Life in France

Caught in the act!

2007-08-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

This deer is in MY garden, eating the peaches from MY peach tree, the first real peaches the tree has produced since we planted it two years ago. What a nerve....it continued to happily munch even after i took the photo and shouted at it! It only ran off when i waved my arms around and jumped up and down like some demented whirling dervish!
On the goat front things are looking good with the baby growing well and now eating the plums that have fallen to the ground and she even spits out the stones!
The snake seems to have gone and as i can't smell any rotting flesh i assume that it has not died in the ceiling or the walls, i have however seen at close quarters a smaller grass snake in the water recycling ponds!! By close i mean as i turned on a tap it passed about 5cm under my hand swimming in the water. That is just a little bit toooooo close. I know they aren't dangerous but, well you know it is a snake............ A fox has taken to wandering around the front of the house at around six in the evening and we have the most beautiful pair of golden orioles visiting the garden to eat the pears and fresh figs from just outside the back door. Weather has finally decided to be summery...temp in the shade today was a comfortable 29°C while on the terace in the sun it managed 51°C......... time for a cooling drink i think............ We may have to buy some sheep soon as we can't manage toi keep the grazing short enough with the horses as they don't stay long enough and the local farmer doesn't want to put his cows on it as it too difficult for him.... managed to get 6 rounds of hay into barn and at 200kg each they should last the goats all winter. We have bartered two of them for two of straw so that should solve winter bedding problems at least for the goats. I fully expect that in spring next year we will have additions to the goat family..... Life as a "smalholder" is not easy and i still have to get out and cut the wood for winter and start the coppicing....no time....arrghhhh

SSSnake continued

2007-07-21T11:50:00.000-07:00

To all those of an enquiring nature i extend my apologies for not updating the snake story before now..things like work have sort of got in the way.;i am trying to earn enough to pay for the new kitchen that luscious has set her mind to have..... Anyway, the snake in the ceiling thingy.......... RJ suggested a product that may help that they have across in the gud ole US of A and we do have something similiar over here in France however it presents a bit of a quandary... This stuff is supposed to repel the snakes, if i spray it into the ceiling by the wall ( the only place i can get into the ceiling without drilling holes etc) will it force the snake out OR will it stay in because it Can't get out because this stuff won't let it pass? The cat doesn't seem that bothered as it is just above her that the noise was coming from!! After much banging on the ceiling with hands and upturned brooms it did eventually depart from the kitchen ceiling......across the lounge ceiling.......across the dining room ceiling.....and then the noise stopped....i think it went into the wall of the house. These walls are about a metre thick and are natural stone held together with clay and in places cement and in times gone by were used by mice and rats to get from A to B thereby creating nice original rat runs!!! We know this because we came across old rat nests IN the walls when we had to take out old beams and make holes in the walls for new doors/windows etc !! I have not heard it again although we do have a small furry squirrel like animal in the roof space that the cats almost caught the other morning but that is a different story!

The other morning luscious was stood outside about 10metres from the front door watching the goats when her voice changed and i just knew why!! About 3 foot away from her a large brown snake very slowly uncoiled itself and went down into the stone wall!!! I hope it was the one from the house and that it is now happy outside!!! I am furiously trying to fill every hole i can in the wall from ground level up to about 1 metre up in the hope that it won't come back! I can't however fill in the wall of the bread oven which is attached to the house so i hope it doesn't try there. I have used three bottles of repulsif serpent repellent around the house as well. I keep my fingers crossed that it is still not in the house...and if it is outside that this stuff does actually work....... In the meantime i reach for my wine trying not to subconsciously listen for that sound like rustling paper........... or to smell rotting animal....

Snake in the ceiling

2007-06-28T04:16:00.000-07:00

I have a HUGE problem....Luscious heard a strange noise in the ceiling above the kitchen and at the time i wasn't in..out with the band having a good time. I returned but couldn't hear it, she described it as sounding sort of like running water or paper rustling. Yesterday morning i heard it as well and there is only one thing that rustles like that... a snake!!!!!! we have had lizards,bats & mice in the ceiling so i know what they sound like but this is nothing like that!! How the hell it got there i have no idea, i know that the exterior walls are natural stone and have holes in so i assume it came in through one of them. I also know that when we were demolishing parts of the house we found rat runs through the walls so it must have used them to get into the ceiling...... I don't want it there!! it doesn't heed my thumping on the ceiling, just goes quite for a while then starts moving again! I have to find a way to get rid of it. The cats as you can see are not really interested in helping.... i may have to take up the floor above the kitchen and try to catch it unless someone has a better idea? gone for a drink..............

Announcing the arrival of baby POPPY

2007-06-05T05:40:00.000-07:00

Weeehhhh hayyyyyy we have a new baby and she is just soooooo cute! She was born around 9am saturday morning and this picture was taken as she rested from the exertions of joining the world. Mum appears to have had no problems with the kidding and all we had to do was clean up the afterbirth etc etc. She was still wet from the birth and mum had taken a rest from cleaning her up a bit. She is now 4 days old and is starting to bounce around like a spring lamb, or spring/summer goatling i suppose is more correct! Bella the mum is a really maternal thing and is always looking out for her and making sure that she is alright. Billy the male is not soo happy at the moment as when the food is put into the containers he tries to headbut the little one out of the way! Mum soon puts a stop to that though!! She is very small at the moment in fact the male cat Merlin that we saved in our fields is just bigger than the kid!! he finds her very interesting and is now to be found spending most of his time either around the goats or ontop of the goat shed!! Missy Willow the older cat suns herself ontop of the goat shed and feigns disinterest whilst casting the odd glance in the direction of the goats!

Our very first Kid...ain't she cute?

New Arrivals

2007-05-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

At last we have finally got the goats and very cute they are as well. The goat hotel is not completely finished but the walls are all up and it has a roof to keep out the rain so they will at least remain dry and out of the wind. Evidently goats just hate getting wet! You can see just how high the grass is in their paddock area so i doubt they will go hungry although we have been advised to give them a little feed supplement and fresh hay. They have a mineral lick in their quarters and i hope will be very happy here. Still no idea when she will be due to kid but we are reading everything we can about birthing. Seems though that she will just get on with it and we will go to see her one morning and find the newborns....here's hoping........
They are still very wary of us as they have not been used to much contact just living in an enclosure with 6 other goats. Occassional food and new hay being brought in. Luscious is perservering and after a week she has them approaching her and taking food which she has placed about a foot away from her so we hope that in a couple of weeks we will be at least able to get them to feed from our hands. This will be an important step as it will make things like vets visits and hoof clipping a lot easier. So from goat heaven it is goodbye for now as i have to go out on a "gig" with the band and it has just started raining after a week of temperatures up in the 30's...bloody typical...........

Goat Hotel

2007-05-16T04:00:00.000-07:00

This is the start of the goats new hotel. We have managed to utilise some timber that we had left when we put the new roof onto the house so that was useful and it will be clad with offcuts of bark planking from the local sawmill so that won't cost too much either which is just as well really. The weather has been absolutely crap over the last ten days with almost constant rain or drizzle and when the sun has managed to put in its ever so brief appearance one or both of us has been working so we have been unable to finish the hotel! It would appear after a telephone call earlier this week that the finishing of the hotel is now extremely urgent, the man we are getting the two goats from seems to be telling us that he is almost 99% sure that the female is pregnant and not that far away from giving birth and he would rather that she was here for this event. This would mean that we could possibly be in a sort of profit mode as we have paid for two goats and could possibly end up with FIVE!!! I will keep you informed on what happens and of course pictures will be a must. We could be parents very soon........ scary huh?

Goats & Tripe

2007-05-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

At last the goat fencing is almost finished. So far we have put up 220m of grill type fencing which involved digging some 58 holes and putting in 58 new fence postson a 1 in 3 hillside! We have where possible re-used the original fenceposts to try to keep down the costs which have quickly mounted to highs not originally thought about when we were offered two "cheap" goats! I have now made the gate into the field and we just need to run an electric wire around the top of the fence to try and discourage the goats from jumping over the top of the fence! All that now remains is to build them a shelter of somekind as evidently goats don't really like to get wet, i know how they feel after finishing off the fence in the rain! They should arrive sometime next week so i need to get a move on otherwise they will be here before their new home is ready. "cheap" goats have now cost around 500euros which is around 350 pounds sterling and that doesn't include actually paying for the goats!!!!!! The upside is though that we will at last have something to keep the weeds down and something that will eventually become food? maybe?
On the pleasure front the bandas season has started again and to celebrate the end of one of our first "gigs" we had a communal meal of a local delicacy... Tripe & potatoes..errrrr yuk yuk yuk! It may look nice but for me the smell is just about enough to make me sick... of course most people cleaned their plates and went back for second helpings..even though it was flashed over with Rhum i just couldn't eat it....i am pleased to say that i was not alone in my feelings, two other band members are of the same mind as myself and instead we tucked into local jambon...yummy...i am really sorry but i just cannot eat tripe..i tried i really did but just putting some on a fork was enough to start me gagging......thankfully i was rescued by the chef who placed the jambon in front of me and whisked away the tripe. Needless to say i needed a drink after this experience..local red wine..slurp, gulp thats better.........

Spring at Last

2007-04-18T05:04:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally decided to put in an appearance at chez peasant. The fruit trees are coming into blossom and the bees are making such a noise it almost deafens you! Good for the honey season though.. it is really sunny, 25°c and no wind..heavenly...need to go and buy the fencing for the goats which arrive next week, getting quite excited about their arrival now despite the fact that they will have cost around 200 pounds sterling by the time you take into account the cost ofthe fencing, the time to put it up and the actual cost of the goats!!!! Still it will be nice to have a couple of animals grazing the land a bit... the third arrives in july when he is old enough to leave his mum. Chickens arrive end may......horses?

SPRING?

2007-03-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

What the hell is going on with Blogger, i am fed up of trying to post, being told that it is ok yet buger all actually gets posted!!!!!
Last week was the first day of spring! The radio said it was, the diary said it was and maybe even the television said it was but as i don't have one i suppose i will never know whether it did or not. The newspaper said it was and yet no-one told the weather that it was as it was freezing cold and it snowed. At th end of the week i heard the first cuckoo, i think it must be wondering what the hell is going on with the weather, normally when he arrives the sun is breaking through and it is warming up a bit..not this time matey! Still, might dash off a quick letter to the Times.
Got to get the fencing sorted for the imminent arrival of goats and chickens and house tidied and ready for guests arriving friday + i am working for plasterman next week..eeeeek!

Spring?

2007-03-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

What is it with blogger? I tried to post several times last week and each time it said ok but bugger all actually posted!!! Time to move i think....... last week it was the first of spring, the radio said it was, the diary said it was, the newspaper said it was i don't know about the television as i haven't got one, so, why didn't the weather think it was? It was freeeezing and it snowed.....normally i would have been outside celebrating this occasion but not likely me mateys, I stayed inside! In total contrast i heard the cuckoo calling at the end of the week.... A letter to the TIMES is called for i think. Easter rushes towards us, chocolate bunnies to bite the heads off and i need to get the field fencing put up for the imminent arrival of goats and chickens and get house finished for guests arriving Easter friday + i am working next week for plasterman..eek

Walls & Gardens

2007-03-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

Things are getting busy at chez peasant. As easter approaches we have to get a move on now to get the house finished. With this in mind a big job was finally undertaken and Finished!! The jointing of the original stone walls in the lounge. We decided a longtime ago to leave the original suport beams uncovered, they had been covered over with concrete when we bought the house and to do the same with the wall. Having chipped off the cement render and cleaned the stones off we have to rejoint them. It is a messy and long job and we have been putting it off but it has to be done! After two days of jointing the first part is at last finished it now needs to dry out for a couple of days before the final cleaning and sealing of the stones.

Whilst waiting for the drying out we decided to start attacking the smallest field which in the 15 years of neglect has been virtually covered by blackberry..not good! especially as this is where we want to put the goats and chickens when they arrive. After a week of cutting and hacking with ripped fingers from the thorns we have finally broken the back of it. The toppled fenceposts in the picture were actually brought down by the weight of the brambles and i didn't even know the they were there, complete with barbed wire!!!! All we have to do now is take don the barbed wire, put the posts back up and put a new chicken/goat/fox & badger proof fence up!! Thats all...... time for a drink i think.......

Las bandas season starts

2007-03-04T04:34:00.000-08:00

Once again the excuse for a drink and a party season has started. I mean that the bandas season has arrived once again and we are off playing at local fetes and events. We have a good list of engagements already for the year with more coming in. We have even been asked to play at a wedding, it is to be held in a huge chateau and is going to be a very high class do. Not sure why they have asked us to play then!!!
Luscious has bought me a new instrument to play which was really nice of her as i have wanted one for a long time. I now have a very nice new shiny silver english posthorn courtesy of JP music in Somerset!!
The posthorn galop is now being practised and i hope that i shall give it its first public performance at easter. Strange though when i took it along to the band practise none of the band had ever seen one before!! Still i suppose they are french, they wanted to know what it was used for which took some explaining. They eventually decided that it was a great thing to use when you went out hunting to call back the dogs!!!!! The sun is out, the temperature is hovering around 20° so i have to get out into the garden and start getting part of the field ready to receive our new family additions. We have decided that it is about time that we started to have our own eggs, so chickens will be arriving early april along with a couple of goats which we have been given by a local restuaranteur!!! The heavy horse project advances slowly and we are going to look at some horses in the summer with a view to getting a pair ready for next year. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this goes to plan!
So, if anybody else would like to come and stay you can have fresh, organic eggs & chicken to eat as well as gorgeous, scrumptious homemade jams, pickles, wines & liqueurs......... see you soon.......

Reviewing the situation

2007-02-19T03:32:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the lack of text on the last post, for some reason blogger wouldn't let me type anything!!
The picture this time is of our local village taken just down from the house.
After what seems like an eternity of work and troubles we are on schedule to officially open the peasantry to paying guests for easter. Having said that i suppose i had better add a rider of some sort, that is if everything goes to plan!
The house will be done but the garden side of things won't, with it being an old farm there isn't much in the way of garden area so we will have to make something. We have resurrected the old vegetable area for growing our own vegetables which was sort of successful last year and having learnt a few things we will change what we grow a bit and more importantly where we grow them!
The house was built in the late 1800's with additions around 1910ish. The walls are natural stone about a metre thick,We have two double bedrooms ensuite with exposed beams and real traditional wooden floors. Each room has wonderful views down the valley and with no neighbours and 16 acres of land ( mixed arable/woodland) peace and quiet is guaranteed. 50euros a night per ROOM! We offer an evening meal as well should you decide that you would like to eat with us rather than drive out and eat. Advert over!

We have tried to be as eco-friendly as possible and recycle all the waste water from the house from the showers, washing up and general usage. The toilet system is a composting central unit so even that doesn't go to waste being broken down into usable compost for the garden. We have solar panels on the roof for water and part of the central heating and our water comes from our own natural spring and the well that is inside the house.

Further plans are to purchase two percheron or breton heavy horses to work the woodland but at the moment the funds are still being saved. Nothing eco is very cheap to carry out! the idea is that should you so desire you can help work the horses in traditional logging and farming.

The area is rich in natural beauty and we can take you on guided tours or simply give you a do-it-yourself guide. The largest viaduc in the world is 40minutes away and designed by an englishman!

Please come and see us and help us to carry on protecting the enviroment and increase our orchard of traditional varieties of fruit and sample our homemade jams,wines and liqueurs!

First ten bookings get a free night! (website under construction!)

Wood

2007-02-18T04:33:00.000-08:00

Chestnut jigsaw puzzle

2007-01-31T04:12:00.000-08:00

Things are back to normal at chez peasant, i am working again the germs have gone and i am trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle in chestnut. The pieces are variable in length, width and can even taper. Somehow i have to make them fit the width of the room without wasting too much! I have managed to sort out some pieces that may do the first row and have discovered that one of the walls runs out by 9cm, that has completely screwed up my calculations! the other wall runs out by 7cm over 3m so that isn't quite so bad. Why didn't we opt to put a standard parquet flooring down rather than lay a traditional floor? It would have been so much easier, but hey that is what restoration is all about i suppose. Just to continue the "firsts" theme, this is the first wooden floor that i have laid so i expect a few swear words, nothing new there then! I only have 20sq. metres to lay in this room then eventually i have another room to do at 19sq. metres hopefully by then i might have sort of idea of what i am supposed to be doing!! When it is all down should i stain it? just clear varnish it? will it be too light if i don't stain it? should i fill in the knot holes? arrghhh i am going to retire to the cellar and try the plum brandy i made last year......... got people coming to dinner tonight so have to get the lamb ready......... I need to cut some more wood....my head hurts........the cats want feeding and the sun is coming out....

Peeping Over THe Edge

2007-01-25T03:56:00.000-08:00

As i tentatively peer over the parapet into the real world again i feel much better. The pills & potions from le medicin seem to have done the trick. However, i seem to have been transported into another season! last Saturday it was 18° and very hot as i was playing lumberjacks with luscious and we cut down 6 trees. The chainsaw threw a wobbly and refused to cut them into log size pieces so we had to sort of balance them on the trailer and get them up to the house. They are about 10' lengths, it was bloody hard work and we were both knackered at the end of it. I have now sharpened the chain on the saw and it sort of cut the wood into logs yesterday, at least some of it that is. In the meantime winter appears to have arrived with a vengeance, the temperature fell to -5° tuesday night and we awoke to find ourselves snowed in by about a metre of snow. The farmer has very kindly been up with the tractor and cleared our road for us right down to the barn where the car is parked. That was good of him wasn't it? Managed to get out today as sun shining but road is still a bit iffy, a friend about 5km away can't get out as the hill is to steep for his car and it is very icy so we are going to rescue him this afternoon. Missy willow the older cat had to go to the vets, she has a type of cat flu and is not feeling to well, she now has antibiotics to take and had a jab of something or other at the vets + a thermometer shoved up her bum!! I am extremely glad that i am not a cat... Off to prepare for rescue..cheers......sun now out and the solar system has kicked in, but still -1°.....taaa raaaa

Cheering Myself Up

2007-01-16T06:36:00.000-08:00

I have finally given up and last night went to see the doctor. That should keep you happy eh R.J? Luscious took me down and after the usual blood pressure thingy and listeningto my chest she pronounced that perhaps i wasn't in the best of health. I now have more medication to take, in fact enough to keep a third world country going, evidently although the worst of the Flu has gone the after effects like the sweating and the sore throat and coughing are not so easy to shift. I have to take 3 tablets in the morning with water, followed by some 1000mgram horse size tablets for something else + 1000mgram horse size tablet of paracetomol. I am not sure if she is trying to kill off the infection or me! On top off all of that i have a cough medicine to take three times a day which is codiene based..no wonder i don't feel much like doing anything but hopefully things will now start to get better. To cheer myself up i dug out this old photo from August 2003 just as we were taking off the old roof to start ripping the house to bits. It makes me feel better knowing just how much things have changed since then.Not least that we are no longer living in a caravan! i crawl back to my bed....

At least the cats are happy....

2007-01-14T07:49:00.000-08:00

Hi R.J & Ally, thanks for your kind wishes and i will be taking up the advice relating to the toddies as soon as i can face alchohol again! I am just soooo drained at the moment it is a struggle just to get up have a wash and even take a leak without having to take a rest! Yesterday i sat on the balcony in the sunshine with a magazine looking for all the world like an OAP at a retirement home near the beach. Sat on chair with blanket over legs, t-shirt,sweatshirt,gilet, coat and thermal hat. It was 21° in the sun but i was just warm enough, i did manage at one stage to unzip my coat but that was it! I have no energy at all, i am taking balancing drinks but they don't seem to be doing any good! I don't do ill and i hate feeling like this i just want it too go away....... sulk..better try & put some more wood on the fire and take a leak, that will crease me for a couple of hours......

Roof Ends & Tranquility

2007-01-10T05:39:00.000-08:00

At last i have finished with the dreaded scafolding. It has been an experience i do not want to repeat in a hurry. I prefer to keep my feet on the ground and with this in mind my next job is to lay the new chestnut flooring in the biggest bedroom. A complex job as the wood is cut in the traditional way to maximise the wood usage from the tree. This means that although the lengths are more or less the same give or take 6 or 7 cms they are widely different in width so it is a bit like putting a jigsaw puzzle together to make sure that i arrive at the far wall with the right pieces! Oh what fun eh? At this rate we will be in danger of having two rooms ready for rent this year, now that would be a welcome source of revenue as the restuarant luscious works at have indicated that they may lay her off for three months as business is not good at this time of year. They think she would be entitled to 80% of her salary for the three months paid by the state so if that is true it is not all gloom. Meanwhile i sit here with umpteen layers of clothes on and a woolly hat as i feel awful, sweating hot then shivering cold, there must be a form of alcoholic remedy as the pills are just yeeeaargh! off to try and eat a bowl homemade tomato soup, certainly know how to live the high life here......

Angels on High

2007-01-04T03:44:00.000-08:00

Let us try again, the post i made yesterday using the "new" blogger seems to have vanished! Happy New year to all those of you just passing through. New years day saw me up this scaffolding doing the repairs to the roof end that the builderman decided not too do! Now it may not look too high to you but to me it is extremely high. I do not like heights and this as it sways in the breeze is a long way up. I know it is as i can shake hands with the angels as they come floating past! I now have half of the repair done and rain and wind have stopped play so i have retired inside to start laying the new chestnut flooring in the second bedroom. The first bedroom is now all finished and ready for renting out this year. I think with a few pictures on the wall it looks superb but then i am biased as i have done the work along with luscious! All we need now are some paying guests...anyone?
2007 looks like it will be another good year for the peasant and luscious, look forward to seeing you here soon....cheers...

Winter Sunrise & Frost

2006-12-26T04:32:00.000-08:00

This morning it was just a little cold. The thermometer had dropped to -5°c and as you can see we were just above the cloud line as the sun was starting to rise at about 8:30am this morning. It was a beautiful sight and it makes me glad that i live here. The two cats were demanding to be fed but i made them wait while i took the two pictures. The second one is out of the backdoor and shows the frost on the trees. It is about 3" deep and i have no idea how it hangs onto the trees but it makes them look kike they are straight from a fairytale storybook about a winter wonderland. The deer have been wandering across the field behind the trees and

there is fresh evidence that the wild boar have been foraging for food as well!! Didn't get that when we lived in the UK!

The sun is now out and the sky is a brilliant blue so i am going out to replenish the woodstore by chopping down some more trees in our wood. That should keep me warm and then i shall light the fire toast my toes and sip a steaming mug of mulled wine and munch a mincepie or two...Happy Christmas....

Winter Warmer

2006-12-18T05:05:00.000-08:00

The guests have arrived and are ensconced in their new room all very nice and cosy with the oil filled radiator to keep them warm. The "new" radiator arrived on the Tuesday and we finally fitted it on Friday much to the delight of the guests. The room is now lovely and warm and we can at last turn on the central heating for the upstairs. We still have a problem with the underfloor heating downstairs but at least now i know what the problem is. The original plumber failed to install 4,yes 4 non return valves which are sort of important to make the system work corectly. I went to buy them at the same time as i collected the radiator and surprise surprise i have to wait quinze jour. Maybe this winter will be the one that we finally have underfloor heating as well. Now won't that be a luxury? The guests departed today announcing themselves to be very pleased with their stay and look forward to returning next year. Meanwhile i am going to retire and make a cup of tea and cut a slice of coconut cake, homemade of course as i have earned it........cheers

Bah Humbug

2006-12-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

People arriving on monday to stay for a week and their bedroom isn't finished yet. Painting needs finishing and the bloody radiator i ordered at the beginning of NOVEMBER still hasn't arrived...bloody typical.talk about working to tight deadlines..can put an electric heater in the room and an electric blanket on the bed so hopefully that will resolve that part of the equation. Just means i have to finish the painting, clean the room and then put all the furniture into it before lunchtime monday! Oh, i have to go to work as well....any magic elves or fairies out there that can help me? To cap it all the weather has turned real crap and we are forecast for snow............

One Giant Leap....

2006-12-02T12:00:00.000-08:00

Once again i have been away for far too long. The new arrival continues to grow and is now an IT after a small operation.;ouch! He and the resident cat Miss Willow are starting to reach a sort of understanding and have actually shared a bed.. such behaviour is unbecoming wouldn't you think? however at least it means she isn't constantly hissing and spitting at him. They even swop food bowls as well! On the house front the two bedrooms now have doors on them. That is REAL wooden doors made by me, they aren't perfect but then they are a great improvement on the nothingness that was there before. It means at least people coming to stay now have a door to protect their modesty rather than just a curtain! Bedroom two is ready for painting and kitting out with lights and things but i am still waiting for the new radiator to arrive. It was ordered on the 8th November and should have taken "quinze jour" as does everything you order here but after vingt-trois jour it still has not made an appearance. This is worrying as i have people arriving to stay on the 11th and they will need a radiator as it is getting a bit cool at night. Cool is relative you understand 6° is cool!!! Sat outside two days ago in t-shirt eating lunch..wey hey off to get a glass of wine and seperate two hissing cats!!!

Walls & Floors, Cats & Horses

2006-11-05T04:04:00.000-08:00

That is it then..the floor in the second bedroom is finally all finished and very nice it looks too. The stones i left uncovered when plastering as they are the end of the 'original' house have been sealed and for your delectation and delight i have posted a picture of them showing a little of the floor! All i have to do now is make some shelving out of chestnut planks, paint the walls and make the doors & shutters..Hey presto.. room finished and ready to welcome guests. Official opening is Easter next year so come on, get yourselves over here. Special offers for bloggers!!!

The cats continue to eye each other up, resident cat is not at all convinced that she should like this little upstart that is now in her territory. We have advanced a little i think, she will now come into the house and sniff around him and meow before growling and hissing. For his part he just wants to play and can't work out why he gets hit with a paw for his trouble. Next friday is vets day!! snip snip, jab, ouch.....

On the heavy horse front i am still trying to find a way to get the horses. It isn't so much the buying of the horses but the purchase of the equipment that i will need to be able to use them in the woods for logging.... upwards of 3,000 euros for harnesses etc EACH horse!! I have an idea that may work, sort of like a timeshare where people can buy a weeks accommodation for 3 years at chez peasant and that would also allow them to work with the horses as well. It wouldn't have to be the same week each year but they would have to let me know at the begginning of each year when they intended to come. At least that would give people a bit of flexibility on when they could take a holiday. Would it work do you think?

anyway, sunshining back to making shelving......

Welcome to Merlin

2006-10-26T04:04:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the little bundle that we rescued from our field on Friday. He has been to the vet and been checked over and apart from being a bit thin seems ok. After his injections, worming tablets and anti-flea/tick stuff he has made himself very much at home. He seems to like going to asleep across your neck which can be a little awkward at times. The resident cat..miss Willow is none too happy at the moment with the new arrival but i suppose she will get used to him eventually? Back to the vets in four weeks for second injection and another course of tablets and then back again for THE operation..... life has changed completely at chez peasant with the arrival of Mr. Merlin..... couldn't have left him in the field though!!

Worn out & knackered

2006-10-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hello.. i am back.. thank you to those that have visited my now sooo out of date ramblings and for asking how i fare... truth is i am completely knackered. I have been trying to get the floor of the second bedroom cleaned down to useable timber and then varnished ready for guests in November. On top of this i gained a house to paint after being successful in my bid and i have also been working for plaster man... Oh i forgot.. i have ben asked to manage a heating/bathroom installation project and also advise some neighbours on how to install evapuration ponds and how to plant them. Apart from that i have been doing bugger all for 7 days a week!
I came here to escape the rat race of england and although there is a lot less pressure here i am fed up of it..hence no blogging as i just couldn't be arsed! Too bloody tired!
I have also had to put my horse project on ice.. i can't realistically afford it at the moment which is a bitter blow... i wanted two percheron's to work the land and woods in the traditional way and then for people to come and stay and maybe even work with myself and the horses. Initial outlay would be around 5,000 POUNDS. bugger.......then there is the upkeep.... to cap it all we have just become foster parents to a kitten that we found abandoned in our woods.. what sort of person dumps a two month old kitten in a forest miles from anywhere in the pouring rain? We hadn't the heart to kill it so we are now a two cat family...up every 3hrs or so to feed it and give it some love and care. Took him to the vets today to be checked over..apart from fleas in abundance, mites in his ears and worms and also being a little on the starving side he is ok.
Can't people be real bastards to animals sometimes?
That all for now... but i am back....

Second summer

2006-09-11T03:24:00.000-07:00

The weather has done a complete about face and we are having a second summer with temperatures up to 30° in the shade and 49° in the sun and at 23:00hrs the other evening it was still 26°..phew warm eh?
The plums have all gone from the trees with a great deal of them now resting in jars as jam, plum crumbles with oodles of birds custard have been consumed along with plum tarts and creme fraiché.;yummy yummy..bottles of plum scnapps are now quietly doing their stuff in the barn along with some plums in armagnac which should be ready by christmas. We are now heavily into the second crop of fresh figs and have 5kgs sat in the fridge with us wondereing what to do with them and what we will do with those that we still have to pick. The pears are ready and are now in a box in the barn (about 12kgs) and the apples will be ready in October for the annual fruit pressing to give us loads of lovely fresh juice for the year. Last year we got 40litres of juice so that wasn't bad.
On the work front Mr. Plasterer rang with some work for me so i have been out earning a crust for two and a half days painting/decorating. This means that the bedroom is still not finished as i had planned so today i start cleaning of the wooden floor. I will let you know how it goes, maybe a before and after picture set to bore you all?
The dragonflies are zooming around the 'terrace ' and we have an explosion of baby frogs/toads? in the water recycling bacs + recently a small baby grass snake so i assume that the water must be reasonably clean and that the plants are doing their stuff. Haven't seen mummy or daddy wriggles yet! Cheers for now.....

Tumbling Disaster

2006-08-31T04:10:00.000-07:00

The weather has taken a turn for the worse the last two weeks. It has been awful. Heavy rain and gale force winds have wreaked havoc in the garden and in the woods. With 42mm of rain falling in one day it seems that everything was being drowned. The winds reached a howling 80km/ph which brought down trees in the woods and absolutely felled the beans in the garden. Disaster as they were just starting to produce some usable weights of beans. Not only did they tumble over despite being help up by boy scout type guy ropes but it ripped the plants out of the ground. They fell onto the peppers which are now completely destroyed and the wind also broke off some really nice raspberry canes that were loaded with flowers and fruit.
It is enough to make you cry, we have managed to save some of the tomatoes but are not sure if they will produce any more fruit, the beans are beyond hope of salvation i think. Somehow though the courgettes survived, tough little blighters that they are. I suppose this is what happens when you live up in the mountains. On the plus front luscious was able to pick up nearly 20kg of plums which had been blown of the trees so we are now in full scale production of plum jam, plum crumble, plum wine, plum scnapps and finally plum brandy...can't let them go to waste now can we?
On the house front, the plastering is all done in the second bedroom and i am now starting to make the shelving from reclaimed chestnut floorboards so once they are done and fixed i just have to clean up the floor and wax it to within an inch of my life make the doors and hey presto another room finished and awaiting guests to appreciate it.
So.. off to check the walnut wine which should just about be ready for bottling and then to start cutting the shelving....cheers

No more cherries

2006-08-10T03:53:00.000-07:00

The last few days the weather has definately changed. The temerature is now around 30° during the day and at night it has fallen to 15°. Positively cold, we have even had to shut the window at night and put a throw on the bed!
With the colder weather has also come strong winds and electrical storms. Isn't it amazing what spetacular shows nature can put on? Unfortunately one of the cherry trees won't agree with you as it has been snapped like a matchstick by the strong winds. It is a great shame because it produced some absolutely scrumptious, juicy cherries that were just wonderful to eat straight from the tree. Alas, it is no more. Just a forlorn stump remains, what a shame. Perhaps next spring we will plant a couple of new cherry trees so that in three years or so we will have cherries again.
The house continues to develop and the good news is that i can get up off my knees for a while as the lounge/dining area tiling is now completely finished. That is 49sq. metres all done...yeehah off to open a bottle of homemade wine to celebrate. I now only have another 38sq. metres to finish in the kitchen and entrance hall and the downstairs tiling is complete.. only another 38sq. metres oh my aching knees.....

It's too darned hot

2006-07-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

I am completely worn out! i need a rest from work which i think will happen next week as i finish for a month for a"holiday". I will of course still be working on the house if that counts?
We have been starting at 6am and finishing at 2pm because of the heat. It really is darned warm, the temperature hasn't really dropped below 30° during the day and yesterday it hit 39° in the shade and a boggling 51° on the terrace. That's 123°F in old money so to speak.
The cat doesn't know what to do with herself and as you can see she tries to find the coolest place to sleep that she can. This was just after i had watered the flowers in the pot she just climbed in made herself comfortable and within seconds was fast asleep!
The garden is going mad, the courgettes are being extremely prolific, 4 plants have given us kilo's of the things so it is courgette soup, baked, stuffed and made into pickle and still we have a load left. Anybody know any good recipes for courgettes? the melons are growing well and the cucumbers are producing in moderate numbers, raspberries are coming to fruit and the butternut squash is loaded with flowers. Beetroot was nice and at last the tomatoes are going red. Disasters; the runner beans have produced a huge number of flowers but no beans...something is munching the flowers and the Fennel has been completely stripped by the caterpillar of the swallowtail butterfly. The broccoli started to flower and then went bannanas and bolted overnight so it seemed. All in all though i think for our first year as virgin gardeners not too bad. Now, what can i do with this next lot of courgettes?

Asiatic lily

2006-07-09T03:23:00.000-07:00

It has been HOT HOT HOT...38° in the shade and it managed to get to 48° in the sun. We are spending a lot of time watering the vegetable garden in the evenings ( about one hour) and are hoping for great things from the courgettes and tomatoes. The cauliflowers were a bit of a failure, they came up ok but then just as they were developing nicely wham, they bolted and some got eaten by something or other! The runner beans are loaded with flowers and we wait expectantly to see the beans come forth.
This Asiatic lily seems to be enjoying the weather though and has produced some beautiful flowers. The cat has taken to sleeping all day and going out all night when it has cooled down. ( 23°) I have made some fly screens for the bedroom windows so that we can sleep with the windows open and not get moths or bats flying into the room. Yes that's right a bat flew into the bedroom in the early hours and we had a great time trying to catch it and put it back outside. it wasn't that happy at being caught in a towel and when i hung the towel out the window it wouldn't let go!! Eventually after a little shake, off it flew and back to bed we went!

Life in the country is fun isn't it?

Cat on a hot slate roof

2006-06-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

I know i haven't posted in absolutely eons, no excuse just got a lazy head on for awhile and couldn't be arsed! Oh, i did spend a week in bed with a flu/cold thingy. It must have been bad because in the end i had to go to the doctors. The first time in 4 years!!! Anyway now back in the land of the workers and boy is it hard work in the heat. Mixing concrete and putting in a spiral staircase in 43° is no fun. Even in the cellar it went up to 27°. The hottest day so far has been 47° and i expect in july/august this will be beaten as well.
The cat has found herself a new high vantage point from which to survey the world and to see if she can spot any mice to eat. She brought us home a dead rat the other night. She could only just about carry it but she enjoyed playing with it, tossing it in the air and pouncing on it until i spoilt her fun and took it off her. I don't mind her eating mice but i draw the line at rats!! she went off in a huff.......
The house advances, i have started plastering the last wall in the other guest bedroom and hopefully it will be finished this weekend. That will just leave the floor to clean up and stain, make and fit the doors and voila! finished and awaiting guests. slowly it is at last all coming together! hurrah

Working views

2006-06-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for ages. No reason, just lazy. Anyway this is the view of the house that i have been seeing each morning recently as i tootle off to work. That's "real" work for M. Plasterman. I bet you don't have such a good view do you? Life teeters on much as usual, the weather is just hot! 29° ish in the shade at the front of the house which is the north side and up to around 42° around the back on the southside. The cellar as ever remains at a lovely cool 15 - 20° lovely!! The horses are getting short of water as the source has dried up a little, providing just enough water to keep the vegetable garden watered so we have to fill up the watering can a few times and empty it it into the horses water trough. It has forecast a change in the weather for the weekend but this doesn't automatically mean that it will rain!! So, it is all hands to the water recycling bacs so we can use the waste water from the house to water the garden!
This eco-friendly business is all very well but can be very time consuming!!! We have eaten our first lettuces and they were delicious. We are trying out a new way of picking them suggested to us by a gardening friend. Instead of picking the whole lettuce just take off the second set of leaves from the ground from a number of plants. This means that the lettuce will continue to grow and produce new leaves. So far it seems to be working..... the cauliflowers are producing little florets and the broad beans are coming into flower....this gardening lark is real fun especially when you can eat what you have grown....... L has also made some elderflower syrup and the walnut leaf wine has been started. It just needs me in a week or so to start the pickled walnuts and vin noix and we are up and running again as true country peasants using stuff that is free..... hurrah for the bounty of the countryside i say!

Bean nursery

2006-05-28T03:10:00.000-07:00

The vegetable garden meanwhile continues to grow whilst i carry on with the building. This now means of course that as well as the building work, "real" work and general work we now have to do weeding work. The garden takes up at least an hour a day just watering it and then you have to keep the weeds down which just seem to love the conditions we are providing for them. On top of all of that because we are organic we have to remove the pests, bugs, maggots etc that all vegetables seem to attract and i now have a fun game going with a mole. It sems to like the newly broken earth and can burrow through it really easily, only problem with this of course is that when i go to check the garden i will see the odd plant here and there on its side for no apparent reason. On closer inspection the mole has been alongside or under it causing it to fall over. I replant it and stamp down the tunnel but the next day another plant has a distinct list!! Anyone any ideas on how to persuade a mole to re-locate? The cat bless her is doing her best having already caught one but obviously we have a whole nuclear family of them still tunnelling away!
She shows great patience sitting listening for ages until she suddenly pounces and digs like mad, she has as i say caught one but there are others. Amazingly so far in her endeavours she hasn't dug up any of the vegetables! The large construction in the picture is wood and string and is a climbing frame for the runner beans. I have high hopes for them...... So far we have only lost 4 lettuces out of all the vegetables we have planted.. so far so good... we have already had a small crop of strawberries and the small wild strawberries are just starting to produce fruit. The cherry trees this year are bending under the weight of fruit. As soon as they are ripe it will be cherry jam, cherry pie, cherry schnapps, cherry syrup and cherry gateaux + it is nearly time to start making the walnut leaf wine and in a couple of weeks we will be picking the green walnuts ready to pickle and also make some into vin noix. Life in the country can be very busy sometimes........

From Walls to Steps

2006-05-23T03:29:00.000-07:00

Well, now that the wall is safely built and still standing after a bit of soil being put behind it i suppose i had to start the steps from the terrace that will eventually lead up to another smaller terrace and sitting area. This area will give visitors a great view straight down the valley. But first i have to do the steps. As you can see the first step has already been dug out and i have prepared the boarding ready for the concrete to be mixed and poured into it. The idea is the same as for the wall in that when the steps are all completed they will be dressed with local stone or lauze with a smaller wall at the side which will again have flowers planted into it to give a bit of colour. Digging out the steps gives me the topsoil to back fill behind the wall already built so nothing goes to waste and the stones are used as hardcore base for the steps. How's that for efficient recycling of materials?
I am doing this as the weather is pretty decent and the plaster in the second bedroom is
drying out so i can't get in to finish the floor. Once the plaster is dry then it will be time to put the final finish on the reclaimed chestnut floor and make the doors, paint the walls and yeehaaa the bedroom is complete and ready for guests to come and use.
Right then, time to go and order the gravel etc that i need for the steps.......oh, we have to plant a load of vegetables that luschious has grown from seed as well so that is my day all sorted. How are your days going?
p.s. fished dead snake out of waterbowl for horses......yuk!

To This......

2006-05-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

Now, i know that it doesn't look much but this is part of the wall. It goes from two rows to three as the bank is slightly steeper further along so the wall had to be a bit taller. As walls go it isn't very fancy BUT it is my wall, my first wall and after sitting on it, standing on it and pushing against it it is still standing. That in my book means it is a success! ( it is also level!!!) All i have to do now is face it with the stone we recovered when we dug out the cave under the house. We have already back filled it with soil and compost and after leaving it for a week to settle and topping it up will begin to plant out some flowers.
It has been a busy week at "real" work, have finished cleaning off old wallpaper and washed down walls and ceilings and varnished the woodwork. Next week i learn how to put up wallpaper that should be fun shouldn't it?
The horses are back and have certainly expanded around the middle in the last two weeks with all the lush grass and dandelions that they have been eating. Stage one of the great horse project is being put into action at the start of June so that should prove interesting. It is a feasability study to see if what i want to do is 1. affordable 2. worth doing from enviromental points 3. will it earn any money or at least cover costs. I am hoping that all the answers are YES. I really want to do this.... perhaps i can fiddle the results?
On a slight down note, i saw the first couleuvre last week, that means the sun is bringing them out of hibernation. Hope they stay away from the garden area although i have a feeling we have a resident near the waterhole that the horses use which is only a few feet from the end of the garden!!! (couleuvre= snake!)

W.I.P. from this to....

2006-05-07T04:59:00.000-07:00

Wall in progress! This is the start of a very small retaining wall at the edge of the terrace as we need to stop the rock from cracking with the frost and rain and sliding down onto the terrace.
As you can see the house is actually built straight onto the rock so it is a good reason to stop the rock from moving.
Rock moves, house moves ...ooops pile of rubble..start all over again! once the blocks are in place i will backfill with some soil and then plant some small rock type plants/alpines etc to give a bit of colour and then face the wall with natural stone so that it blends in a bit better.
Well, that is the plan but as with every thing here it is subject to last minute changes. No idea how it will go as never done this before.
Isn't on the job training/learning great?
Plasterman back so this last week have been back at some "real" work. I am now being a painter/decorator, stripping off wallpaper in a small apartment and cleaning ceilings ready to repaint and re-paper. They say variety is the spice of life..my life is very spicy at the moment sort of chili powder, black pepper and cinnamon...

Reflections

2006-04-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

Today was a funny sort of day, last night i was out with the band again and got back in gone mid-night and today was back out with them again. The contrast between the two events could not have been greater. Last night was a Bodega, lots of eating and drinking and dancing today however wasn't.
Today was all about what happened during the second world war. We were playing at a monument which commemorated 564 Jews that were taken from the town by the Gestapo and put on trains to Auschwitz and Buchenwald. They never came home. That is 564 people ranging from babies to 80 years old just gone, only their names remain on a granite memorial and on this day every year since the end of the war they have been remembered by the town.
These people died because of who they were and what they believed, makes you think a bit doesn't it?
We then went to a smaller monument, this time in memory of three brothers executed by the germans for being members of the resistance. The youngest was 17, the oldest 22.
Makes you think doesn't it?

Golden Salad Days

2006-04-26T03:46:00.000-07:00

It would appear that there is at least one plant that i can grow without to much trouble.. dandelions.. i have a field that is just covered in them...nearly 3 acres of dandelions. How the hell am i going to eat that many salads? My skin will turn yellow and i will forever be spending my day going to the toilet as they are a diuretic at least i will have healthy kidneys though. Has anyone ever died from an overdose of dandelion salad? If you just walk through the field your clothes turn yellow from the pollen and the bees just seem to love them as well.
It will be good food for the horses which return from their winter quarters at the weekend and i have no doubt that they will waste no time in reducing these golden discs to usable compost!
Next job for the peasant is to build a very small wall on the terrace, should be interesting as i have never built a wall before so i trust it will all go to plan once i have worked out what quantities of sand to mix with the cement and how much water to slosh in with it to make into a mortar type substance..will keep you updated...bit like being a kid again and making mud pies..oh, you never did that? don't suppose you ate worms or played with the coal either?

Cat on the tiles

2006-04-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here we are again, saturday and it is a weekend. It is supposed to be a day of rest but not for me. Tiling needs to be done, this is a view from the lounge into the kitchen showing how much i have still to do!! The cat has decided to oversee the whole operation as it means that once again her domain is changing and she needs to be kept up to date with things! I had to move the chair as it was in the way but she didn't even move just watched me then rolled over for her stomach to be tickled. What a life eh?

Today has been absolutely gorgeous..39° in the sun on the terrace and 20° in the shade at the front of the house and i missed most of it as i really want to get his tiling out of the way. About 5ish i finished for the day and had a cup of tea and then it was time to check on the toilet system to see if any more compost was ready so that it can go on our new garden area to help the vegetable plants that are now in place. The herb garden has now been started as well and all i am waiting for now is Ally's plant to arrive and it will all be complete. The rhubarb has gone completely manic after spreading some of our compost around it and tomorrow i shall pick the first 4 leaves of the season and make a rhubarb crumble.. oh bliss all covered in yummy thick custard..hmmmmm
I have next week off from the plastering as plaster man is on holiday so i have a week at home to work on the house.
Last Sunday evening i was out with the band taking part in an ancient festival where the last man to be married in the village wears a horn on his head to represent a unicorn and goes round the village chasing the young women!! He doesn't catch any but if they manage to touch the horn then they are supposed to get pregnant soon after...ancient pagan fertility rights in a catholic country condoned by the church...bizarre but then this is countryside france and long may it continue.......

Tulips & Oysters

2006-04-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

The first of our 75 tulips have finally flowered and they are such beautiful colours. The picture doesn't really do them justice but if the rest come out as well as these the "garden" will be just full of colour! Some of the plants even have more than one flower head per stem so that is a bonus as well. Luscious is well pleased with her planting and i have to say that i agree with her.
It may be easter but luscious is out at work so i am on my own today, not ideal but thats the way it is. To be fair i am out later this afternoon into the evening with the band so even if she wasn't working this evening as well the end result would be the same. Limited time together! We will get to spend some more time with each other tomorrow but she still has to go off to work at lunchtime, meanwhile i have a day off from plastering and can get on with something else in the house like doing some more of the floortiling in the kitchen. What a way to spend easter eh?
Off to get lunch now which will be fresh oysters in a white wine and creme sauce followed by fresh fruit and creme fraiche ... yummy yummy. wonder what we will get to eat tonight after playing at the fete? happy easter to you all.....

Vegetable Virgin Gardeners

2006-04-09T05:27:00.000-07:00

We have a vegetable garden! To be more exact i suppose i should say that we have an area which has been ploughed for us which we are now making into a vegetable plot! As vegetable garden virgins this is proving to be interesting, consulting all the books we can find for instruction and then being told by the locals that the books are wrong and we should be planting something different! The picture shows the plot and a big pile of cow manure kindly donated by the mayors cows it also gives an idea of just how steep the land is around here. So far we have planted two gooseberry bushes, two blackcurrant bushes and five raspberry canes. Today i have bought some onions(normal and salad) beetroot, broccoli, cauliflower and as it will double as a herb garden some fenouil and angélique. We already have some sage, parsley, thyme and rosemary so hopefully once they are all planted we will be on our way. Luscious is going to start some haricot vert, tomatoes and runner beans off in pots and then we can transfer them to the garden. In amongst the vegetables we will be planting some flowers which are traditionally grown between the veg, dahlias, glady's and chyrsants. Here's looking forward to losing our virginity in the field of vegetables so to speak and a very fruitful and heavy cropping season. I am off to finish my bowl of fresh strawberries and créme fràiche....

Bedroom

2006-04-04T03:53:00.000-07:00

This is the "guest "bedroom and it is almost complete!! almost that is except for a new floor and doors!! Still waiting for the flooring to arrive from the sawmill but at least it looks like a bedroom now and not a building site anymore. Have to move on to other things now as the bedroom we were using is now ready to be plastered out as well. This will then also be finished as the floor is already down. Oh.. it will need decorating of course! It just goes on and on doesn't it? Once this room is finished it is back to tiling out the kitchen and then we can have the units delivered. Now that will be a cause for celebration. Ah well until then i shall just keep plodding on.. i have just looked outside and it is a beautiful day and i can see that the grass around the house will soon be needing a cut...no rest eh?

Resting

2006-03-30T02:29:00.000-08:00

I thought i had been blogging over the last couple of weeks. It would appear that blogger has a different thought on this. My last two posts have gone into the ether never to be seen again.
So, what have i been up to?.... not much i suppose, the bedroom is all painted and we are still waiting for the new flooring to arrive but apart from that it is all done. At least i can see real progress. Last weekend i did a flying visit back to the Uk. Left here Saturday morning at 6am and was back home by midday Sunday completely knackered!!! Back to work on monday and plaster man has asked me if i would like to renew the contract for another month so i said what the hell.. ok.I am a working man for another month. The money is useful that's for sure. So, the fire is lit and the wine is on the table and we are going to watch a DVD called "Dear Frankie" it is an english film and seems like it will be interesting. Well, off i go, wine awaits.....

This was Summer

2006-03-12T02:03:00.000-08:00

This is a view taken from the top of the Tarn Gorge which is about 45mins drive away from the house. You can just make out the little village at the bottom. There is a lovely restuarant there and the food is wonderful. It is a protected village so no new houses can be built in it unless they are built in the traditional way. In the five years since being protected status no planning permissions have been granted which i think is a good thing. The villagers are fiercely proud of the village and its heritage and guard it's beauty and will even close the bridge off to it if they feel the tranquility is being violated by too many tourists. Now isn't that quaint?
Just thought i would post this to remind me that the sun does shine as i sit here after three days of non-stop rain, high winds and finally yesterday another 4cm of snow! The weather here in March changes from day to day, tomorrow they are forecasting sunshine and 14°c Bizarre.
Off to the bar tabac later to watch the England v France rugby so that should lead to some interesting banter. It has been agreed that if england lose i buy the beers and if france lose they will buy the beers. Going on past history of the games at the Stade then i should be buying the beers! hopefully england will produce an upset and i can safely put my money away...i hope.....

Rest Day

2006-03-05T04:25:00.000-08:00

After a hard week at work and having finished the plastering it was a day off for the peasant and lushcious and off we went to the carnival at Gaillac. It was a sort of day off as i was playing in the band at the carnival!! It was a good day out and after parading around for a couple of hours we were rewarded with a couple of free drinks so not so bad eh? Time to get home have a cup of tea and then back out again as we had been invited out to our neighbours birthday bash at a local auberge!! Got back home just gone 1am so a wonderful day off. Woke up this morning to howling winds and driving snow. I just can't make this weather out, yesterday was 18° and today is hovering around freezing! I reckon the badger we startled on the road near the house as we came last night/morning was muttering just the same thing. He went out in reasonable weather and must have gone home in the snow as i saw his tracks going back past the house this morning! Turned out nice then dear, enjoy your walk? not much fun in the snow when your belly drags on the ground. Perhaps i should try and stay upright in future?

The new additions

2006-03-02T03:48:00.000-08:00

Hopefully you can just make out the new additions to the orchard. The little sticks with white labels on are the five new fruit trees. we have great hopes for them. The eight apple trees we planted three years ago are now just starting to bear fruit. Not enough for an apple pie but just enough to taste how each variety is different from the other. We hope likewise that in another three years we will be picking the odd one or two peaches and apricots and that the apples are much bigger and cropping well. Next year we will plant some cherry trees to replace the ones we already have as they are really past their best. They must be getting on for 50+ years old and have been badly neglected as the house was empty for some 15 years before the mad english came along and bought it. It was still one of our best ideas and one we have never regreted.

All plastered out

2006-02-26T03:38:00.000-08:00

Thats it then. The plastering in this bedroom is finally finished and dry. All i have to do now is paint it after i have top coated the ceiling first then we are ready to get the chestnut flooring and get that put down. So, hopefully by easter (woodyard permitting) this 1st official guest room will be all but finished. I say all but as i still have to make the doors. Perhaps i should forget about them and just hang curtains across the doorways?
It was a beautiful day yesterday, last year we ordered some more fruit trees which arrived yesterday so we spent the afternoon planting them. Two plums, one each of peach, apricot and quince. Hopefully in three or four years time we shall see the fruits of our labours. We took afternoon tea and cake on the terrace in t-shirts as in the sun it was 29.3°c. wonderful!! I have no doubt it won't last as on friday it is the birthday of luscious and so far every year the sun has shone but the temperature is in the negative, we shall see!
Picture is the after of the one posted earlier, i hope that it looks a little different and that you can see that it has changed...or....perhaps i have just used trick photography....ha ha Off for lunch then out again to play at lumberjacks as i need to replenish the wood store...ta ra......

W I P

2006-02-22T03:41:00.000-08:00

Work in progress!!! Since starting real work in the outside world the work on the house has slowed a little. The plastering in the main bedroom is now all done but i thought i would show you a picture of part of the wall after i had repaired it but before it was plastered. Just so that when i post the picture of it finished it will make me feel like something has been done and hopefully you can all applaud at my attempts to plaster. Perhaps after you have fallen off your chairs with laughter!!!!! It is a "rustic" finish as it is after all an old house!!! My excuse and i am sticking to it!!! Next job for the weekend is to get back on knees and finish tiling the kitchen floor so that luscious can go and order the new kitchen that she has always wanted. I think it features chestnut units and a black granite work surface...think i will let them install it... don't fancy cutting granite especially as shall we say the walls aren't exactly straight.. well....lunch over, back to work...hey ho.....

Good to be Back........

2006-02-16T02:44:00.000-08:00

Errrr....... thank you for all your comments and i am sorry that i have not blogged for a while. After being snowed in again, 80cm this time we are finally back in the real world. Well, at least as real as it gets around here!
The other reason for not blogging is that i am now a working man again.. not by design i hasten to add but by pure accident. The plasterer and tiler that originally put up all the new stud walls in the house came up to see us to collect his final payment and while he was here noticed the tiling of the lounge floor and asked who did it. Luscious told him that it was i no less. He didn't say anything, just nodded and then after a drink wandered off. A week later i had a telephone call from him asking whether i would like to go and do some work for him on a house that he is working on for a client of his. As the offer of money was good i said yes!!! So now i am a plasterers/tilers mate!!! Funny how things come about isn't it? The hours are 35 per week, friday afternoon is free and i get holiday pay even though the contract is only for a month!!! Can't say fairer than that can you? Only problem is i have to be up at 06:15am......yuk...don't get back home 'til 18:00hrs and i am tired so no blogging. So, how come i am blogging now? easy.....4 days free as boss teaches at a training college for the construction trades!!! Yee haaa i say.........

Why Did i have to say?

2006-02-04T11:14:00.000-08:00

Well, after saying that the snow hadn't arrived it did...with a vengeance...It started friday evening very gently and by saturday morning there was about 20cm and the snowplough had already been up and cleared the route. By lunchtime it didn't look like it had been at all. By mid afternoon we had 50cm and our road is blocked we are marooned. The power went off at 6:30pm and stayed off for 18hrs..no power, no water as they need electric pumps, no heating as it needs electric....you get the picture? At least we have a great big woodburning stove to keep us warm. We played I spy..cuddled on the couch then made a cup of tea and went to bed!!!
There was a loud thud.. no... not me missing the bed... the giant pine tree out the front had given up the struggle against the weight of the snow and had lost 6 large branches. Luckily they didn't hit the house. They were so heavy that i couldn't pick them up!!!! Sunday morning and it has stopped snowing.. it took us an hour to dig the car out of the garage and a further one and a half hours to get to the vilage 3km away!!! Oh what a jolly jape.. hope you all had a great weekend as well......

STILL plastering

2006-01-25T03:33:00.000-08:00

This is a corner of the "main" guest bedroom just to show how far i think i have advanced in my attempt to plaster the whole room! To the left you can just see how far i have got with the finishing coat and the little orange blobs in the top corner are old onion sacks full of walnuts which we picked last year. This picture shows off the exposed chestnut beams in the room as well. These used to have a ceiling suspended from them and they were a lovely flaky pink painted sort of colour. It took me TWO weeks to clean them off and restore them to this lovely colour.
Short but sweet, back to plastering..the sun is out and it is a beautiful day 10° outside and getting warmer.. it won't last..we still haven't had any snow yet. The last two years it has arrived in great dollops about the first week in February so not long to go now...........

Windows and plaster

2006-01-19T03:12:00.000-08:00

This is the new window in the main guest bedroom that i have put in. As you can see it now requires the wall around it to be plastered and then hey ho it is done. I know that it doesn't look vertical or horizontal but it is an elliptical elloption. Really it is!
It is very difficult working with 1metre thick loose stone walling held together with mud packed between the joints.
It is even more difficult trying to plaster. My arms are aching like mad and i swear more is splashing on the floor than going on the wall. The dark bit above the window is an original solid chestnut beam which we uncovered when taking out the old window and removing the old lathe and horse hair plaster. It has cleaned up really nice and will be left exposed along with the beams which used to have a ceiling attached to them! As you can see, just outside the window is a beautiful old pine tree which provides a great perch for all manner of birdlife including two varieties of woodpecker.
Having now rested my arms a little i shall return to my torture....more plastering..i will post a picture of the finished window area complete with new window ledge made from reclaimed chestnut flooring. (made from offcuts of the original floor)
My arms i am sure are now inches longer than they used to be, plastering is very heavy work!

Deer & Plaster

2006-01-12T03:02:00.000-08:00

I managed to get this shot yesterday mid-morning as the clouds were lifting and the sun was just starting to stream through. There were six deer just about 30 foot away from the back door of the house in part of the field normally used by the horses. I took this through the glass of the back door so it not brilliant but what a lovely thing to see. ( they were back this morning as well taking a drink from the waterhole in the field).
As for me, i am trying to teach myself the black art of plastering! I have taken the old stuff off as it was loose and cleaned back to the stones of the wall. As they weren't good enough to leave uncovered i rough rendered them and now... i am trying to plaster them. Does anyone know how to get this stuff to actually stick to the wall? It is sort of nearly there but i just can't seem to get it mirror flat.... Luschious bless her says that it is ok as the walls were never straight or flat before i started. It has taken me a whole day to do 4 square metres of wall, that leaves err err about another 8 to go..arrgghhh help, please...... I think more of the plaster is going on the floor than on the wall plus i am covered in it is as well. i look like a red indian that has gone mad with the white warpaint!
Ah well, here we go again...maybe i will take up deer watching instead?

MOUSE Alert!

2006-01-07T11:57:00.000-08:00

We have a slight problem, there is a mouse loose in the house. How do i know this you may ask? Well, apart from seeing it run across the bathroom floor i have spied half eaten chestnuts littering the entrance room!
As you can see my prime mouse catcher is completely un-interested in this particular mouse. It is obviously not enough to tempt her to move. This, despite the fact that she goes outside and will allways come back with a mouse to eat outside the door making sure to leave the stomach sac in a prominant place for all to see!
What can i do? Get another mouse catcher? Buy a mouse trap or somehow get willow to earn her keep in the house for a change? How does one encourage a cat that already catches mice to catch the ONE in the house? Perhaps i should catch it then release it so that she can catch it? A bit too drastic i think but somebody has to catch it 'cos if luscious sees it one of is in trouble and i can take bets that it won't be the cat!
Now, where is that old cheese?.......

A New Year

2006-01-02T02:59:00.000-08:00

Bonne Année to you all.
So, that was it then another year gone and we have now been here three whole years and still the house is not finished as i would like. Granted we had to spend the first year sat on our hands twiddling our thumbs while the french paperwork squad did their thing and forbade us to do ANY work on the house on pain of refusal of our grant applications!! Then we lost another six months while we found another builder as the first one had lost interest and gone away!!
I suppose if we look at what we started with and what we then did to it which was basically pull it to bits leaving only the outer 4 walls standing we have actually come a long way. At least we can now live in the house and we have fresh spring water instead of brackish slush, we can shower without the smell of cow urine coming from the water and we have a ecological toilet system instead of the toilet waste just washing out into the field. We have heating from the solaire system and the boiler and we have a sort of kitchen with a beautiful AGA. So, things are coming along.
This will be the year that we finally see the house finished and ready for an influx of paying guests. The web site is under way and will i hope be ready for launch end of january and we have already received enquiries from people wanting to come and stay and pay us money for the privelage!
This is going to be another wonderful year in this small part of the world and we hope that whatever you wished for this year will come true for you.
We are exceptionally lucky in that we are already living our dream.
Happy new year.
(The picture is the view from the lounge taken in November)

A Winters Tale

2005-12-25T06:55:00.000-08:00

Today was a lovely day, restful, laidback, calm, just like any other day here really. Luscious is oiut at work in the restuarant as they are fully booked and the as the French don't really do christmas we will have our christmas dinner tonight. A nice starter of foie gra, followed by grilled rack of deer with parsnips, brussels etc etc and finish of with christmas pud with custard. Yummy! i thought i would decorate the table with some holly as we have an abundance of it in the fields and the berries will lok nice against the white tablecloth with pictures of snowmen on. HMMMM nice idea but, the blackbirds around here who are all looking remarkably healthy have had other ideas. I cannot find one sprig of holly with a berry on, not one! oh yes, there are plenty of empty stalks but no berries. The birds have stripped the bushes and now i know why they are looking so healthy. It is MY berries they have eaten!
Plan b was to cut some mistletoe, hah! same problem something has eaten that as well. It is not the same having mistletoe hanging up without the berries. The chestnuts on the ground have long gone, the deer, badgers, foxes, wild boar have made sure of that! Lesson learn't is get in early to beat the local wildlife!!!!
A merry christmas to all and a happy new year. I'm off to break out a sherry and to cut up the deer..........

Never again

2005-12-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

I think these two cats which belong to a friend have already been on the christmas punch. They have both promised to never drink again and vow that next time it will be orange juice only.
I wonder if cats get hangovers? Still, at least they managed to get to the bathroom and didn't end up fighting their way out of a wardrobe! Long story for another day!
Happy meeowsmas...now, anyone up for a mouse burger to get rid of this awful taste in my mouth?

Eating Road Kill

2005-12-11T03:52:00.000-08:00

You may remeber that luschious was branded a murderer for accidentely killing a hare which eneded up in the feezer of the restuarant where she works? Well, thursday night was the night selected to eat this free meal. The people here let nothing like this go to waste especially as hare is considered a real treat. It had been taken out of the freezer and allowed to thaw out in the cold store and then hung for four days in the garage to tenderise the meat. When we arrived on the thursday evening it had been partially skinned and put onto a small spit as it was to be cooked in front of a log fire on a rotating spit. The head was left on and the fur on the legs and tail was also left on!
The other guests arrived and as we sat down for the starter, a delicious soupe au fromage ( a cheese and cabbage soup that isn't a soup!) the hare was brought out and put in front of the fire to cook. Every now and then the chef would get up and baste it in the juices coming from the hare. As we finished the starter he put a metal cone on a long rod into the fire to heat up and when red hot added a huge dollop of beef fat into it, set fire to it and as the liquid burning fat trickles out of a small hole in the bottom of the cone he pours it across the top of the rotating hare.
This is done 3 or 4 times and then after "cooking" for about half an hour the hare is taken of the spit and jointed and served up on a big platter complete with the head and tail as decoration.
The meat was quite tender and shall we say not at all well done! but very very very tasty. All washed down with an excellent 1999 bottle of extremely good red wine. ahh yummy.
Next was the cheese and more red wine followed by desert which is always accompanied by champagne. I do like these local customs!!
All in all a very good evening and as it was the first time i or luscious have eaten hare a different experience.
Bon appetit. Hopefully eventually we will have some pictures of the flaming fat being poured.

Keep music LIVE!

2005-12-04T02:36:00.000-08:00

Well that was an interesting week. On monday i received a telephone call from a friend who plays in the band that i was asked to join to say that Friday night there was a booking to play a couple of tunes for the Telethon and would i be interested in going to see them and having a quick practise with them to see if they thought i good enough to play with them next year.
The Telethon is a big thing in France, the whole weekend is dedicated to raising money for various charities. I said yes ok, what would we be playing? "oh, simple stuff, "oh when the saints go marching in", is that ok"? "Fine says i, Friday it is then. Friday night we meet at the local bar, of course! then off to Lacaune about 30mins away. Meet the rest of the band and the conductor but before we play anything its down to the serious stuff. First a large Pastis and a chat then another Pastis followed by a meal with wine and coffee to finish. One and a half hours later its time for a practise. Duly played the tune and seemed to be ok, next thing i know i am being given a band sweatshirt and told "ok, your in' now its of to the church to play in front of about 100 or so people. "errr, hang on, i don't know any of the music!" " oh that doesn't matter, play it by ear, you will get the hang of it!"
So that's how i came to be playing in a brassband of sorts in front of all those people. Nerveracking to say the least and to cap it all we didn't play "oh when the saints" which is the only tune i knew!!! still at least i didn't play when i shouldn't have so that is something i suppose.
Worrying postscript though, as the only person playing the cornet, the rest play trumpets, saxaphones, drums etc the chef de banda asked if i had ever played solo?
what has he got lined up for me?????

Just keeping warm!

2005-11-28T03:23:00.000-08:00

Willow just keeping warm after a hard morning out chasing mice! It really is hard work all this running around and a cat does need to be comfortable and warm after all her exertions.
Just to prove she is catching mice she usually leaves the bits she doesn't like just outside the kitchen door for us to see!

What Snow?

2005-11-28T03:04:00.000-08:00

Another week over and no snow. Well, not enought to speak of, maybe enough to dust the top of a christmas cake with but definetely not enough to get rudolph and the sleigh out. This despite continued weather forecasts of heavy snowfalls above 300metres. We are at 490m and nothing, zilch, nada, bugger all.. i am upset as i wanted to get out and make a bonne homme de neige, maybe later?
So with all this snow forecast and temperatures down to -1 during the day the work planned for outside has been temporarily postponed. What to do? so much to choose from, shall i sand down the plasterboard in the roof and paint it? try plastering the walls? render the wall behind the fireplace? Lay the edging floor tiles in the lounge? lay the tiles in the kitchen ohh the list is endless, now where did i put that pin?
Has a cup of tea, closes eyes and brings pin down onto list.... hmmmm lay edging floor tiles, great, more work on my knees.. think i will just chop my legs off as i seem to be always shuffling around on my knees recently!
Better go and get tiles from barn...shuffling off whistling "Hi Ho Hi HO it's off to work i go"

Brrrrrrrrrrrr

2005-11-23T02:50:00.000-08:00

Such lovely weather during the day yesterday up at a mere 18°c so not bad for mid november. However, the evenings are getting to be just a little cooler. I even had to light the fire! Last night was a cool -2°c and today so far the temperature has struggled to make a measly 2.4°c so any idea of doing the wall outside is right outof the window! You know it is getting colder beacause even the cat comes back inside during the night and doesn't move until about 7am, normally she wants to be out early...2/3am! The forecast is to get colder at night and maybe even some snow on friday... SNOW...in NOVEMBER.....not normal for here!!! Must rush now to dig out the thermal longjohns and ear muffs and the medicinal warming brandy and firewater just in case of course.
toodle pip

2005-11-22T04:08:00.000-08:00

the new garden and broken wall that i uncovered and now have to rebuild.

Laxidazical

2005-11-16T03:04:00.000-08:00

Err, very, very sorry for not posting for a week! Not that anyone noticed of course, you know what they say? "Too much of a good thing is bad for you" complete tosh of course but that's what they say! Although the balcony varnishing is finished all the doors and windows needed doing again as they have been in for two years now so that's what i have been doing. Bored out of my mind with it.. not difficult. small mind.
However during brief lull while waiting for varnish to dry i have been trying to create a small garden out the front of the house. Not easy as this was originally an old farm and they didn't really build or plan anything close to the house for gardening. After cutting back the blackberry bushes that are everywhere it revealed a barbed wire fence so down it came with gay abandon. Next, dig out the roots of the blackberries and have a bonfire to burn them. I liked that bit!
As i was digging over the soil i discovered the remains of an old wall!! cripes, now what to do.. instead of just a bit of soil and muck raked out to plant on i have to rebuild a wall as the ground is a little steep and the soil will fall away if i don't. Typical, doing one simple job always leads to three/four others just to finish the first... but that is the way of it here.
What fun eh? All i wanted to do was plant some tulips, daffodils and snowdrops......

Specific Gravity

2005-11-09T03:06:00.000-08:00

After a week of being on my knees..;yes i know my place in life......i have finished varnishing the bloody balcony... it is a job that has to be done but it felt like painting the Forth road bridge. It just went on and on and on and on. You get the idea? Soo just for a little light relief as it was the first week of November and the fruit i put in to macerate in alcohol was ready to bottle i thought it would be a good idea to get on and do it. I had done two lots of fruit, one of blackberries and one of raspberries. It was now just a case of straining out the fruit and putting the remaining liquid into a new clean bottle. Simple eh? Of course it was.. Fill up bottle with flavoured liquid firewater and ooops a little bit left ah well better taste it..hmmm very nice... cough splutter jeessus loss of voice....wooowww Better do next bottle..and the next.....

This stuff is made from a mixture of fresh fruit, neat alcohol 90% proof and special fruit alcohol 40%proof left in a darkened place for three months!!! It is now bottled and ready for drinking in another month or so just in time for christmas. I could do with a specific gravity hydrometer to find out just how strong it is.. i reckon about 60/70%proof with a hint of fruit flavouring.. whatever, it upset my sense of gravity as i was back on my knees crawling back to the sofa where luscious was already reclining after a little sample as well.

Such a simple peasants life we have here.....

Party time Again!

2005-11-03T03:53:00.000-08:00

After the exertions of the apple pressing we needed to rest a little. We were invited to a surprise birthday party for a friend in the village except he had found out about it and didn't want it, but as the venue and food was booked already then it went ahead anyway. We arived and the friend was there as well. His logic was, ah well as it is going ahead anyway i might as well be here as sat at home!! He is 79 by the way!!!
Drinks were 1 euro a double shot so the pastis was going down very well. Three doubles in an hour and more lined up on the bar bought by others in return for us buying them one etc etc etc. The meal started at 9:30 late as usual and just intime to stop us sliding to the floor as it soaked up some of the pastis in my stomach. Only problem was that it came with FREE wine ohhh errrr
What a dilemma? do i drink or not drink the wine? Rude to refuse really especially as M. Le Mayor was pouring some out!!! There was a disco afterwards and that played a strange mix of modern( think 80's) music and traditional folk dances... bizzare.....Somehow we made it home but the next morning yeeeeewwww the inside of my mouth felt like a badger had sh*t in it as we used to say in the army..... Luscious had a delicate head and lounged in bed all morning...
I have a great cure for a headache but she wasn't interested, choosing instead to throw up in the toilet......aint life grand?...

YAWN.......

2005-10-30T05:05:00.000-08:00

What a boring week, bugger all of interest to report except that i have been busy varnishing bloody windows and doors all week. How exciting is that? not very....yawn....bored......
Today at least things are on the up, it is apple presing day in the village. Time to pick those windfalls that you can't eat and take them to be pressed and made into apple juice.... lovely.
Now of course it isn't that simple on arriving with said apples they are weighed and for every two kilos of apples you get a litre of apple juice. If you supply the bottles it costs about 40pence litre! not bad eh? So, we ended up with 30kg from our tree so 15 litres of juice to come. We put the bottles in the queue and retired to the bar after getting an invitation to a drink from a local friend..... well, one drink leads to another as more friends come into the bar while waiting for their bottles to be filled and so on...... two hours later we came out to collect our full bottles and saw the gendarmes having a chat with people whilst leaning against OUR car... damned cheek.. we of course asked them very very very nicely if they would mind terribly if we could get to our car to put the juice in!!! No problem, smiles and a chat... best be nice to them as they carry guns...as we left they were just going into the bar.... bet they come out two hours later as well... bet they don't pay for their drinks though.....perhaps i should become a gendarme?

Naughty Boy

2005-10-24T03:13:00.000-07:00

That's me! Friday was such a lovely day and after doing a quick job in the morning i went out on the beasty! I first had to plane of a small part of a beam by the front door as the carpenter came on thursday and adjusted it so that it would close correctly. His accountant came along as well as we had asked him to justify his bill for the balcony and stairs as it had increased a little. ( nearly 2,500 euro's more!) After much discussion and coffee he agreed to reduce his bill a little, unfortunately we couldn't get the cost of the balcony reduced very much as we had insisted that he used a special type of wood structure for the supports. We were under the impression from the local supply depot they were 20 euro's metre and it should have been quoted at 63 euros a metre!!!! Some difference huh? When i went to the depot again to get them to explain they just shrugged their shoulders, apologised and said it was a genuine mistake..arrrggghhhhhh
Soo out on the beast, i did have a good reason though honest i did. I had to go to the vet and get some worming tablets for the cat as she had sicked up some worms! and luscious had the car as she was at work up at the restuarant on the hill.
Had a coffee at a small bar on the way home and was only out for a couple of hours but it was great fun. I did tell luscious when she got back in, she said i was a very naughty boy going out without her and i would have to be sorted out later!
That was fun as well. perhaps i should be naughty more often?

All rendered out

2005-10-18T04:14:00.000-07:00

At last, the bloody rendering in the main bedroom is all done. I hate doing it, up and down ladders all day, cracking my head on the beams 'cos i forget that they are in the way. It's an age thing, like going upstairs and forgetting why! The next stage is to fill all the gaps in between the plasterboarding and the beams so yet more balancing on planks placed across beams. Should have joined a circus as a tightrope walker or maybe a clown would have been more appropiate!
Still at least now the room is virtually draught proof and a lot warmer than it was last year when there were more holes in the wall than an expensive pair of fine lace knickers!!
This will be one of the guest rooms so it has to be done by christmas as guests are coming for a goose and glitter christmas.....sooo off i go back to work. The new chestnut flooring is due mid november for the floor so best i am ready also the marble top for the bathroom arrives at the end of this month..so much to do and so little time.
Wouldn't be anywhere else though!

2005-10-14T04:54:00.000-07:00

Autumn. The road down from the house and just to remind myself why i am here.

Murderer!!

2005-10-10T03:37:00.000-07:00

It is true, luscious is a murderer of helpless little furry bunny things. Actually it was a hare not a rabbit but heh! In all the years of driving she has managed to avoid killing anything even me! That all changed as she went to work at the restuarant on the hill Saturday night. Evidently she saw a small dark shape at the side of the road and just as she approached it decided to ignore the green cross code and ran out in front of her. There was a dull thud and nothing, she carried on driving as she didn't want to see the carnage she may have caused. Also, had she stopped and seen squashed bunny/hare she would have been sick or fainted! She reported the fact to the chef/owner of the restuarant who questioned her about it and then said" nooo, not a rabbit it must have been a hare" at which he ran to the till got out his car keys and drove off with a manical grin on his face.
He returned some minutes later with a big smile on his face, luscious asked him if he had found it and he said yes, it was a little squashed but it was now in the freezer and would we like to go up and have it for dinner on thursday evening? Evidently hare is a delicacy locally and he was very pleased that she had murdered it as he had been out shooting on the saturday morning and not shot anything!!!!

Whole new meaning to road kill eh?
Bunny burger anyone?

To The Woods

2005-10-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

To the woods we go, we are playing lumberjacks as we need logs for the winter fire! Our store is empty so....dressed in suspenders and a bra, (Monty Python) funny gear to chop trees but it worked for them! Anyway suitably attired and with chainsaws at the ready we began, cutting the trees down is the easy part! dragging them out of the wood which is on a steep hillside is bloody hard work especially when the suspenders keep digging into your thighs, and it plays hell with the stockings and high heels as well!
It would appear that we also disturbed a red squirrel, i am not sure if he was asleep in a tree we cut down or just not happy we were there but he was NOT a happy squirrel. He or maybe it was a she? Ran up and down the trees and kept running towards us and making chattering noises at the same time. Obviously we were not getting the right message as it ran down a tree i was about to cut and tried to bite my finger!!! Good job i was wearing gloves. At this we decided to retire a safe distance and cut trees somewhere else, perhaps it thought it was being invaded by aliens or was it the sparkly top i was wearing to compliment the short mini dress? It continued to watch us for a while then with a flick of its tail turned and ran off along the higher branches of a tall tree.
End result lots of logs cut for the fire, well, enough to last at least a fortnight maybe. All split by the axe and stacked very neatly in the barn. Out again next week so i will dress a little differently next time and keep a look out for a mad squirrel as next time it might be after more than my finger!!!

Tonight i am tasting the walnut rocket fuel...... bloody marvellous especially with chocolate eclair.... burp.....

Totally Knackered!

2005-09-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

Today i feel older than i am! All the guests have now gone home to England and at last once again luscious and i are on our own again. It has been a VERY busy three weeks, cooking, cleaning, entertaining, taking people out sightseeing, cleaning up sh*t and to cap it all i have a cold and i reckon i caught it from one of the visitors!! Add to all of this a three day whistle stop visit to the Uk to sort out probate for the estate of luscious' mum and you can see why i am knackered. She is also tired so we need a rest....trouble is there is still a lot to be done on the house before winter closes in...maybe tomorrow we will rest a little......

You know what we mere males are like when we are not well....? I'm not that bad but just wish this would go away as i can't afford another two dozen boxes of tissues. My nose is running like a tap and i look like a snotty four year old constantly having to wipe the drips from the end of my nose! At least i am not using my sleeve! yet!

Sounds like luscious is going down with it as well so the two of us will be able to share our miseries and take the age old cure reccommended by a local village elder,, Port and Brandy followed by sex! seriously, that's what she advocated!! It may not cure it but i'm all for alternative medicine!!!

cheers for now, i am off to get the port and brandy sorted!! sniff snifff

Up to my elbows in Sh*t!

2005-09-19T03:20:00.000-07:00

When we started to do the work on the house we decided that we would be as eco-friendly as possible. To this end we have built reed beds to recycle all the waste water from the house and installed a special toilet system that recycles the waste and turns it into compost for the garden that is safe to handle. For over a year now the toilet system has been working perfectly and the resultant compost has grown some excellent tomatoes, beans, peppers and aubergines! This has all stopped today as the system has suffered a water overload! I'm not sure how much the guests have been drinking but judging by the output of Pee it is a lot. The toilet system uses a mixture of peat and wood shavings which i add every two or three days. At the moment it looks like a liquid sludge instead of compost and i am having to scrape out the unit to clean the filters as they have become blocked. This involves putting on a pair of fetching blue extra long marigolds (gloves) getting my hands inside the chamber and scooping out the sludge. I've not had so much fun in a longtime. My only cheering thought as i dip my hands in again to move all this sh*t is that at least i am making money whilst doing it! As the saying goes, Where there's muck there's money, the other one is; I'm always in the sh*t, it's just the depth that varies! Hopefully it won't go pass the elbows as the gloves end there!

Hey ho back we go, shovelling sh*t.........

Hurrah!!!

2005-09-13T04:47:00.000-07:00

At last the beams are finished, yippeeee all cleaned, varnished and ready for luscious to inspect. They were finally finished at 8pm thursday just as well really as we had guests ariving on friday for 3 weeks and another set for the weekend so things have been a bit busy for a while. I am now just catching my breath before lunch and then its off to plaster a wall. Now that should be fun as i have never plastered before..... sooo catch you later and sorry it's such a short post, pictures to follow!!!!!

2005-09-06T04:57:00.000-07:00

now we have this!

2005-09-06T04:55:00.000-07:00

Two years ago we started with this.

You just couldn't...

2005-09-01T03:29:00.000-07:00

YOU just couldn't make this up, The carpenters men arrived on monday afternoon to start erecting the balcony. First they had to make the holes in the walls for the beams to slot into, so far so good and i know i am stating the obvious! Then they measured the beams and using a chainsaw cut them to length, no problems. Then they moved the beams onto the terrace and began putting them into place, after a couple of adjustments using the chainsaw again they were in position! Great, one happy bunny stood watching. It was agreed that if they put the beams in place i would fill in the holes around the beams and so i started sorting that out. So far so good. Wrong!!! Problem started with the question "Where are the other beams?" errr, "What other beams?" "The ones we need to do the next part of the balcony!" "Don't ask me, that's all that was delivered" long slow breath out " ahhh, we have a little problem" ALL problems in France are little no matter how big they are! Off they wandered to go and measure the offcuts from the beams knowing full well that they are NOT long enough! They are about 1 metre in length and they need two beams 3 metres long! Back they come, sit down have a discussion and then ask ME "What are we going to do?" i politely suggest that they phone their boss, explain the situation and see what he says. Out comes the mobile and call is made, i can hear the conversation, " We have a little problem , we don't have enough wood for the second part of the balcony" " How can this be, i calculated the length and the beams should be long enough and what you cut off should be long enough. How much have you left?" "1 metre!" "non, it is not possible, you should have 3 metres" By now you get the idea, there has been a miscalculation for the length..... Upshot is, they finish work for the day and have to go early the next day to get 2 x 3metres of beam from a depot 2hrs away. They arrive late morning put up the new beams and go for lunch. In the afternoon they finish putting on the walkway, i then ask them about the guard rail! Ahhh, yes,, ermmm, hmmm, guardrail errrr, yes we have to now make it! meaning....bugger we forgot about that as well.......... told you, you just couldn't make this up..... i need to lay down......

Vin De Noix

2005-08-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the day! Time to check out to see if the rocket fuel aka Vin De Noix in the barn was ready for bottling! After carefully bringing in the glass jars it was time to take off the lids! Weeheeeeey alcohol fumes permeated the kitchen, this stuff was definately ready to be tested and bottled!

First i had to pour it out of the jars through a filter, now not having such a thing to hand i had to improvise and so i borrowed one of luscious's stockings!!! She wasn't wearing them at the time! Cracking job it worked a treat, with the bits now out of the vin it was time for the first taste! yummy yummy yummy woooow! It slides down real nice but then has a nice warming afterglow...bloody hell. So to bottling, using funnel gently pour filtered fuel into bottle and as there was a little bit left drink it! Same again for second bottle and of course the for the tird! The next galss bottle was a slightly different recipe in that i added cannelle! so of course i just had to taste it and then do a comparision taste. Hmmmm not sure which oi prefer the best so better bottle it and keep sampling. Third more buttles and tas is oimproving i both like all of them. total six butles in stuck for imbybing at a latur date.

I tink i shull lyk this self surficency thingy.......

Dusty Brass

2005-08-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

The social season is in full swing at the moment, fetes and free drinks everywhere! I have discovered after a conversation today that at the fete last sunday i was asked to play in a local sort of brass band! Seems i said yes it would be a great idea! I DID? oooo errrrr. Now they want to arrange to pick me up on a friday to go to the practise sessions which by the way finish off by going down to the local bar for a beer. Not sure how we got around to talking about bands but they know that i play the cornet au piston and are looking for players! perhaps when they hear me play they will change their minds! I did play in a brass band in england but the music here is shall we say errr different! Ahh well, thinks it might be a good idea though, you don't get paid but at the fetes you play at you get free food AND wine, sounds like a good deal to me so i am off to blow out the dust from my cornet and see what i can do. At least there are no people around here that can hear me, just the sheep and the cows so maybe i can start a stampede? I wonder if they know" d'ya ken john peel" and other english airs?

The Wood Man Cometh

2005-08-23T03:12:00.000-07:00

Hey YEH, I have had a telephone call, not unusual but this was different....the carpenter wanted to know if was ok to come and put the balcony up next week.....OK...OK...OK? of course its ok, why wouldn't it be? We have only waited for 5 MONTHS and after the beams just turned up why wouldn't it be OK? Of course as usual i was really nice on the phone and said that it would be great to see him again! Now i hope that he does actually turn up, he did say that he had been on holiday for 15 days and had just come back so was planning his agenda for the next couple of months! Like what happened to the last 5 months?

The cat is out mousing again and to cap it all i have a snake living in the barn! Bloody great, i tried to catch it the other day to move it out but it went into a hole in the wall. So now i have a 3 foot snake living in the walls of the barn and i don't know where it is anymore! I am not to keen on snakes as you may already know but luscious really does not like them at all! So now i have a quandary, she doesn't know that there is one in the barn, do i tell her? which means i will have to clear everything out in an attempt to catch it, what if i don't see it while emptying it out? OR do i hope that when she is in the barn that she never sees it? perhaps if i stand talking to the wall and asking it to leave us that would work? If luscious sees me talking to the wall she will just assume that the medication isn't strong enough and increase the dose!
i need a glass of wine to help me think about this..........

OOPs Dust in the brain

2005-08-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that a week has rushed past yet again. I am working like a slave to try and get these damned beams cleaned and the new plasterboard put up but it just doesn't seem to be happening! It wasn't helped i suppose that it was my birthday in the middle of the week, not that i stopped and took a day off work but even so not so much got done! As it was a day off on friday for luscious i sort of had my official birthday unofficially on friday! Bit like the queen really but then she has two birthdays a year! official and officially unofficial. confused yet?
Anyway, had a lovely lunch out on friday and then a drive out into a part of the region we have never been into yet, well, what a stunning surprise, the scenery was stupendous and the weather brilliant. All in all a great day. Saturday is market day as you know and tonight was luscious at work, me invited to another birthday do. The same day as me but he had his official unofficial birthday today as he was working wednesday as well!
Tomorrow is the final day of the village fete which has a compulsory attendance as there is free wine ALL day. Well not quite but certainly after mass ( you don't HAVE to attend mass to get the free drink(s)) and again in the evening for the community meal at which nearly 300 people sit down and eat and drink as much as they can in three hours then dance until maybe two in the morning so no work done tomorrow either. I suspect monday will be a hard day in more ways than one!

Broken Down

2005-08-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

No, not me that's more like run down but anyway, yesterday we went as usual to the local (20 miles) market and did our usual shopping. Nothing unusual so far eh? we met up with some friends and had coffee and on the spur of the moment decided to go on a picnic! whizzo idea we thought as i have finished rendering the bedroom and our friends have not long bought their house so to celebrate we made "le picnic" We decided to visit a local ( 6 miles) chateau which was originally built in the middle ages and is famous for being involved with the Knights Templars. http://www.seigneurs-du-rouergue.com/nouveau/PresentFrancais.php?numero=13
No problem getting there and we enjoyed a wonderful picnic with wine of course with stunning views of the surrounding countryside. We tok a tour of the chateau and finished off with an icecream. All going to plan when it was time to leave to get luscious back home intime to get changed to go to work. We said our goodbyes climbed into the car and turned the key.........
silence.. well almost, just the noise of a relay clicking but definately no engine starting!!!!!
Bloody great, i got out and luscious climbed into the driving seat and our friends and i tried to push the car backwards. Not easy on a slight uphill slope and she weighs nearly a ton!!!!
think toyota landcruiser!!!!!!! At this point a family walk back to their car and i dash across and ask in my bestest french if they would aide us... no problem, so... me, 2 friends + 3 french push the car backwards, luscious turns the wheel, we get the car pointing downhill and push like hell.
Chug, chug, vrooom, vroom yeehaaa started. Profuse thanks given to french assistants who just said it was fun to help!! then off home.
Luscious only 15mins late to work....result....... no idea what the problem was as car now working without a hint of problem!!!!
What a day........

2005-08-11T03:51:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a huge thunderstorm but these lillies decided to come into full flower. Isn't nature funny sometimes?

Naked Flames

2005-08-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

When you want to set a scene of romance you light candles, turn off the lights and maybe light an incense stick as well don't you? That's what i did just so we could have some US time rather than working on the house, entertaining guests or running around sorting other things out.
We had a nice relaxing meal and were cuddled up on the sofa watching a video..."The Tamarind Seed" starring Julie Andrews & Omar Shariff, a love story of a kind when Luscious remarked about a funny smell, no it definately wasn't me and the cat was out, so as i couldn't smell anything we carried on watching the film. A couple of minutes later i noticed the smell as well but couldn't work out what it was, after getting up and walking around the room i established that it was coming from the area that the candles were burning but couldn't see anything amis so sat back down again. MISTAKE, about 10mins later a small wisp of smoke drifted up towards the ceiling and it was then that i realised what was happening. The candles were on a ledge with a wooden shelf about 6" above them and the heat from the candle flame had eventually caused the wood to smoulder!!!! Without further ado i got a cup of water and poured it over the top of the shelf which started to hiss and pop and produce a lot more smoke/steam + the most god awful smell. This shelf is an original part of the house and i think must have been used at some time as a toilet by the rats that used to run around when it was a working farm!! The smell of smouldering rats urine was disgusting and put an end to any romantic notions that i might have been harbouring.

With the "fire" finally damped down and with it our libido we decided to have a cup of tea and sit outside as the smell inside was revolting... even with windows/doors open during the day it took the best part of three days for the smell to completely go! Needless to say the offending piece of wood has now been removed!!

I forgot

2005-08-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

Her is an apology to my fellow blogger mandy at pennyforthem i forgot, yep it's an age thing you know? She tagged me and i forgot..... gets down on knees and begs forgiveness.......

Anyway i remembered finally so here we are;

"TGIF meme"

What are the things you enjoy, even when no one around you wants to go out and play?

* Sitting watching the sun go down with a glass of wine.
* Riding through a forest with the sun shining through the trees.
*Walking in the mountains and just sitting looking and listening.
*Playing my cornet (musical instrument!!) It might annoy others but hey!

What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level?

*Living where i do and not working for a living anymore!
* Taking the bikes out for a good long ride to nowhere in particular.
*sitting outside relaxing talking with my luscious.
*Watching the deer feeding on my windfall fruits.
*loosing myself in a book.
*Not having to worry about what day it is!

There you go, that's it, all i have to do now is tag 5 people so watch out it could be you!!!!

2005-08-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

Not much good with a camera but think this turned out ok? it is a common swallowtail and we had masses of them flying about this morning as we sat on the swing with our breakfast. I live in such a beautiful place i think.

Self sufficiency

2005-08-03T03:45:00.000-07:00

Well, the cheese hasn't gone bad and i am assured by those in the know that that is how it should smell!! I remain unconvinced, but after smelling some of the local cheese these are pure perfume! Luscious is ever busy on her return home each day from work building up our stocks of homemade preserves from all the fruit that abounds at the moment. Apricots, white peaches, pear chutneys, raspberry and nectarines. 5kg of apricots for the princely sum of 4 euros!!! manna from heaven i say. I am left to look after the alcohol making side of things, the rocket fuel is macerating nicely in the barn and hasn't as yet melted off the seals so all being well i should have the first tasting session at the end of the month! Have also set on its way some blackberry scnapps and raspberry scnapps ready for tasting in October so all things being equal november should be a good month for drinking! Evidently the next set of rocket fuel should be started in october with the pear harvest so i shall go and buy some more 90° pure alchohol to be sure to be ready.

In the meantime i shall have to continue working on the walls in the bedroom as guests arrive for two nights in a fortnight and i need them done.

suns back out, its getting warmer again after a few cool days (26°c) and it is the season of fetes so lots of excuses to get out on the bikes at the weekend.....heaven!

Blessed are the cheese makers!

2005-07-31T13:09:00.000-07:00

So said the translator in the Life of Brian and the greeks shall inherit the earth! I digress, this weekend was another first at chez peasant, we made cheese!! The sheeps milk was delivered straight from the farm on friday evening and we did the first stages on saturday and today transferred the resultant goo into cheese pots to drain off the excess water, hopefully in two days time it will have started to turn into proper cheese or else a smelly mess will be the result.

The reason for this FREE milk is that in August most of France closes for a months holiday and the tanker drivers that normally collect the milk don't! Of course nobody has told the sheep that this is happening so they quite rightly carry on producing the milk which is then either given away or tipped down the drain!!! What a waste, so luscious in a moment of madness said that we would have 20 litres! This FREE milk has turned out to cost us about 60 quid as we have had to buy pans to heat the milk in, rennet, cheese pots, special milk thermometer and not last stuff to store it in if it turns out ok!

We want brian
Well he's not coming out as he's been a very naughty boy!

pass the wine someone......

Secret Food

2005-07-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

I have just finished a cheddar cheese and branston pickle sandwich! Now that might not mean very much to a lot of you out there but to me it was wonderful! a big chunk of real english mature cheddar covered in chunky pickle.......mmmmmmmm yummy. Don't get me wrong i like a lot of the french cheese's my favourite being roquefort but somehow you just can't beat a cheddar and pickle sandwich washed down with a nice glass of Fullers english ale.......
My dancing round the walnut tree naked was brought to a premature end as i had not realised just how much the blackberry bushes had grown.... ouch those thorns......... they must be the only bloody plants apart from the ferns that are still growing despite the lack of water!!
Hey Hey jumps up and dances waving arms frantically... i have been tagged, so somebody does read this mass of meanderings. All i have to do now is think of some wise and witty reposts whilst i render the walls and i will have it all sorted... i must find out how to add links to other blogs in the text.. far to complicated for a peasant like me.... so until i do cheers and thanks to my readers......

RAIN

2005-07-29T03:37:00.000-07:00

At last at last it is raining!!!! After nearly 6 weeks of sunshine and temperatures up in the high 30's in the shade the clouds have finally got together to drop some rain! A little thunderstorm to start with spectacular lightning and then perhaps an hour of rain. Better than nothing and boy do we need it. The grass in the fields has gone a brown colour and we are struggling to find fresh shoots for the horses. Hopefully what little rain we had will encourage the grass and flowers to green up a bit and in 15 days we can go mushroom hunting! I am sure that the sun will be back tomorrow so excuse me while i go and dance naked around the old walnut tree muttering strange incantations to try and make it rain a little more before then. The sun has fried my brain i think, assuming that i had one in the first place!!!!

Death of a tradition

2005-07-26T04:06:00.000-07:00

Well once again the zealots of the EEC have killed off a tradition that has been going on for at least 200 odd years. Every year the local hunters ( the french eat anything they can shoot) put on a huge meal for all at a moderate cost. This meal is to celebrate the bounty that the season gave to them and of course would include, wild boar, deer, rabbit, hare etc etc. Now all this comes to an end this year as new laws on food consumption for the public health come into force.

As of January 2006 all animals killed and destined for human consumption at a PAYING meal MUST be taken to the local abbatoir for inspection to be pronounced fit to eat. This test consists of inspecting the liver to see if it is healthy!! If it passes then the meat gets the stamp of approval. The fact that the hunters have been doing this for years counts for nothing and nobody can remember anybody ever getting ill through eating the food, maybe from over indulgence of the wine but not the food!

The meat then has to be superfast frozen to -30° for 24hrs and then put in cold storage until required. When required someone has to collect it, sign for it and accept responsibility in case anything should go wrong and someone is ill after the meal. This opens up all sorts of possibilities of wrongful claims for food poisoning if certain types of people thought it would get them money!! Naturally nobody wants to take on that responsibility and so the last meal of this type will take place in August.

What a bloody shame!!

Postscript

2005-07-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

Not only do i get a free meal tomorrow but because i am going i got to go to a free meal this evening as well. All food and wine free, now what can you say about that except yeee haaaaa. If this is my corner of the planet i just wish i had come here years ago. It is so removed from our previous lives it just isn't true!!!!

bon nuit xxxx

What a Wheeze

2005-07-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

Just sat munching my lunch of cheese and fresh figs from our tree when i get a telephone call, "would i like to go out on one of the bikes tomorrow?" Err why? asks me, "well we need to get a few bikes together to go to a foire gourmande and put them on display" The best bit is, if i go then i get a free 5 course lunch including wine, just for putting the bike on display... am i going? too bloody right i am, also it turns out there is another event that needs bikes next sunday and its the same deal!!! hheeeee what a place to live eh! I get to ride my bike which i love doing and i get fed for nothing.. what a great deal count me in!!! Big plus, i have another booking for three days in September and this is without the house being completely finished, potentially that's another 200 euro's in the kitty!! whey heh!! At this rate we will be danger of actually making enough to cover the running costs for a couple of months....... hopefully this is a good sign for next year when the house is open properly... at least i hope so.... Off to clean the baby, i think i will take no.2 as she sounds nicer at the moment!!!!

cheers

2005-07-22T04:04:00.000-07:00

This was it! Tour de France.

Its over in 30 seconds!

2005-07-22T03:50:00.000-07:00

That's right after one and a half hours of sitting and waiting it was all over in about 30 seconds. Was it worth it? well i suppose it was, just too say i was there but i wouldn't rush to do it again though! What on earth am i waffling on about? Why the Tour de France of course what did you think i was on about? It passed by yesterday at the top of the road about 5 km away. Luscious said that she wanted to go, so off we went at 11:30 to go and watch. Got to the top of the road and parked up and walked to the junction, said hello to our neighbours and sat down on the picnic rug to await the grand event at about 1300hrs. Numerous team cars and motorcycles went wizzing past and at about 13:10hrs a gaggle of cars came into view with sirens going so this was it. I jumped up , got the camera ready to record the event and took 6 pictures one after the other and that was it!! all over and gone! Didn't even get to see the bloke in the yellow jersey!!

At least i was there!!!!! Back home for lunch and a glass of wine i could hardly contain my excitement at such a great event......

Gone!

2005-07-18T03:37:00.000-07:00

They have gone! the guests have departed so now it is back to work to make ready for the next influx on Friday! I'm not sure which is the most tiring, looking after guests or working on the house? The guests demand a lot of your time, what with the cooking of meals, thinking of recipes and what will go with what for 4 nights ( each meal is 4 courses) and the general entertaining and giving of information so they can hopefully go out and explore the area it really is very tiring. Being up until they go to bed and drinking with them until 3 in the morning! ( well, you can't have them drinking alone can you?) then getting up at 7 to make sure that everything is set ready for breakfast when they finally decide to get up! Still, the 200 euros earnt will come in very handy to by some more sand and cement for the rendering i still need to do.

We have to do it all over again starting on Friday when the next set of guests arrive for the weekend, will i ever get the house completely finished at this rate? I have also just taken a provisional booking for 3 weeks in September... 3 WEEKS yee haaaar i will be completely knackered at the end of that but think of the money!!!! a minimum of a 1,000 euros or a maximum of 1,700 !!!!! now what can i spend that on? chestnut flooring? tiles for the last bathroom? new sleigh bed? or a second hand tractor so i can cut the grass in the fields? hhhmmmmmmmm i wonder.........

Fète Nationale

2005-07-14T03:30:00.000-07:00

Today is a huge holiday in France and so in keeping with the tradition i am taking a day off as well. The guests that should have arrived yesterday have not! they telephoned last night to say that they were too tired to continue driving and had stopped about 130 miles away! Don't you just love paying customers? still, better to stop than to carry on driving when really tired. At least it gave us both a chance to visit friends in the village for an aperro, very nice it was too! leisurely drinking until 9pm then home for some food outside at the table on the terace. It was still 28°c at 11:30pm! wonderful.

Today the guests are planning to arrive sometime in the afternoon so i am off into the village to partake of an apéritif offered by M. Le Mayor and the committee de fete ( it would be rude not too) and then this evening we shall take the gusets out to see the band that will be playing in the local town (5km away) which will be followed at minuit by a feu d'artifice so that should be a nice easy day. All i have to do now is prepare tonights meal of salad, roast lamb with rosemary and garlic, new potatoes, cheese and fresh white peaches with creme fraiche and of course red wine!!! Hopefully that will be ok, if not it's hard lines 'cos that's all there will be!

cheers