The black and white world in the Ardèche

1eleagnusbeforeDay three of heavy snow.  This is my daily walk down to the letter box.  Truly beautiful. And often accompanied by my lightweight spade as I dig at the road; trying to shovel some of the heaviest stuff out of the way of any potential car traffic.

I’ve given up on the proper snow shovel as it weighs way too much. It was definitely designed for hefty blokes. So the lightest weight shovel was unearthed from the stack in the potting shed; and life is much easier.

Mind you, I’m not going anywhere, even with a four by four vehicle; but Jean Daniel might make a reckless run.

And for that reason I chose to have a go at removing the heavy snow that had built up on the tricky steep corner above our house.  If he skids there, it will be all dowhill to the bramble patch and the rabbit shed on the terrace thirty feet below.winterhouse

It was warming work.

And then I did my daily thumping of the shrubs.

boxinsnowBut I also made time to walk down to the lower terraces looking for animal tracks. I found deer tracks, but the snow is falling so fast, any overnight tracks are getting obliterated.