Storms and neighbourly invitations..

Yesterday evening there had been thunderstorms predicted in the region, but not specifically in our area. Anyway as the evening drew on, the thunderstorms around us, but not directly above us, became evident by the huge flashes of lightning that were lighting up the sky all around us. Two of our dogs are scared of thunder and lightning, and when I say scared I mean absolutely petrified. We heard minimal thunder, had only a little rain, but the lightning went on for hours all around us. Consequently we had very little sleep last night due to two very unsettled, scared dogs. Today they had forecast thunderstorms directly overhead for at least 6 hours, but, as is often the case with weather forecasters, they got it wrong! It became very windy for a short while followed by some big black clouds, and the lightest rain shower lasting only a few minutes and now the sky is clear and the clouds are vanishing into the distance. We are hopeful of a decent nights sleep tonight.

I can't take the credit for this photo, I found it using Google and I think was actually taken in Australia!

We also had a visitor today. G, our next door farmer neighbour, called round to invite us round for aperitifs at "midi a demain", that's 12 noon tomorrow, to welcome us to the village. A lovely and muchly appreciated invitation. However now we've gone into panic mode as we don't know the French etiquette for such invitations! We know not to bring wine but that's about it. In the morning a phone call to some English people we have met who will be able to advise - we hope!

And as for the ongoing fuel blockades, when we went shopping today there were absolutely no queues at the petrol pumps, so that's good. And we managed to get a new handle for the old multipronged pitchfork we inherited with the house. I'm really pleased about this as it's a great tool for filling the compost heap and I was devastated when the handle broke yesterday. Well maybe devastated is a bit strong, but certainly mildly upset anyway!