Snowed in

Hello and welcome to the latest blog from The Olivia Rose Diaries on April 3^rd 2022.

I lay in bed last night and watched snowflakes landing on the skylight in the bedroom roof. We were in a hamlet called Villelot, north of Limoges, staying in an Airbnb to break up our long journey back to Olivia Rose.

After a week of warm, gentle weather, winter had returned with threats of sub-zero temperatures and snow. I fell asleep wondering what I would find in the morning.

Looking out of my window the next day I found myself in a picture postcard of a winter scene. It was minus four degrees, and expected to rise to no more than three degrees during the day. With a raw wind trying to work its way through my thick woollen scarf it felt even colder. Although it looked as if we wouldn’t get any more snow after today, the temperatures were set to fall even further, down to minus seven. Our accomodation was on top of a hill, reached by a series of hairpin bends on a narrow lanes. If they iced over, we’d end up at the bottom much faster than we came up. We decided to stay put, extending our stay by another two nights, not just because of the icy road but also because living on a boat when the weather is this inhospitable isn’t any fun.

I had hoped to be sharing some pictures of Olivia in the sunshine with you but instead here are some snaps of our walk through the woods.

How the weather loves to confound us, disrupting all our carefully made plans. And yet I don’t mind too much. It was nice to see the snow, it seems to be an ever rarer occurrence and it won’t be here for long. By the end of next week the temperatures will be back up in the high teens, perfect weather for painting a boat!

Take care.

MJ