Today we're driving up to Blois to have lunch with friends. It'll be good to get out of the house and ride the roads for a little while. The weather today is supposed to be similar to the conditions you see in the pictures in this post. After four days of mostly rain, some snow, and much gloom, we'll be glad to see the sun again. (The pictures here are from February 8th, and now it's the 13th.)
The rain is supposed to return tomorrow afternoon. I for one am officially sick and tired of this gray and damp winter. If March comes in like a lion, I'll be disappointed. It would be nice to get out and work in the garden, but the ground is just too squishy even when the sun is shining. I'm sick and tired too of sloppy, slippery and slidey walks with the dog.
Mary in Oregon asked in a comment about the cost of undergrounding the electric lines around our hamlet. Well, the cost is being picked up by the town or by the electric company, ERDF — those two entities are probably sharing it. We residents don't have to pay anything extra. I think we lucked out.
One of the nicest things about the vineyard is that there are no utility poles or electric or phone lines running through it at all, except right here around our little hamlet of nine houses. Our phone lines run up alongside the paved road on low poles. They've never been pulled down by a falling tree — at least not over the 10 years we've been living here — so phone service (including broadband internet) is not a problem.
On the way to Blois, we're stopping to pick up an 83-year-old friend who recently had foot surgery. She told me on the phone a couple of days ago that three weeks after the operation she's able to walk again. The people who have invited us (our summertime neighbors) are also in their late 70s and early 80s. It will be a fairly sedate afternoon. I'm sure the food will be, as usual, excellent old-style French cuisine.
Enjoy your lunch time get-together with your friends.
ReplyDeleteWe've seen signposts once or twice that the European Union is chipping in to bury electric wires, but maybe it's only for the Plus Beaux Villages or Villages Fleuris. I'd say you're lucky there.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, cabin fever. We've had it forever it seems, so we take a day trip together at least once a week. You two don't seem to do that and yet you have wonderful places half an hour or less away, whereas it takes us two hours to get to a town with good restaurants and a good library. But the trip is worth it even though we don't pass any chateaux on the way.
ERDF have buried the cabling between Chaumussay and Le Petit Pressigny. Unfortunately to run electricity to each farm along the road, there's a massive new post by the road and aerial cables up to the buildings... If the properties in your locality are nearby the road, perhaps it will be cheaper to reconnect underground than to put up new posts.
ReplyDeleteOne of my friends paid close to $10,000 to have the electrical lines buried between the alley behind her home and the side of her home (I would guesstimate maybe 70ft, certainly no longer than that). That was over 10 years ago.
ReplyDeleteYou are very lucky although here, if our citizen-owned utility paid for the change, the cost would be directly passed on in higher cost of service. Our utility,EWEB- Eugene Water and Electric Board,is one of the best employers (high pay)in our area.
Hear hear re the weather. I'm sick and tired of it.
ReplyDeleteHaven't done a thing outside as it is so squelchy. We have a muddy puddly mess outside the woodshed which is a real pain. It just so needs to dry out.
Fingers crossed it happens soon.
I hope the weather will remain nice for your trip and lunch.
ReplyDeleteNiall and Antoinette, thanks for that comment. It's not just me. I'm not completely crazy, but maybe a little bit stir-crazy.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn, if Callie enjoyed riding in the car, we'd be more motivated to take such day trips. Of course, I've seen all the nearby chateaus dozens of times. And with diesel fuel at almost $10 a gallon, we hesitate to do a lot of driving... So we suffer.
Starman, thanks for the good wishes. The weather was good yesterday. We all remarked on how nice it was to see the sun. Of course, if you had such a day in Florida, you'd think it was awfully hazy, nearly gray. For us, the sky had a certain glow, even though we weren't blinded by the light, that's for sure.