22 jan

Walked over to Mareuil, one of the larger villages in the area. It has two boulangeries and one charcuterie and a Spar, where they even sold some gloves. Spar supermarkets are cooperatives, if I’m not mistaken. I like cooperatives. They show some community spirit that is seriously lacking in today’s society. But they also make you feel like you are in a country behind the iron curtain in the heyday of communism. The stores are a little bit too bright, the shelves are a little bit too far apart and the only cashier that was available had a sign ‘caisse fermee (counter closed) in front of her. No, there really goes nothing above the large art museums of the Carrefour and E.Leclerc with their extensive displays of folk traditions.
Went to go and see the church of Mareuil. It was getting dark and the only light in the church was above the nativity scene. Right. It is the 22nd of january and there are still nativity scenes in churches. Not only in Mareuil, but also in Angouleme last saturday. Are the ‘Nativity Scene Clean Up Crews’ striking in France. It wouldn’t surprise me.
It was a foggy day at which start Julie would claim; That’ll burn off. To be followed up around the middle afternoon with: Guess I was wrong. The clouds were hanging low. The light of the sun was being filtered into grayer shades of pale. It almost resembled Holland, at least the Holland in the poem of Hendrik Marsman. But it wasn’tt Holland of course, if only because of the presence of nicely rolling hills. here would not have been those nicely rolling hills.
And suddenly there was a sign of spring. Not in the sky, not in the trees, but on the ground. I have mentioned the farms where lots of chickens (and roosters) are freely walking around. Today I saw a chicken with two chicks, closely following their mother. They must have been chilly, but didn’t complain.
The trees in the forests do not complain either. They have knee socks of the brightest green moss. It is like they are covering themselves against the cold.

The sign in Mareuil claimed it was 12 degrees (60 Fahrenheit) but that sign must be on Prozac, it definitely felt much colder. Socks are necessary. Woolen ones preferably. Just like the Merino wool ones of which I ordered another four pairs the other day out of England. It was cheaper to send them here to Chassenat than to Forest Row in the UK with the British Amazon. If I was Jeff Bezos I would check some of the algorithms he’s using.
Walking is thinking, somehow. I was thinking about the future, which was a welcome change after all the thinking about the past. But it is difficult to think about the future without acknowledging the past. What did Frost write again, when he pondered about the road that he had not taken? There are miles to go before he would sleep… Miles to go before you sleep.