The morning began badly with me remembering my stairlift had broken down yesterday. It is stuck at the top of the stairs - the worst position with the least room for me to squeeze past. Andy tried to sort it out, but wasn't able to get it working. I was reduced to 'phoning Stannah in Paris. They are sending an engineer tomorrow. So a quick service, but so it should be, at €300 for the visit and a service, excluding any spare parts! I just hope he doesn't turn up when the Writers' Group are here for their Christmas lunch, as I can't rearrange that at this short notice and I don't have a 'phone number for the service engineer.
Purrdy - I'm sure it was she - knocked three of the Christmas tree decorations off during the night. She's spent the last few hours sleeping alongside Daisy on the windowsill under one of the Christmas wreaths.
I went shopping and coming back home down my lane this rainbow looked as if it ended in my garden, but there was no pot of gold.
Later I drove to the other side of the village where I found on the verge more fungi. I took photographs and posted them on Self-sufficientish.com to try and confirm my identification of them. I looked in the River Cottage Handbook No.1 Mushrooms, and they appeared to be very similar, if not identical photos to mine here.
These fungi were between 8"-9"/20-23cm across and I have noted exactly where they are growing. If I ever find someone here who can, without any doubt, see these and confirm my identification of Lepista sordida, a type of Wood Blewit, then I shall have a feast next year! Fungi though, are not the sort of produce that you can afford to make a mistake with, so I need an expert eye to put my mind at rest. Although the Pharmacies here are supposed to be able to tell you, I understand that some of them are not really trained in identification; they just consult a chart!
Here is the book cover and the photo from the River Cottage book.
This is one of the many derelict buildings here in Brittany. It is a cottage opposite what was the old station for Lanrivain and the window and door covers were put on recently, I presume to keep people away from the danger of falling masonry. The roof collapsed in about two years ago. It is owned by one of the farmers in the next village and is on my route back from the Post Office. Further down the lane by my fungi find is this enormous pile of tree trunks. The buyers won't have trouble keeping warm next winter when all these have been seasoned and cut to length.
Lastly, another Christmas photo, this time of the sitting room window wreath.
Three things I like:
1. Buying the Christmas food treats and trying not to eat them before the guests arrive.
2. The fact the the Christmas tree lights worked first time.
3. Getting newsy letters in the Christmas cards arriving each day.
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