Onset Of Winter

Onset Of Winter

A lorry with a telescopic arm has been out putting up the Christmas decorations and causing chaos in circulation in the village wherever it stops, as it completely blocks the roads. Ah well, it's only twice a year (once again to take them down) and the decorations themselves are quite restrained. The shops are full of boxes of chocolates, foie gras and ducks. It marks the onset of winter, although the sunny weather has so far remained for most of the time ; boules in shirt sleeves is still possible some days.

The handfuls of bulbs that wouldn't fit into the pots in front of my house have now been planted in three groups in the back. They should make a decent display in the spring, alongside the aubretia and anemone blanda in the terrace wall. There's not much showing out the back now (a clump of chrysanthemums) except for the redcurrant sage, which is a mass of bloom. I haven't known it flower so profusely at this time of the year in England but I noticed that one in Daniel's garden is similarly covered in bloom. In a minor fit of gardening enthusiasm last spring Daniel bought a dozen narcissi bulbs. I told him they wouldn't bloom until the following spring but he didn't care. In fact, to my surprise they are in bloom now. I thought spring bulbs had to be frozen before they would bloom (the trick used by horticulturists to make hyacinths, for example, bloom at Christmas – freeze them in late summer) and Daniel's certainly haven't experienced any frost since last spring. So, another gardening surprise for me out here.

Religion

One of the Christmas carol troupe, Anne-Marie, has pulled out citing her reluctance to sing religious songs. She was less than enthusiastic to start with so that may also have contributed to her decision. However, religion certainly seems to be more significant in France than in England. Nothing like the rather catch-all C of E seems to exist. The minority protestants are very protestant and, muslims apart, the rest of the country seems to divide into serious Catholics and very atheist atheists or agnostics. My friend Mana and neighbour Monserrat don't actually spit at the mention of religion but are not far off doing so. None of the English singers is notably religious, some of us definitely not so, but having to find Christmas carols that weren't in any way religious would be an awful chore. How much of this divide in France is attributable to the wars of religion and how much to the church/state split initiated by Napoleon I don't know but I feel inclined to find out more.

Exchange Rate, Christmas Presents And Sudoku

Having for some time cursed the Pound's tendency to keep steady at about 1:1.2 against the Euro, despite the Euro's troubles, I'm finding that it actually works to my advantage in some marginal cases. As usual in the lead-up to Christmas I've been scouring Amazon and other websites for possible Christmas presents. My mother actually wants nothing that I can give and needs nothing that anyone can give (I'll buy some lavender essence, soap, etc for her) but I troll through DVDs on Amazon for some winter evening entertainment. Last year I bought Lost In Translation and Closer, two films that I enjoyed. This year I shall buy Taxi Driver, Black Swan, Léon and Incendies. What I noticed, flicking between Amazon France and Amazon UK, is that the Pound/Euro prices seem to be calculated at about 1:1.4. The same was true of electronics sites I looked at. Being able to purchase easily in either country, I'm taking advantage of the weak pound by buying in the UK.

One of the ways I pass the time on winter evenings is doing killer sudokus, the version where the opening grid has no numbers except total values for groups of cells. I've thought for some time that these sudokus are an ideal way to teach kids arithmetic. I mentioned this some time ago to Armelle, who teaches maths and gave her some sample puzzles; the easier ones are certainly appropriate for kids of 11-15. However, she has so far done nothing with them. She retires at the end of the school year so that is understandable, although a pity I think.