Holiday time

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.

I'm home and Happy Birthday Dad

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.

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

.... 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.

Happy Birthday Jenny

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

Happy Holidays, New Chicks and the Olympics

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:

Miss you Mum.

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

I'm back

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.

Watch your P's and Q's

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

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!

Right Decision

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.

Christmas is coming ...
Isn't it bizarre how life changes. This will be our 4th christmas in France. The first we spent in rented accomodation and spent most of the day sorting out the computer and loads of receipts, then had a roast dinner in the evening.

The second we spent in our own house with a woman who 'was' a friend and her husband who we had never met before. He turned out to be an alchoholic, drinking a couple of bottles of vodkas a day (we found all the empties hidden all over the house after they left). We had invited them for a few days over christmas, they stayed for 10 days. They would get up at 10am after the fires had been swept and re-lit, had breakfast served to them, sat in front of the fire until midday in their dressing gowns, then got dressed and sat around for another couple of hours, he would then go for a walk with a bottle of vodka in his pocket, she would moan about him, then they would sit in front of the fire all evening and get drunk! It was the worst christmas I have ever had.

Last christmas we spent on our own, and had a nice relaxing day.

This year, will probably be the same, my aunt and cousin were going to come out but I think the flight costs are prohibitive.

Back in blighty, I worked full-time in an extremely busy hair salon. The whole of December was booked up by the end of September. I would be planning and scheduling my clients colours and cuts to get them ready for christmas. My own christmas shopping would be completed by the end of November as I only had sundays off in December. The bane of my christmas was the 'traditional' dressing up on christmas eve. I hated it! As if I had nothing else to do on my sundays off, I had to think of fancy dress to some stupid theme the managers had thought up. All my clients felt sorry for us having to look so stupid. I would do all the present shopping, the card writing and the wrapping. That is until one year when I refused to do his family's wrapping or card writing. I worked as usual on christmas eve, would come home to an empty house, as OH would be on his traditional christmas eve p**s up with his friends. Then on christmas morning he had an almighty fit because he hadn't thought I was serious about him having to wrap his own stuff up!!

Then there was whose family do we go to? What a flap! For the first few years of our relationship we spent the day apart, both of us going to our own family and meeting at home on the evening. Then I fell out with my lot, and started going to OH's family. It was very nice, but just not the same as my lots day. Not that it should be the same, or that my lot did anything different or special, but it was just what I was used to - you know, silly sayings and routines that come out year after year til you forget why they started, reminiscing over previous christmases and who did what to whom.

The best christmas since I've been married was when we had OH's parents to us for dinner. We went to theirs in the morning for pressies and drinks (they lived in the same village), had the afternoon to ourselves and then they came to us. It was really relaxed, fun and light hearted.

Now we have our own routines. I cook breakfast and wash-up, I watch crap on TV (White Christmas is essential) and OH plays computer games, I cook roast dinner (which I hate, but is his favourite, I would much prefer Indian or Mexican food), he goes back on the computer and I watch more crap. What a great day!!!!!! I love christmas trees, decorations and stuff - he is not at all bothered. Sometimes I wonder why I bother as well, I mean there is only the two of us, although I think the cats would miss the tree and all the baubles they can knock off of it!

Sorry, rant over, but it feels so much better to get it off my chest.