What's Happening in and around Preuilly in November?

Don't be surprised if you see Winter Damselflies.

Etangs (fish ponds) are traditionally drained to harvest their fish stock and for maintenance in November. This is a cyclical management programme, and which ponds are to be emptied is usually widely publicised. This is an interesting day out, but you have to get there very early or even the day before if you want to witness the fish netting from the beginning.

Fungi will abound in the woods and lawns.

La Banque Alimentaire (the Food Bank) will be holding its pre-Christmas collection on 25-26 November. If you are at the supermarket on these days, please make sure to buy a couple of extra items that you can leave in the collection trolleys. Alternatively, you could donate money or even purchase Bien Déjeuner dans ma boite, a cookbook written to give people ideas for nutritious, inexpensive lunchbox meals. French workers are increasingly taking a packed lunch, but many of them feel they might be missing out nutritionally. Lunch is traditionally the main meal of the day here, and so people need a bit of help with changing from a 3 or 4 course cooked meal to something that fits into a plastic box and has to survive the morning commute. A percentage of the profit from this book goes to la Banque Alimentaire and helps fund their work to provide food for those in need.

Where the reno was at 12 months ago
- he can't do that any more, it's the dining room!

There will be a ceremony to remember the dead on 11 November in every village, and it is always appreciated if you can make the time to attend.

The cranes will be making their cacophonous way south for the winter, and we may have the first snow fall. Good thing we have a supply of firewood, as apparently it is now in short supply and the price has gone up to €50/stere, undelivered and in metre lengths, so you have to cut it yourself to fit in the stove and you have to collect it. The only problem is we don't have enough to get us through the whole winter, so we may still end up having to pay for expensive firewood.

Susan