Winter at Quélébu - happy days!!

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Snow gone - for a day at least

After a wasted trip to St Girons to sign some documents at the notaire's that weren't ready, I made the most of the dry weather this afternoon. Clearing up branches, boughs and a couple of fallen willow trees in the fields, repairing fences, hopefully mending a small leak where the old house and new extension roof join and mending a broken slate from last winter, where a chunk of ice fell from the ridge onto the dormer roof.

After heavy snow I love the way the fields look "neat". All the mole hills and vegetation has been squashed flat.

Rain then snow due tomorrow, then snow off and on until at least Monday. Hope to get a ski in sometime this week.

Update: 10.00 pm and already snowing hard!

Landed!

Mild on arrival with the snow here melting fast, but temperatures quickly dropped at sunset and more snow on the way Wednesday! Rayburn stoked to get the house warm.

Coast walk

After a rushed MOT on the car this morning (all well), Dom, Susie and I made the most of some rare sun. It's a consequence of the high pressure system that is currently dumping more snow on the Pyrenees (where I'll be on Monday).

Cold in the icy breeze but good to see the sun. We also saw a huge seal, but alas he decided to dive when I reached for the camera.

A 25m high navigation tower

Snow

With a 4.75m (15 feet) thickness of snow on the ground at the Cauterets ski station (Pyrenees), it currently has the greatest snow depth of any resort in Europe and second greatest in the world. Of course there are resorts in the US that sometimes have more than this...but right now here is where it's at! Shame the avalanche risk is still so high.

http://midi-pyrenees.france3.fr/2013/01/29/cauterets-station-la-plus-enneigee-d-europe-189915.html

New sofas

Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. These two top quality sofas (second hand but immaculate condition) had to go...£50 each! I took them without a second thought. They're probably around £2000 each new. Fantastically well made.

Only problem was getting them up the stairs. After removing the balustrade they still wouldn't go. So through the first floor window was the only option - a bit scary but in the end it all went smoothly.

Up on the telescopic lift...what do you know it's raining (now there's a surprise!)

Moor snow

Touching the bruise

Latest performance of Susie's extraordinarily powerful yet beautiful piece "Touching the Bruise" last night at the Cygnet Theatre, Exeter. Danced perfectly by her dancers, Suzie, Sarah, Amelia and Roseanna. Another performance tomorrow.

Another 6 inches of snow last night - up early to try to finish as much as possible here...plastering progressing well!

Late update: A thaw today, then this evening heavy rain. At about 10pm it quickly turned to snow which is falling thick and fast!!

More snow (yawn)

Electricity has been off for most of the day, so had to rely on the just the fire to keep warm. The snow stopped mid-morning and there's been a slight thaw.

Without power I pressed on with jobs requiring hand tools only -  progressing the utility room and preparing our bedroom for plastering (removing the old lambris that has been there since I moved in).

Still snowing!!

The snow is dumping it down harder than ever this morning (perhaps another 20cm last night) but no sign of the wind yet. The electricity has flicked off a few times this morning. Normally we'd be without, as every year heavy snow would mean trees falling across the power lines below the village. This summer at great expense the line from Aleu to Biert was put underground. Unfortunately between Aleu and Pinsou is still above ground and  from Quelebu to the transformer at Pinsou is still through the forest. 

If the electricity goes off the main problem is that the central heating pump stops on the rayburn and there's precious little gravity circulation on my system. Every winter I say I must get an inverter so I can run the pump off a 12V battery and every summer I forget!

There was talk of skiing today at Guzet with Ian and Jason - but with the quantities of snow and the approaching blizzard I can't see that being sensible, even if it was possible to get to Guzet.

Snow photos

At Quelebu we've had maybe 30-40cm of snow so far and it's still snowing lightly. More snow tonight and tomorrow with some strong winds. In the mountains at 1800m there's been 50cm on Sunday, 30 cm today and another 50cm forecast for tomorrow. Avalanche risk is at 5 with some very large avalanches predicted!

At the Port d'Aula there's been 110cm of snow in 36 hours!

Weather update

 

Yep, still snowing and set to carry on for another 72 hours

Nothing else to do but press on with DIY. A big powder day tomorrow, hope my foot is up to it!

snow!

Today has been painting day - window reveals, staircase, bedrooms and the utility room are done and I've started on fixing the architraves. Wow it's all starting to look finished!

Been snowing all day...more forecast!

More stuff

A trip to the market this morning to give the twins their Christmas presents (though alas only Justin was there). Then after chopping more firewood I pressed on with finishing the last last window lining, velux linings and completing the stair wall. Architraves and painting next.

Still no sign of the snow. Forecast seems to be constantly being downgraded and arrival of the white stuff pushed back.

Staircase works

Slowly coming together...interrupted by a need to fetch in more firewood. Should of got it out of the woodshed not the field - as it's a not as dry.