Only 5 days to go, I am really looking forward to going back to Australia but not looking forward to leaving France!!!! I think if the weather here was awful, cold and raining I would find it easier to leave but its not, the weather is amazing, very warm and very sunny. The garden is looking superb thanks to our son in law Steve as he sharpened the tractor mower blades and took on the tasl of mowing the 'park' to bowling green perfection (slight exaggeration, but non the less, it looks most impressive).
No blog can go without a mole score and here it is Terry has now got the grand total of 4 moles
( he said 6!), all of which he has posed in different positions on the window sill for photographs, sad bugger, they all look the same to me. The last two moles have been killed in the last week after a couple of moleless months, has he lost his touch we ask, but no the moles were on the attack and become very illusive, undaunted, Terry and Steve out moled them and filled the holes with water!!
Sorry boring........
We had a fabulous 2 weeks with Kaliska, Steve, Ella, Chloe and Owen, an experience I don't think they will forget in hurry their French holiday.
Yes, the packing up has started but also a week on our own to socialise with some of the friends we have made in the area, to say good bye and wish them luck for the Winter, sorry had to get that in as we are looking forward to going back to the sunshine.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
September update
Hope you enjoy the photos below, but just to explain, the first one is of a lightening storm around the house which lasted about an hour without rain, it was quite spectacular, quite common for this area we have been told.
The next few are samples of meat in various night food markets, the lambs around the fire was something we had not seen before and well worth a couple of photos, unfortunately, we didn't actually eat at this particular market and only went to support a friend who was dancing (Gasgoyne dancing) in a display so went to support her. Anyway the next photo is of duck carcass, we were encouraged to go to this night market last week by the wife of the mayor of this village. Apparently the evening is 'Europe' renowned and people come from all over Europe to attend this meal, well, we took Kaliska, Steve and the children, took our place in the line for the food and were given, melon, ham, roll and two pieces of duck carcass. Comments in our group ranged between, road kill to flat duck, dog bones etc etc, so very different, but a fun night with disco dancing in the village square overlooked by the ruins of an old eglise (church) probably 300 or 400 hundred years old.
The rest of the photos of our dear grandchildren having fun in our garden, they are catching yabbies (languistines see photo), climbing over the tree trunk over the pond, picking vegetables, swimming in the pool, playing on the rope/old tyre swing from the oak tree, etc etc etc, needless to say they are having a great time and also a great deal of freedom and open space.
We have started having French lessons with a group of ex pat English, apparently most of them are in their second year and this is the beginners class, apparently one of them told me they don't get much opportunity to speak French!!! doh
Talking of which I volunteered and helped out at the duck farm restaurant last week end, I was actually promoted to serve at the tables, bearing in mind the chef does not speak English and none of the clients spoke English, it was all quite embarrassing starting with me taking out the bread (after being introduced by the proprietor to the whole room, I think he was introducing me an Australian who is his neighbour and wished to learn French) anyway everyone was really friendly, back to bread, much of which I dropped on the floor, then I had to give out the foie gras, large dish for big table, small dish for small tables etc, guess who got that wrong, chef was very pleasant and acted promptly and gave extra to the large tables without doing a Gordon Ramsay at me. I decided to stay out in the kitchen and load the dishwasher much safer bet, anyway I seem to be understanding more French and learnt a couple of extra words.
That day continued to be memorable, when I got back Terry said that one of the horses in the next field had a huge piece of wood sticking out of it (probably panicked by the storm the night before). The horses belong to our neighbour who use the house for holidays, we did not have their phone number and bearing in mind a. we dont speak much French, b. it was a Sunday and c. we didn't have a clue what to do. So naturally we phoned the police, after explaining (in french) that a horse had a accident not with a car but a piece of wood (this is where my French stopped ?bleeding ?sticking out its side ?maybe in the lung. After about 10 fruitless minutes of trying to get the stupid women to understand we rang our friend at the duck farm and he called the Vet, and unfortunately the poor mare had to be put down.
Never a dull moment.
Abiento
The next few are samples of meat in various night food markets, the lambs around the fire was something we had not seen before and well worth a couple of photos, unfortunately, we didn't actually eat at this particular market and only went to support a friend who was dancing (Gasgoyne dancing) in a display so went to support her. Anyway the next photo is of duck carcass, we were encouraged to go to this night market last week by the wife of the mayor of this village. Apparently the evening is 'Europe' renowned and people come from all over Europe to attend this meal, well, we took Kaliska, Steve and the children, took our place in the line for the food and were given, melon, ham, roll and two pieces of duck carcass. Comments in our group ranged between, road kill to flat duck, dog bones etc etc, so very different, but a fun night with disco dancing in the village square overlooked by the ruins of an old eglise (church) probably 300 or 400 hundred years old.
The rest of the photos of our dear grandchildren having fun in our garden, they are catching yabbies (languistines see photo), climbing over the tree trunk over the pond, picking vegetables, swimming in the pool, playing on the rope/old tyre swing from the oak tree, etc etc etc, needless to say they are having a great time and also a great deal of freedom and open space.
We have started having French lessons with a group of ex pat English, apparently most of them are in their second year and this is the beginners class, apparently one of them told me they don't get much opportunity to speak French!!! doh
Talking of which I volunteered and helped out at the duck farm restaurant last week end, I was actually promoted to serve at the tables, bearing in mind the chef does not speak English and none of the clients spoke English, it was all quite embarrassing starting with me taking out the bread (after being introduced by the proprietor to the whole room, I think he was introducing me an Australian who is his neighbour and wished to learn French) anyway everyone was really friendly, back to bread, much of which I dropped on the floor, then I had to give out the foie gras, large dish for big table, small dish for small tables etc, guess who got that wrong, chef was very pleasant and acted promptly and gave extra to the large tables without doing a Gordon Ramsay at me. I decided to stay out in the kitchen and load the dishwasher much safer bet, anyway I seem to be understanding more French and learnt a couple of extra words.
That day continued to be memorable, when I got back Terry said that one of the horses in the next field had a huge piece of wood sticking out of it (probably panicked by the storm the night before). The horses belong to our neighbour who use the house for holidays, we did not have their phone number and bearing in mind a. we dont speak much French, b. it was a Sunday and c. we didn't have a clue what to do. So naturally we phoned the police, after explaining (in french) that a horse had a accident not with a car but a piece of wood (this is where my French stopped ?bleeding ?sticking out its side ?maybe in the lung. After about 10 fruitless minutes of trying to get the stupid women to understand we rang our friend at the duck farm and he called the Vet, and unfortunately the poor mare had to be put down.
Never a dull moment.
Abiento
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)