Week Two

I have got no excuse now for inspiration, Terry has moved my desk into one of the bedrooms in front of a window, now I am not looking at a wall but looking over the garden and beyond into the French countryside tres bonne I am inspired!!!!!! I have also just had a little nap outside on the lounger probably that helped.
Well another busy few days since my last blog, not the busy we had with our last visit in the garden, that is thankfully under control and just for pottering. No, we have been exercising and socialising. We got another bike and decided to go out for our first ride, the idea was to go to a beautiful village called Forces, a manageable bike ride of 7 kms there and 7 kms back, well we got half way up our lane (about 700 metres) and decided we might just cycle to Ste Maure our local village which is about 6 kms total, I had forgotten how saddle sore one can get, even with the flannel tucked strategically in my trousers it didn’t make much difference. We got to Ste Maure, had a coffee and then dropped into some new English friends had a chat and started the pleasant journey home, on our first down hill road, guess what I had a puncture in my brand new bike!!!! To make matters worse, we were in the middle of the most stunning French countryside, surrounded by cows, woods and not a car in sight and what was in my tyre ..a bloody drawing pin, I could have understood if it was a prickle or even a nail but a drawing pin! The puncture is now mended by my trusty Jim’ll fix* it hubby but we haven’t organised another bike ride yet. Had a fantastic swim at Agen last week, a great 50m Olympic pool with a glass roof that retracts in the summer, it was very confusing though as the French do not only drive on the wrong side of the road but they swim on the wrong side of the lane, it was very confusing as I kept swimming into the ropes trying to get away from the people in the next lane coming towards me,as I thought they were in my lane. Anyway once I had got used to it, the next challenge was the mixed showers, actually didn’t mind that too much come to think of it.
Our social life has been busy as we have delivered a couple of dinner of parties and a lunch, also we have been to people’s house for dinner a couple of times, one of couples are Brian and Noleen from Perth we were introduced to them by an American couple when we were over last time. Noleen and Brian don’t live here permanently but come over for a few months at a time to renovate an old tower, they are in about their fourth year and it has a look that they should be able to move in, in a year or two, very brave renovation job must say.
It’s mushroom season in France at the moment apparently there are lot of people with secret places where they get their mushrooms in the woods, on Sunday we met some French people who are only too willing to share this secret information with us, particularly as the man grew up around our house and knows the woods really well, watch this space. In our garden we have probably about five different species of mushrooms but I would say most are toxic, however, it is only a matter of going to the local pharmacy and they will ‘diagnose” your mushroom. Talking about the garden, I bet everyone is waiting with baited breath to hear the next episode of our moles. Wait no longer, The Trims are winning the war or should I say one Trim in particular who has blown up two moles, one of which he showed me this morning, big grin all over his face (not the moles face needless to say), so now we have got to do battle on the paddock at the back of the house. Our friend Richard has got 10 moles so far, has the gauntlet been laid I ask!!! Has the mark been made in the sand, has the benchmark been set ... watch this space.
We have now had two, two and half hour French lessons with our fantastic and patient teacher Michelle, she will only speak French to us, which does limit the conversation somewhat but we are now alot more in touch with our French numbers and asking and answering questions, or will be if we manage to do our homework on a daily basis, should be a good excuse for an argument, “that’s not how you pronounce it” “Yes, it is that’s how I have written it down” (me) I must say my pronunciation is crap, but I remember alot of the words, surprise surprise, Terry can pronounce but can’t remember the words.
Save boring you too much I will close now, only to say we went to a huge car boot sale in Vianne on Sunday, it was a marvellous day except when I put my foot down that we would not buy an “antique” commode for the hall, I have worked putting people on and off of the things for years and there was no way I wanted one in my hall, even had the old pot, according to Jim’ll fix it the pot had never been used, I suppose with his plumbing background he has some idea about these things!!!!!!! (yeah like heck) We did not buy it but bought other useful things like, a lamp for the desk, 1 kilo of walnuts in their shells, a bike for the grandchildren and some toys and lego for one of our children (Dominic is a collector of lego). Sorry have just been reminded of two more essential items bought by Terry a pair of wooden clogs and a rat trap (need I say more!!!!!!) The best part of the day was our lunch we sat in the village square on a long table, socialising with a number of tolerant French people (loved the fact that we tried to speak the lingo) and had wine and paella, it was delicious.
*For our Australian Friends Jimmy Saville