Another quiet day in the Corbieres!: 4th December and still cosmos in flowe..............r

Another quiet day in the Corbieres!: 4th December and still cosmos in flowe..............r

4th December and still cosmos in flowe..............r

We have had such a mild autumn here. South of France, what's new you might say? Well we are at altitude in the foothills of the Pyrenees and the growing season can be quite short with early frosts and snow. This year we were still picking aubergines and beetroots last week. Cosmos is an annual plant, as my avatar, and to still have flowers even after our first frosts is amazing. Although the flowers are about half the size of the ones shown on the left. Pandy the new kitten who was abandonned 'chez nous' this summer is growing fast, she is on the Pussy Pill at the moment as we do not have time to go get her fixed, and do not want any more little paws running around here. A friend's dog has just produced a litter of 10 puppies, spaniel crosses, but not spaniels as we know them, in France the breed épagneul has much shorter ears. We agreed to take a female spaniel-type, they will be ready to go at Christmas, but everyone wants females so do not know yet if we will get one. We can only take a female at the moment as our old Japanese Akita male is now nearly blind and deaf and a bit aggressive to other male dogs. When he goes we will be looking for a large guard dog, a Patou - Pyreneen Mountain dog or another Akita would be good. As usual I am having problems uploading photos, I think I have to learn how to reduce the number of pixels, so this message will be lacking in photos. We are bracing ourselves for a bad winter according to the locals, and snow is forecast for the Alps today, but only a little for the Pyrenees. We may buy snow shoes this winter to go feed the animals as walking was very difficult in soft deep snow last year. Photos coming soon.... à bientôt!!