Bbrrrr...

It was blowing a freezing gale up in the vineyard today. 23 departments in France have snow, so I guess we've been lucky to escape it. However, my three layers of thermals did me proud as I walked the dogs to the top of the vineyard.

The views south are magnificent and a little difficult to appreciate from an iPhone photo - but you get the idea. There's Marcel the Renault 4L and Olive the ancient caravan down near our Syrah parcel. If it was a clear day you'd see the Mediterranean sparkling like a silver ribbon on the horizon. We'd be looking between Sete to our left and Agde to our right.

This afternoon we had an excellent site visit with the architect, builder and electrician. I took a photo hoping to show you how very handsome they are, but they were all squinting into the low sunlight. The good news is that they'll be pouring our floor on Friday and starting work on building the workshop and winery on Monday.

We came home to a sorry sight though. One of our huge brown hens had been killed by a creature unknown. You'll remember that the same has happened to my nephew's hens - although always during the night. We've rounded up our remaining six girls late this afternoon and locked them up in their houses, but I'm worried that something might kill them during the day. What on Earth would do that? Lordy lordy. Poor creatures.