Sharing

Enough snow had melted for the road to be drivable from our place into the village and only the branch over the power supply cable was blocking our exit. I took a saw up there and trimmed enough side-branches off to allow our car to pass without increasing the tension on the cable. As soon as we were past the branch we phoned M who is stranded even farther out and who's road is still deep with snow. We told him we were able to get out and did he need or want us to fetch anything for him. No, he was OK thanks, his builder had come to visit him in his 4x4 and brought wine and firewood.

Of course that meant that his builder had driven past our place, where M knew we were stuck behind a branch, yet we had received no call with an offer of help. M has never wintered here before and it would appear that he has no sense of community.

In the village we bumped into Nikos the deputy mayor and his logistics co-ordinator Agalos so we explained that while our little car had been able to creep around the fallen branch, a truck delivering firewood would not be able to do the same. It was determined that this was categorically work for George the linesman. Then the courier van arrived and despite no call to notify me he was coming, there on his van was the replacement cordless phone I had ordered online following the thunderstorm that had fried the old one. All in all, a most productive jaunt into the village.

In separate news, this cat has been hanging around fairly close to our house for a few months now. For quite a while we shooed it away, especially when we caught it stealing biscuits from our own cats. We have seen it with increasing frequency more recently, and then it became apparent it had taken up residence in our log stack. Once we were under deep snow we brought the dog and two of our own cats indoors (Nanouk & Google are very fond of indoors but if the doors are going to be closed and Heidi has to choose sides, she prefers to be outside and we are happy with her decision). With nothing to dissuade it, the tabby moved in under the outside sink where the pump is. It seems that a mutual adoption process is taking place and we have called him Mo.