Last week’s blog was relatively short as my sole focus had been to de-rig the Christmas decorations. This week’s will be shorter still as that has remained my principal effort.
This time last week, I had cleared our own house and had almost finished those in Granary. I said that it was my hope that everything will be de-rigged and packed away by today. And I’ve done it. This is the first ‘success’ of the year as it puts us ahead of 2024 when my previous blogs showed that I hadn’t achieved that milestone until early March.
(As an aside, we only put up 4 Christmas trees for Christmas 2024. If our plans come to fruition (and we have sufficient guests) we will have 7 trees up for next Christmas! We’re really pleased as we already have a reservation for Priory for Christmas and New Year 2025.)
We needed to have Granary cleared as we welcomed our first arrivals of 2025 on Friday night with a couple who had stayed with us before and wanted to celebrate a birthday back in the Monts D’Arrée. We’re delighted they came back to us.
We also continued with our weekend walks but reversed the days. Rather than a Sunday stroll, yesterday we had a Saturday stroll as the forecast was better and we awoke to a perfect winter’s day of clear blue skies and bright sunshine.
For the same reasons as last week, we returned to the next section of the Nantes – Brest canal (perhaps in time we’ll walk its entire length!) and started at Pont Ar Stang (where the D117 crosses the canal to the east of Châteauneuf-du-Faou) and walked north east towards Landeleau.
However, the conditions couldn’t have been more different from last week, and Châteauneuf was very different from Saint Cadou. To drive from us to the canal we go over the Monts D’Arrée reaching a high point between Saint Rivoal and Brasparts which is where the fog started and the temperature dropped …
Yesterday’s photos show that there was still lots of water flowing along the canal, although the level was lower than last week, and there was lots of evidence where it had flooded along its length. Comparing yesterday’s photos to last Sunday’s you can see the difference in the weather.
I would say we made the wrong decision but the forecast was correct and we woke this morning to cloudier, wetter weather. However, despite the conditions we enjoyed the walk and saw an amazing array of wildlife. You can always see ducks and heron on the canal, but yesterday we saw a fox on the opposite side of the water (which was very carefully observing Garratt and Brandon!); a green woodpecker and an otter (the first either of us have seen in the wild) – which you can just make out in the picture, you’ll have to take our word for it!
It seems the weather is due to change at the start of next week with the high pressure we’ve enjoyed being replaced by the more usual pattern of low pressure systems coming through with their associated fronts and therefore rainy periods. The focus will be back indoors.
Salut.