Wounded in the kitchen and other things

Light on leaf

It's interesting how awkward it becomes to do your usual everyday things, when you've sliced the top of your thumb and you have a whopping great big plaster on it. Been dicing vegetables for goodness knows how long and have only had three accidents, including one with a mandolin. Now that really did hurt. For the jokers, I mean the kitchen equipment, not the musical instrument. This time I have done it in style:  messy and inconvenient, and a timely reminder of how essential the thumb is to the daily routine. Fortunately I'm right handed. It was my left-thumb that got beaten up. Even so there are things which are definitely trickier to do. Important things like taking photos! Washing up, ironing! Pshaw!! Most of the buttons and dials on the camera are on the right hand side and can only be pushed or turned easily with the right hand. On the left hand side there is one dial which is in thumb turning position. So trying to hold the camera while at the same time, turning the dial with my left index finger instead of my thumb isn't easy. Blurring when planned is one thing. Unwanted blurring is quite another. Anyhow Mike has now kissed it better, and miraculously it healed overnight!

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Cravant in snow

We are waiting for snow to arrive. At the moment it's in Paris and is working it's way down to us for later this afternoon. It's unlikely to be a problem, being very damp and with more rain forecast  over the next few days. But can't imagine it will be the last of the snow. Usually we come over later in January with heavier snow arriving in February. We'll see. The pic is from our village at the end of January last year. We're lucky in that the wine producers always turn out with snowplough attachments on their tractors and clear the roads in the village, so everyone can get about. Get to the main road however, between us and Chinon and last year, it was like an ice rink. No one from the council seems to want to pick up that responsibility. We'll see what happens this time round.



Tell you what though it has got decidedly chilly. 
Madame who lives with her husband in an old house on the corner is our temperature marker. She first appeared in the blog last year. We saw her this morning on our way back from Chinon and stopped for a brief chat. She was sporting one of her spring dresses, her cross-over apron, thick tights, slippers and...a cardigan. When she wears one of those, you know winter has arrived.

Not that 'chilly' figures much in her vocabulary. She's a tough cookie. But it did feature in our French conversation this morning. We meet upstairs in an old house (owned by the organisation) which like a lot of old buildings is difficult to heat. Our conversation leader Danielle arrived to find us huddled together with coats and scarves on. 'Très frisquet aujourd'hui' she says, 'very chilly/nippy today'. The way you pronounce it sounds like friskay. English humour kicked in of course,  'feeling a bit friskay' are we etc etc. Had to explain to Danielle what frisky meant in English. 

Frisquet is a great word. I've entered it into my top ten favourites. In pole position is gusset. There is something about that word that just curls me up. It's originally a Middle English word from old French, gousset, which means pod or husk. I had thought it would appear in my online Shakespeare Insult Kit list. How about:  you beslubbering beef-witted gusset  bladder or you mammering flat-mouthed canker-blossomed gusset harpy. Really starting to roll now. Unfortunately there is no sign of gusset anywhere on that list. Hugely disappointing. What's more I'm not going to put in a link. Don't want any craven dizzy-eyed minnow types getting hold of it and getting carried away!