Whirlwind visits

Once again, just to let you know what is happening with us. My mum and dad came back to France with us for a month but unfortunately my dad was really unwell, we think he may have slipped a disc so we came home early. Since then it has been rather hectic, getting dad sorted with a doctor's appointment first which has now been done. He is seeing a consultant on Thursday where he will be assessed and see what can be done for him. His doctor was brilliant and said she didn't want to send him to a back specialist because they would see his age of 90 and write him off. This consultant he is seeing specializes in the elderly and he tries very hard to keep his patients as fit as they are able to be which is much better. Fingers crossed now. I am so lucky to have my sister who lives close to them so she always keeps an eye on them while I'm in France, otherwise I wouldn't feel happy staying there for such long periods. Thanks Sis.

We are now at Vicki's spending some time with them and our beautiful grandchildren who certainly keep us on our toes. There isn't much time to "relax" while we are here, but we love it. Relaxing time comes when we visit Clare and Kenny tomorrow, we will be staying with them for quite a while and we are close to mum and dad there as well, so we can keep an eye on things and do stuff for them. The stays with our daughters is so different, so next week will be more relaxing and catching up with personal jobs, as Clare works during the day so the time is our own. Having said that, Clare has taken a days holiday on Thursday and she is taking me to a Christmas market at Bath which I am really looking forward to. Christmas shopping to be finished off, a lovely lunch, and a special time with daughter just browsing round the stalls, especially when it gets dark and all the fairy lights are on. Tastings of mulled wine, Mmmmmm.

I will blog again when I know what is happening with my dad and let you all know. I will have to try and take some photos as well to make it more interesting. Bye for now.

Just to let you know

I just thought I would let you all know what we are doing at the moment. We were supposed to have been in Morocco this week, but the day before we were due to leave, we heard that a very dear friend had died in the UK. What were we to do? No contest really, we can go to Morocco any time, you can only say goodbye to a dear friend once. So, we are in the UK at the moment, due to travel back to France on Friday and would you believe we are taking mum and dad with us again. I hope they are going to be OK, dad is really looking forward to it and I only hope the weather won't be too cold for them.

We have had some good quality time with the family so that was an added bonus. I will be posting more when I get back home.

Flora and Fauna

Things have been reasonably quiet here and we have been busy working in the garden, tidying and planting onions and cabbages. We are like a couple of children as we plant them, this year being our first attempt at vegetable growing, we are so excited and can't wait to dig them up and try them. We have no idea how long that will be, I suppose we just keep looking and guess???

I thought I would show you this photo of Smokey, he had crept up to our bedroom and climbed up onto the bed and he had somehow knocked teddy down, or did teddy just go there for a cuddle. I couldn't resist taking the picture. Personally I think teddy just got cold and needed a warm from a friendly pussycat!!

I have now finished sewing the bias onto my latest celtic knot block so that is another toward the quilt! Only about 30 more to go!! Have I taken on too much I ask myself, probably is the answer but I do enjoy doing them and I will just have to break it up with doing other things in between. There are quite a few projects that I want to get on with, I just need to give them a bit of thought first. This is what I miss being here because I need to have a "like-minded" person to come around so we could "play" and get some ideas on the best way to do things. There is one particular thing I would like to make, and I can't say what it is, but I'm just not sure how to start. Oh Sharlene, I wish you lived a bit nearer :-)

The weather here has been fantastic, about 25 centigrade and the sunset the other night was beautiful. We went to Spain the other day to do a bit of shopping and when we stopped for a picnic there was this amazing grass hopper. I took the photo but he was about 3" long and had a lovely Jiminy Cricket face.

It Always Happens........

Today I had to go into my last post and read some of the lovely comments there saying how gentle my lifestyle is, and to be honest, it very often is even though we run around like headless chickens sometimes not knowing which job to do first, the thing is we can usually do the jobs in our own time which makes the differene, but..........

This afternoon sees the visit of the sewing group to our house and using "The Den" for the first time and when we do this, the person who is hosting usually bakes a cake or something. Well, I made some shortbread yesterday which turned out OK, but today!!!!! Why does it ALWAYS happen when you bake for someone else. I made flapjacks this morning (little oaty biscuits) and would you believe I couldn't get the damn things out of the wretched baking tray. While I was wrestling with this, my french neighbour came in, "What are you doing?" "What is that?" Well the taste of the crumbs were OK and she is a very brave lady and has asked me for the recipe. I'm sure I will have to leave the baking tray in soak for a week to get all the stuff off. I rescued enough of them for this afternoon and the birds can have the crumbs so if you see sparrows flying over not making a sound because their beaks are stuck together, you know they have come from my house!! Next on the agenda were cheese scones. Yes you've guessed it! These little blighters have come out like miniature ice hockey pucks and I have no idea what they taste like, I haven't been brave enough yet. Perhaps if I put enough butter on them they will be OK.

What I didn't say at the beginning was, I was going to make a sponge cake and I got all the ingredients together and realised I haven't got any eggs. Disaster! Richard is out all day helping a friend so I have no car to go and buy some, and my friend who has chickens is too far away for me to get on my bike. All cakes need an egg, hence the flapjacks and cheese scones. BIG MISTAKE. I can do no more, it will soon be time for them to arrive. Gentle lifestyle?? Not today it isn't.

Bonjour mes amis

Hello again. Now what can I talk about today? I will firstly show you some photos that I have taken, of various things because we have been flitting from job to job. First one is of this beautiful little lizard we found when we were digging over our little vegetable plot. I haven't seen one like this before. The line down the centre of his back was really very red. I will also show a photo of the squashes we have, quite a few of these red ones (kuri squash). Not a clue what to do with them so if anyone has cooked them before I would love to know. Also, while we were digging over the little plot, Smokey thought we hadn't got quite enough "manure" in there so he gave us a hand, or is it a paw? My leeks are doing really well and on Monday, at the market we bought some greens so they have gone in today. It will be interesting to see how we get on.

Today saw another french lesson and my goodness this was hard. We had to make up names and pretend we were going on a flight so had to give and spell our names and flight numbers and seats. Richard and I thought we would choose our family names, so I chose my eldest daughter's name, BIG mistake as it has 16 wretched letters in it, and Richard chose our youngest daughter's husband's name and we weren't sure how to say a double "n". We got through it and we learned a lot, but ..........

The weather here has been glorious, misty in the morning and a bit chilly but really warm during the day, so just perfect. Tomorrow sees Richard out helping a friend put a ceiling up in his barn so I will be doing a bit of cooking ready for the sewing group who are meeting at our house this week. I can finally show them my sewing room and if the weather is kind to us, it will be nice and warm because of the big windows. That's it for now, talk again soon.

Just a little chit chat.......

It has been a strange week really with not a lot to talk about. Richard has been very busy trying to get rid of all the draughts in "The Den" because we tend to spend all our evenings in there and it is rather cold at times. His finger has been rather painful and yesterday we went to have the stitches out and to be honest, it looks a mess. We are taking the next 3 days off just to see if he can get it looking a bit better than it does at the moment. Of course, if Richard is taking the time off, I have to as well, so I may have some photos of my quilting to post in a couple of days. I went off to my sewing group this afternoon and did some more and my latest block is coming along very well.

Here is me saying there is nothing to talk about, but some wonderful news, we had a hedgehog in the garden last night. It's the first one I have seen in the garden since we bought the house 3 years ago, so you can imagine how excited I was. I put out some cat food and now I am going to make up a "hedgehog house" to see if I can encourage him to stay. I am calling it "he" because he was very big. You can imagine what I will be doing this evening with my torch!!

If Jessica is reading this, Happy Birthday Jess. It is also my lovely mums birthday on Sunday and I am very sorry not to be there to share it with her, but hopefully they will be coming out to see us again, I can't wait. It's just a matter of finding the best way of travelling because mum doesn't like any kind of travel, and I can't blame her for that because I don't either, so sea crossing is out, we think plane is out, so what about a train??

Well I had better stop now because I have to admit that I have just written a whole lot of twoddle, and I don't want to bore you any more than I have to. I tried to take some photos this morning because it was stunning in the garden, the cobwebs were dripping with diamond dew drops and the mist was coming up off the field, in fact I think it was steam where the sun was really warm on the dew, but when I looked at the pictures it just didn't do it justice, so please imagine the picture for me. It is such autumn weather, chilly in the mornings and evenings but really warm during the day, so much so that I got a little burnt a couple of days ago. Talk again soon.

Oh to be Quilting Again

How very exciting to be able to write about quilting again. It seems such a long time ago that I mentioned anything about my hobby. The last couple of nights has seen me at my sewing cupboard in "The Den" (My daughter has named the room) and I have finally started another block for my quilt. If you remember, I am making a celtic knot design and I thought I would rave about the gadget that I use to make the bias tape. How easy it makes it.

The photos show the cut fabric being put into the gadget, then you pull it through and it folds into itself, you then iron as you pull the fabric through and you end up with a bias tape that you can make beautiful patterns with. I love doing this and find it very relaxing, though I think I won't hold my breath waiting for the quilt to be finished!! Well, it's time for the Archers so I will say night night, talk again soon.

I am so lucky

Just a short post today, but I just had to tell the world how very lucky I am to have such wonderful daughters. My eldest, Vicki, had blogged yesterday just saying due to family circumstances she couldn't get out to keep a hair appointment which she desperately needed. One of the girls was unwell and couldn't go to nursery and this was the only time she could get to the hairdressers. That was all, just stating a fact.

This morning she got a call from her sister, my youngest Clare, at 8am to say that she was on her way and that Vicki should get ready to go to have her hair done. To anyone not familiar with the roads in the UK, this is a trip on the M25, in rush hour when it is usually a car park, so I'm sure Clare would have had to leave her house probably before 7am, though I don't know that for sure. Vicki kept her appointment and Clare went straight back home to work. Sisterly love, there's nothing like it. Just thinking about what she did brings a lump to my throat.

Thank you girls for being who you are and just know that I love you both very much and I'm very proud of you.

A new family member

We have had a good weekend and today started really well until lunchtime. We went to the market this morning and then a bit of shopping and back to a snack lunch and Richard was cutting the cheese and managed somehow to nearly cut off the top of his finger. After quite a while of trying to stem the red stuff we decided a trip to the doctor was needed where he had 3 stitches!! The doctor, who could speak a little english, said that seeing he had been such a brave little soldier, he was going to present him with a poupee (little doll), our new family member for a while, which you can now see in the photo, good having a doctor with a sense of humour. Joking aside, it was very nasty and we are just hoping that he won't lose the feeling in the top of his finger. I've heard of different ways of getting out of the washing up, but this one takes the biscuit.

Well, tomorrow sees us going for another french lesson and we have been busy doing our homework this afternoon, sitting in the sunshine which was glorious. The sunshine, not the homework! We have been learning our verbs and it will be interesting to see if we are tested on them in the morning. Ho hum..... all in a good cause.

Progress on "the room" is moving along but to be honest, we sit up in it every night as it is so comfortable and there is a wonderful view of the sunset from one of the windows. We are wondering how we are going to warm it in the winter though as it is very chilly in there in the morning and late evening. We are also putting our thinking caps on as to what to call it. When people come to stay we can put a bed in there and there is an en-suite bathroom, but just for the two of us, it is just our "hanging out" room. What do you call a room like that? I am usually doing my sewing and Richard is working on his family tree and we have a radio going with various stories being told or of course the Archers. We don't have a television so it is just a lovely peaceful space.

Today I took a photo of this cute little tree frog and I am amazed how they change their colour at this time of year. I didn't know that. When I looked closely he still has the beautiful bright green on his underside and on the inside of his legs. Can anyone tell me, do they hibernate during the winter, I would assume so. I will miss all the noises they make. I keep promising myself that I will keep a notebook and jot down all the different birds, creatures and animals we see in the garden. Why don't I do that? We were looking in the pond today and there were quite a few footprints which we are taking to be deer. I suppose it could be wild boar, what prints do they make? Anyway, it certainly wasn't Smokey.

Talk again soon everyone, I hope you and yours are well.

Into the Lions Den

Just a short post today, but I thought I would give all my family and friends at home, also anyone else reading this who can relate to my tale, a really good chuckle. I even called my mum and dad and my poor dad nearly peed his pants he was laughing so much. I told them that I have now been accepted into the village because I had just come back from a tupperware party held at the mayor's mother's house!! Tupperware is really "the thing" over here in France at the moment, and when I was living in the UK, it was "the thing" in the 80's and I have a cupboard full and probably a couple of suitcases full as well. After running to the loo a few times in the afternoon, I finally plucked up courage and made the walk to Josette's. I couldn't even say the car broke down because she only lives next door; a little walk, perhaps 100 yards, but nevertheless it seemed miles to me that afternoon. I knew there was no-one there who could speak english so I learned how to introduce myself, say I was Josette's neighbour, pleased to meet them etc. After that I was stuck. I understood a fair bit but just couldn't get the sentances together to have a good old gossip and it is so annoying. Roll on the next french lesson.


It turned out to be a very pleasant couple of hours and they certainly had fun and laughed a lot, perhaps at me, I don't know, but they were desperate to include me in everything. When leaving I was told there was to be another type of party next month, so we'll see!! I had never heard of this one so perhaps I should just go along to check it out. Hopefully after that experience I may have earned a few brownie points just for walking into the lions den.


Talk again soon everyone, the Archers has finished, everything is shut up for the night so it must be time for my book.

A week gone by? Surely not

Here I am again and I can't believe that a week has passed since I last posted. I was telling you we were going for our first french lesson, and here we are, madly doing our homework, dreading another lesson tomorrow. Although to be fair, it was good to be finally at lessons, albeit letting us know just how little we have improved since we have been here. This was made very obvious yesterday when we were at a village lunch, at the invitation of the mayor and trying to understand just a little of what was being said around us. The day was glorious, very very hot and we were all seated (about 120 people) in the meadow behind the church next to the river and under the trees. Oh!! if only we could have joined in more of the fun and laughter that was going on, how very frustrating for us and for them when they were trying to talk to us. We will improve but my goodness it is going to take some time.

Richard and I sit up in "our room" in the evenings and I usually sew or prepare my blocks for quilting and I even tried out my sewing machine last night and managed a very respectable satin stitch, and Richard reads or, at the moment, he is going through a lot of his family's papers and documents. It's wonderful because we even have letters written by the family and they are dated 1765 and the way of writing is just glorious and the handwriting itself beautiful, although we can't decipher all of it. I think we may have a document or two for our son-in-law Kenny to scan and put into the family archives. We are so lucky to have him do this for us because they are then put onto discs for safe keeping and of course the rest of the family can have copies.

Today I made some Pear Chutney. Very strange........... Not sure I want to try it because it looks so odd, but I did as the recipe told me so we will see. Tomorrow I am trying Spicy Apple Chutney so perhaps that will look a bit better. The trouble is you have to keep it for a while before you can try it, to let the flavours come out (so it says). Oh yes, my leeks!!! they are all standing up like little soldiers to attention. If they have only been in a couple of weeks, when can I pick some, anyone tell me? You can tell we haven't done this before can't you?

Well it is now time for an early night because we have to be up at 6.30am ready to be picked up at 8am to go for our lesson. The trouble with an early night is, I get to reading my book and I can't put it down and last night it was very late when I turned the light out. When you have a good book and are tucked up in bed, it's the best thing isn't it? Goodnight and God bless to all my family and friends and anyone who is good enough to come by and read my blog. Thank you.

Nearly There

We have had a few really hectic days preparing, staining and waxing floors in the room, and finally picking up my sewing cupboard. It was like a jigsaw puzzle for Richard to put together, there is rather a lot of it, but we managed it in the end. Then was the problem of finding all the boxes that have been in store of all my craft "stuff". I call it "stuff" because I had forgotten just how much I had got. Where on earth was I going to put it all........still, first things first, to make a start. The pictures below are 1) of the cupboard closed with bookcases exposed. 2) doors open to reveal lots of drawers etc. but with the table still packed in and 3) with the table down ready to go. There are still a few more bits and pieces to it, another little table behind me, for ironing etc, and where the sewing machine is, there is a light box that fits into the hole there so it is flat with the table top.

The very sad thing is, I have forgotten how to use my sewing machine. I bought it just after I had left work, ready for my retirement and it has a few bells and whistles, but, not a clue what to do with it. I think it is going to take rather a lot of time to get used to it again.

Richard and I are going for our first official french lesson in the morning and we are rather anxious about it. We have got to do something, because although we muddle through, I would love to be able to "chat" with our neighbours. Wish us luck.

Leek and Potato Soup Anyone?

Gosh, can you believe I'm here again. Weeks of not posting and now I seem to have verbal diarrhoea. Still a woman has to do what a woman has to do. I'm very excited because we have got a coat of stain on the floor in "the room" and Richard has cut most of the skirting boards so a little further forward.

Today has seen me planting the leeks that we bought from the market yesterday. So far I have planted 70, I chose the ones that looked the healthiest and thickest and I must still have about 30 left. The question is, do I plant them or not? 70 leeks ........ Hmmmmmm. I hope I have put them far enough apart, 6-8" and I did as they said, popped them in the hole and just watered, that's why they look all floppy. Well, I THINK that's why they look all floppy!! The significance of the old football is the fact that this is the bed where we buried our lovely border collie Dizzy and I swear her spirit comes out at night sometimes because we find the ball all over the place :-) I had a word with her and she is going to look after the leeks for us, so fingers crossed. Another of life's challenges which we will overcome I'm sure. Anyone for leek and potato soup in a few month's time???? While I was out there Smokey came along to keep an eye on me but I think he got rather bored. He just follows us everywhere and even while Richard was staining the floor he was in there with him.

Because I have posted a few times in the last week there isn't an awful lot more for me to chat about so I had better go and catch up with everyone elses news. See you soon. Hello to all my family who are reading this. Miss you guys and love you lots. Jess, Smokey says hello.

A surprise for the sisters

We have just had Richard's 2 sisters here for lunch and the eldest of them lives in London and has only had a short stay over here, so it was really good to be able to show her what we have been doing to the house. We told them we had a surprise for them and they just didn't know what to expect. Well................. to say they were pleased was an understatement.

While we were back in the UK last time, we were going through some boxes that we still have in store at Clare and Kenny's house up in their attic. There are things like old family photographs etc. but there was also a very old tin which had an old cine tape in it. We brought it downstairs and Kenny and Richard looked at it but we couldn't tell what it was, so thought nothing more about it. When Richard was at my dad's birthday party (you know the one I couldn't go to!!) Richard was asked to go into another room as Kenny had something to show him. Would you believe that he had sent off this film, only about 40 seconds of it, and it was the marriage of Richard's parents!! I'm not sure you can imagine the reaction of Richard's sisters when they saw this, but Kenny, if you are reading this, they have looked at it over a dozen times so far and Sue recognized more people than we did. We can't thank you enough for doing this for us, especially as we had no idea it was being done. How lucky are we to have such a thoughtful son-in-law. I know it is his business, but to see what he can do with old photos, negatives and slides is just amazing. Let's face it, my sister and I wouldn't have had such a lovely gift to give to my dad if it hadn't been for his expertise. We also showed Sue and Judy a lot of old photographs which Kenny had put on a disc for us, so now Sue has taken her discs back to London with some wonderful memories of her parents.

It is very hot today and Richard is sanding the floor in "the room" reading for staining and polishing, then it is moving my sewing cupboard in there!! I will take some photos when it's in situ. I can't wait because now there are a lot of things I could make for the house, curtains, cushion covers etc and it means I can have my sewing maching available at all times. Actually, forget the curtains and cushion covers, I really, really, really want to get back to my quilting. If my friend Sharlene is reading this, she will completely understand.

On another subject completely, I bought some leek plants at the market today, so when it cools down a bit I am going to have a go at planting them. Never done this before and I have read that I make a hole with a dibber, place the plant in, water but don't fill in the hole ??? Strange but there you go, that was in my Country Living magazine which my lovely daughter buys for me as a Christmas gift. Is there anything nicer than having a monthly magazine plop through your letterbox for a whole year? Christmas for 12 months......... bliss. Must go, need to hoover "the room" of all the dust.

Catching up at last

At last we are catching up after being away. This week has found us doing various things in the garden, tying up tomatoes, chasing squash around the lawn where they have crawled like triffids!!! What is it with those things?? We have never grown them before and it is amazing just how big they grow. They get everywhere. We will certainly know for another time. We also didn't know what type they were and they turn out to be kuri squashes, I, of course, thought they were "curry" squashes!! I need to look up now what to do with them; they are the most wonderful deep orange/almost red colour so we assume they are ready. Has anyone grown these particular ones, if so, what do I do with them?

We also had to tackle the mar (pond) which is so overgrown with bullrushes again, even though our friends had taken a lot out before we went back to the UK. Richard put on his waders again and we had a good clear out of weed and rushes. Our neighbours had put 2 goldfish in there quite a while back and so far we have only seen one. Yes I know it could be a different one each time, but I'm sure we only have one now. We'll see. We now have the task of cutting up the weed and rushes and getting it ready to go onto the garden and compost, as it's been on the side of the pond long enough for all the little creatures to crawl out. It's hilarious watching Smokey while we are working because every time a frog jumps out, there he goes and if he catches it, they obviously taste foul and you should see his face. Bless him, he is an absolute joy. You will see from the photo that the pond is rather deep but luckily the water has dropped a lot and it slopes away. Richard is going to the deep end there. It starts ankle deep and then it goes up to the top of his legs and he is 6' 4".

Today we had a few things going on in the village, a vide grenier for one. Sorry if I have spelt this wrong). This is like a large car boot sale and the atmosphere was fantastic, there is music playing everywhere, and there was lunch being cooked which was €7 for 3 courses and wine, and everyone is laughing and joking and generally having a brilliant time. While the musicians were playing, a lot of people were dancing and it was incredible just watching them having such fun in the freedom of the lovely sunshine. I will put a picture up but I don't think it is going to do it justice. The french certainly know how to enjoy themselves and music is a great part of that enjoyment.

Tomorrow is market day and while we are there I am hoping to be able to buy some leeks to put in and just see what else there is I can have a go at. No idea what you can plant at this time of year so I will just have to learn as I go along. We have Richard's sisters coming for lunch tomorrow and I am chuffed that I will be able to pick some tomatoes to put on the table. I will have to pick some figs for pudding which will go with the shortbread I have made. Oh yes! I have made some fig and ginger jam and some apple, pear and apricot chutney. Perhaps I have told you this before, if so, I'm sorry. Must go now, hope to talk again soon

Bless him

I thought I had better post something but to be honest it is very difficult because Smokey just wants to be cuddled. so this is going to be short and sweet. Firstly he isn't micro-chipped so we can call him ours. He is about 1 year old so just a little baby which we had guessed at anyway......................................... Ooops, he is trying to get on my lap again and doing a bit of typing at the same time. He was still very wobbly when we brought him home and we can't feed him till tomorrow. To be honest, I'm not used to little boys and he looks a bit of a mess in his back end, but I'm sure that's what it is supposed to be like? Don't want to get too personal but I thought his bits would have gone? Does that take a few days? All he wants is cuddles so guess who didn't cook the dinner?? I will write more later and perhaps have a photo or two. He seems OK though. Bless them, they soon become your family don't they?? I will keep you posted. Night night one and all, just going to cuddle my cat again.

Back Home Again and He's Still Here !!!!

Here we are back in France and although very sad to leave family and friends behind, it is good to be back home where we have our own space and we're not living out of a suitcase. Having said that, our girls always give us drawer space but you know what I mean. It was lovely staying with Vicki, Bill and the children and we spent more time with them this time, then we went to stay with Clare for the last few days. Brilliant. The really good news is Smokey is still here and he looks very well and has grown quite a lot. As you can see he is back to feeling at home. I whispered to him tonight that he is booked in to have his "little operation" on Tuesday as we didn't manage to get it done before we went away. I don't know what this does to a cat, apart from the obvious of course, because he couldn't be more loving. Perhaps it will stop him roaming very far?? Perhaps to the garden for a pee and then back to the rocking chair??

The visit to the UK didn't go quite as well as it should have done because, if you remember, the main reason we took my mum and dad back when we did was because of my dad's 90th birthday. We got back and my sister and I did various planning and printing of photographs, finding a book to put them in, buying cards, food etc and all the usual planning for a birthday party. That was the first week, all was well. Well............ the day dawned and I was ill!! I had a sore throat the previous day but thought, OK, it will be fine I just won't go too near my parents, but on the Saturday morning, I had ulcers all over the back of my throat, I couldn't speak at all and my legs wouldn't work, so after all that, I missed the whole thing. Everyone else went and my dad thoroughly enjoyed his day and would you believe it, it was the ONLY DRY DAY, the whole three weeks we were back there?? August in the UK has been the wettest on record and still more to come!! You can imagine how we felt just now as we were sitting outside having our dinner at 7pm and it is still 85f. Also while I was there I had been called for another mammogram and I am still waiting for the results 2 weeks later!! When will all this end I ask myself??

Today we have visited some good friends of ours, mainly to see how Sue is doing because she fractured a bone in her foot and can't put weight on it. I lent her some english crutches because the french ones are really hard to use so Sue, if you are reading this, have a go with them!! They have loads and loads of fruit trees in their garden and we went scrumping. We came away with apples, pears, figs, plums and blackberries so you can imagine what I am doing in the next couple of days. I have frozen some but I want to make some jam and I have found a recipe for apple pear and ginger chutney so I am looking up more recipes at the moment and on Monday when we go to the market I will have to buy in some sugar and hopefully I will be able to put something on the shelves of my store cupboard for the very first time. All very new to this so wish me luck. The figs are amazing and Richard just loves them so not many will go for storing or preserving as they will be eaten. We have some coming on in our own garden but they are the beautiful white flesh ones and they aren't ready yet.

It's good to be back talking to all my blogging friends and I am slowly catching up with all your news but if I don't comment, I'm sorry, I am reading them as quickly as I can. Take care all of you and talk again soon.

Back in the UK

Well here we are back in the UK (the very wet UK) for a while and already my mum and dad are wondering whether or not to put their suitcases back up in their loft or keep them out "just in case we need them again". It took a little while for them and us to recover from the journey which wasn't particularly pleasant, with lots of thunder, lightening and rain and we travelled through the night, thinking it wouldn't be so hot, but never again.

We are now looking forward to the celebrations for dad's 90th birthday on the 16th of this month and as you can imagine, there is lots of "whispering" and sneaking peaks of different things and photographs, ready for the surprises. Hopefully I will get some good photographs and will be able to post them for you to see.

At the moment we are staying with my youngest daughter and her husband and on Tuesday we will be going to our eldest daughter's house where we can get our fill of our beautiful grandchildren. I can't wait, I have missed them so much. It has only been 6 weeks since I have seen them, but no doubt, they are doing lots of things I haven't seen before and the girls vocabulary would have grown lots.

Talk again soon, take care everyone and God bless.

Birds and Cats.........Hmmmmm

Gosh here I am again so quickly you will probably be getting rather fed up with my news, especially as it isn't very interesting. My first bit is:- I saw my first Golden Oriole today!! What a sight. I have heard them every day, but they are rather shy birds and you are lucky if you get a sighting, but he sounded so close this morning so I just waited and it paid off. I didn't see him for long but it was enough to be able to make out the beautiful dark buttercup yellow and black. A silly thing to get so excited about but I was really chuffed. Also we have this dear little cattle egret that has adopted us, he has been in our garden now all week and just walks about, mainly in our pond as you can see. He can't seem to fly very far, he goes a bit like a chicken, up in the air, flaps and then down, luckily enough to get out of the way of cats. He is obviously damaged or hurt in some way, but nothing that we can see and he seems quite happy to be with us in the garden. It's a shame because you can't see him very well in the photo.

Today we took my mum and dad to a festival in a nearby town, it is Jazz in Marciac and we were rather lucky because the day was overcast and not too hot, it would have been unbearable if it had been like yesterday when it went up to 37 and the humidity was very very high. The town is full of stalls selling all sorts of things from musical instruments, clothes, jewellry, special food etc but none of it is what I would call tacky. There is music playing all the time, mostly jazz of course which I have to admit I really don't like, mainly because I just don't understand it. The people selling instruments all get together and they have jam sessions to demonstrate their wares and the atmosphere is electric. Loads and loads of different places to eat, it seems every other house and shop has a table and chair outside and in one street, you can eat from almost any country you like to choose. When we went last year we walked passed the beautiful church and there in the grounds was a grand piano with a blind pianist playing and it just made you cry, the sound coming from that instrument and the feeling with which it was played was amazing. It is like that there, around another corner, there were 5 teenage children who are studying at the local music college, and they were playing rock (more my scene) but again, they were brilliant. Should you ever get the chance to go, it's well worth the visit. It is on every year from the 1st to the 15th August.

When we got home, after the cuddle with Smokey he decided he would check out the little house that my dad has made for him. We have put a little bowl of food at the back to encourage him to go in and he was there for quite a while bless him. Cats being cats, he wouldn't turn around for me to get a better photo, but I thought this was rather cute and it shows you how clever my dad is at making the little cat kennel. It has to be painted yet but we want him to get used to it before we go back to the UK next week.

That's all for now, lovely chatting to you.

Oh Jess, you missed it!!!

What a fantastic week we have had with my sister and her grand-daughter here; Richard took them to the airport yesterday morning and they are now back in their own homes, but mum, dad, Richard and I miss them already. Jess was such a joy to have, she can come back any time she likes. The reasoning behind the title of this post, you will see from the photo. Jess loves animals of any kind and we were looking for all sorts while she was here, but would you believe we found this beauty this morning. Well, my dad and Richard found it in the barn. I have put a mobile phone by the side of it otherwise you don't realise the size of it. I should mention that this model of phone isn't one of the teeny tiny ones either. I'm glad I didn't find it, because I was scared enough just taking this photo, never mind putting my hand on it!!! Yuk!

Last Monday we all went to the Donjon des Aigles, which is an original presentation of the most extraordinary collection of birds of prey (over 45 species) and every afternoon they have a show of international fame performed with a background of music and arousing deep emotion. FANTASTIC!! Eagles, Condor, Vulchers, Owls, Parrots and the like, a secretary bird which was my favourite, to name just a few and at the end, they have them all flying together!! I would never have thought you could have these magnificent birds all in the same air space, but they have them swooping through the crowd so you can see just how huge most of them are, especially the Condor. This picture doesn't do this bird justice, but it was sitting in the tree just above us for quite a while. They must be quite happy doing what they do, otherwise, what is to stop them just flying away?

Of course, I can't leave this post without a photo of Smokey, just to let you see how settled and laid back he is. Mind you, we haven't told him he is being neutered this week!! It seems as though we have had him for years, he is so much part of the family here. Please God, let him be here when we return from the UK. We are making everything as comfortable for him as we can, he is going to have his own "room" outside, with a cat flap, a chair and cushion and the little kennel that my dad has made for him, and the neighbours said they will come in and give him a cuddle for me, he is such a person cat! Well, it is time for me to go get lunch, so I will say cheerio till next time.