Us in France

Friends to dinner

2009-09-08T12:07:00.002+01:00

I love having friends round for a meal - I love cooking, I love eating and I love seeing other people enjoy things I have made.

Our good friends Maggie and Alan came round on Friday for a joint celebration of our 13th wedding anniversary and their 30th anniversary. They were staying the night as well, which meant that Alan could have a drink and relax.

We had asked them to come at around 5pm so that we could have to start with. I had made some parmesan spiral and we had bought some anchovies in a provencal sauce, some wasabi coated peanuts and some rice crackers.

I made a prawn cocktail to start, which seemed to go down well. For the main course I stuffed chicken breasts with Boursin cheese, coated them in breadcrumbs and baked them in the oven. These were served with loads of roasted vegetables - red and yellow peppers, squash, onions, garlic and courgette, roast potatoes and garlic green beans. Dessert was a strawberry fool, with home made lavender shortbread and a chocolate dipped strawberry. We had bread and cheese later in the evening when we had room in our tummies!!

Mags and I drank champagne and Ian and Alan started with beer then went onto red wine.

As usual we put the world to rights during the evening, and had a brilliant time. It is funny how chance meetings can turn into great friendships. Maggie had phoned a couple of years ago after seeing my hairdressing advert in a magazine. We clicked immediately and kept in touch almost daily by email when they went back to the UK at the end of the summer. Now they live out here permanently and we are still in touch almost every day. We are so lucky to know them.

13 years ...

2009-08-31T10:05:00.005+01:00

.... Unlucky for some, but not for me.

It is our 13th wedding anniversary today. Where has that time gone. The weather today is gloriously warm and sunny, just like on our wedding day - ok, I know I am in a different country now. We are not going out for a meal tonight as it is Monday, and most restaurants are closed here in France.

I am really lucky to have a husband who shares the same values I do. We have a similar sense of humour and like lots of similar things.

We will go out tomorrow I expect, and we have got Maggie and Alan coming over on Friday night, they are coming late afternoon and staying til the next day. That way they can both drink and not worry about driving. They are brilliant company and we always have such a laugh when we get together.

Holiday time

2009-08-27T12:07:00.003+01:00

What a lovely time we have had for the past 2 weeks. Ians mum Eileen and our 12 year old niece Jenny have been with us. The weather for the entire 2 weeks (apart from 1 day) was roasting hot with temperatures in our garden reaching 38 degrees. Needless to say we have been in the pool almost constantly.

It was too hot to go on day trips, we would have just roasted, and in any case, Jenny didn't want to stray far from the pool!

Jenny and I went to my friend Maggie's for the day on Friday and made fabulous padded hearts for hanging. We had such a good time sewing and chatting. We had a day shopping in Limoges and an afternoon at a place called Tarz en Arbre. I'll post some photos of this, because a description doesn't do it justice. Basically it is a woodland area with zip lines and and cables suspended between trees at varying heights. You wear a harness and are clipped to the lines at all times. There is a route to follow and you negotiate you way around the course. There are five different levels and heights. White and green are for young children and to practice on. They are about 2-3 metres off the ground. Blue is higher and the highest one Jenny was allowed to go on. This must have been about 3-4 metres off the ground. Then comes red and finally the black. These are really high (almost tree top). The zip lines on the red run must have been 300 metres long and go down a hill!! There are cargo nets in the trees for you to swing onto like Tarzan. Well worth going to.

Mistys first day out

2009-07-25T18:09:00.008+01:00

This was a big day for Misty. She has been wanting to go out for the last few days, but we wanted to be around to 'supervise' her.

Misty and I got up around 8am, she had a light breakfast and then .... she was allowed out into the big, wide world for the first time in about 5 weeks. First of all she looked warily out of the door, as to make sure she was really allowed to go out. Then she took a step outside and had a good sniff of fresh air.

She climbed all over the pots outside the kitchen door. I took this great picture of her sticking her head out of an acer.

She has explored everywhere. The garden, the flowerbeds, the potager, the decking by the pool and the wood pile. I worked in the garden all day to keep an eye on her, she was very good and when I couldn't see her, she came running when I called her.

I spent the day removing grass and weeds from a long stone path that goes down the garden. It had completely disappeared in some places, and has taken most of the day to dig out all the weeds and pressure wash it all.

Of course I took a break for an hour to watch the last hour of the Tour de France. This was the final day in the mountains, finishing at the top of Mount Ventoux in Provence. It was estimated there was between half and one million spectators lining the route up the mountain. It was the first time there had been a mountain stage before the final day of the Tour. Brad Wiggins retained 4th place overall. He gave the most awesome performance. He deserves the Maillot Jaune for being such an incredible rider and making the phenomenal trasition from track to road cycling. Our other British star Mark Cavendish won his 9th stage victory yesterday, the first British rider to do so. I will be glued to the sofa tomorrow as the Tour reaches Paris and the victor is crowned

Rainbow Bridge

2009-07-23T07:00:00.004+01:00

Sadly my parents-in-law, John and Eileen lost their beloved golden retriever, Sophie a short while ago. One of their friends sent them this little tale. I cry everytime I read it, as I have lost 4 cats and a dog over the years.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends, so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food and water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigour; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing: they miss someone very special to them who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. The bright eyes are intent; the eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to break away from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart. Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together.

Misty Mitten

2009-07-22T10:20:00.003+01:00

Misty is now out of her cage and being let out of our bedroom. Actually, she hasn't been in her cage for a couple of weeks now. While we are in the house we leave our bedroom door open so that she can wander around the house, but not outside yet.

Her leg is still weak and I think that she knows it. She tried to jump onto the kitchen chair the other day and couldn't make it. It seemed to shock her and she ran back upstairs! We are making sure she gets lots of excercise by making her chase her toys and playing hide and seek with her - yes honestly, she loves hide and seek!! I am really wary of letting her outside, but we will have to let her go out soon. Maybe this weekend when we are here all day long and can supervise her excursions.

Photos at the Tour de France

2009-07-22T10:03:00.005+01:00

This is Juley and me waving like loonies at the Tour de France. The picture was taken by her husband Paul, and Ian is hiding behind us!

Isn't it funny, we only live 10 mins from each other and would have never met if we hadn't joined the same book club! Juley and I get on like a house on fire and have a similar sense of humour. Every time we get together we have such a good laugh. We are so lucky to have such good friends over here.

This is Juley trying to attract Lance Armstrongs attention!!

Actually she was grabbing as many freebies as she could, as we all were. The bloke on her left in the striped top had originally started on our side of the road, then when Juley and I moved over to where she is now and started getting some goodies he followed us over.

For those of you not following the Tour this year, the British rider Bradley Wiggins is now in 3rd place overall and looks set for a podium finish this Sunday in Paris. There is a time trial this week which he should excel at as he already has Olympic gold medals and world records at this. He has made the transition from track rider to road rider amazingly well. He is one of the worlds best cyclists and the whole of Britain is behind him.

This is wonderful Brad in action.

Tour de France

2009-07-18T08:19:00.003+01:00

What a great time we had watching the Tour de France on Bastille Day. This race takes over France for 3 weeks in July. It takes place over 21 stages and this year covers 3,500 kilometers. The race has 10 flat stages, 7 mountain stages, 1 medium mountain stage, 2 individual time-trial stages and 1 team time-trial stage. I am addicted to watching it!

Ian, Juley, Paul and I went to a village called Lauriere to watch the race go through. It is about 44km from Limoges where the race was starting. Before the cyclists arrive there are 200 support vehicles that throw promotional items at all the spectators. It is really competitive trying to grab these items, which can be anything from baseball hats, key rings, mouse mats or little bags of sweets and snacks. This caravan of vehicles passes through over an hour before the cyclists arrive.

The cyclists are preceeded by motorbikes with flashing lights and loads of cameras. There was a breakaway group that came through first, they were about a minute and a half ahead of the peloton. As the main peloton arrived the a huge cheer went up in the village and we were all trying to spot our favourites. I saw Brad Wiggins and Lance Armstrong, and Ian spotted Mark Cavendish. Brad and Mark are two British cyclists who are doing fantastically well in this years tour. Mark has won 4 stages so far in a sprint finish, incredible to think that he can race for 200km and still have enough energy left to sprint for the line! Brad is 4th in the general classfication at the moment and only 46 seconds behind the yellow jersey. They are both so brilliant.

We took a packed lunch with us and sat and ate it after the caravan has passed. There was a young Gendarme keeping an eye on our section of the spectators. He looked about 12 but was probably about 20! He spoke extremely good English but we took the opportunity to speak French to him. He had learnt English at school and then college as he said it was the international language of business, and felt it would really help him in the future. He was very interesting to talk to, he was a reservist Gendarme and was called up when extra police were needed. He was intrigued by the fact that British police in general do not carry firearms, which Gendarmes do. He had had lots of training with his, and said he was a very good shot.

We had such a good time, laughed loads and grabbed loads of goodies!

I met SITH!

2009-07-14T06:26:00.003+01:00

Kim from Soft in the Head blog came over to France last week, and as her house is not too far from me we took the opportunity to meet up for lunch. She is lovely and had some wonderful photos of all the work being done on her house. It look great at the moment and when everything is finished - WOW!

It was great to meet up with someone with whom you have shared so much but only through blogging. We had a lovely lunch at La Maison Bleue in Le Dorat and a really good chat. Thanks for taking time out of your holiday to meet up Kim, I hope to see you again.

The weather here has been wonderful, although today which is Bastille Day here in France and a national holiday it has been raining on and off since late last night. Misty woke me at 5am but trying to dig to the centre of the earth in her litter tray, and it was raining then. Still it is great for the garden, the ground has been like concrete.

We are off to watch a stage of the Tour de France today with Juley and Paul. The Tour is going from Limoges to Issoudun. We have been following it avidly on the TV and there are a couple of fantastic British riders in it this year. Bradley Wiggins is an Olympic gold medallist and is currently lying 5th in the General Classification and Mark Cavendish who is a phenomenal sprinter and who has won 2 stages already. We are packing a picnic and hoping that the rain stops, not that it will spoil our enjoyment, it would just be nicer to be dry.

Ian and I went to the Journee Artisanale in Le Dorat on Sunday. What a great day out it was. Loads of local craftspeople open their studios or have stalls to display and sell things they have made. There were some wonderful things. Penny had a stall and I bought some wool and some coasters from her. Ian treated me to 2 of her bags as well. There were some fabulous jewellery stands and I was treated to a beautiful Limoges enamel pendant and some fabulous gold earrings. Limoges is famous for its enamelwork and it is a real speciality of the city. The earrings were made by a lady who takes leaves and dips them in gold or silver. They are so delicate and look great. There were also lots of food stands and lots of local fruit and veg. I bought a kilo of new season garlic (we use loads of it!) and some savoury tarts. We met up with some friends for a drink in one of the cafe/bars and sat people watching for a while. The brass band was playing and it was the most wonderful atmosphere.

Misty is really on the mend now. She is eating really well and walking around and climbing up onto the bed. Her bad leg is still very weak, but she is doing brilliantly. Another week and we will let her into the rest of the house, but not outside yet. Not until she regains some strength in her leg.

Geese are ...

2009-06-28T18:03:00.003+01:00

...little gits and could well be for the pot!

I had planted some peas in the veg plot a couple of weeks ago. It was an old packet and I wasn't expecting much. However during the last few days they had all sprouted and grown a centimetre or so.

The geese noticed as well, and this afternoon they stuck their beaks through the wire fence around the veg plot, rooted around in the soil and dug up and ate all my pea shoots!!! They all looked very pleased with themselves and all had little pile of earth on top of their beaks. Gits!

Separation anxiety

2009-06-28T12:16:00.003+01:00

Well, we managed to leave Misty for a few hours yesterday and go to Maggie and Alans for the evening. She had sat on the bed with us all morning and had loads of cuddles and attention. We left the house at 3pm and she was asleep in her house when we left.

We had a brilliant time with our friends and had one of the nicest meals we've had in ages. We sat in their lovely garden putting the world to rights and drinking champagne and and then rose wine (only one glass for me as I was driving), eating toasted pitta bread and delicious dips. We went back into the house for the main meal which was gorgeous. Maggie had slow roasted a leg of lamb with rosemary and even though I do't eat meat, it smelt great. I had a filet of salmon cooked in lime juice, soy sauce and coriander - it was amazing, so simple but so tasty. We also had new potatoes, chard, garden carrots and green beans with lemon butter over them. Everything tasted incredible. It was all cooked to perfection, and even though we were all full, we just had to sit at pick at it all afterwards! Dessert was a cherry clafoutis, where the cherries had been soaked in cognac. Again, just gorgeous. Do you get the picture that the meal was wonderful?! Thank you for a fantastic time Maggie and Alan.

We had gone to some other friends Lyn and Fred earlier in the week for a meal. They have just moved into a house that they had built. After 18months of living in a caravan they are enjoying cooking in a real kitchen. We had the starter which was deep fried camembert, it was lovely and crispy on the outside and soft and molten inside. Lyn went back into the kitchen to do something to the main course, when she announced that the gas bottle had run out and did they have a spare. Living in the countryside there is no mains gas supply. France is a large and very rural country and I guess they don't want the expense of laying lots of pipelines. So for those of us that cook with gas we buy 25kg bottles of gas that are generally stored in the cupboard next to or underneath the oven or hob. We have an electric oven but a gas hob. We find that a bottle of gas lasts us 9 months and costs around 25 euros. Anyway, Lyn and Fred didn't have a spare bottle, so one of the other guests had a spare bottle and went to get it. Brings a new meaning to 'bring a bottle'.

Misty is doing well today. She had a long lie in with me and lots of cuddles. She doesn't seem to be in pain but she is a bit constipated. She was really struggling to 'go' all last night and has had some more laxative this morning. I'll keep you all updated.

Mistys House

2009-06-27T10:20:00.003+01:00

This is Mistys house for the next 3 weeks. She has a cat box, litter tray, food and water. When we first put her in, she went straight into the cat box and slept. I was able to hold food and water for her, and she didn't come out for over 24 hours.Its a different story this morning though. She has been climbing over her cat box as you can see in the picture. Although she has had a sleep on the bed this morning, what she really wants is to walk around and play! We have taken the cat box out as she is not supposed to be walking and climbing. She has her bed on the floor of the cage now. We have carried her around the house so she can she what s going on, but she wants to walk.

We have just put her back in her house and she is yelling to come out. She doesn't seem to be in pain anymore, but she is very unsteady on her legs - not surprising as she has a broken hip. We can't let her out on her own as she could damage the healing bones.

This is going to be a long 3 weeks.

Misty Update

2009-06-26T19:16:00.002+01:00

Misty Mitten is doing really well. She has been confined for the past 3 days and up until this morning she had stayed in her cat box mainly sleeping. I had held dishes of food and water for her and she ate and drank well but didn't want to come out.

Ian went up to see her after breakfast this morning and she came out of her cat box to see him. He was able to pick her up and give her a cuddle, he brought her downstairs to show her around. She came out again at lunchtime when I took her some more food and lay onthe carpet in our bedroom. Her fur was a bit scruffy so I gave her a nice brushing as she can't use her back legs for scratching.

This evening she has eaten and drank plenty and is washing herself - all a really good sign.

Thank you everyone for all your lovely good wishes - they are obviously working.

Poor little Misty

2009-06-25T07:49:00.002+01:00

My gorgeous little Misty Mitten has had a bad accident and broken her hip. She came in a 2am on Monday screaming and yelling, climbed onto the bed and slept on me for a few hours, then got off and slept under the bed. She was very stiff in the morning and we found some grazes on one back leg, but she seemed to be able to walk, albeit very stiffly and awkwardly. She stayed in our room all day with food, water and a toilet, and seemed at bit more comfortable Monday evening and the next morning. We though she had maybe fallen out of a tree and had badly sprained or bruised herself.

However, when we got home from work on Tuesday afternoon she couldn't put any weight on her back legs and was dragging them behind her. We rushed her to the vets in Bellac, who I have to say are fantastic. He took one look at her and said that they needed to keep her overnight and do x-rays and tests. We got home 20 mins later and after another 10 minutes they phoned to say she had broken her hip, they couldn't put it in a cast and she would have to be kept in for a month.

I was able to collect her at 11am the next morning. She looked very sorry for herself and was in a lot of pain. We have been able to borrow a large cage from a friend's mum. It is large enough to contain her cat box, a litter tray and her food and water. She was uncomfortable yesterday afternoon and early evening. She didn't know where to put herself. It was quite wam as well and after a while she preferred to lie on the hard, plastic tray on the cage floor. We sat with her all evening last night, and that seemed to comfort her. We gave her her pain killers about 6pm and they seemed to help a bit. She slept all night and didn't wake at all.

We just feel so helpless. We can't explain to her that she needs to stay still or that it will get better. We can only comfort her and sit with her so that she knows she is not alone. I had to go out yesterday afternoon and my friend Juley came to cat sit. She was brilliant, and it was so nice to know that Misty wasn't alone on her first afternoon. Thanks Juley, you are a star.

Busy as a Bee

2009-06-21T11:35:00.004+01:00

I can't believe it, another month has gone by without blogging. Never mind, better late than never.

So, what has happened in Us-in-France land? Well, both of us are working very hard at the moment, and Ian being the good and lovely person that he is, helped out a French lady next door to where he is working and was given a lovely bouquet of flowers and a four leaf clover by way of a thank you.

Of course, he gave me the flowers and they lasted for ages in our sitting room.

I had a fabulous bee-experience this week. Some clients of mine keep two hives of bees, and they had sent me en email telling me that the bees were in mega production and they needed to collect and spin the honey, did I want to help them do it. Well, I jumped at the chance. Before donning a bee suit Gary showed me the inside of a spare hive that he had in the garage and explained what we were going to do. I donned a bee suit and off to the hives we went. We had to approach the hives from behind so we didn't look threatening and lifted the roof off of hive 1. It was incredible to see. Inside the hive there are different 'layers' called Supers. The Supers hold the frames that the honey is made on. We had to take some of the frames out as they were completely full and replace them with empty ones. I hadn't know what to expect and had been a little apprehensive - would I be covered in bees?! Not at all. The bees occasionally bump into the netting that is held away from you face, and none landed on me at all. It was wonderful to see them all working away.

Unfortunately the house was experiencing a power and we couldn't spin the honey, as the spinner is electric, but I was shown how it would work. I have been visiting these clients for almost 2 years now and each time learn a little more about the bees. I am really considering keep a hive myself.

This weekend is the nationwide Fete de la Musique, where towns and villages put on concerts. We went to the Chez Adie bar in Droux last night with our good friends Juley and Paul. Some other friends were going to be playing in a band during the evening. It was brilliant. There was a big outside bar, a bbq where you could bring you own food to cook, a stage and lots of musicians and dancing. The atmosphere was great with children playing and lots of people we knew. A group of people were line dancing in front of the stage, Juley and I considered trying to join them but they looked so good we didn't want to muck it up for them, apart from that I have 2 left feet!

Juley is a girl I met through the book club in Le Dorat. It is incredible that she and Paul only live 5 miles from us, and we clicked instantly. They run a B & B just outside Nantiat. Take at look at their website www.villechenoux.co.uk the only thing is, the pictures don't do it justice. It is truly gorgeous, they have worked so hard on it. The four of us had a great time last night, we laughed, chatted and danced (a bit) til almost midnight.

Ostensions

Ostensions is a religious fesitival unique to this region which happens once every 7 years. This year marked the 50th Anniversary in Le Dorat 1659-2009. The final day on June 6th was marked by a huge parade. All the local village had formed a Guard and had to march into the town by way of Portes. These are huge gates in the city walls that in the past would probably had have portcullis's. Only one of the original Portes is still standing but the town have built replicas around the town. The Guards enter the town at the Porte in the direction of their village. They all carry rifles and a banner with their village name. There are lots of children in costumes and some of the adults carry their churchs' religious relics. They are met at the Porte by other Guardsmen who check that their weapons are not loaded. They then proceed into the town and head for the Cathedral which in Le Dorat is called a Collegiale. The are announced and all go into the church for a long service. There was a brass band and soldiers on horseback as well. The town has been decorated with bunting everywhere and banners. After the service all of the guards from the different villages march through the town to the main square where a stage had been erected and various churchmen make a speech. I love the fact that such an old tradition is still being carried out and that the town was full of people watching and supporting it.

I'm home and Happy Birthday Dad

2009-05-18T14:10:00.006+01:00

I have have just come back from a lovely 4 day visit to the UK to see family. I stayed with Ians parents who live in the same village that we used to live in. His sister and her family also live in the same village.

I flew into Stanstead and got a National Express coach via Heathrow out to Reading. The journey was so easy and because the flight was on time I could get earlier coach connections than I had originally booked.

I spent a nice few hours with my Dad on Friday for his 70th birthday. He didn't want to go out anywhere but I took some salmon for lunch and some chocolate desserts for him. He is in good health and looked well. He still lives in the house we grew up in, nothing had changed. He is a keen gardener and the lawns are like green velvet - immaculate with not a blade of grass out of place. We had an emotional time looking through old photos and talking about times gone by. Dad is from Oldham, near Manchester in the north-west of England. Oldham was once the cotton mill capital of the world, with 320 cotton mills in a small area. He is rightly proud of his towns history and once worked in Heron Mill. Unfortunately there are no mills working now, but dad has become very keen on looking into the history of it all. He has some wonderful books about the town and all the mills. It is a very emotional subject for him as at one time everyone he knew was conected to the cotton industry. Dad, I loved spending time with you and looking at all the pictures. You and mum gave us a wonderful childhood, something that I will be eternally grateful for. I love you loads.

Saturday morning Eileen (Ians mum) and I went with Tania and David (Ians sister and her husband) to watch their youngest daughter (Jenny) diving. She goes every Saturday morning and is excellent. She is 12 years old and is so strong and elegant as she dives into the water. She is absolutely fearless as she dives from the 5m board! I can't even dive and as I hate heights wouldn't even climb up there. She was amazing to watch.

Afterwards we all went into Reading and had a mooch around the shops for the morning. After rural France it seemed like the whole world was in town! We got fed up at lunchtime and headed home for a delicious lunch of smoked salmon, asparagus and avocado. Eileen really spoils me - these are my favourites.

Saturday evening Eileen had made a selection of curries - her speciality. Eileen, John (father in law) and I had a great evening chatting and putting the world to rights

Sunday morning Eileen, Tania, Jenny and I went back into Reading to mooch around the shops. One of the things I miss about the UK is the shop Marks and Spencers. I stocked up on cotton t-shirts in a great range of colours and then hit the lingerie section. I got myself measured and treated myself to some new bras. M&S bras are great, they all come with matching knickers and at 25% off, they were good value. Tania treated us to a delicious lunch and then we headed home. Tania and co come back round to Eileens later on for an evening meal.

It is always difficult saying goodbye to them, and I shed a few tears after they left that evening. I miss seeing our 2 nieces grow up, Jennys elder sister Tamsin is 18 in two months time and has grown into a truly stunning young woman. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family of in-laws, i love them all so much.

I left this morning getting the coach back to Stanstead airport, arriving back at Limoges airport at 13.00. Although I love visiting family it is always good to get back to your own home. Ian picked me up at the airport with a big hug, Misty was at home to greet me and the geese were yelling down the garden. There's no place like home.

Happy Birthday Misty

2009-05-13T07:59:00.002+01:00

Misty Mitten is 2 years old today, but unfortunately we have had to cancel her birthday party and she won't be having any cake today as she is a poorly kitten.

Over the weekend she had a very tight tummy and really yowled and hissed when we touched her or tried to pick her up. She was very sleepy and slept most of the day on Sunday, and all of Sunday night. I took her to the vets on Monday, who were fantastic and gave her a thorough examination. After an x-ray they decided that she may have a kidney infection and be constipated. Poor little thing, no wonder she was yowling. She had got some laxative paste (which she loves eating) and a liquid anti-inflammatory. She is currently fast asleep on my pillow, as we have to keep her in for the rest of this week, and she is living in our bedroom. Of course this means that I get to cuddle her all night long, but this is no hardship!

Knit-a-long

The knitting group I go to have started a knit-a-long. This is where we all make the same thing. It was Penny's idea, she picked a really nice bag to do. Well, I have casted on 3 times now. The first time I was just finishing the first row and pulled the wrong needle and all the stitiches came off! The 2nd time I had done four rows and it was suggested that we do the larger of the two bags as the small one was very small, so I undid it and started again on the bigger size. Last night I casted on for the 3rd time, knitted 4 rows, started the pattern bit and found I was following the small bag pattern and had the wrong number of stitches left over!! So, today I will cast on again.

I am off to the UK tomorrow for 4 days as my dad is 70 on Friday. I am only taking hand luggage and can't take my knitting with me, but Penny suggested I start another bag over there andpost it back - good idea. I would feel very odd sitting there in the evening with no knitting to do.

Ok, so where did March and April go?!

2009-05-09T17:03:00.009+01:00

How does time go so quickly? I can't believe that it has been so long since I last posted.

Not that I have been doing anything wildly exciting or anything that would stop me writing, I just don't seem to have done anything to write about.

At last though the weather has really picked up and I have been able to get to work in the garden. The temperatures have been in the high 20's for a couple of weeks now, frosts are a distant memory and the evenings are getting longer and longer.

My magnolia tree bloomed its heart out a month or so ago and looked and smelt wonderful.

This is a lovely picture of Gertie Goose strolling by the aforesaid magnolia.

I have bought some new plants for the flower beds - a Pieris 'Flaming Silver' with lovely white tipped foliage, and a couple of Phygelius, which will grow nice and tall with pinky/red flowers.

I have some pale blue irises in the flower bed under the living room window. They are beautifully scented, almost citrussy smelling. They are in full bloom at the moment and I must make a note to move some of them elsewhere in the garden.

The newest addition to the garden is this wonderful, old Cuisiniere. It was given to us by Penny, who had it in her shop in Le Dorat. It is a real work of art. It is an old cooker/heater/boiler. It is made from iron with enamelled front and sides. On the top there are two rings for putting your pots and pans on, on the front are two large oven doors. The tap on the right of the ovens supplies boiling water from a small boiler inside the appliance and the two doors on the left are for putting wood in (top door) and removing ash (bottom door.

When this was made it would have been state of the art and top of the range in kitchen appliances. Ian and I were talking about it earlier and about 100 years ago someone would have been cooking on this thinking she was the bee's knees to have such a wonderful piece of equipment. I am over the moon to have it now, and had I lived in those older times I would have been truly ecstatic to have this. Thank you Penny, we are thrilled to have it, and we would love to try lighting it in the summer, fancy coming round for a ceremonial 'lighting up' evening?

I have been busy working in the vegetable garden, or Potager as the French call it. I planted borad beans in February and they are about to flower any day now. I planted 100 leeks seedlings last weekend, some cherry toms, peppers, plum toms and a variety of round toms called 'Moneymaker' given to us by Juley and Paul. I have sown carrots seeds in between leek rows, and planted basil and parsley between the tomatoes. I must get out there and get my peas planted.

All the cats and geese are doing well. Sadly we lost one of our chooks this week. Her name was Blondie and she had a problem with her foot called Bumblefoot. It caused a nasty infection that caused her to go lame in one leg so she could only hop around the garden. The geese attacked her as did a couple of the chickens. She was barely eating and sadly died a couple of evenings ago. It was heartbreaking to lose her, she had such a lovely personality, but we console ourselves by saying that she had a wonderful life before she got ill, she was completely free in the garden and had a lovely warm house at night.

Silly Goose

2009-02-25T16:38:00.005+01:00

You know, sometimes I wonder why I bother. We built the geese a lovely house, filled it with clean, warm straw and dopey Pippin has decided that she would rather squeeze her ample frame under a wooden gate, trample over emerging flowers and make a nest on a small hydrangea bush, (which she had already chewed the ends off to make softer) and lay an egg in it.

To be honest, she looked really cute, picking up bits of bark and straw and tucking them in around herself, and she did a good job of burying the egg in the straw afterwards.

All the new chickens are laying eggs now, so we get between 5 and 6 a day. The geese are all laying as well, we get at least one goose egg per day, and the most we have had is 4 eggs from three geese in a day!! They taste divine with bright orange yolks.

The weather here has been wonderful lately, lots of bright, sunny days. I planted my broad beans last Saturday having been told that if you plant them early it helps stop blackfly later. I am making plans as to what to plant this year. My veg plot is smaller this year. We had to fence off an area of garden to stop the geese trampling it. I am not going to bother with potatoes this year, we get alot of Colorado Beetle in the this area, and it is a real pain going round the area 4 or 5 times a day looking for beetles on leaves. I plan to plant lots of beans, tomatoes, parsnips for Ian (yuk) and some squashes. I would also like to get lots more fruit bushes and a plum tree.

Gettin' knitty with it!

2009-02-11T11:43:00.005+01:00

I have definitely got the knitting bug. It now seems strange to sit and watch tv in the evenings without having some knitting to do. So, you can imagine how I felt when I had finished my two projects without having another to go onto!!! Thank goodness the wool I had ordered on Friday arrived on Tuesday morning, very speedy service I must say.

I have taken photos of first two knitting projects. They are both the same pattern, which had been given to me by Penny, The Pearly Queen. She had two balls of a lovely beigy/creamy chunky wool which I fell in love with, but there was not enough to do a whole garment. Looking on Kemps Wool site I saw that they also did a lilac version of the same wool. I ordered some of the lilac and some cream yarn. The plan was to make one gilet totally out of the lilac yarn and another one from the beigy one and the cream one together (well, two rows of each).

I loved knitting them, and love wearing them. They were knitted on 10mm needles, which meant that they 'grew' quickly. The pattern was very simple, although I needed help when it came to edging the armholes, I had never 'picked up' stitches before. The yarn is gorgeously soft and snuggly but at the same time very light in weight. It would make a lovely summer jumper for those slightly chilly evenings.

I am now making a jumper for myself from a wool that when knitted looks like Fairisle but without all the hassle, and a new wooly hat for Ian. I have also got some fabulous aqua coloured cotton yarn that I am looking for a pattern for.

Spring is certainly on its way here in the Limousin. My little Iris Reticulata are flowering their hearts out and the crocuses should open any day now.

Surprise!

2009-02-04T17:18:00.010+01:00

I had a lovely trip out this morning to Monmorillon market with Penny. It is a really pretty town on a river with a lovely tea room and a nice market. We didn't buy much; Penny stocked up on sausages as her son is coming to visit this weekend, I bought some for Ian as well. There was a very nice goats cheese stall where I bought some mini goats cheese's coated in various herbs and stuff, and some little cakes that looked a bit like drop scones. I bought 3, intending Penny and I to have one with our coffee and one for Ian. Unfortunately I forgot all about them until I got home. I had one with a cuppa and they are delicious! They taste like lemon cheese cake. I have saved yours Penny and will bring it with me tomorrow.

I treated myself to this jasmine plant and some hyacinths. Both will look and smell wonderful.

Now for my surprise... Gertie Goose has laid her first egg!! This is our very first goose egg. Gertie is just coming up to a year old, we got her at the end of last March. She had made a little nest for herself out of straw in the coup and laid her egg. We are so thrilled and I have made a big fuss of her. Look at the size difference to our hens eggs ...

The Bridges of Madison County

2009-01-25T12:41:00.002+01:00

One of the reasons I joined the book club is to expand my choice of reading material. I have just finished reading the above book for the book club and I am so glad it was chosen, it is a wonderful story.

For those of you that haven't read it, it is set in 1965 in Iowa. The story is about a chance meeting between a farmers wife, Francesca and Robert Kincaid a National Geographic photographer.

The start of the book is intriguing, beacuse it told of a meeting between the author and Francesca's grown up children. They had approached the author with a view to writing this story about their mother and Kincaid. At this time you are not told why, and this made me want to read further.

Without telling you the whole story and ruining the ending for you, I found it thought provoking. emotional, happy and sad. This chance meeting influenced these two people for the rest of their lives. I loved it and would really recommend reading it.

More food!

2009-01-22T13:41:00.004+01:00

Our Sunday lunch with friends last week was divine. They did a starter where you unwrap a Camembert cheese and put it in an ovenproof dish, crush a clove of garlic and rub it over the cheese, then pour honey over the cheese and put it in a pre-heated oven for 15 mins. OMG! It is delicious. You scoop it up with a spoon and smear it on lovelt fresh bread. They said that they often serve it as a combined cheese and dessert course, it would be great with some fresh fruit with it as well. Try it! Main course was a lovely Thai curry and rice and dessert was a chocolate fondant. We had a great afternoon putting the world to rights.

This week has been a bit 'off' due to me picking up a tummy bug from somewhere, we call it a 'gastro' in France. It couldn't have been the food at the weekend (other than it all being very rich) as nobody else has been ill. I spent all day Monday in bed, apart from the times I was rushing to the loo. Misty slept with me all day, which as you can imagine I loved! At least I have stopped being sick now, and just feel very tired. Mind you, it has made a good start to my new year diet, and I don't feel able to eat all those things I love - cheese, cheese and cheese!

Thank you all for your lovely birthday wishes, OH made sure I had a super time.

End of the birthday week

2009-01-18T10:05:00.005+01:00

This is the lovely hot water bottle that Ian gave me for my birthday. I have used it every evening and one afternoon when I was a bit chilly. Hot water bottle are not just for bedtime you know!

I have had a lovely birthday week, my diet has gone completely out of the window, but it has been great.

We went for a lovely meal in our favourite restaurant last night. It is the L'Oie et le Grill in Rancon. We had wonderful food and a good laugh with the owners Veronique and Frances. I wish I could tell you what we had to eat but it is quite hard to describe it. Ok, let's give it a go; My starter was pain perdu with a seafood salad on it, there were cubes of a delicious cheese around the edge of the plate and a really tasty dressing. Ian's starter was a chickpea soup with crispy lardons and croutons. My starter was a crab canelloni with a balsamic sauce, Ians was duck with chestnut and potato mash and a very rich gravy. Desserts were a shortcakey biscuit with peaches and caramel sauce and a chestnut clafoutis with the same caramel sauce. It was all fantastic, but are only criticism of this restaurant is that the portions could be a little bit smaller. Franck, the chef has a wonderful imagination to create all this dishes using seasonal products time after time. We are so lucky that we have a restaurant like this 20 mins away.

We are going out to lunch today at a friends house, they are doing Thai red curry - I can't wait.

These are present that I got from my sister-in-law Tania; some crocus bulbs with little bulbs glasses to grow them in and some sugar swizzle sticks, one mocha flavoured the other hazlenut flavoured. She also sent a lovely looking box of chocolates which I have hidden!

My friend Maggie was supposed to be moving out here last weekend has unfortunately been delayed. However, her and her husband Al should be out here this coming week. I can't wait, we have got so many things planned. She wants to join the book and the knitting group and get meeting people. They have had a holiday home here for a few years now and have been spending more and more time over here. They have a gorgeous house here and are great fun to be with. Hurry up Mags!!!!!

Shopping trip into Limoges

2009-01-16T10:43:00.011+01:00

Yesterday Penny and I went into Limoges for a little wander around. I had some birthday money to spend, and Penny joined in the birthday spirit by treating herself to some goodies as well.

We started off with a delicious lunch. We both chose a tartine topped with both poached and smoked salmon with salad followed by creme brulee and coffee. Then we started our wandering.

We found a lovely needlework shop where the owner made everything herself. Penny treated herself to a handmade bag. I was so tempted to get one as well, and am still thinking about it, but they were a bit pricey. I wanted to get some clothes with my birthday money and we finally found the shop I was looking for. I bought 2 cardigans and 2 tops. The cardigans are the same style but different colours. They drape beautifully and the front sections hang about a 30cm longer than the back - very trendy at the moment, wayhay I am in fashion!). One of the tops is a long sleeved t-shirt top in a lilacy/grey colour and the other is a different style and purple.

We had an afternoon coffee in a little cafe in the merchants quarter and the carried on wandering. We called into a chocolate shop where I bought some nice things for OH.

Neither of us is keen on clothes shopping so we decided we had had enough for one day. We called in at a fabulous fruit and veg shop called Grand Frais with is on Avenue Locarno behind the main railway station in Limoges. It has the most amazing selection of fruit and veg from all over the world. There were fruits I had never heard of before. Next time I go, if I see someone buying them I will ask them what they do with them.

Happy Birthday

2009-01-15T10:24:00.009+01:00

Yet another year has passed and as of yesterday I am another year older. Where does the time go?

I had a lovely day, I spent it with my lovely husband and my friend Penny. Penny and I knitted and chatted and looked through some of her boxes of linen. I had some beautiful cards, you can see them on my mantelpiece, and some lovely presents. We had a lovely lunch together and a bottle of champagne later on in the day.

Penny and I are going into Limoges today for lunch and to mooch around the shops. Deborah of La Maison Bleue in Le Dorat ( http://www.la-maisonbleue.co.uk/) was wearing the most gorgeous jumper and cardigan when I saw her on Monday at the book club and she told me the shop she got it from in Limoges. The sales are on, I have some birthday money, so lets go!

Book Club

2009-01-13T09:07:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I went to the first meeting of a book club in Le Dorat. It is the brainchild of a lady called Michelle who seems to be great fun apart from the fact that she doesn't like Lance Armstrong or his book, which I have to say was one of the most inspirational books I have ever read. Anyway, I won't hold that against her, well, not too much!

She organised the book club to broaden her reading material and to meet other people. Eleven women turned up yesterday afternoon (I am sure that I will remember their names eventually) and we all had the same reason for going. The first book we are going to read is The Bridges of Madison County. I haven't read it before or seen the film. I started it last night and so far it seems easy to read and interesting.

The books are being chosen by group members and books have been selected for the next two months. I am trying to decided which book to choose when it comes to my turn. At the moment I am torn between The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy (OH thinks it might be too long a book to read in a month) or the aforementioned Lance Armstrong book.

The group is being held at a great cafe/gift shop in Le Dorat called La Maison Bleue. It does wonderful lunches and afternoons teas and has a fabulous selection of gifts to buy. I love being in there, it has a warm atmosphere and is very comfortable to be in, of course I always find a little something to buy after my lunch!

The picture in todays blog entry is this mornings sunrise.

Still cold

2009-01-07T10:34:00.004+01:00

Yesterday the temperature stayed below freezing all day. The geese didn't mind too much, once I had removed the ice from their paddling pools they all got in for a bath! I know they have a layer of fat and really thick, downy feathers but their legs are just thin and scaly, you would think they would be really cold. I have thought about making leg warmers for them, but I just don't know what colours they would like and I would hate them to be in an unfashionable colour!

Yesterday just one of the chickens came up to the house in the morning, and left a little trail of chicken footprints in the snow. She was around the house for ages before the others joined her. They all sit under the lounge window in a flower bed. When I went down the garden at 5pm to lock them away, she was still sitting all on her own, poor little thing. I carried her down and put her in with the others.

I have been putting the geese in the coup at night lately as well. Since the fox attack they haven't been sleeping in their lovely, warm, straw filled section of the coup, but have been sleeping in the open up near the house. There has also been some sort of animal burrowing around by the chicken shed door, we are hoping that it a hedgehog and nothing rodenty. By locking the geese in as well I am hoping that their noise will put off any intruders.

Addictions

2009-01-06T10:31:00.007+01:00

On Soft in the Head's blog, she wrote about things she was addicted to and said that she would be interested in hearing about what others are addicted to. Well, here goes:

1. Misty. It may seem strange that I am addicted to my kitten, but she is so adorable and having rescued her when she was so ill and so tiny, I absolutely adore her. I love the fact that she sleeps next to me at night and that I can cuddle her like a baby while watching tv in front of a log fire; mind you, it sends us both to sleep. I love the fact that when we have been out all day she runs up to us with her tail arched over her back quivering in excitement at seeing us. I can't imagine being without her.

2. Cheese. Living in France it is very easy to be addicted to cheese. The cheese stalls at the markets and the cheese counters in the supermarkets look so wonderful it is easy to get carried away. I love goats cheese most of all. I don't mind whether it is chalky in texture or creamy, hot or cold, it is divine. Last time my friend Maggie was over here, we went shopping and I bought a goats cheese covered in snipped chives. I had a little taste when I got home, and within five minutes the whole thing had vanished!! The other most favourite of cheeses is good old mature Cheddar. When you want cheese on toast or cheese topping on something else nothing can beat Cheddar.

3. Bread and Potatoes. Is my Irish ancestry showing here? How can people give these up? A hot, floury jacket potato with butter and grated cheese, divine. Crispy roast potatoes or spicy potato wedges both with garlic mayo, help! I am making myself hungry!

4. Making things. I have recently learned to crochet and have also taken up knitting again after many years. I am really enjoying both of them. I now look for wool whenever I go shopping, but before I buy too much, I need to find some patterns. My friend Maggie who is moving to France this coming weekend has got some material for me to make a new dressing gown with. I can't wait to start it. I have got a super sewing machine that OH gave me for christmas a few years ago, and have got my mums super all singing, all dancing machine that I have yet to try out. I keep threatening to crochet him some underpants, but he is not too keen!

5. Eating and cooking. I love food. I love good home cooked food, not out of a tin stuff or ready meals. I love people coming round for a meal. I love to spend time planning it, preparing it and eating it!!! My favourite foods are Mexican and Indian. I love making several different dishes that you can help yourself to. One of my food addictions at the moment is kiwi fruit. Last new year I made a resolution to eat some fruit every day. I chose kiwi fruit as they have more vitamin C than oranges and are easy to eat. I have 2 every day with my breakfast and it has become part of my daily routing. So much so, that if I don't have fruit in the morning I don't feel right.

Winter wonderland

2009-01-06T10:03:00.006+01:00

It started snowing last night much to Misty's delight - snowflake chasing is the 'in' kitten sport. We woke up this morning to a couple of inches of snow.

The geese don't really know what to make of it all, they have tried eating it and laying down in it. Only one of the chickens has come up to the house this morning, I have put out some leftovers for her and some chicken food. All the others either haven't bothered to get up yet or are in the coup.

OH hasn't gone to work today, our road hasn't been gritted and underneath the snow it is really icy. So, we have lit the log fires, made a pot of tea and opened a packet of biscuits!

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T10:53:00.003+01:00

I hope that everyone had a good christmas and new year. I can't believe that it is 2009. I remember when I was a little girl, I asked my mum if we would be alive in the year 2000 as it seemed such a long way off. Where has that time gone?

Christmas at Chez us-in-France was very pleasant, and far better than I thought it would be. I got up early to let the chickens out and feed them, the geese and the cats. OH got up and lit the fire and we went back to bed with a cuppa to open presents. He gave me the Mama Mia DVD which we watched in bed. I thought it was wonderful, he said that it got better after the first 30 mins. He says he doesn't think he will watch it again, but I think that I will come home from work one day and catch him practising the dance moves!!

We had a lazy day, lit the fire in the lounge and spent the day together watching films. We like to have our dinner in the evening, we are just not hungry for a full roast dinner at 2pm, and I certainly don't want to spend all morning cooking a dinner I don't even like or want to eat at that time. Anyway, we had a lovely meal - roast duck for him and caramelised onion and goats cheese in filo pastry for me, and a nice evening. I had thought it would be very different; I though he would spend all day on the computer upstairs and that I would spend the day on my own watching TV and preparing the dinner. It turned out very well.

Boxing Day doesn't exist in France, alot of people go back to work and the shops are generally open as usual. However, the Brits here carry on the tradition and have people round for drinks. We went to 2 on Boxing Day. Some people fairly near us, David and Anita and then over to Penny's (Violet White blog) where we got to meet her grown up children and her gorgeous granddaughter. We spent a couple of hours there and had such a good time.

New Years Eve was fabulous. Since we have been here we have spent the evening with one set of friends, but this year went somewhere else. It was a party jointly hosted by 3 couple who all live in the same lane. It started at Dave and Pennie's, with the biggest buffet you have ever seen. All the food had been provided by the 2nd couple, Ken and Lyn. There was a great mix of English and French people, we knew almost everyone there and the atmosphere was wonderful. Ken and Lyn had organised games to play. There were 6 bags with elasticated tops filled with 10 random items which you had to guess by just feeling them. Then there was outlines of countries that you had to name, you had to list as many American presidents as you could and a few other games besides. It was great fun and the evening whizzed by. Just before midnight we walked across the lane where we had fireworks and sparklers in Mick and Sue's house. All the desserts were over here and we stayed here for another couple of hours. We left at 2.15 and couldn't believe how much time had passed. It was an absolutely superb evening.

Everything is now returning to normal. The tree which I normally take down on New Years Day will come down tomorrow. We are having friends for a meal tonight and the tree looks so pretty with all it lights on. Misty has loved it; it is her indoor playground. She has climbed in it, slept in it, chucked decorations off of it and hidden behind it. She is really going to miss it.

I hope that all of you in blogland had a lovely christmas, and wish you all health and happiness for 2009.

Well done girls!

2008-12-20T17:39:00.003+01:00

One of our new chickens has laid an egg already!! I went down about 40 mins ago to shut them into their new hen house (complete with randy cockerel, who thinks that all his christmases have come at once) and there was a lovely little egg nestling in the the straw.

New Girls

2008-12-20T12:01:00.004+01:00

After spending a week with only 4 (sadly now 3) chickens, we now have some beautiful new girls.We have got 2 big, grey speckled hens, one large grey one and 3 pretty brown Warens. The grey, speckled ones are really heavy and very soft. Lets hope they are good layers. We know that the Warens are good, reliable layers. Skippy was a Waren and rarely missed a day.

Little black cockerel has been really strutting his stuff outside the coup! He has got 6 new girls to impress, after all black chicken and Sage won't let him have his way with them! The geese have been very interested in them as well, and have parading up and down making lots of noise. The new girls will be kept in the run for a day or so, then let out with the others.

This is one of the speckled hens and one of the warens.

On a sad note, one of the oldest bantams is no longer with us. Sage and Onion were our first chickens, and they were at least a year or two old when we got them 4 years ago. She survived the fox attack last week, but hasn't been seen for 2 or 3 days now. Her and her sister are usually inseperable, but only Sage has been seen lately.

It is so lovely to have a load of chickens again. In a couple of days they will be wandering around the garden making happy clucking noises.

Tragedy at chez Us-in-France

2008-12-13T08:52:00.003+01:00

Tuesday evening I had clients to do and left home at 4.30pm. The chooks put themselves to bed at 5.30 and then we lock them in for the night. OH came home at 7, about 15 mins before me and neither of us mentioned the chooks, both thinking that the other had seen to them. We got on with our evening, cooking, lighting fires etc.

Wednesday morning big black chicken was by the kitchen door, and I thought that they couldn't have been shut away. I went down to the coup only to find that my beautiful Skippy was dead, pretty big grey chicken was dead and all the little chickens had vanished. Sage and Onion the 2 oldest bantams were alive and on the top of the highest nesting boxes, but reluctant to fly down. The only other one we found alive was the little black cockerel who had managed to get through the hedge and was pacing up and down outside the front gate.

We were so devasted. All our chooks have very distinct personalities, and it has been wonderful to see them grow and look after the new little ones when they were introduced. My new little chick Amber had really mingled well, but still often sat in my hand to eat grain from the other hand.

Amazingly black chicken has still produced a couple of eggs since then. The market in St Junien is on next Saturday, so we will go and look for more.

I can't believe this has happened. Last January we lost some chooks to 2 dogs who got in the garden, January before Tabitha my cat went missing and has never returned. When I think of all the times when we never used to shut the coup door, then just one night and this happens. At least they had really happy lives, they were totally free to wander the garden during the day and had a good variety of food.

Relaxing sundays

2008-12-08T13:49:00.004+01:00

Well, Misty certainly decided to relax. She is going through a very snuggly phase at the moment, and likes to be near us. I sat down to crochet some little christmas trees bags yesterday afternoon, and Misty decided that she would sit on my crochet bag right next to me. Doesn't she look comfortable?It was a glorious day yesterday, freezing cold in the morning with lots of frost and ice everywhere, but bright blue sky. As I went downt he garden to feed the chickens and geese the sky was turning the most stunning pink and I debated going back to the house for my camera, but I knew that by the time I had got it the pink would have gone.

The christmas craft market in Le Dorat was on yesterday. OH decided that he could resist going, so I went on my own. There were a lot more outside stalls this year, but then it was very wet last year. There was a wonderful cheese stall run a man called Adrian. He has mainly English handmade cheeses that are absolutely divine. There was a sausage stall, I bought Ian some Cumberland and Lincolnshire sausages. He had the Cumberland for dinner last night and said not to bother getting them again as he prefers the French Toulouse sausages - apparantly they have much more meat in them. Penny had a stall there which looked fabulous, lots of lovely treasures on it, her friend Sandra had a stall next door with some wonderful handmade cards.

When I got home I spent a lovely afternoon crocheting some little christmas tree bags. You put a Ferrero Rocher chocolate in them and hang them on the tree - if I bother with a tree this year, never have I felt so un-christmassy. The pattern is Pennys, and once you get into the swing of them they are suprisingly easy, I managed to make 2 of them during the afternoon.

These are my little bags. The 2 white ones are white wool with a silver thread running through it, the blue one are in a fine metallic yarn. I am really please with them.

It's freezing!!!

2008-11-28T08:35:00.003+01:00

We woke yesterday morning to a world covered in silver glitter! It was gorgeous, and this morning is exactly the same. The ice was over 1cm thick on the geese baths and had to be broken with a spade - they still got in to have a bath though!

You can never have too many handbags .....

2008-11-26T18:56:00.006+01:00

.... Just as well I've finished crochetting this one then.
It is crocheted in double crochet, with the front flap continued in half double and treble to give the diagonal shape. I tidied up the edges of the un-sewn bag with double crochet and stitched it together with back stitch.

I can see that there are places I need to improve on and to practice, but for a first project I am really pleased.

Mmmm, now what I am going to do with my evenings? Good job I am seeing Penny on Friday, she will have loads of ideas!!

My mother-in-law, Eileen has been staying with us for 4 days and we have had a wonderful time with her. Unfortunately the weather was quite damp for the first couple of days. but it then brightened and we had a couple of crisp, cold days. We took her to the craft fair at La Maison Bleue in Le Dorat, and spent a lovely afternoon with Penny. Laurence (Breezy's husband) came round for a couple of meals and we all had a great laugh.

My first crochet lesson

2008-11-20T10:16:00.003+01:00

I had a great time yesterday learning to crochet with Penny (The Pearly Queen). She gave me lovely lovely wool and now I can't put it down! I even got up at 6.30 this morning to do some. It is going to be a bag, I will photograph the finished article. It is done in double crochet and is really nice and strong. The finished fabric is quite dense and solid.

New chicken

2008-11-15T16:28:00.003+01:00

I only went to do someone's hair and I came home with a chicken! No, it wasn't in part payment, I got paid as well.

The new chicken is female and I have named her Amber. She is small and very soft and cuddly. Well, she probably isn't at all cuddly but I pick her up and cuddle her when I open the coup in the morning! She seems to have settled in well, and even escaped the amorous attention of the black cockerel this morning.

'Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn, at the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them'.

2008-11-11T15:16:00.003+01:00

Another Armistice Day. That 2 minute silence really focuses the mind on whats is important and whats not.

Theres me wishing I could have a nice new ceiling light, and there was one I really liked in Leroy Merlin for 'only' 140€, it becomes so totally un-important when one thinks about the reason behind Armistice Day.

I am so lucky. I have never been through a war. Never sent my husband off to battle not knowing if he would return. Never had to go through rationing or be evacuated. I have got my health, my husband, a lovely home and garden with my animals all around me. I have my family and my friends and we are all safe and warm.

I really don't need that light after all.

Happy Birthday Jenny

2008-11-11T09:00:00.004+01:00

Today is our niece Jenny's 12th birthday. We hope that she has a wonderful day, even though she has got school today.

If she lived here in France she would have the day off, as today is Armistice Day which is a bank holiday here.

She has started learning French at school now, and has asked us to be pen pals with her. She writes nice emails to us, and includes various French words.

Happy Birthday Jenny
we love you loads

At last another post

2008-11-11T08:45:00.005+01:00

Sorry for my absence, but I have just been uninspired to write anything for ages, and thare is still not much to write about.

Summer is over, and after a gorgeous Indian summer we are now well and truly into autumn. Both log burners are lit in the evening and the house is lovely and toasty. We have had quite alot of rain lately and the chickens have been looking very soggy, but they are still producing delicious eggs every day. The baby chickens are growing, but are not laying yet. We were a bit annoyed, as we had asked the man on the market for females only, but have got one male Silkie (white) and possibly a male Penkin Bantam (black). Only the white one is crowing, but the black one definately looks like a cockerel. Oh well, we may have more babies next year!

OH has been working hard for a lovely lady called Penny about 30 mins away from us. She is a real crochet queen and has said that she will teach me in return for a haircut or two. I can't wait. The work she produces is absolutely stunning. She uses the most beautiful yarns, and has even written a book about crocheting bags and purses. She showed me her collection of bags and things, and OH has said if I am lucky Father Christmas might get me one! I put a small selection aside so that he would know which ones I like.

OH's mum is coming over a week on Saturday for a 4 day visit. We are really looking forward to seeing her.

Ages ago I mentioned my friends Maggie and Alan whom I met when doing Maggies hair. They were over in France again this summer and we had some great days together. They have finally sold their house in the UK and will be over here permanantly before christmas! Yippee! I can't wait to see more of them. Mags is a real 'craft' person, she can make all sorts of things and we have lots of plans for sewing, days, baking days, gardening days etc. We are going to be really busy.

Happy Holidays, New Chicks and the Olympics

2008-09-04T16:02:00.011+02:00

What a brilliant week we had last week. My parents-in-law came over for a week bringing with them our two nieces - Jennifer almost 12 and Tamsin 17.

The weather was amazing, it was in the high 20's all week, culminating with 33 degrees on Saturday. We alternated days out with days at home and the we played in the pool everyday. We have an inflatable pool chair and borrowed 2 more and had a great time tipping each other off the chairs and into the pool.

This a picture of the 4 of them outside the Chateau in Rochechouart - Tamsin, Jennifer, Mum and Dad.

One of the day trips was to La Vallée des Singes (Valley of the Monkeys). It is a monkey park where all the monkey except the gorillas, chimps and a couple of others are totally free to run around you. There are no wire enclosures and you can be as close as you want to the monkeys. You are asked not to touch or feed them, but the 'keepers' have feeding times that you can watch. A truly wonderful place, I can thoroughly recommend it.

There was also a mini farm at the Vallée des Singes, where there were baby goats, small pigs, geese and lots of very fluffy Silkie chickens. Tamsin and Jennifer fell in love with the chickens, and I fell in love with a baby goat and a white goose. OH was hoping that I wasn;t going to try and persuade him to have some goats in the garden! Later that night the girls were on the phone to their mum, telling her about their day, and she came up with the idea of them adopting a chicken each. They buy it and we keep it here and look after it, sending them photos and updates. This was a brill idea, as they wanted cute fluffy chickens and so did I!

So, Friday off we went to Les Herolles market. Little warning here DO NOT GO DURING THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS. It was heaving like you wouldn't believe. It took 30 mins of queuing just to get close enough to park, and you had to walk round like sardines. It didn't help that it was 30 degrees.

We went to the chicken bit first where Jenny saw 2 white Silkies. These are small bantams that are very fluffy (think feather duster) with fluffy white feet and little turquoise cheeks. Well, that was it, they were purchased and now Jenny was the proud owner of 2 chickens. We continued wandering and there was a really lovely selection of very pretty chickens and ducks. Tamsin saw 2 Pekingese bantams, which are small chicken, very dark brown almost black feathers and very feathery feet. She decided to buy these. So now we have 4 little chooks. They are very young, around 6 weeks old we think, so wont be laying eggs for ages.

The girls have named them all, but OH has ammended a couple of the names. Jenny called hers Flora and Fizz. OH changed Flora to Facewash as he said that she looks like of those shower puff things that you wash yourself with in the shower. Tamsin called her Pixie and Marigold, but he suggested Little Git instead of Marigold, as she decided to escape from her run, and led us all a merry dance around the back of the shed. This called for a re-think in chicken run security. Both these pictures were taken by Jenny.

They have all settled in well. They sleep in a cat box during the night in the chicken shed. They are so small that the bigger chickens would squash them! They all go into their cat box as good as gold as it starts getting dark. The other animals haven't really paid much attention to them. Misty has gone into theire run and wash more interested in the cat box than the chicks. She always comes down with me in the morning when I go to let them all out, feed and water them.

Another reason I was so pleased to see the family was that they arrive the day after the Olympics finished. I was glued to the Games for the entire 2 weeks (with the exception of a couple of sports). Team GB did brilliantly and we shouted ourselves hoarse. I cried every time we one a gold, at all our medal ceremonies and at all the re-runs shown later - sad cow! When they ended I thought I would have withdrawal symptoms, but the arrival of our family was well timed.

A lovely goose picture taken by Jenny on her last day here:

I am blighted!

2008-08-20T16:25:00.003+02:00

Well, all my gorgeous tomatoes and potatoes have got blight and have been dug up and dumped. I only had a handful of cherry toms and the huge Marmade ones had only just started going red when they all started rotting. I can't believe it, the second year running this has happened. St least the chili, peppers, aubergines and broad beans are still going strong.

On the plus side our menagerie of animals are keeping me amused. Misty is an absolute delight. I like to get up at 7am and feed the chooks, cats and geese and even if she is fast asleep she follows me down the garden, often with her eyes half shut. The geese have hard plastic paddling pools to bath in, and they need cleaning out every day. Misty likes to climb the magnolia tree next to the bath while I clean them. Once they are full, she likes to walk along the edges of them. Yes, she does fall in but it doesn't seem to bother her. I love our little morning routine together.

The geese have got a 'thing' about laundry. When I am hanging it on the line they like to come and investigate the laundry basket. The amount of times I have had to stop them nicking a sock or a pair of pants. Misty likes the laundry basket as well. She likes to sit in it and be carried up the garden in it. Oh course nothing is too much trouble for me where Misty Moo is concerned. She has been wrapped around her little finger.

I have been glued to the Olympics since they started. Team GB are doing brilliantly and I have screamed myself hoarse at the telly, and been in tears every time we have won a medal. Speaking of which I better get back to watching it. Thank goodness it is only every 4 years!

Miss you Mum.

2008-07-31T07:50:00.003+02:00

Mum died 5 years ago yesterday.

I think about here so much and really miss her. We had loads of ups and downs and often had a stormy relationship, but we had some great laughs as well.

She would have come over here often, we would have made all sorts of stuff for the house. She was a tailor and could make anything. Sadly my Dad has said he will never come here, he can't bear to be away from the house, especially overnight.

Miss you mum xxx

This is your 5.45am alarm call!

2008-07-30T15:45:00.004+02:00

Picture the scene .....

A hot, humid night. All the windows open, not a breath of air anwhere. Tossing and turning all night trying to find a cool spot on the bed and the pillow. Then just as you doze off at 3am, the cats decide to have a karaoke party outside the bedroom window. With the party moved on you, you setle back to try and go to sleep. Then at 5.45am the geese our on the herb bed outside the bedoom window tapping their beaks on a ceramic mushroom!! Little gits! It was just like they were ringing for room service - 'Come on, we're up where's our breakfast? Our paddling pools need cleaning as well. Come on the chickens will be up soon!'

Roast goose is looking more likely everyday.

Bloody geese

2008-07-28T08:51:00.003+02:00

Well, we have had to fence off the vegetable patch to stop the marauding invaders trampling everything in sight.

I had put canes all around it, and stretched nylon netting about 2/3rd of a metre tall all around it. That'll stop them I thought. I checked the progress of my tomatoes everyday, and started to feel excited as a little batch of cherry toms were ripening nicely. Then, one morning they had disappeared. Couldn't possibly be my lovely geese I thought, they can't get through the net. Although Misty can get under she doesn't like tomatoes. I was puzzled. Well, later that day I discovered it WAS the geese. They trample over the netting like toddlers wearing oversized flippers, they had a good look around then trampled off! Bloody geese!

OH and I have now made a good sturdy enclosure around my precious veg. Heavy duty wire fencing a metre high. The wire doesn't let geese or chooks in, but allows Misty to get in. It's a little safe haven for her if she is being chased by a goose. Actually, she lets them chase here, runs into the veg plot, stops just inside and walks up and down taunting them!

So now the toms are ripening nicely, broad beans are podding - although not as many as I had hoped for, beetroot, chilis and aubergines and spuds growing well.

I had a rare trip to the garden centre in Limoges on Saturday. The border under our lounge windows was looking really shabby. All the californian poppies had finished and looked really messy. Time for a few purchases I thought. I came back with 2 lovely dark purple penstemons, 2 white echinaceas, 3 pretty salvias, a pink hydrangea, a lovely tall blue grass and a penisetum rubrum (an ornamental millet, dark, with lovely long tufty bits). I had a great afternoon moving stuff around, clearing and planting. The penisetum looked fabulous swaying in the breeze.

I was up and about nice and early this morning, went to look at all my lovely plants and thought 'whats that stumpy looking lump?' it's only the penisetum chewed down to a little stump of brown grass by some bloody long necked grey bird!!!

Roast goose for Christmas anyone?!

Ticks - yuck!!

2008-07-11T11:01:00.003+02:00

Aren't ticks the most horrible things ever?

In the UK I had never seen one. Here I have seen more than my fair share of them on our cats. The 3 adults are really good a sitting still waiting for us to get the little hook and remove them. Not Misty though. She growls and hisses and wriggles like a growly, hissy, wriggly thing, and that is just when they are on her neck. So, you can imagine what she was like when we discovered she had one right on her bum-hole!!! Her tail become clamped to her arse like glue. She clenched her little bum so tight the bloody tick disappeared, she growled, hissed and wriggled and OH and I just collapsed laughing.

Two adults trying to prise up a tiny cats tail to get access to her bum must have looked hilarious. We tried waiting til she was asleep - no luck. We tried wrapping her in a towel - no luck. Someone had told us that if you dab the tick with nail polish remover it helped. So I dabbed a cotton bud in the liquid and applied it to the tick, waited til Misty was asleep and wonder of wonders it came of really easily.

Sorry!

2008-07-10T17:46:00.003+02:00

Sorry for my absence everyone. I have been flying solo around the world and only just got back. I was the skipper on a round the world yacht where all the crew looked like Aragorn (from Lord of the Rings) - tough job but someone's got to do it! No really, I have just finished my astronaut training and am waiting for a date for the next shuttle mission. Actually you'll be surprised to hear that I haven't done any of those, but they sound much more interesting that day to day life in Us-in-Franceland.

We have been enjoying the good weather lately and had the chance to lie by the pool on our new 'treat to us' sunloungers. Gertie Goose loves them too, and sits with us whenever we are lying there. She likes to nibble the cushions, our toes, fingers, books, my ponytail - the list goes on. She is a real 'people' goose.

The two little goslings are growing fast. For a while they were called Gertie and the Shit-ettes as they produced mountains of poo on the patio. OH has now built a nice little gate and fence to keep them of the patio. They now poo everywhere else! They are actually called Merry and Pip after the hobbits in Lord of the Rings. They are really cute still, growing really fast and absolutely HATE being picked up. Gertie on the other hand loves it and will happily sit on my lap.

On the whole things are going great in Us-in-Franceland. We are both working, my hairdressing business is getting busier each month, the garden is looking good, the tomato plants have actually got fruit on them, as have the chilis. I may dig up some spuds this weekend as we have some friends coming over on Monday evening. I planted some new potatoes a few weeks ago - a little late I hear you say. Well, yes, you are right. Alain had given me some chitted La Rattes and some red skinned ones ages ago. I put them in the cellar to stay nice and cool, and there they stayed - yep, I forgot all about them, until one day something caught my eye down there and the shoots were a foot tall!! Hence the late planting.

Gertie, Misty and Primrose were all very helpful on planting day. There I was on my hands and knees digging around with a trowel clearing weeds and making little trenches. Misty was jumping all over my hands thinking it was all a game, Primrose the chicken was inspecting every bit of turned earth for worms and grubs, and Gertie was taking all the weeds and grass OUT of the bucket, and when she got bored with that she would pull at my bootlaces. All in all it was like being in a carry on film!

Thanks Debs

2008-06-11T09:30:00.002+02:00

This lovely award was given by Debs of http://lehnersinfrance.blogspot.com/

Gertie and the Goslings

2008-05-29T15:10:00.004+02:00

No, it's not a 60's pop group, although it sounds like one. We went to the market today with some friends and we bought two 4 week old goslings. The are really cute and Gertie has taken to them straight away.

We had been undecided whether to get another goose, but yesterday Gertie seemed very lonely. She followed me around the garden whenever I was outside, even when I was mowing the grass. She sat on the kitchen door mat for a couple of hours late afternoon and definately wanted our company.

We decided to get two as if anything happened to one of them, she wouldn't be alone again. She followed me down to the chicken coup where I took the new girls out of the box. The little ones huddled together and Gertie immediately went over and started sniffing and preening them. She now has them following her around the garden! It is lovely to see and although I loved her following me around and coming for attention, this is better for her.

Poor Goosey Lucy

2008-05-28T07:50:00.004+02:00

I had an awful afternoon last Friday. I came home from work to find Goosey Lucy dead in the garden. There wasn't a mark on her and all the other chickens and Gertie Goose were all fine. She looked like she had been sitting down and just keeled over.

I contacted the Wildfowl Trust in the UK who thought she may have had a congenital heart problem, as it it didn't look like another animal had 'got' her.

OH had thought something was odd that morning when only Gertie had appeared at the kitchen door to tap on it, yet when I looked down the garden a few minutes later they were both sitting together by one of the water stations. They were always inseperable waddling around the garden.

Gertie has been quite affectionate since her sister went. She has beenin the kitchen to have a nose around and i have given her lots of cuddles. I don't know if she likes them but I do! It's amazing how much she has grown in the month since we got her. She has proper wings now and beautiful feathers, whereas at first she just had stumpy little wings and was covered in soft fluff.

Luckily the market at Les Herolles is on again tomorrow (29th of the month) so we would like to go and get another one. We have been told that they like company and she does look lonely sitting in the garden on her own. She doesn't socialise with the chickens much.

Animal diaries

2008-05-18T08:24:00.003+02:00

John, my father-in-law sent me this. I thought it was hilarious and very true. Hope you like it.

Excerpts from a Dogs Diary...

8:00 am - Dog food! My favourite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favourite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favourite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favourite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favourite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favourite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favourite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favourite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favourite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favourite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favourite thing!

Excerpts from a Cat's Diary...
Day 983 of my captivity. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape.

In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

I'm back

2008-05-15T17:54:00.003+02:00

Hi y'all, I'm home!

I have been to the UK for four days and returned yesterday afternoon. It's funny because when I was booking the trip, although I really wanted to see our family, I didn't want to leave Misty, geese, new chooks and OH. Then when I got to the UK I realised I hadn't really booked a long enough trip.

I stayed with my parents in-law who are brilliant. My mother in law Eileen is great fun and we had a good time mooching around a sunday market, and going for a walk along the river She has just come back from a holiday in China and it was good to hear all about it. My father in law is lovely too and we spent a good time chatting and putting the world right. We have 2 neices in the same village who are just gorgeous (17 and 11), they are really great company, and their parents (OH's sister and husband) who are bril as well. I got to see my dad. I hadn't seen him for ages, as he won't come over here. Since he lost my mum he doesn't want to be away from the house for long. He loves his garden, and it was immaculate.

Although it was good to be with them all, and I got upset when I left, it was lovely to be home here. My geese have really grown and are starting to get proper feathers on their wings and tails. I must take some more photos of them quickly. They still have little squeaky voices which is so cute. Just a quick post as I've been working today and have got to get dinner started.

Bathing Geese

2008-05-06T16:21:00.003+02:00

Here are Lucy and Gertie sharing a bath on this lovely warm afternoon. They have been dipping in and out all afternoon. They have got a few tubs like this around the garden, this one is under the magnolia tree. On one of their dips I sat next to them, one of them got out and the other stayed in and she let me stroke her and give her a wash, she nuzzled her beak in my hand. A very happy time.

Geese in the garden

2008-05-06T11:45:00.004+02:00

We have had such glorious weather this weekend. It was 27 degrees on Saturday - wonderful.

When we got our new girls home last Tuesday, we put them all into the chicken run. Our chooks don't use it as they are free to roam in the garden. There was loads of green stuff growing in the run which was perfect for the geese as that it what they prefer to eat.

Well, after 4 days they were resorting to sticking their heads through the wire fence to get at grasss outside the run. I made a sort of a play pen from wire fencing stuff and surround some little cherry trees with it. I put in a water tub and some grain and put the geese into it. They hated being separated from each other, and squealed as I took them one at a time from the run to the play pen. They loved it. They ate all the long grass and clover, and the dandelion stalks, but they spat out the seeds heads. They go back into the chicken house at night and I close them in. Our 2 existing bantams prefer to sleep in a tree during the summer, but Primrose the big brown chook goes into the hen house with all the others.

On Sunday OH and I were in the garden cleaning the pool out and I decided to let the geese into the garden for a wander. They stayed close together and had a great day. They got into the water tubs to cool down, they had a little snooze under a tree it was a joy to watch them. I sat down to read a book on the grass and they came and sat next to me. Misty went to investigate them and got hissed at! She back of quickly but soon came back for another look. No hisses this time, they just sniffed each other and wandered off.

I moved the play pen yesterday, put the geese in it, went of to do some hairdressing, came back and the geese were in the garden! I had left a gap in the pen and they escaped. I wasn't worried, they were happy little souls wandering around. I left them in the garden all day and put them away last night.

This morning was the big day. I left the chicken run door open so that they could all come out. It was a nervous moment, and as soon as I finish this post I am going to check on them all!

Debs has requested some more baby geese photos, and I am happy to oblige.

First egg!

2008-05-01T09:04:00.003+02:00

We have been keeping our new birds in the chicken run during the day, and shutting them in the hen house at night. I went to let them out this morning and one of our new girls had laid an egg!

Just a short post for now, I have had some new visitors to my blog and I want to go and visit them.

It is bank holiday here in France, so Bon 1er mai tout le monde.

New arrivals at Chez us-in-france!

2008-04-29T20:31:00.005+02:00

Just arrived today are 3 new chickens and 2 baby geese!!

The white chicken is called Mrs Gobby, the grey one is Maisie and the black one is Dixie.

The geese are called Lucy and Gertie. They are Toulouse geese and will grow up having pretty grey feathers. At the moment they are really fluffy and I can't stop picking them up and cuddling them.

OH and I have just had fun and games trying to herd our 3 existing chickens back into the coup. The chooks are free to roam the garden during the day, and when our new ones arrived this afternoon we put them in the coup and run and closed the gate. It was good aerobic exercise running around the garden! They are all safely in the coup now, but the 3 older ones are a bit apprehensive of the geese.

Watch your P's and Q's

2008-04-28T14:25:00.004+02:00

Some days posts are like buses, nothing for ages then 2 at once!

I have just been watching Loose Women on tv, and they were talking about manners, and what gets them annoyed. It was really interesting hearing about things that gets them riled, and thought it would make a good blog subject. We can all have a get off our chests.

1. Please and Thank you. Last year one of my cousins came to stay with his mum (my auntie). He is in his late 40's, single and intelligent. He was good company except for the fact that he NEVER ONCE said please or thank you. I would ask him if he wanted a cup of tea, he would just say 'yeah'. I cooked dinner everynight, as soon as he finished his meal he would leave the table, leave his plate on the table, his chair pushed out and go and sit in the other room and read. No thank you that was lovely, no I'll do the washing up tonight, it drove me mad.

One afternoon he and OH were upstairs on the internet and Auntie and I put the kettle on for a cuppa. Cousin arrived downstairs and asked if we were making tea, I said yes and asked if he wanted one, 'yeah' was the reply. I thought sod it, I'm not making it. I made one for me and auntie and he looked at me as if to say where's mine. I told him that he hadn't said the magic word. He had no idea what I was talking about, and asked what magic word did I mean. He mum growled 'please' at him and then he just said 'oh. yeah. please'. I made him a cup but he never said please for the rest of his stay.

OH has got a bad habit of saying 'yeah, sure' when I ask if he would like a drink, dinner, eggs for breakfast, anything if fact where a please could be used. It drives me MENTAL. It is so rude. I told him this weekend that unless he said please, I wouldn't do it.

2. Punctuality. I have spent years as a hairdresser working to a strict appointment schedule. I can count of one hand the times I have kept a client waiting. I feel that it is rude and inconsiderate to be late for someone. To me it is like saying 'my time is more important than yours, and I don't care about your time'. I worked with a girl who was permanently late. She would arrive for work late, faff around putting her bag away and lunch in the fridge. Be late checking her appointmen list for the day and printing off client records. Her first client was 9am. She would finally get to see her at around 9.20, spend ten minutes discussing their hair, get them shampooed, and start them at 9.45 just as her second client was walking through the door. Her saving grace was that she was an excellent hairdresser and that everyone got their full 45 mins not matter how late she was.

3. Being ungracious. If I have given something to someone I appreciate a thank you. You don't have to go into raptures but It would be nice to have something more than a grunt, or a 'cheers', a word that I personally think should be kept for when you are drinking and clink your glasses together. Whenever I gave my dad a christmas/birthday present he would unwrap it and say 'oh, what did you buy this for?' or 'why did you spend your money on this?'. How ungracious can you get.

These are just 3 of my many things that get me mad. What gets on your nerves? I'd love to know.

On a lighter note, there are lots of ticks around this years. We check the cats several times a day, as they pick them up while they are walking through long grass in the fields. We have a little hook thingy that removes them safely and easily. Rosie and Jemima get them around their necks mainly, Josh doesn't often get them as he doesn't go far from home, and Misty gets them everywhere - including on her bum!

Yes, there was a tick at the base of her tail where it joins her bum. Trying to get it off was a major feat. We tried just lifting her tail, but she became a bundle of claws. We tried wrapping her in a sweatshirt and lifting her tail but she wriggled out of the sweatshirt. OH and I were giggling like idiots, Misty was hissing away and trying to bite and claw any part of us that went near her, to a passer-by it must have looked hilarious. Anyway, I finally pinned her down and OH got the tick off.

Busy, busy, busy

2008-04-28T13:03:00.005+02:00

What a week it's been. I haven't stopped, mind you neither has OH. The week before last I was helping some friends make a lawn. OH had rotovated the whole area for us on the Saturday, then myself and the owners raked all the weeds out of it, raked it level, sowed grass seed and raked it again! It was really hard work over such a huge area. I was raking in my sleep! My back and neck were killing me, but it was worth it in the end. The friends I was helping are great fun and we had a good laugh doing it.

On the Sunday (20th) we went to the plant fair at Mortemart. It was a beautiful setting, all around the chateau, but it was pouring with rain. I treated myself to a Spirea and a Salix. They look lovely planted by the decking. There were lots of nice crafts there, but the prices were really steep.

Last week was spent hairdressing and helping OH finish his tiling job south of Limoges. He has done a fantastic job, but it was really hard going. The owner is thrilled with it all, which is the main thing.

Well, we went to this 'do' with friends. It was as boring as we though it would be. At least it wasn't a sit down meal. There was a buffet and at least there were some other people we knew. The hosts virtually ignored us all evening and stayed with their 'new' friends (maybe they are as fed up with us as we are with them!). We made our excuses at about 11pm and escaped!

I am off to the UK on the 10th May for 4 days. I have mixed feelings about going, I want to see family and friends, but hate the thought of being in the mad hussle and bustle of the UK. I am staying with OH parents who live in the same village that we used to live in. I will catch up with my Dad while I am there, I realised recently that I hadn't seen him for 3 years - where does time go. He won't come over here, in fact since mum died he hasn't gone anywhere. I will also go and see my Auntie who came over here a couple of times last year. It's funny how dofferent people can be. She lost her husband 7 years ago and has thrown herself into everything. She is chairman of her local British Legion, plays bowls and goes for day trips. Her and my dad couldn't be more different.

We have had 3 days of 25.5 degrees bright sunshine, I have burnt my shoulders gardening, given myself a bad back from mowing other peoples grass (ok they were clients and I got paid for it, but my back still hurts!) and planted lots of seeds. Now we are back to rain and grey sky. Is spring ever going to arrive?

On a happy note, we are off to Les Herolles market tomorrow to get some more chickens!!!!! I am so excited. One of my hair clients goes there and she has got some gorgeous birds. We need pretty ones who are good layers, which is exactly what a friend of ours says he looks for in a woman!

Don't wanna go out!

2008-04-19T11:49:00.003+02:00

Do you ever the feeling that you don't even want to step out of the front door? Well that's me today.

Unfortunately I've got hairdressing clients this afternoon (whose stupid idea was that? oh, it was mine). I did the wife of the couple at the end of last week and husband couldn't be there, so could I possibly do him this afternoon? Normally I would say no, but I was going out that way later this afternoon to see a garden to quote on, so as a favour I would do it. The garden people had said that they were going to be out all day shopping and could I go as late in the day as possible. I said 5pm was the latest as we were going out - I'll tell you about that in a minute. So, 5pm to see the garden, work it back to do this blokes hair, I would get to him at 3.45. Then, wifey asks if I could cut a bit more off of the back of her hair. Yes, no problem. No I don't want to wash it all it won't take long I'll just spray it. No I won't be blowdrying it or I'll charge you for the whole cut and blowdry. Fine all set and done.

This morning the garden person rang and said that they weren't going out after all and I could go along when I wanted - Argghhh! So I'll see the garden at 2pm and then do the hair client.

We are off out this evening to some friends we haven't seen for a while. When they first had their house here and it was just a holiday home, they were fun. We would see them every 2 months or so for an evening. As they were both still working they had a few tales to tell. Then they moved out here permanently and have retired and they have become less fun to be with. She drinks like a fish, tells stories we have been hearing for the last 3 years and barely goes outside the house at all. He sits quietly and makes really daft comments. The food is not my cup of tea to be honest as most of it is tinned, including the vegetables. At least this evening there will be other people there that we know.

I don't mean to sound churlish, but I really don't enjoy their company that much and would rather stay at home, especially as Doctor Who is on!!!

Hey, I'm not as dumb as I look!

2008-04-18T14:46:00.002+02:00

Cream crackered

2008-04-18T09:27:00.003+02:00

Have I really got a day off today? Wait, check the diary....... yes, I have!

I am so tired my poor fingers can barely type, and my brain keeps missing letters so I have to type each word twice. The past 2 weeks have been really busy with hairdressing and gardening (for other people). The gardening has been really hard work. Last December OH and I rotovated a garden for some friends. It was all weeds and they wanted a huge lawn area. The plan was to rotovate, let the frost break things up a bit, then the friends would rake all the weeds out. Bit of a cock up there. We didn't have much in the way of a cold snap, but tons of rain. This compacted all the soil and we were back to square one. So myself and our friends last week decided to start digging out the weeds. We did a day and then decided to get OH back to rotovate, which he did on Saturday.

Myself and the friends have spent Mon, Tues and Weds this week raking all the weeds out, raking it level (ish), sowing grass seed and raking it in again. My rake is welded to my hands,am raking in my sleep, where I dream of raking!!!! My neck, back, hands and arms are moulded into a raking position and constantly ache. Still it is done, we have promised ourselves that once the lawn is grown and ready will be will drinking copious amounts of Pimms on it.

Yesterday I working wih OH grouting loads of tiles for him. He has got a really shitty tiling job where 4 out of 5 tiles have to be cut, and it is in a really awkward place because the owner didn't want anything moved out of the way and it is a 45 min journey to get there. I really feel for him on this one. At least I can grout for him him and keep him company. He has been doing really long days there as it is not worth going for just a morning. He has been getting home at 8.30pm and is pooped. Then on the way home last night we had to pick up 24 sheets of plasterboard for his next job - they are heavier that you think.

At least we have a fairly easy day today - drop of the plaserboard, go to the hairdressing wholesalers, oops I have got a client later today, then collapse in front of the fire or have a long, hot beetroot bath. Beetroot bath is what one of my friends used to call it. You know, it's so hot your skin goes the colour of a beetroot!

Then working tomorrow afternoon (more hairdressing), off to look at someones garden to do a quote for looking after it.

We are missing our Guest Chickens, the garden is very empty without them. I chuckled when I read Breezy's blog about them escaping. I haven't really laid a trail of tit-bits down the road to my gate, honest!!!

Antiquities

2008-04-07T18:09:00.005+02:00

No not me!!!!

I had been looking forward to this antiques fair for about 10 days, ever since I had seen the signs for it. We had last been the first year we were here, and had seen loads of lovely things including some vintage, crystal champagne glasses (drooled over by me) and a 12-seater dining table and chairs (drooled over by OH), neither of which we bought, as most of our belongings were still in boxes and we were still cooking on a camping gas stove. Our hopes for this years fair were quite high, as the house is finished (bar plastering the chimney breast) and we were in the mood to treat ourselves. OH had some money for his birthday last week and it was burning a hole in his wallet.

Well, we crossed the palm of a grumpy French woman with 3 euros each and entered the grand marquee. We walked around nodding knowledgeably and pointing at things, picked up a couple of bits and bobs, and hurried away from other stalls. Then after spending 15 minutes there seeing everything we left empty handed. This all sounds spookily like the outing to the Christmas faire in Le Dorat in December.

To be sure there were some lovely things, and to be sure there were some lovely prices to go with them. A wardrobe not unlike one of ours was going for 5,000 euros! A very pretty set of glasses for 180 euros. No wonder we made a hasty exit!

The prices were ridiculous, I can't believe that anyone sold very much. There is a plant fair on at the end of this month, I shall probably go 3rd time lucky and all that.

Help please!

2008-04-07T18:02:00.002+02:00

I've been given a 'good chat' blog award by Mean Mom, and I can't remember how to put it onto my blog - DOH! Can anyone help please?

7 things about me

2008-04-04T13:06:00.004+02:00

Hey, now I've got the internet connection back and a free day, there's no stopping me. I was tagged ages ago by Woolyworks so here goes:

1. I would love to be abducted by aliens. I definately believe in aliens, but refuse to believe that a species with the technology to travel to other worlds would do so only to carry out experiments.

2. I once lived with a sound engineer to the band Motorhead. Boy, they were crazy days!

3. My phobias are slugs and mould - how pathetic! Neither of them are likely to ever catch me if I ran away from them, but I absolutely detest them! Slugs love salt, they go all fizzy!

4. I have been veggie since I was a kid, when I found out where my roast lamb dinner had come from. Mum always said that I was never keen on it as a young child anyway, and although I did try meat again when I was about 20, I have never missed it and love being veggie.

5. I love the smell of laundry when it has been dried on the line on a sunny day. So if you catch me sniffing OH's underwear on the way back up the garden you'll know why!!

6. I am impatient. I want that internet page to download NOW! No, too slow keep clicking and bugger up the computer! When I type my brain is flying ahead of my fingers and I end up missing most of the words.

7. Although I love science fiction and science fact, I am also a country girl at heart. I love wandering down the garden to feed the chickens and growing my own veg in my red gingham dress with frilly petticoat! I used to dream of being Maureen O'Hara in the film the Quiet Man, OH would say I am there as she has a temper to match mine! Now, how can I combine the 2 genres? Perhaps a garden on a space station, anti-grav chickens and a red gingham space suit?!

Wanted to share this with you

2008-04-04T12:25:00.002+02:00

My father in law sent me this, and with my mood swings lately, I loved it!

Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling & getting hurt. Instead they take the apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy. The apples at the top think there is something wrong with them, when in fact they are amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who is brave enough to climb all the way up the tree.

Now men……..men are like fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp the shit out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

Thank you

2008-04-04T12:00:00.004+02:00

Hi everyone. I just want to say a huge thank you for all your lovely messages and good wishes. I am feeling so much better now. I feel a bit of a fraud for being so down earlier in the week. I had been ill over the weekend and you know how that can magnify everything that happens into a major disaster. Having said that, I felt so bad when I blogged that I couldn't even bring myself to answer the phone when it rang. I did go out and do some gardening, well mowing the grass, and I have treated myself to some really pretty gladioli bulbs. Funny, I would have never bought them in the UK, but they have sych stunning varieties here that I can't resist them.

It didn't help that after I had responded to dnd's comments I couldn't connect to the internet at all, and couldn't even email anyone!! I am not very computer minded, and short of taking a hammer to the modem had no idea what to do.

I was going to write down everything that had wound me up, but when I actually looked at it all, they seemed so trivial that I sounded pathetic for moaning about it! It was just a combination of loads of small things, that became a big thing, that avalanched into a mega thing.

I just want you to know that I REALLY appreciated all your words, postive thoughts and virtual hugs, thank you Hazel for phoning and I have calmed down, feel happier and am not going to disappear with Misty into the sunset. You are all wonderful xxxxxx

Very down - sorry

2008-04-01T09:16:00.005+02:00

Thank you for all your lovely comments lately. I am sorry that I haven't blogged in ages. The last 2 weeks have been so busy I just haven't found the time to sit in front of the computer. Even though we have 2 computers, we only have an internet connection for one at a time and as OH lives on the computer, unless I get up v.early I don't get a chance.

Also, I haven't been in the right frame of mind to write anything. I am feeling really down lately and really don't want to bring everyone else down with me. You know when you just feel alone and that no matter what you do it is wrong, that you look out for everyone else and no one looks out for you, that if you try and say anything it gets twisted and thrown back at you, and when you feel like you do everything and nothing is appreciated - well, this is me at the moment.

I don't know where I want to be, or who I want to be with, apart from Misty. Maybe I just need to make some hard decisions about my future.

I'll leave it there, as I could rant on for ages and don't want to bore anyone or bring anyone down. I hope that my head will be back together soon and I can be my 'normal' self again. I have been having bouts of depression since my early 20's and I know that I will snap out of it soon. Love you all xxxxx

Sorry I haven't written all week!

2008-03-16T12:23:00.004+01:00

Where does the time go?!

Paris was brilliant. We got the 6am train from Limoges and I got a nice surprise, I had forgotten that OH had booked 1st class seats on the way up. No we haven't won the lottery, they were the same price a regular seats. We had made our sandwiches the night before and had packed our little rucksacks for the day trip. We had yummy sarnies, I couldn't wait to get tucked into them. OH had decided to splash out on nice stuff for sandwiches and what a brill idea it was. I had smoked salmon and boursin, goats cheese and red onion marmalade and goats cheese and tomato. They were so delicious in nice, crusty bagettes.

I slept alot of the way on the train, but around Issoudun I was awake and looking out of the window. Just after the station there was a little stream with loads of allotments around it. It was so beautifully laid out, earth all turned and ready for planting, nice straight rows of cabbages and nice little garden sheds. There were even brick built garden sheds, with tiled roofs, chimneys, windows and shutters - a real home from home.

Paris was as beautiful as I remembered. The only downside was that it was raining quite heavily, and very windy. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower where even though the wind was incredible, so were the views. We sat and had some more sarnies at the top of the tower.

Next stop was Monmartre and the Sacre Coeur. Had it been a sunny day, walking around the cobbled streets with all the nic-nac shops would have been lovely. I thought that more shops would have been open even with it being a Sunday. We saw signs for the cathedral and also signs for a 'funicular', which to me sounded like something to do with funerals, so we didn't go that way. Oh what a mistake that was! We also took a wrong turn an ended up in the red light district and saw the big windmill of the Moulin Rouge. Anway, we ended up at the bottom of the cathedral, with about 20 squillion to climb!!! OH loves looking around churches (I don't!) so in the pouring rain we climbed to the top. I thought that at least if we go in the cathedral I can sit down for a bit! We also found out what a funicular is - it's a flipping cable-car/monorail type things that takes you to the top so you don't need to climb 20 flippin' squillion flippin' steps in the flippin' rain!!!!!!!!!!

Next onto the Stade de France, a truly spectacular stadium, with everything brilliantly organised. We had great seats - high up and on the halfway line. The rain had stopped, the game was fantastic and It was great to be back at a rugby match again. France won the match so we were happy bunnies.

After that even went really smoothly, with 79,000 people heading the train station there was no shoving and pushing. We got on the train easily and arrived at Gare d'Austerlitz an hour early for our train. We had allowed plenty of time to cross Paris, but we were way ahead of schedule. Train stations are great for people watching. There was a party of teenagers walking around and the boys looked hilarious. They all wore their jeans with the crotch down by their knees, they were waddling around like penguins!!! Now, I am not so old that I dont own low-slung trousers myself, or recognise fashions, but these were normal jeans, meant to be worn around the waist, but the back pockets were hanging around their thighs. They looked so funny!!

All in all it was a great day away, such an easy journey to make. We will definitely do it again in the summer.

Of to Paris - again!

2008-03-07T11:54:00.003+01:00

Off to Paris again on Sunday to watch France v Italy, at the Stade de France. We are leaving at the crack of dawn to get the train in Limoges and coming back very late on Sunday evening. I am really looking forward to it as we haven't been to a rugby match since last September. We used to be season ticket holders for London Irish back in blighty and used to go every other week and scream ourselves hoarse, drink Guinness (compulsory) and sing 'Field of Athenry' at the top of our voices. They didn't always win, but the atmosphere was fantastic.

The only problem we have with going away for a full day is the cats and chooks. Our friend who lives 1 minute away is coming to feed them, and I have been typing an instruction manual for her! I have cut it down to ten pages and OH says I should cut it down further! You see it's not as if has never looked after an animal before - she has dogs, horses, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs. But, being a true animal lover I molly-coddle mine. Misty and Jemima like to have their food in dishes on the table. After a while Misty likes me to hold her dish for her. Josh likes to be watched whilst eating and you have to tempt him to eat by sniffing the food in his dish and making 'Mmmmm' noises when you put it down for him. Jemima will only eat tuna and dry cat food, Misty likes kitten food in gravy, Rosie and Josh hate gravy and like food in jelly but only fishy varieties! Sounds like I pamper them a bit?!

Guest chickens like a warm breakfast of pasta, leftovers, rice and sunflower seeds. They don't like corn, not keen on blé, and have gone off their pellets. Our chooks wander round the garden but like a handful of rice and pasta.

Luckily she know us well enough to say that she will turn a light on for them and put the TV on in the evening, so they don't get lonely.

Cat joke

2008-03-02T08:22:00.003+01:00

This is the joke I sent to Breezy, I just had to share it with all you cat people out there.

Adam and Eve said, "Lord, when we were in the garden, you walked with usevery day. Now we do not see you any more. We are lonesome here, and it isdifficult for us to remember how much you love us."

And God said, I will create a companion for you that will be with you andwho will be a reflection of my love for you,

And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam and Eve.

And it was a good animal.

And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and Eve and he wagged histail.

And Adam said, "Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and I cannot think of a name for this new animal.

"And God said, " I have created this new animal to be a reflection of my lovefor you, his name will be DOG."

And Dog lived with Adam and Eve

After a while, it came to pass that an angel came to the Lord and said,"Lord, Adam and Eve have become filled with pride. They strut and preen likepeacocks and they believe they are worthy of adoration. Dog has indeedtaught them that they are loved, but perhaps too well."

And God said, I will create for them a companion who will be with them and who will see them as they are. The companion will remind them of their limitations,

And God created CAT to be a companion to Adam and Eve.

And Cat would not obey them. And when Adam and Eve gazed into Cat's eyes,they were reminded that they were not the supreme beings.

And Adam and Eve learned humility.

And they were greatly improved..

And Dog was happy.

And Cat didn't give a shit one way or the other.

Acquiring cats

2008-03-01T15:09:00.004+01:00

After reading an entry on Maggie Mays blog http://granniemay.blogspot.com/ I thought I would write about how we got our cats.

When I was living in Durham in 1992, I drove a housemate to someone that had kittens to give away. I knew that I didn't want one, after all I wasn't that keen on them, and we had dogs when we were children, first a golden labrador then an alsatian. Well, while she was making her choice a little ball of fluff bumped into my ankle, as I picked it up and looked into its eyes, I knew I was hooked. So Josh aged 6 weeks came home with me, and Jigsaw went home with my friend. Josh came everywhere with me. I would travel to Buckinghamshire to see my family and he would come along happily sitting around my neck like a scarf. He is with me still, he will be 16 in June.

After a couple of months the lease on the houseshare was up, and Josh and I moved to Stockton on Tees. I decided that he needed a friend and contacted the local RSPCA. After a week or so I got a phonecall saying that they had a 13 week old male kitten, and was I interested. Well, I went to the cat sanctuary and caught a glimpse of a silver grey tabby as he darted for cover behind a box. Apparently they had taken 30 cats and kittens from on old lady somwhere. She hadn't mistreated them, just couldn't look after them. So Bobbin, which later became Bobby came home with me. He was very timid and spent the first month living under the duver, only coming out for meals. He and Josh became great friends. He had a wonderful swagger and looked like John Wayne walking down the garden. Sadly he died in 2003 after a very short illness.

In 1999, OH decided that he would like to buy a nice, black sports car and I decided that I would like 2 black female kittens! OH didn't want anymore cats, 2 was enough he said. One of my clients at that time was doing some work for the RSPCA and knew someone who ran a kitten orphanage. I asked her to let me know if they got 2 black females. Well, in November of that year I got a phone call to say that they had just taken in 2 black females, sisters and they were 14 weeks old. They were not vaccinated and I could take them for a small donation to the RSPCA. I told OH that while he was going off to look at a nice black MR2, I was going to look at them, borrowed a cat box from my in-laws and off I went. Well, of course I came back with them just as I had intended, and he was not very pleased. They had been called Noodle and Dumpling in the orphanage as one was thin and the other a bit chubby. We renamed them Rosie and Tabitha. They were jet black apart from half a dozen white hairs on their chest. Rosie is still with us aged 9 this August. Tabitha went out on New Years Eve 2007 and never returned. We were totally devasted, me more so as she was my cat. She had always been a bit wary of men and would sit next to me and sleep next to me.

2001 saw the arrival of Jemima Puddlekitten. We had not intended to get another cat, and I was perfectly content with my 4. A colleague at work told me that her sister had found a tiny kitten and didn't know what to do with it. I told her about the kitten orphanage and that I would take it there if she wanted. Well a week passed and eventually I was asked to take it. Even when I collected this little kitten I was certain that I didn't want another one. Well, I got it home and it was put in the spare bedroom with litter tray, food and toys. I was all set to take it to the orphanage the next day and had phoned to let them know. OH kept popping upstairs to play with it and make sure it was ok. Each time he came down he would tell me how playful it had been and how cuddly it was. Then he suggested keeping it at our house for a couple of days as she had really hated being in the car. The next night each time he came downstairs asking how much neutering costs, and how old they had to be. Then he brought her downstairs and showed it all the around the kitchen, and finished up by saying to it: ' this is where the other cats eat, and this is where their bowls are kept. What's that? There's no bowl for you. Ok, Debra will get you a bowl tomorrow'. And that was that. Jemima came to live with and she is OH's cat. He carries her around on his shoulder and she adores him. She is now 7 years old.

In the autumn of 2003, we took in two 13 year old sisters. Pooh (jet black short hair) and Piglet (pure white long hair). Their owner (one of my clients) was moving abroad and was having to re-home her 7 cats. These 2 were the oldest and were both ill. They both had thyroid problems, Piglet would only drink cat milk and eat dry food, and was terrified of everyone, Pooh was very friendly. At the clients house they were bottom of the pack of 5 big males. If they had gone to the cat shelter it would have been very unlikely they would have been re-homed. The client said that she would pay their vets bills for the rest of their lives and they came home with us. Well, they absolutely blossomed! Away from dominant males Piggles became confident and extremely friendly. Sadly she died a couple of months before we moved to France in 2004. Her sister Pooh came to France with us and loved it here. She died in the autumn of 2006 aged 16.

That brings us to the latest of our cats, Misty. She is my little treasure. She came from a house in the village. She was the runt of the litter and was getting smaller while her siblings got bigger. When I got her at about 6 weeks she was a quarter of the size of the other kittens in the litter, and probably wouldn't have survived much longer. She has mended the hole that Tabitha left. She is so full of fun and mischief. The house is full of scrunched up bits of paper and feathers for her to play with.

I can't imagine life without my cats. The bring joy (and mice) into our home and leave gaping wounds when they leave, but I wouldn't be without them.

Hairdressing Course

2008-02-25T18:00:00.003+01:00

Well, I did my course today and it was brilliant!!!!

I got there nice and early. I am a bit obsessed with being early, in fact last night OH asked what time I would be getting up this morning, and then he said 'don't tell me, 5am!' It wasn't actually, it was 6.30am but I had been awake for half an hour before that! I just hate being rushed, and feel really anxious if I think I am running late. I think it comes from 25 years of working to appointments, and feeling really bad if I keep clients waiting.

Anyway, I got to the place where the course was being held and met up with the people running it (formateurs). I had a coffee with them and helped them bring it some of their euipment. Then other hairdressers started arriving and everyone exchanged bonjours and ca-va's.

There were 2 models being demo-ed during this morning, one using techniques I use often, and the other doing something new. They were using a Italian product range which I had never heard of before. The demos were run slightly differently to English courses I had been on and those which I had run myself. In the UK the trainer talks to the model beforehand and decides what is going to be done and why. It is then demo-ed to the students checking that they understand and answering their questions. Here we were all encouraged to give our opinions on colours and techniques.

After lunch we had models to work on. Mine was Jessica who was a student on the course. She had tinted brown hair and wanted something a bit different. I put slices of bleach through her hair and these were isolated in meche. Then I used a very dark ash brown over the rest of her hair. Near the end of development time I took the mech out of her hair (they were a light blonde) and just emuslified the ash brown through the bleached meche to tone them down to a caramel colour. I dried it all for her, and straightened it using irons and then cut a short fringe for her. We were both really pleased with the result.

The afternoon was better for me as I prefer practical sessions. In the morning as we were watching and listening I didn't really have the opportunity to chat to anyone after the initial bit where we had to introduce ourselves to the group and say a bit about ourselves. It was nice to chat to people in the afternoon.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definately do another course if the opportunity arose.

Busy week

2008-02-24T12:04:00.003+01:00

I don't feel like I've stopped this week. I took Misty to the vets on Monday to have her girdle and stitches removed, she was very good and is looks much better now. Unfortunately the bandage had stuck to her fur so not only has she got a little bald tummy, but a little bare patch on one side as well. She is still as cute as anything and still cuddly.

I had some new hairdressing clients this week. All really nice and a whole family living in the next village as well. We never even knew they were there!

The weather has been glorious so I have been gardening as well this week. I have dug out another barrow load of roots, these will be taken up to Breezy's place later today. I have moved plants around and feel very happy with it all. I can't wait for things to start sprouting.

I am going on my first French hairdressing course tomorrow. It is about specialist coloring techniques. I am really excited as I will get to meet other hairdressers and learn French hairdressing terminology. There is theory and a demo in the morning and then we work on models in the afternoon. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have a bridal trial to do on Friday afternoon. She is getting married in May and wants her hair put up. I love doing bridal hair, I get to be really creative and of course the photos are around for the rest of their lives, so my work gets to be seen for ages! It is a real honour to be such a big part of someones wedding day.

Spookily accurate

2008-02-24T12:03:00.002+01:00

You Are Bare Feet

You are a true free spirit, and you can't be tied down.

Even wearing shoes can be a little too constraining for you at times!

You are very comfortable in your own skin.

You are one of the most real people around. You don't have anything to hide.

Open and accepting, you are willing to discuss or entertain almost any topic.

You are a very tolerant person. You are accepting and not judgmental.

You should live: Somewhere warm

You should work: At your own business, where you can set the rules

What Kind of Shoe Are You?

Getting to the root of it all, and digging for victory

2008-02-16T14:47:00.003+01:00

For the last couple of days I feel like my shovel has been permanently welded to my hands!

The last week has seen the most glorious weather. Although the mornings have been cold and frosty, as soon as the sun is up the temperature soars. The sky is bluest blue without a cloud to be seen. OH and I have been working outside in t-shirts and it feels so much like summer that we have to keep reminding ourselves it is February. We are still lighting the fires in the evening as the temperature drops when the sun goes down.

OH has been painting the outside of the house. Our house is made of stone, but the front wall is covered in grey crepi which looks really dreary. We are painting it a colour called Ton Pierre, which is a lovely cream colour. I started it last year and got to a level above the front door right across the front of the house. OH is doing the higher stuff as he is much better with heights than me.

I have taken advantage of the good weather to sort out the flower beds. When we first moved here I planted some flowers that look like really tall rudbeckias. Like orange petalled daisies with brown centres and 5 feet tall. They are perennials and flower for ages. Little did I realise how far they would spread! The roots have spread over a metre from where I planted them! I am having to dig up all the platns around them and remove the roots that have infested them.
While they are nice flowers, I put them in the wrong place, and they flop over you when you walk down the garden path. They would great in the back of a border as the flowers are only on the very top and there is nothing bar a few leaves for the remaining 4 foot! So, they have got to go. I am sure that I can use some of them elsewhere in the garden, but as I have so far removed 3 wheelbarrow loads of roots from the top flower bed and have the same size area again to clear, I am sure I will be donating some to my neighbours!

Some new friends that we met on New Years Eve called round the other day and said that they had a load of horse manure ready if I wanted some. I jumped at the offer. They said that they would bring some round at the weekend, but he turned up yesterday with a trailer load! I actually think that this trailer is a TARDIS as no matter how many barrow loads I shovel out, it doesn't seem to be getting any emptier. I just keep telling myself that the garden is really going to appreciate it! Misty is loving the trailer, she is climbing over it and under it, flicking lits bits of horse poo out of it! She is such a joy and races me up and down the garden when I barrow the next load down. She normally loves to ride in the barrow when it is full of logs, she's not too keen on riding on the poo though!

The blogging equivalent of an Oscar!

2008-02-14T10:21:00.002+01:00

I have been awarded two awards this week! I am so touched the any one actually reads my blog, let alone think of me when giving out awards.

Well, who to send them on to......?

Well, first and foremost I have to award them to Breezy. It was thanks to her that I got into blogging in the first place. She and TS are brilliant neighbours and we are so glad that we know them.

Then in no particular order:
Wooly Works
Soft in the Head
A Mothers Place is in the wrong
Big Blue Barn West
Menopausal Old Bag
Stinking Billy
Farming Frenchstyle
Stew
Arnold the Methodical

2008-02-09T15:23:00.000+01:00

You Are an Orange

You have a zest for life, especially for anything colorful, wild, or dramatic.
You have a unique take on the world, and you're not afraid to be a little funky.

You are a bit reserved toward people who don't know you well.
You have a thick skin, which can protect you from anything that goes wrong in your life.

Once someone does get to know you, they totally get and appreciate you.
Your friends see you as a bright person with a refreshing take on life.

What Type of Fruit Are You?

I saw this on Soft in the heads blog. There are loads of fun quizzes to do. Have a look.

Spring has sprung

2008-02-09T14:37:00.001+01:00

The weather is absolutely glorious at the moment. Daytime temperatures of between 20-23 degrees C. My crocuses are all in flower around the garden, with daffodils ready to flower any day. I have a big Magnolia tree covered in buds, which is going to look spectacular.

When we first moved here, we pruned loads of wild looking trees, thinking that they were all fruit trees (it was December and there were no leaves to say otherwise). I had left one smallish budding branch on this particular tree to see what it was when it flowered - it was a magnolia! My French friend Odette later said that she had been horrified to see that it had been pruned, and we are so relieved that it has all grown back with a vengeance!

My poor friend Odette has just lost her husband this week. He has been battling cancer for a while, and it all got too much for him. She came round to tell me today, and we were all in tears. She has been married for 50 years and we are heartbroken to see her so devasted.

On a lighter note, I had my first proper French hairdressing client this week, (I have been doing my French friend Linda's hair for a while now), but this wa a proper paying client! I was so thrilled to get her call. Neither her or her husband speak any English, and it just showed how good my French is getting, as I was able to take directions to her house and discuss how he wanted his hair and have a normal conversation with them. It was a real confidence boost. We came to France only knowing a bit of French, and now 3 years later I can see how different our language skills are. There were times in the past 3 years when I wondered if I would ever understand different verb tenses, was I always destined to speak in the present tense?! Would I ever get the hang of the different order of pronouns and adjectives? And the answer is YES!!! I have got the hang of it all, I can speak in the past, present, future and conditionnel tenses, I can put a sentence together using pronouns and adjectives and all in the right order! I just need to learn more 'normal' words to go in the sentences, you know nouns.

As I go to clients house I have been amazed at the amount of English people who have no intention of learning French, but actually expect their neighbours to learn English!!! They go into shops and doctors surgeries and just push a bit of paper towards the receptionist, or just speak in English and hope that they can be understood. I appreciate that not everyone has an aptitude for languages, and that most of my clients are older than me, and age does play a part in assimilating new skills, but some don't even try. Infuriating!

2nd update

2008-02-08T17:35:00.001+01:00

Well, went to the vets this morning. Bandage and stitches are still in place, but they removed some padding from underneath her girdle! Back to the vets on the 18th for the stitches. At least she can go outside and play again now. Just as well as it has been a glorious day with 20 degrees of full sunshine. It was great to be able to open all the doors and windows and air the house.

Misty update

2008-02-08T08:22:00.001+01:00

Well, Misty was spayed on Wednesday. We took her in at 8am and collected her at 5pm. She was very groggy from the anaesthetic and she has a huge bandage all around her middle, like a girdle. She looks really funny. We we got her home she laid on me for a hour or so a slept, then wanted to go downstairs and she slept in front of the fire for a couple of hours. After that there was no stopping her! I know that the vets always tell you to keep them quiet, but try telling that to a kitten!

We are going back to the vets this morning to have the bandage removed/changed and for them to check the wound and stitches. When we had Rosie and Tabitha done in the UK, Tab took her own stitches out!

She has been very cuddly all through the night and has been getting under the covers with us. We have had to keep her in our room with us during the night as we have not let her go outside yet. She woke me up this morning by trying to dig to the centre of the earth in her litter tray.

New laid lambs

2008-01-31T18:40:00.002+01:00

On the way to work this morning I saw two lovely deer just standing by the side of the lane. They were so pretty. Then, best of all I saw some 'new laid lambs' in a field with their mums. They were all snowy and sparkly white, so adorable. I never tire of all the wildlife around me, I see something different today.

I had a new client today, and we had a really good chinwag about moving to France. She was telling about someone she knew who was moving back to the UK as she wasn't enjoying life here. Apparently she has given the following reasons: 1. It's too green. 2. They don't like all the cows and 3. Everyone speaks French. Isn't that hilarious!! How bizarre that everyone in France speaks French, and surely there are cows in the UK?!

Misty is still looking for a man, or rather a tom-cat. She woke up at 4am yelling the house down, but after an hour or so of trying to calm her down, I gave her an early breakfast and she eventually went back to sleep, until my alarm woke us up at 7.30. She has just woken up now from a nice afternoon snooze and is yowling again. Poor little thing, I wish I could do something to calm her. At least of Wednesday it will be all over for her.

Oh no! A hormonal kitten!!

2008-01-30T19:21:00.001+01:00

Oh Oh! For the last 2 weeks, I have been meaning to phone the vet to book Misty in to be spayed. Now it is urgent as she came into season today!

Picture a poor little kitten, rolling over the floor, rubbing herself over every bit of furniture with her bum in the air, all the time chattering away and yowling!

The vets can't take her until next Wednesday even though I said it was 'tres urgent'. We have made the decision to keep her in the house with a litter tray until then. She has 'made friends' with the ginger tom from down the road, and we don't want her roaming for a 'good time', she is far too young for all that hanky panky, and he won't respect her in the morning!!

Lie-ins

2008-01-27T14:51:00.001+01:00

You know, I've decided that life is too short for feeling guilty about a long lie in. I am an early bird rather than a night owl and I like to get up early and do the things I have to do, then I can do the things I want to do.

I like to get up at about 7am, feed the cats, the chickens, and the wild birds, check for eggs, make a cup of tea, clean the fires out and re-lay them for later in the day and put away any washing up that was left to drain from the night before. Once I have done the 'necessary' things, I can do what I want. Normally it involves getting all my hairdressing or gardening stuff ready and going off to work. I like being up on my own in the mornings, I don't mind one iota that OH sleeps a bit longer than me, he tends to come to bed after me most nights. I can check my emails, look at blogs and have a hour or so to myself.

However, Sunday is a different thing. I still get up early and feed the animals and make a cup of tea, but I take the tea back to bed with. I sit and read a book or we will watch a film that was on TV too late to watch during the week. I feel no guilt whatsoever that I didn't get up and dressed until 2.15 this afternoon! I work hard all week, not only for other people but in my own house and garden and my sunday lie-in is my treat to myself. Of course, little Misty joins me for a cuddle, and of course once she is asleep in my arms I couldn't possibly move!

Changing the subject completely, my friend Hazel has started a blog. She and her husband have moved to the south of France and have been renovating a lovely old house. They used to live a couple of villages away from OH and I in England, and I have known them for several years. Hazel is a wonderful quilter and has made some stunning quilts. OH has been down to see their house when he took down a ride-on mower for them, but I have yet to go. Hopefully this year I will get to go and visit for a day. Anway, have a look at her blog, she would some visitors. http://mudwallsandbeams.blogspot.com/

So Breezy, what country did you think we were in last night?

2008-01-20T08:37:00.001+01:00

iWell, although OH, TS and I thought we were in France, Breezy apparently thought we were in Greece!

We had moved their chickens and coup down to our garden yesterday afternoon, and, as they are heading off on Tuesday morning, thought it would be good to have some drinks and nibbles in the evening.

It was a good laugh, as usual we put the world to rights, discussed everything that could be discussed and laughed a lot, then I brought some food through from the kitchen. Now, I don't think that Breezy didn't like it, as she was tucking it like the rest of us, but, in a blur she threw her plate up in the air and smashed it on the floor!!! It was hilarious!! She was all apologetic, TS was saying 'what the feck happened there?' OH was saying 'whats going on' and I was rushing for a cloth in case the broken plate had cut her hand. TS took her glass off of her, saying that she had to ask for a drink and he would pass it to her, and she was just to sit still. We think she had a mental abberation and thought she was in Greece! This photo is Breezy doing her 'no photos' by the paparazzi' impression.

After a while OH put a programme we had recorded about the music from the 1970's. Being of a similar age we all remembered it fondly. As each artist came on screen their were cries of 'oh I loved them/him', or 'oh no, I hated them/him'. Well all was going well, when David Essex came on screen and Breezy and I said that we liked him, OH and TS said 'yuk' or words to that effect, and I said 'well you wouldn't kick him out of bed, would you', mainly to Breezy to be honest/ Well the 2 blokes disagreed vehemently, and went into vivid discriptions of what they would do and how they would react if the aforementioned man was sneaking up behind them 'tool in hand' so to speak!!!!!!!!! Breezy and I wouldn't have minded.

Of course, any programme on the 70's music scene in England it not complete without Top of the Pops and TS's favourite Pans People. Now for those of you that don't know, Top of the Pops was compulsive viewing in the 70's as it showed all the major bands of the time. One song each week was danced to by an all girls dance group called Pans People. Tall, leggy girls in sometimes skimpu, sometimes bizzare outfits dancing strange dance routines. TS came out with a wonderful comment to the effect of 'actually, when you watch them properly, they were crap', followed by the best one ever 'mind you, I always used to watch them with a stiffy!' Well, we howled and sprayed our drinks over the room. OH didn't comment, but I suspect it was the same for him too.

All in all a great evening, they are wonderful company, both with wicked sense of humour as I'm sure you have guessed from their blogs.

I have been down this morning and let their chooks out, and they have laid 2 eggs already - breakfast here I come.

Another year older

2008-01-18T09:14:00.001+01:00

I can't believe where time goes and that I haven't posted since the 3rd of Jan. I just don't seem to have stopped running about.

As I don't have other house around the world that I jet between, or a caribbean island to maintain (what a chore that would be - NOT!), what have I been doing with my time?

Well....... nothing exciting. I had a birthday earlier in the week. OH gave me a lovely amethyst necklace, which I was thrilled with. I have had clients everyday, including a new gardening client. who has asked me to do a day a week for them working in their garden. Splitting wood, shopping and thats about it.

We went for a lovely Chinese meal for my birthday. It's funny that in the UK I hated Chinese food. I remember going to a Chinese restaurant for my mother-in-laws 60th, they had asked for vegetarian food for me, and I have to say it was disgusting. It was all inedible, they produced a soup that had the texture of snot. I watched everyone around the table tucking in with relish and I went home starving. Well, OH loves Chinese food so when we heard that there were Chinese restaurants in Limoges I said I would try them with him. I have to say that they are very nice. Not a huge choice in the veggie line, but at least there is something I can eat. They are not expensive, 4 of us went last Saturday, we had aperatifs, a litre of red wine, the 'all you can eat' buffet and coffee, and it came to 20 euros each. Normally for birthdays we go to the restaurant we went to for New Years Eve, but we didn't fancy such rich food so soon after. It eneded up being just as good an evening and half the price.

I am pleased that my work is going so well. I have had to increase my prices though. after OH realised that after I paid petrol, product costs and taxes etc, I wasn't making very much. So, we spent about 5 hours working out exactly how much everything cost to buy, petrol to all my clients and time taken. He is really good at working all this out, I would have really struggled. So now I have a new price list which I hope will be acceptable to all my clients.

We are taking charge of Breezy's chooks tomorrow. Hurrah! we will have eggs at last. Our remaining 3 have not laid since the masscre. I am also tempted to get some more chooks at the market tomorrow. I would love to have a goose as well, but I am not sure if I would like the eggs. I had some duck eggs in the summer and I got food poisoning from one of them. It has made me a bit wary, but I love geese. I know that they make good guard dogs, or rather guard geese, but I am sure that if I raised it from a baby it would be friendly.

Well, OH is working today, and I am continuing my blitz on the house. In our wisdome we laid cream floor tiles in the kitchen and dining room. Cream floor tiles with 4 cats with muddy paws, and where the front door opens directly into the kitchen. With this awful, non stop rain you can imagine the state of the floor! Also we have 2 log burners and the dust that they produce is incredible, and it's black dust!!! C'est la vie!

New Years Eve Menu

2008-01-03T08:15:00.001+01:00

Thought you might like to read the menu we had at New Year:

Cocktail de Maison et ses mises en bouche
A cocktail with canapes which comprised of 3 bite sized tarts and a glass with a smoked salmon mousse layered with a pea puree

Parfait au veloute de crustaces et salpicons de homard douceur de miel au safran
Parfait (like a mousse) of shellfish with pieces of lobster and crayfish, with a honey and saffron dressing.

Foie gras poele aux brisures de biscuits de Reims
Pan fried Foie gras

Consomme aux aromes de truffes et son raviole, noix de Saint-Jacques et bar savage
Truffle consomme with a ravioli sitting in it, a pan fried scallop on a bed of creamed spinach, a piece of sea bass on a bed of julienned carrot.

Trou surprise
Spearmint sorbet

Filet de boeuf en brioches aux cepes
Beef Wellington with a rich cep sauce, and broad beans

Croustillant de maroilles
Cheese wrapped in crispy filo pastry

Symphonie des Caraibes
Carribean symphony of desserts - mango mouse in white chocolate case, very rich dark chocolate mouse with a chocolate tuile, glass of fruit sald comprising pineapple and kiwi fruit with a caramely/ginger snap tuile.

Coffee and Petit Fours

Another New Year arrives

2008-01-02T09:36:00.002+01:00

Well, didn't that year go quickly? And don't they go quicker as you get older? All in all 2007 was a good year. We had lots of family to visit, which was brilliant. Our eldest niece flew out on her own just before her 16th birthday. She was great company, a truly lovely girl and absolutely stunning. Our younger niece (now 11) came out at the end of the summer holiday with my mother in law. She is adorable too, great fun and just a joy to be with. My in laws came out in the summer, they are wonderful too, I am really lucky there.

I started my hairdressing business which is going very well. I have some brilliant clients who already feel more like friends, and through some of them I have got some more work for my gardening business. OH has had a good year work wise, including a new unexpected client in November. He really enjoyed working for him and his wife and we have been keeping in touch with them.

OH and I spent another year together living our dream. We grew our own veg, just about finished our house, got a new kitten and got some great new neighbours.

New Years Eve was very good this year. There were 14 of us including Breezy and Tech Support. One of the others brought a load of xmas crackers (they don't exist in France), and I will carry in my mind the sight of Tech Support customising his paper hat with ribbons, hair bobbles (from his cracker) and goodness knows what else, until he resembled something from Star Wars. The food was great. We had 8 courses from 8pm til about 1.30 am. Admittedly there were some course that we didn't like and others that we loved. Breezy loved the chocolate creamy pud, and ate about 5 of them! There was enough food though, that if you didn't like a couple of course you didn't go hungry. We got home a 3am!

Well, I will be taking the decorations down today. Misty will be devasted!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

There are 3 new stars in the sky

2007-12-31T08:05:00.001+01:00

And they belong to 3 of my chickens - Maran, Daisy and Paxo. Yesterday morning OH was woken by the chickens making an awful noise, he looked out to see one of them dead in the garden. We went out to see two dogs, a golden and a black labrador in the garden, obviously hunting dogs who had got lost. We found another chicken dead and another badly injured. The two little bantams were safe in the coup, and we later found Primrose safe and well. Paxo, the badly injured one was brought into the house and wrapped in towels, but she died a short while later. Maran and Daisy must have died from shock as much as anything as OH said they hadn't been mauled.

Another awful end to a year. Last year we went out on New Years Eve with all cats safe at home. We stayed at a friends house over night and when we came back Tabitha had disappeared and has never returned.

Happy Christmas Everyone

2007-12-24T08:36:00.002+01:00

Happy Christmas to everyone who has visited my blog since its creation. We have not had snow yet, but this photo is from January 2007. It is our house from about halfway down the garden. It looks more festive than if I had taken one in the fog yesterday morning.
OH and I have had a great year. We got some new neighbours - Breezy and TS, got a new kitten, got some new clients for both his work and mine, stayed fairly healthy, had loads of visitors and went to the Rugby World cup in Paris. Most of all we enjoyed being together and Psycho Wife and Cuffbert didn't visit much. In fact they are currently on a deep ocean voyage, not expected to return for ages (I hope!)

I'm ready for Father Christmas!

2007-12-21T12:13:00.001+01:00

Yippee! I finished all my food shopping yesterday, OH's pressies are wrapped and hidden, the house is almost clean, just got the chickens beds to clean, split some more wood and then I'm done.

The food shopping wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I went to Carrefour mid afternoon and it was nearly empty, I couldn't believe it. There is nowhere near as much hype and decadence here as there is in the UK. Carrefour is a big super/hyper market and yes there was a huge amount of chocolate of every conceivable kind for sale, there was only a tiny section for perfumes and make-up gift sets, and a tiny section for party food. As it already stocks DVD's and jewellery, there was very little change to the shop.

Waiting at the till, there was only one person in front of me, and she only had a basket, so I was through in record time. Back in the UK the range of party foods, canapes and gifts sets of all kinds was staggering. I used to to physically drool going round the Waitrose chilled cabinets wishing I was having people round for drinks just so I would have an excuse to buy some delicious looking morsels. Then, waiting at the checkout I would feel dejected and let down, because everyone elses trolley looked a million times more exciting than mine!

Yesterday I felt none of that. It was wonderful. No more feeling unworthy that I couldn't afford delectable delicacies, no more feeling like billy no-mates cos I wasn't having a drinks party. I felt great. Even more so because we were having friends round the following night for drinks and nibbles, and I actually had the time to make loads of delectable delicacies of my very own, that is until ......

OH has got a stinker of a cold. Now, before I hear you cry 'Man Flu', and normally I would be the first to agree with you, this one is the real thing. I have never known him to stay in bed for 2 days before or to lie on the sofa in front of a roaring log fire with a sweatshirt and a blanket. Poor soul he is wiped out. It must be something going round our village as Breezy and TS have got the same thing, and the friends that were coming tonight, their daughter has it as well. So, tonight is cancelled, all my goodies will go in the freezer for a later day, and I will sit in front of the telly with Misty watching rubbish.

Misty and the Christmas Tree

2007-12-13T08:40:00.001+01:00

Or should I say, 'the tree of toys'?! She was very keen to help put the tree up, and to see what she looked liked while wearing all the fairy lights, as she burrowed underneath them all. But the best bit for her is climbing the tree, and lying in the middle of it. If she can can knock several baubles of whilst climbing even better, and if you can find a wicker reindeer to chew as you recline, well isn't life perfect.

Sorry if all I do is write about my kitten, but other than working really hard this week it is all I can think of! I am planning to go into Limoges this weekend to see the christmas lights, and I may even brave another Christmas Market in St Junien on Saturday. It's going to be a quiet christmas this year. OH says he doesn't want anything (present-wise) and that he is not going to buy me anything. The only reason I am now keeping the 2 christmas trees up is that Misty is loving them, and I love christmas decorations and fairy lights. Mr Bah Humbug can forget all about it if he wants, but at least Misty and I can have a good time - who knows the chooks might like a bit of tinsel in their coup, now theres an idea!!!!

Helping Paws and other stories

2007-12-08T09:28:00.001+01:00

Aren't kittens helpful?! Misty likes to help with cobweb removal from awkward places and making the bed. As she is chief investigator, she likes to get into awkward situations and nooks and crannys sniffing out any flies (for a snack, I think they are the kitten equivalent to a Milky Way bar, you know, they can be eaten between meals without ruining your appetite). Living in the country we get loads of spiders, which I actually like and also their cobwebs. Misty looks like she is wearing a veil when she emerges from these places with her little head covered in cobwebs. Very useful indeed.

Her bed making skills are improving as well. Stripping the bed is great fun, because she can lie on the sheet and be pulled along on it. When I am taking the pillow case off, she hangs onto the bottom of them for speedier removal. Mind you she does this when I put the clean ones on as well which is not so helpful.

Changing the subject, we went to the Christmas Market in Le Dorat last week. I had been looking forward to it all week, and woke up on Sunday morning with that excited feeling that you get when you know something exciting is going to happen. OH was coming with me, partly to keep me company and partly to monitor the amount of tat I would buy. Well, we parked in the supermarket carpark, which was scarily empty. The town looked absolutely dead, but in fairness most French towns and villages do around lunchtimes, shutters closed and shops shut and it becomes a ghost town. We walked around the corner, at this point I am almost skipping in anticipation of all the wondrous sights my eyes will behold. We rounded a corner and there in front of the Collegial were....... 4 stalls of junk and a pizza van!!!!! Noooooooooo, I can't believe it! But wait, what is that? There were people going in to a hall thingy and lo and behold more stalls!! Well, I walked around these 10 or 12 stalls desperately looking for something to buy, but alas, it was not to be. There was absolutely nothing that took my fancy. So we left with glum faces and full purses. We laughed on the way home about what a waste of time and petrol that was. Oh well, there is always the Foire au Chapons next weekend in Blond!

After the disappointment of the Marche de Noel, OH gave me a treat and we went to Eco Gem. A shop that I liken to an Aladdins cave of things that you will never need but somehow are compelled to buy! They had some lovely christmas decorations that OH liked as well, and we spent 40 euros on 'stuff', and let me tell you for that amount we came out with bags of goodies. I wouldhave spent more, but the shop was closing for the obligatory 2 hour lunchbreak. I still find that very inconvenient. Personally I would not want to get to work for 9am, then leave at 12noon and come back at 2.30 to work till 7pm.

Psycho Wife and Cuffbert

2007-11-27T09:58:00.001+01:00

I feel I know you all well enough now to introduce you to Psycho Wife and Cuffbert.

These are 2 people that we don't really like staying in our house, but they often drop in un-announced. Currently they are sunning themselves in Acapulco, where Psycho Wife is trying to push poor Cuffbert off a high cliff!

Who are these people and where do they they come from? How often do they visit and will they visit you?

Well Psycho Wife is the name I give myself when I am having a major strop, or when I am feeling kind enough during a pre-strop to give OH advance warning that a major strop is brewing. I only have to say something daft like 'is that Psycho Wife coming down the road?' and he knows to walk away biting his tongue.

Cuffbert is OH's alter ego. He had a tendency to give me (to often for my taste) a 'cuff' round the head. This got changed into 'I'll give you a cuffbert if you don't pack it in'. Hence Cuffbert was born. Cuffbert pays visits when Psycho wife appears, when OH is tipsy or drink and all points in between, and generally whenever he feels like turning up.

They are not bad people, just a bit misunderstood and in wifeys case, very unwelcome as she does live up to her name!

I've got housemaids knees!

2007-11-27T09:37:00.001+01:00

We have just recently sanded and varnished 2 floors in the house. One of them we are going to make into a lounge (see my former rant on the subject). OH is being wonderful about it all and being very gracious about having to move aerial cables from one side of the room to another and other technical stuff.

After sanding and putting 2 coats of varnish on the floor, it didn't have that silky feel that I wanted, more liked sandpaper, actually it would have saved me exfoliating my heels in the shower it was so rough (why have I got heels like elephant hide?). So, I got on my hands and knees with a block and some fine sandpaper and sanded the whole flipping thing, then dusted it all off, then varnished it all over again. My poor knees are aging at a rate of knots.

The dust this has all produced is unbelievable. OH says that he doesn't see it, but I do. I have no hairdressing today, so I am going to blitz the place.

I have really enjoyed renovating this house, and we would like to sell it next year and do another one. Actually, I just fancy choosing some new tiles and another kitchen and setting all my things out somewhere different! In my youth I lived in rented accomodation and would change all the furniture round often, when I had exhausted those options I would move house. It was great fun. I once lived in Peckham in South London (SE22) in a block of 1920's flats built round a courtyard. Most of the people in the block were involved in the music industry and we had a great time. I lived in 3 different flats in the block, and although I was skint really enjoyed living there.

I have been lucky enough to live some great places and have loved all of them. I do count my blessings (when I am not raving like a loony!).

Oh no! Me pasties have split!

2007-11-21T13:22:00.001+01:00

Not what I expected to see when I opened the oven door! I made some meat ones for OH the other day and they were perfect looking pasty shapes. Thought I would make some cheese and onion ones today, and this happened. Actually, when I started lifting them onto the cooling rack, the filling had only leaked out of the 2 front ones, and these were the 2 that I had rolled out using the left over bits of pre-rolled pastry. What a shame, I had to eat up all that molten cheese and onion - slurp, dribble and ow! beacause I burnt my tongue in the process! Might just have to have one for lunch with a bit of salad.

Right Decision

2007-11-19T15:40:00.002+01:00

Ooh, 2 posts in one day! We made the decision just over 3 years ago to sell up and come to France. We have never regretted it or questioned this decision. The way of life in the UK is to work your bits off until you retire and then spend time with your husband/wife. Mmm, bit of a flaw here - what happens if one of you isn't around at retirement age?

This is what happened with my parents. Dad worked really hard all his life, Mum stayed at home while us 4 kids were young, then had a local part-time job for a while. We were not at all well off, but our childhood was idyllic thanks to them. We lived in a little village in Buckinghamshire having moved from North London when I was 3. We went to a village school, played in the woods and fields, bought frogspawn home in a jam jar in the spring, played conkers in the autumn and built snowmen in the winter. Anyway, 4 or 5 years ago mum was diagnosed with cancer and died just after dad retired. All that time working and now he is on his own. The same thing happened with my mother in laws best friend, and another of her friends dropped dead with a stroke.

We came to the conclusion that life was too short. We have had some amazing holidays together, OH and I didn't meet until I was 30 and he was 32 and we both had a great time up to that point - we both travelled alot and had some great experiences. We didn't want to have any children, we had renovated a victorian house in the UK which we sold before we came to France. Neither of us are materialistic, we don't care about new cars or keeping up with the Jones's. We decided to spend our time together now because sho nows what the future will hold. We have not taken early retirement, we both work here.

I had always wanted to have an old house, a big garden, chickens and roses round the door. It sounds a bit of a cliche but this is what I have now except the roses are wisteria. I love wandering down the garden to feed the chickens and get the eggs, with my kitten Misty following me. I love going out to dig up veg for dinner. Yes, there are places in this world which I would love to go to, but unless we win the lottery I will not get to see them, but they are only holidays, this is for life. However, I never thought I would live in France, I always thought I would live in India. In my 20's I had a dream that I was sitting on a doorstep writing a letter, I was wearing a sari and the dream was so vivid I could smell everything around me. I woke up wondering where I was. I think I knew then that I would not grow old in the UK. I have been lucky enough to go to India and Sri Lanka and they were the most beautiful places I have seen, I felt really at home there. Maybe when I am old and grey I will move on.

Well, bit of a digression and a bit of a change from my last post - funny how your mind wanders about. Well, this decision was the right one for us.

Stroppy Mare

2007-11-19T15:22:00.001+01:00

How is it that I only seem to have 2 states of existence? I am either all at peace with the world, adore OH and everything about him, miss him madly when he goes off to work and want to be with him forever, or I feel absolutely mental, can't stand him and wonder how I am going to get through the next hour with him let alone the next year. I do feel sorry for him having to put up with such a capricious old haridan, but sometimes he really does drive me mental.

Mind you, when I look back at why he has driven me mental it is often over stupid things. For example we have a room downstairs that is just about finished being renovated. The floor has been sanded and varnished and we could actually use it now. For about a year I have been thinking of using it as a lounge (it is bigger than our existing lounge), we could get another sofa (we have 2 2-seaters at present). In my mind I have moved furniture in and around that room, I have pictured it at Christmas with a lovely decorated tree with because the room is bigger, would not be in the way of one of the sofas. Our current living room is cosy but small and the furniture cannot be moved around at all. The TV is too high for me to watch comfortably and I am just getting fed up with it all.

So I suggested moving into the other room, and OH wanted to know why and questioned everything I said, pointed out every negative all of which sounded to me like 'no, we are not doing it because I like it like this'. So I went mental. I pointed out all his faults, how I thought the marriage was over, what was the point of going on - you get the idea. Looking back maybe it was a slight over reaction. My problem is that I bottle things up until I am at breaking point, I have always done this since I was a kid. If only I could explain how I feel calmly, and he could listen instead of laughing at me things might be better. I'll end this post now as I am feeling irritable just thinking about it all, and the poor bloke hasn't even been here all day!!

Crispy leaves and toasty chestnuts

2007-11-16T17:34:00.002+01:00

The other day OH and I had a lovely walk in the woods gathering chestnuts we have now roasted and scoffed. I took some lovely photos of golden leaved trees, and had not got around to downloading them 'til now. It was a great walk, you know, where you kick all the leaves up in the air with your feet and make a really good rustly, scrunchy noise, then you go OW! because you have kicked a flippin' great lump of granite.

I love autumn colours, all rich and golden, and when it's a nice dry day it is glorious.

We have had a few days of heavy frosts, and our chickens, like Breezy's have been looking very sorry for themselves. Ours have a warm spagetti breakfast, but I think they need a bit more sustanance than corn and laying pellets. I think a big sack of wheat is on the cards for them and a few few bigs tins of cheapie cat food.