For the first time in a long, long time there are no llamas or alpacas to be seen in the fields of Les Fragnes. They’re all indoors since we’re experiencing the worst winter weather we’ve had since we got here. Even the girls who can come and go as they like have stayed indoors all day, happily kushed down eating hay. Bernard and the two alpacas are in one stable, Oscar has joined the girls (he’s had the snip so no hank panky!), and Denis has joined Maisy the goat in her stable. The forecast is for minus 10 with strong winds and snow – that’s not weather to leave animals out in.

The poultry have been mainly indoors today too. The turkeys took up with the girl llamas, the chickens huddled up in their stable, and only the indomitable Sham (our white chicken) and the two ducks ventured very far. The cats are hanging round the house, hoping for us to show some weakness and let them in! Treacle has snuck in a few times, but not for very long. They’re just too naughty.

Benj and Caits have taken up snowboarding. Benj took the wheels off his ancient Star Wars skateboard and it’s working very well. I imagine it’s a bit smaller than a proper snowboard, and not as grippy on the top. Both of them slip off a lot! But they’re enjoying themselves. We got them to come home from lycee on Wednesday as we were very worried about them getting stuck down in Gueret for the weekend. The bad weather hasn’t arrived yet, but it would have been difficult fetching them tonight in the dark and the freezing fog and on the slippery roads. Chris drove the car up the drive to leave it by the gate, and he had a tricky time of it.

So we’ll be hunkering down for the weekend. It won’t be just the llamas keeping a low profile!