Hello Everyone I am posting a little later than usual, as last week there were a few unexpected events that slightly overtook us. Sadly a lovely local lady died very suddenly and unexpectedly. Such a huge sadness and loss for her husband and family, and for our little community. Of much less importance, the weather was and is so cold it is hard not to just sit as close to the woodburner as possible all the time. Even the pool froze over, so we had to install a flotteur – a string of floats that prevent the pool from icing over completely and thus potentially damaging the liner – a…

Happy New year to you all 2020 has been a challenging and unexpected year for us all. Let’s hope 2021 allows us to once again visit and hug loved ones and find a way forward through the pandemic. In our corner of rural France, the weather has been and is very cold – the house even colder! Great excitement this week, our new post box finally arrived. We inherited a tiny post box with the house and have long promised our lovely post lady a decent sized post box so she doesn’t have to trek down our drive every time something larger than a pin arrives! It will also be…

Happy Christmas Eve everyone – rather late in the day but hope you have had an enjoyable day? I have had a busy day, lots of cooking, but I am now relaxing after a lovely meal with a very nice glass of wine and finishing this post. We have gone a little French/European this year and enjoyed a celebratory meal this evening, with our capon, some roasted vegetables, my Grandmother’s bread sauce and stuffing. It felt wrong to follow all our usual traditions this year as so many people are not together, so we are doing things a little differently. It is particularly awful to hear of those who cannot…

Bonjour from the Tarn I hope you have all had a lovely week and your Christmas plans are taking shape? Is time going extra fast at the moment? The weeks seem to whizz by. We’ve had some beautiful sunrises and sunsets here this week – quite stunning and really makes me appreciate the beauty of nature, but also very inspiring. We have finally bought the Christmas tree and started putting up decorations and lights. Lots more for the kittens to play with, all very exciting for them. Every now and again they get tired and if I sit down with them, suddenly all 4 are on my lap purring away…

Bonjour. I hope everyone has had a great week? We have been enjoying walks with the dog a bit further afield this week, since the 1km lockdown rule was relaxed. (This restricted us to walking only within a km of the house for a maximum of one hour each day.) Bear has loved it too. Lockdown ends in France on 15th December, to be replaced with an 8pm to 6am curfew, apart from Christmas Eve. We have decided this is not the year to rush to be with family. Covid19 is still too prevalent and won’t be taking time off for Christmas I suspect. It has been so cold here…

Hello again I hope you are all well? I can’t believe it is December. What a year and how quickly it has gone. Christmas is around the corner – a little different this year. I am sad that we won’t be seeing family and neither Alex, my younger son, nor my mother will be coming over this year. A difficult time for everyone but sensible to be cautious during the festive season. This has not been our most positive week. I’m an eternal optimist but sometimes….! Don’t get me wrong, we love it here but some weeks we look at the mountain of jobs to do, the impact the pandemic…

This week the focus is on food, a subject close to my heart. Whether home grown or locally produced we have been trying out all sorts of things over the last year.   Can you believe it is almost December? What a strange year we are all living through. During the week we were looking back to this time last year when my niece got married and my younger son graduated. Who would have thought where we would be a year on from those fun occasions? I have been thinking about making my Christmas cake, a bit later than usual as plans for the festive season are very much on…

Hello! A busy week with lots of drama and excitement. The kittens have been to the vet and had their first vaccinations (I am recovering from the bill!). We almost managed to get them in their carrier first time – almost. 3 in and Louka decided he was not that keen. We succeeded in grabbing him, not ideal, all hissing and scratching but then the other 3 escaped! The girls were easier to retrieve but then they broke out again. Kittens everywhere, literally, and all stressed out, not to mention me. Meanwhile the boys had turned feral. If it hadn’t been so tense as we were running late, it would…

Hello and thank you for joining me this week. For those who know me, concrete is not something that is high on my list of interests. However this week I am heading off into uncharted territory and learning a bit about the history of concrete! All thanks to these stairs outside our French home. Stick with me, it really is quite an eye-opener. There is more too – a little look at some of the features of the house and a lot of questions about the history. These stairs are fabulous and lead up to the first floor above our kitchen, not to the front door. Although they look like…

Hello again I hope you have all had a good week, in spite of lockdown for those dealing with that this week? I had promised you a completed front hall this week. Well things are not going quite to plan! C’est la vie! My younger son returned to the UK at the weekend, after being here with us in the Tarn for a year. Trying to shoehorn as much of his stuff into a couple of suitcases without going over the luggage weight limit was a little time consuming! I have no idea when I can get over with his things, so he needed to take back as much of…