Snow

... or not. I finally managed to go out with the village walking group. Given that yesterday was cold, wet, and foggy, the conditions were quite surprising -- 20 C, no wind. Very pleasant for walking. It was a bit "Oof!" though, as it's the first serious walking I've done for months. Stats: 8.6 km, 64 m climbing, 2 1/4 hours. Not too shabby, though some of us were puffing and panting up the last hill. There's an extra of Ribaute -- the main photo is looking towards Pech Latt, a domaine that has just changed hands and is being renovated.

It was so warm I didn't bother lighting the fire till I got back at 4:30 -- Mystère was a bit peeved. Once I'd done that, I went and soaked in a nice hot bath for a while to recover. Bliss!

I spent a large part of yesterday making marmalade. It was time-consuming and messy; I had a false dawn where I thought it was set and it wasn't, so I had to pour it back into the pan. Then it took ages to reach setting point, and of course it's now a little more set than I would like. Plus however careful you are, everything ends up sticky -- lots of clean-up!. 

Still, I have six and a half jars, should keep us going for this year, and I listened to the latest Backlisted podcast about Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel  (godmother of modern Canadian literature) while I was laboriously slicing peel.

In other news, I got a letter in the post from HMRC replying to my query sent in December, agreeing that I do not need to pay any tax in the UK. In an ironic reversal of "No taxation without representation", it was also the day that I once more became eligible to vote in the UK, as the government has finally abolished the rule that you lose your vote after 15 years out of the country. Can't decide whether to bother, as you have to register in the last constituency you lived in, as safe a Tory constituency as you could wish for. Maybe things have changed though!

Edit: last year's blip has a different perspective with similar geometry, and also a lovely piece of music which I thoroughly recommend, having just listened to it again.