As I sit here writing, Hank Marvin He's Always Starvin' the little stray cat I took in a couple of years ago is sat on my lap, purring with happiness. Loulou the tortoiseshell cat we got at a boot fair (she thinks she's a princess) and Shadow, her partner in crime are curled up on a chair next to me. 'Enry Cooper, the boss cat, is in my shopping basket and Winston, the biggest cat in the village is sitting on the window sill watching Pierre the farmer go by in his tractor. Sadly Ginger Roger the deaf stray I took in got ill and didn't recover.
Down by my feet on their giant cushions are Frank Bruno, Ella Fitzgerald and Churchill my three dogs. At the bottom of the garden in their new shelter are my 25 chickens, 4 geese and 40 ducks. It's been a good year for ducks chez moi - or a bad year, depending on how you look at it. I really didn't want any more but they hide under hedges and sit on their eggs and then just turn up at the back door, proudly leading their new babies. I can't resist.
As we head towards the end of one year and the start of another, my little brood are all preparing for winter in France and I'm ready too. The wood is cut for the fire, the apples from my trees are stored in newspaper in the pantry alongside nuts, jams and bottled fruit given to me by my neighbours. I am not good at cooking but it doesn't matter, in rural France it's all about sharing. Not just at Christmas but all year round. I always have too many apples and way too many eggs so I give them away. If a neighbour needs a hand with something Mark, my husband, is always generous with his time. In return neighbours share their excess fruit and vegetables, make cakes and freely give advice to the only Brits in the village.
At this time of the year, sharing in rural communities is especially important. I remember one Christmas, Bernadette who lives down the road, slipped in the snow and broke her leg. Everyone in the village rallied round, picking up her shopping, chopping wood, making her soup and generally helping out.
It's one of the many things that make me realise that living in the middle-of-nowhere France is the best thing I've ever done. That and the markets, the wine, the cheese and the bread!
I wish you a happy winter, a merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
Janine xx
My
Good
Life
France