Calm after the storm

The water has all gone on our little bit of coast. The marshes have been drained so the water level is lower than it was before the storm. There are still mountains of stones from the beach that need pushing off the road and back into the beach. Several people drowned in the village where I take Olivier back for his lift to Poitiers. When I went for my leg treatment last week my doctor told me that her husband operated on a man from that village just before the storm and on Sunday they had to tell him that three of his family were gone.

A man was arrested because he’d gone to the mayor of the same village claiming to be in charge of the cleaning up procedures. The mayor was suspicious and made inquiries. It turns out the ‘official’ has already been in prison for organising the building of two kilometres of motorway a few years ago. (the modern version of delusions of grandeur perhaps?). He’s on his way back under lock and key.

The wind has turned around and is now coming from the North-East (Siberia). It has been very cold for over a week and looks like we’ll have to wait for another week to get back into spring mode. It’s lighter in the evenings, so when Rob gets home we go out for a walk, it’s lovely, but so cold.

I have daffodils! About twenty years ago I planted some bulbs and for several years now I’ve seen the leaves but no flowers. I think that some animal or bird must have moved them around or something because they are quite separated out and I have four flowers.