Dear All, It has been the best part of 4 months since the last one so apologies.
For some there will be an element of repetition and thus a bit tedious.
So what has been 'appening in France?
On our return from old blighty in Feb we were un peu knackered, so the best thing to do is to get a mate round and rupture your mains water supply to the gite, discover the previous owners have holed your grease tank and that you have a previously unknown septic tank for your sewage (gite only fortunately). Thus a once outwardly presentable property was instantly converted to something resembling the Somme . However alittle 'ard graft and 11 tonnes of gravel and a little frou frou and voila.(see picture N0.3)
Have had 2 weeks of paying guests already and 10 or so in the summer to come already. This gite business is also great for the kids as it provides them with fresh english victims with whom they can 'play'.
Strangely though they seem to like them and the last set of inmates actually said they had had the best ever holiday ( she was however only 9 and came from somewhere in Yorkshire).
Have taken on cooking for them as well. I do the old chicken pasanda with dal, fennel peas and pops routine, but it seems to go down ok. as a result we may hold a Indain Night at La Feuillade.
Son reckons I am becoming a little overly focussed on our rabbit issue. But having spent considerable time and effort constructing the lapin equivalent of fort Knox to keep the blighters out, not surprisingly I am a little peeved to discover the W****ers still reside within our potager. Our new fruit orchard ( sounds well grand) has the benefit of human hair (bunnies don't like it and Brigette's daughter who works down the coiffure shop in Mussidan gets it free, I am not sure the bunnies go for blue rinse but buggers can't be choissers). Consequently we have invested in an air rifle. However for this to be effective you have to be able to shoot ( fundamental oversight on my part) and as a result I have only bagged the one so far. Did this with me mate from Sourzac and duly skinned it gutted it and quartered it ( reminded me of my anatomy classes when I was alittle younger than I am now) and popped it in a polstyrene container to fool his missus we got it down the supermarche. However I reckon they are doomed as they have comitted social death : they ate Son's potatoes and red onions ( red baron if you are interested from Woolworths 2 for 1).
We are slowly constructing the children ( all shapes and sizes) a tree house between two huge Oaks ( one of them you can't even circle if you hold hands with two other people), currently the base is 240 x 300 cm and amazingly sturdy. It had 280 screws in it so far and more to come. However this platform is an excellent place to practice with your new weapon. Unfortunatley I have been totally emasculated as Sonia can hit the target and I am very good at missing it.
Les Enfants : Felix is turning in to a winner. First off they had a morning doing a 1 km crosscountry run in the forest. ( wait at school for a coach which eventually arrived 45 mins late. Chauffeur in his slippers them demonstrated the amazing road holding skills of his mature coach as he tears round the lanes to Beaupoyet, the kids squealling with every bend, he was duly reported by madame directrice to his boss). Felix came in first in his class and Ellie looked very lovely in her home made name badge. ( see pictures). After race you stand around eating gateau and orange squash whilst you wait for psycho to return you to school. Health and safety : I laugh in your face.
Then as if that was not enough we had the priveldge of being part of one of the social highlights of St Front. Mega Lotto in the Salle de Gerbeau. Friday morning down the Salle with Les Girlies, Lauren and Gerard. 450 chairs later and tables to go with. That night with some of Mussidan's finest and oldest we spend the best part of three hours listening to Lionel ( Boulanger during the day and massively overweight number caller at night) pronounce on our numerical destiny. And as if by magic Felix wins the first game. Unfortunately so did some one else : so it's lucky dip face off. Felix goes first and pulls out a vingt six. The air is thick with anticpation as half a mouton is at stake. The opposition has a quatre-vingt un. Felix gets a consolation prize ( a bottle of blende whisky : scotch, american and european whiskies!!!). Can it get any more exciting than this. NO. We spent the rest of the night eating crepes and loosing.
The pool is almost done. Last night Son, Felix and Ellie actually got in it for the first time. I didn't feel I could tell them there was no liner or water in it for that matter but they seemed happy enough. However our man Bruno says there will be water in it by next week.
May have cracked our water supply issue. As you may know one of the attractions of this place are the two wells where you can stash your children if they are naughty. But also they have water in them. Down the boot fair and after a little bartering and checking out it's motor I become the proud new owner of a second or third hand surface mounted 1000w pump. It pulls to a depth of 7ms and sprays with gay abandon over our raised beds ( now circled with chicken wire to keep my mates the bunnies out), until it has sucked to its max depth). Wait a day and off you go again.
Down by the river the grass is 2 feet high or so : thus me and my mower are impotent. After much humming and ha-ing I have become the proud owner of a 18cheval power John Deere ride on mini tracter with 122 cm cutting blade. This is very exciting. And all the family have many hours of shared enjoyment as the previously lush herb falls to the lames(blades) of our Tondeuse autoportee. It is very sexy.
Lastly for those who do not know Son is doing a little propogation of her own and is currently 16 weeks with an Ollie in side her. Thus due mid Oct. We had so much to do we thought an extra pair of hands would be good
Must go and try and continue sorting out our patio ( see picture of my Croation cement mixer and brieze block wall in constuction : it will be rendered to match existing walls and have the obligatory blue gates and very chic washing line ; actually it is a bunny fence : 80cm above ground so they can't polevault in and 40 cm below ground so they can't penetrate from below, I just hope the french lapins read RHS guidelines on rabbit proofing one's garden)
Take care
Love Tony x
For some there will be an element of repetition and thus a bit tedious.
So what has been 'appening in France?
On our return from old blighty in Feb we were un peu knackered, so the best thing to do is to get a mate round and rupture your mains water supply to the gite, discover the previous owners have holed your grease tank and that you have a previously unknown septic tank for your sewage (gite only fortunately). Thus a once outwardly presentable property was instantly converted to something resembling the Somme . However alittle 'ard graft and 11 tonnes of gravel and a little frou frou and voila.(see picture N0.3)
Have had 2 weeks of paying guests already and 10 or so in the summer to come already. This gite business is also great for the kids as it provides them with fresh english victims with whom they can 'play'.
Strangely though they seem to like them and the last set of inmates actually said they had had the best ever holiday ( she was however only 9 and came from somewhere in Yorkshire).
Have taken on cooking for them as well. I do the old chicken pasanda with dal, fennel peas and pops routine, but it seems to go down ok. as a result we may hold a Indain Night at La Feuillade.
Son reckons I am becoming a little overly focussed on our rabbit issue. But having spent considerable time and effort constructing the lapin equivalent of fort Knox to keep the blighters out, not surprisingly I am a little peeved to discover the W****ers still reside within our potager. Our new fruit orchard ( sounds well grand) has the benefit of human hair (bunnies don't like it and Brigette's daughter who works down the coiffure shop in Mussidan gets it free, I am not sure the bunnies go for blue rinse but buggers can't be choissers). Consequently we have invested in an air rifle. However for this to be effective you have to be able to shoot ( fundamental oversight on my part) and as a result I have only bagged the one so far. Did this with me mate from Sourzac and duly skinned it gutted it and quartered it ( reminded me of my anatomy classes when I was alittle younger than I am now) and popped it in a polstyrene container to fool his missus we got it down the supermarche. However I reckon they are doomed as they have comitted social death : they ate Son's potatoes and red onions ( red baron if you are interested from Woolworths 2 for 1).
We are slowly constructing the children ( all shapes and sizes) a tree house between two huge Oaks ( one of them you can't even circle if you hold hands with two other people), currently the base is 240 x 300 cm and amazingly sturdy. It had 280 screws in it so far and more to come. However this platform is an excellent place to practice with your new weapon. Unfortunatley I have been totally emasculated as Sonia can hit the target and I am very good at missing it.
Les Enfants : Felix is turning in to a winner. First off they had a morning doing a 1 km crosscountry run in the forest. ( wait at school for a coach which eventually arrived 45 mins late. Chauffeur in his slippers them demonstrated the amazing road holding skills of his mature coach as he tears round the lanes to Beaupoyet, the kids squealling with every bend, he was duly reported by madame directrice to his boss). Felix came in first in his class and Ellie looked very lovely in her home made name badge. ( see pictures). After race you stand around eating gateau and orange squash whilst you wait for psycho to return you to school. Health and safety : I laugh in your face.
Then as if that was not enough we had the priveldge of being part of one of the social highlights of St Front. Mega Lotto in the Salle de Gerbeau. Friday morning down the Salle with Les Girlies, Lauren and Gerard. 450 chairs later and tables to go with. That night with some of Mussidan's finest and oldest we spend the best part of three hours listening to Lionel ( Boulanger during the day and massively overweight number caller at night) pronounce on our numerical destiny. And as if by magic Felix wins the first game. Unfortunately so did some one else : so it's lucky dip face off. Felix goes first and pulls out a vingt six. The air is thick with anticpation as half a mouton is at stake. The opposition has a quatre-vingt un. Felix gets a consolation prize ( a bottle of blende whisky : scotch, american and european whiskies!!!). Can it get any more exciting than this. NO. We spent the rest of the night eating crepes and loosing.
The pool is almost done. Last night Son, Felix and Ellie actually got in it for the first time. I didn't feel I could tell them there was no liner or water in it for that matter but they seemed happy enough. However our man Bruno says there will be water in it by next week.
May have cracked our water supply issue. As you may know one of the attractions of this place are the two wells where you can stash your children if they are naughty. But also they have water in them. Down the boot fair and after a little bartering and checking out it's motor I become the proud new owner of a second or third hand surface mounted 1000w pump. It pulls to a depth of 7ms and sprays with gay abandon over our raised beds ( now circled with chicken wire to keep my mates the bunnies out), until it has sucked to its max depth). Wait a day and off you go again.
Down by the river the grass is 2 feet high or so : thus me and my mower are impotent. After much humming and ha-ing I have become the proud owner of a 18cheval power John Deere ride on mini tracter with 122 cm cutting blade. This is very exciting. And all the family have many hours of shared enjoyment as the previously lush herb falls to the lames(blades) of our Tondeuse autoportee. It is very sexy.
Lastly for those who do not know Son is doing a little propogation of her own and is currently 16 weeks with an Ollie in side her. Thus due mid Oct. We had so much to do we thought an extra pair of hands would be good
Must go and try and continue sorting out our patio ( see picture of my Croation cement mixer and brieze block wall in constuction : it will be rendered to match existing walls and have the obligatory blue gates and very chic washing line ; actually it is a bunny fence : 80cm above ground so they can't polevault in and 40 cm below ground so they can't penetrate from below, I just hope the french lapins read RHS guidelines on rabbit proofing one's garden)
Take care
Love Tony x
