and everything covered with hoarfrost.