Bumper Harvest

Just a quickie, but I thought I would show you some of our cherries, they look so good, shiney and waiting to be eaten and sitting in my hand made basket. I would never have thought in a million years that I would be picking my cherries, off my tree and putting them in my homemade basket!!! What fun. Sad though we are heading back to UK tomorrow and there are hundreds of cherries waiting to be picked so we have told all the neighbours to help themselves; we can't let them go to waste.

I can't wait to see my family, take care and I'll chat on my return.

A Sad Day

A very sad day for me today because we have got rid of our beautiful ducks. Poor Poppy went off looking for somewhere else to make a nest and she just chose the wrong garden by going into a neighbours, and this neighbour wasn't very happy about it, and told us so!! We were told to fence in all our garden which we can't possibly afford to do, put them in a pen, or someone will end up killing the ducks. As you can imagine, I don't want them in a pen, I can't see the point, the whole enjoyment we have had is watching them dibbling about in the garden. They have given us hours of pleasure but no more. We called the friends who had given them to us in the first place and they said they would have them back, no problem, so now we are duckless and very sad. At the end of the day, we don't want to cause any unpleasantness because we have got on very well with everyone and we don't want this to change, I just hope she realises how many tears were shed this morning.

Anyway, enough of that, Richard and I were taken for a walk in the mountains, our first real walk up in them and oh my goodness the views were amazing. The first walk we couldn't do because it was closed due to risk of avalanches so we went for another one. Unfortunately this was a lot harder than the first one our friends had planned and Richard and I both found it very hard. The good thing about going now is that the snow is melting and the waterfalls were out of this world. Also, all the wild flowers are coming out and how on earth do they grow out of rock. You will see from the single flower picture that it has no earth at all, just this beautiful violet. You will also see from the next photo that my poor hubby was very tired, as was I but you can't see that because I was taking the photo :-) We had a lovely picnic and a really good day but oh did we sleep well that night.

I may not be posting again for a couple of weeks because we are back in the UK next week because our youngest daughter and her husband are moving to Penzance so dad needs to do a bit of DIY. Keep well everyone and I will chat with you all on my return.

Warm weather and flowers

The weather here has been glorious for the past few days and when we walk out of the door into the garden, firstly there is the wonderful smell of the philadelphus (orange blossom), and then you are aware of the quite loud buzzing and you realise it is all the bees in the acacia trees because the blossom has just come out on those and again, they smell pretty good. Everything in the garden is really coming on, the roses, all the trees are out and the fruits are appearing on the trees, in fact, there are some cherries that will soon be ready for picking. Very strange, I never thought I would ever be able to talk about picking my own fruit etc. yet here I am planning my chutneys and jams for this year. Also Vicki and the grandchildren are coming out and hopefully they will be able to pick the figs, peaches etc to eat straight off the trees. Poppy has given up on her nest so we think this year we won't be duckling grandparents. Should she lay again, we may take the eggs away and incubate them ourselves. We'll see. She is very young yet, not a year old until July so there is time. It's probably for the best, but still a shame I was really looking forward to having little babies.

On my last post I said I would post a picture of my socks. There hangs a tail....or not... I wish I had taken a photo of them now because when I took them to our little sewing group to get advice on how to graft the toe (you see I had got quite a long way) there was something that was not quite right so we had to unpick a few rows, then a few more, then a few more, and wouldn't you know it, the WHOLE DAMN LOT was unpicked and I was left sockless. I was absolutely gutted as I really don't know what I had done wrong. So Hilary (dear, dear sister who I love loads and who sent me the wool, pattern and needles) I am really sorry to have let you down. Helen has now taken them home and she is going to knit them for me, BUT, I have another ball of wool and I have started again on another pair, I'm not going to be beaten. I will go as far as turning the heel, then sit with Helen and she can see exactly what I am doing. I am determined to have a pair of socks that I have knitted myself. I have actually taken a photo of the ones I'm doing now so I may post it next time. It is so hard knitting with so many flaming needles but I suppose I will get used to it. If Hilary and Mum and are reading this they are probably having a little giggle by now.

I have copied out the next celtic design onto my block so I will soon be starting that. I can't wait, I don't seem to have done quilting for quite a time and I do miss it. I need now to cut out the bias and get that all prepared ready to stitch on, I have chosen the fabrics so it should be all systems go.

Well, it's time for our hot milk and honey (with a little whiskey) and off to bed for a read of our books. Market day tomorrow so we will be up quite early, something we have got out of the habit of...He! He! Talk again soon.

Good to have you back Dad

As the picture shows, Smokey was very pleased to have us back, although we did have a friend staying in the house a lot of the time so he was very well looked after. In fact, Geoff was saying what good company Smokey is, more like a dog than a cat because he follows you everywhere.

The ducks are still OK although the first nest which had at least 7 eggs in, they were all eaten, so she made another nest in a very exposed place, and they were eaten. Now, since we have been back, she has made another nest somewhere else, I won't tell you where because it's a secret!! and so far we have 5 eggs in there, so we will wait and see what happens. If you remember we had 2 drakes and one female so we had to get rid of one male, and would you believe the original pair, Thomas and Poppy's mum and dad, the owners called today to say that their male has been taken by a buzzard!! Their mum is sitting on eggs at the moment and if she abandons her eggs, they will bring her over to us so we will be back to 3 again but this time the ratio will be right. I hope you kept up with all that and that it made sense, I did ramble a bit didn't I? I knew what I was saying.

We had a lovely 18 days in the UK with the family. First off we stayed with Vicki, Bill and the children and they were all fit and well and in very good form. Oh how I miss them, the girls are doing so much now and chatter all the time. Just delightful. William is getting to be a proper little boy and went on his first "grown up" cycle ride with his daddy and managed to do 8 miles. Amazing. Just a photo to show you the children and their daddy. After that we went to my parents and stayed with them for the rest of the holiday, which of course they really enjoyed. Dad is slowly improving with his back but he is still having these injections in his eyes, so until all that is over which should be about June/July there is a lot of back and forth to the hospital. I went with him last Saturday and they did say there was an improvement so that's the main thing. While staying with my mum we spent time with Clare and Kenny because they live close and they are getting themselves ready for the move to Penzance. No moving date as yet, but shouldn't be long. We will then be going back to the UK stay with them and see where they are going to settle down, also I think "Dad" has a few jobs lined up like putting up shelves etc. Not to worry though because he loves it and we enjoy staying with them.

The day before we came back to France we went to London to have lunch with Richard's eldest sister for her 70th birthday. We had a lovely day with them and also Richard's cousin and her husband so all in all, a wonderful family day and so good to see them because we don't see Susan very often.

Well I suppose it is back out into the garden tomorrow to try and tame the foot high weeds and grass. We can't believe how much everything has grown in just the couple of weeks we have been away. The pond has over flowed because they have had so much rain, but in between it has been warm, perfect weather for growing!! Next post, I will show you how I am getting on (or not) with my socks.....or should I say sock. In this last picture it shows how quickly a man can get back into the swing of things. He! He! Three men here, I think they call themselves the Musketeers, putting the world to rights over a beer or two, or three, or four!!