Winter arrives a bit earlier this year

Burgundy is well know for it's extremes. We get cold winters, hot summers and spectacular thunderstorms.

Summer can see temperatures up to around 40 degrees while winter can get down to about minus 15 degrees and when a thunderstorm is forecast people unplug computers and televisions.

This week we had the first snow, about six inches of white, powdery stuff, which seems to emphasize things you don't usually notice.

Our large fir tree in the courtyard would have looked beautiful over Christmas, but with the smaller bushes it looks clean and fresh out there.

From the back of the house we look out over our neighbours' gardens down to the canal, railway line. Above those is the village of Grignon and forest which seems eerie in the late afternoon when the snow picks out the trees.

Charlie, who lives in the house behind us, has a large garden on which he grows lots of vegetables and the last week he has been digging over the ground ready for planting. He also grows fruit and hisapple, pear and plum trees are wearing bonnets of snow; strange to think we profit from these trees later in the year! Charlie is a youthful 70 year old and is out in the garden early morning and is always seen in a cap.

To the left of our house is a house with a large garden. The owners have a golden labrador which had puppies last year. Eight cute puppies entertained us through the months until they left their mother and went to new homes, the one they kept spent today playing in the snow even to the point of burying inself in a snow pile built up by the children.

We would normally expect to get this weather at the end of February and into March so this year it is a treat for the children! It is minus 7 degrees today, so although the days have been sunny and the snow that might melt soon freezes over.

My husband has twice had to clear the courtyard and driveway and despite the conditions the shopping was done .

- by Coral Luke