Looking Across the Canyon

Kings Canyon -- dramatic, hot, red.
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Firewood: Our firewood was delivered yesterday -- 3 cubic metres (known as stères in French), which added to what we had left over gives us about 5 cubic metres, plus another cubic metre of wood that came from a tree felled by friends and is too fresh to use. This won't get us through the winter, so I'll be getting another delivery probably in January. The woodman, who is a local farmer who does firewood as a sideline, has given up trying to deliver with his tractor down our narrow driveway with no turning space. This time he made 6 trips, delivering half a stère at a time in his station wagon. It is oak, cost €150, and was cut into 50 cm lengths for us by the woodman. He also splits it when necessary, if the logs are more than 15 cm in diameter, which is the recommended optimum size for our stove. The wood comes from the Forêt de Preuilly, which is sustainably managed for lumber, firewood, biodiversity and leisure by the Office National des Forêts.

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Car News: Célestine is back home, with a working gearbox. She still has some issues which may have contributed to the gearbox failure, but for the moment she is on the road again. Claudette is over at the Doctor's now, with a long list of relatively minor maintenance to be done.

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry has been added for Western Whip Snake Hierophis viridiflavus.