Another two months....

Yes amazingly another two months have flown by here in our little village. I honestly wonder what I do with myself all day but the days just whizz by. How did I ever manage to have a job as well!! What have we been up to the? Well we have have a few visitors, the in-laws were here for a few days in early July, it was very hot while they were here and luckily they didn't want to do too much but we did a few bits, took them to Oradour sur Glane, visited nearby Chateau Guillaume, and went to a vide grenier so feel they got an all round taste of life here in the country.

When they were here the garden was looking very scorched as we had hardly any rain for months. Since mid-July however we have had plenty and all the water butts are nicely topped up....this after several weeks of having to water with the washing up water and from our well as there was a ban in the area.

Also we have made some progress on the kitchen, there is still a way to go but the units using my stripped windows are now in place and we also have a cooker!! Whoohoo - its beginning to resemble a kitchen.

Then just a couple of weeks ago, my brother, sister-in-law and two of their children were here for a week, again took off on the tourist route, trip to Limoges with a lovely walk along the river, a bit of a tortuous afternoon on the Velorail, and a tiny bit of house hunting!!!

Also, big news, second baby granddaughter, Elise Ann, was born weighing in at 8lb 10ozs on July 21st. Everyone doing very well - Annika has taken it all in her stride and I am off to Canada to see everyone a week today. Hubby just started a new job today, still in Toulouse, so not able to take time off to come with me. It will probably just be a couple of weeks of shopping with daughter, and spending lots of time with my granddaughters, I cannot wait.

Watching The Flowers Grow

Well where have I been for FOUR months, I promise I haven't just been watching the flowers grow, but saying that just look how they have grown - first picture a year ago April, second picture this morning .....

Note the railings and pillars have gone, much nicer and more open now.

The concrete pillars actually ended up in the kitchen floor ....... hopefully you can spot the difference.

I love it, I have a work top - bliss. I have to say I love the tiled floor, all my own handiwork.

We are having the cabinets made by a local craftsman on a piecemeal basis, I will eventually get doors, but the next phase is a wall cupboard using the old back door windows and a larder cupboard using the original kitchen windows. I have been busy stripping those

As you can imagine this wasn't too tough a job out there on a sunny afternoon under the shady pergola.

Got to admit many an hour has been lazed away out here.

This was one of our best investments. It is so lovely out there. What with the seemingly endless hot sunny days we have had so far this year, it has been a godsend. It is a little cooler this week and we have actually had a bit of rain, believe me - no-one is complaining.

Here is another one that is growing like a weed. Thank heavens for Skype. Her little brother/sister is due in six weeks.

A Belated Bonne Annee!

Just noticed that it is a month since I last posted. Where has the time gone? To think we are a 12th of the way to next Christmas! Ugh!

Well we had a lovely trip to Canada to see family, although with all the travel and rushing about my cold did stick around into the New Year. We left Canada on Boxing Day returning to the UK only to find that a week after the snow the carpark where we left our car was still a skating rink. Some nonsense about if they grit they are liable - how ridiculous. Is this what society has come to?

Anyway we then spent a hectic three days in England visiting friends and relatives and getting in some all important shopping, mostly in B & Q and Tesco. I was actually standing in an M&S where they were having a fantastic sale, but with hubby sitting on my shoulder I couldn't enjoy the experience and we left....with nothing!! Him oblivious to the fact that a trip to M&S (to buy stuff) had been an important part of my holiday!

We arrived back in our village late on the evening of 30th to find that someone (our builder) had kindly set the fire for us. We put a match to it and stood back, only to have the room alarmingly fill with smoke. So badly in fact, we had to throw water on it to put it out. It appears our builder had done exactly the same thing a few hours earlier, hoping to warm up the house for us! Apparently in our absence the chimney had become a little blocked so it was off to a chilly bed for us. Not the best welcome home. Up bright and early the next morning with our neighbour (and friend and wonderful dog sitter) round with her chimney cleaning kit to clean it out and hey presto, it was nice a toasty again.

So what have I been doing this last few weeks, well the builder got the ensuite installed and I have painted all the woodwork. We are very pleased with the results. Also finally got around to pointing and rendering the feature wall in the bedroom which meant we could finally return the little scaffold tower to its rightful owner. It is wonderful after 6 weeks to be able to negotiate our bedroom to our ensuite in the middle of the night without having to remember to climb through the scaffold!

A couple of photos of the results......

A couple of other bits of gossip, daughter and son-in-law are expecting baby number 2 in July! Very exciting news, guess where I will be spending my summer hols.

The next less happy news is that hubby's job down in Toulouse is just not working out, he is not happy and so we are looking around, will keep you posted on that one. On the positive side it has put a little bit more urgency into my "to do" list.

With scaffolding ........

and

without scaffolding!