Our usual schedule of visiting May till September has changed since Jim ‘fell’ into retirement in January so we arrived yesterday and are here till Easter. And the sun is shining. Couldn’t come sooner as I was singing in a concert , Faure requiem , double choir pieces by Mendelssohn and Reger . Hard / concentrated work with a small group of 25 singers. That was good news too because it sounded really good and was exhilerating to sing.
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While still working I altered it to ‘petal pink’.
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Also in the Caribbean.
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We’ve finally got a lovely dry sunny day with no wind so it’s time to change the cover of our polytunnel.
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And today’s Cheerful News is that I’ve unmuted this thread and the latest posts have got me smiling…
the sun is shining, bees are buzzing loudly and all is well in our tiny part of France. 
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Not sure it’s simply a lack of ‘open mindedness’, it’s also strongly related to climate - hotter drier, with poor soils and scarcity of good pasture. Less suitable for cattle and sheep.
Also goats can destroy grazing land because unlike cattle and sheep, they can feed much closer to the ground. I’ve seen great swathes of once good arable farmland in SA’s former ‘tribal homelands’ destroyed by ignorance of goat farming, massive soil erosion and the land becomes useless.
Around here (Lot Valley) there’s plenty of small artisanal goats cheese from smallholdings, but very little meat and one usually has to buy half a carcase.
Not wishing to correct an innocent accidental typo but that did make me laugh because my eyes split the word in 2 (car case) and I imagined a very large goat indeed. 
BTW, I knew it wasn’t right but had to google to remind me why. 
In my dictionary that’s the amount of wine that will fit in the back of a car. 
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Shortly after moving to S Africa, one morning my secretary came into my office and asked it I could ‘give her a “stiffie”?’
It was very evident from my surprised look that I wasn’t familiar with the local term for a 3.5" floppy disk…
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And that, your honour , was the start of the misunderstanding…
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He’s in the dog photo section 
. I think…
You mean the one on the post box? That’s one paul made out of scrap metal and fibreglass about 20 years ago. We are known far and wide as the house with the dog on the postbox. No need to give anyone directions. It’s just a generic Deerhound.
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Very louche
Congrats! However, there is no requirement to work with a realtor in the US. You can do it all on your own, if you so desire. And there were plenty of homes I looked at with many different realtors, or on my own, and no one knew my exact budget. In the States you can also work with a buyer’s agent - which it sounds like your daughter and SIL did - or not.
They used a realtor service previously in Dallas area and were impressed by the service and after service and then for selling when they moved. As both work from home and always very busy, they used the latest realtor for convenience to find them a place. Garth Brooks lives behind the little wood they have just bought and several other C&W stars locally so its a nice area and just 15 mins to downtown Nashville.
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Well, my good news today follows on from the terrible earthquake in Myanmar and for anyone having been through and survived a big would agree, it is weird and scary and you really can’t do much other than hope you survive…
Anyway, I was listening to the Beeb on the radio, heard the news and had images in my mind of collapsed buildings and chaos in Bangkok.
My eldest daughter works and lives in the Bangkok
(ironically) for a Swedish NGO on environmental projects.
I immediately phoned.
No response.
Sent a WhatsApp.
Waited
…finally she called and said all good and life was back to normal
Phew.
…My best news …: 
But sorry for those who died and the suffering to come.
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Well, I have had a rubbish few weeks………….but as I am often reminded, ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. I lost my beautiful Patterdale Terrier Lola 3 weeks ago. She was an absolute joys for me and Bailey my other dog. She went off with another dog from outside the Gite I have been letting for 6 months in a Chateau in Azay Le Rideau. Lola never did this before and I considered the space safe. After an extensive search she was found in an illegal trap, unfortunately dead. To say I was upset would be an understatement. She is now buried under an Oak tree by the vineyard in the Chateau.
So after that depressing information, what’s the good news? I went to the SPA just north of Tours with Bailey and we found a beautiful young girl called Aurora, 10 weeks old and a Malinois. She and Bailey hit it off and she is now with us and renamed Lola.
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Can really like this post as so sad, but glad you have a new dog.
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When I am fed up I go treasure hunting in Lidl. Amazing what you can find if you spend time looking hard from food and drink to household stuff. Today’s bargain was three new hosepipe fittings for less than the price of one in LMerlin. None of that Dubai chocolate they were promoting on the national news last night and which was being rationed to one bar per customer.
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Just checked my NI contributions before the deadline to make gap payments. My last year at work hadnt been added last time I looked but has now so I have made it 35y and saved a potential £1700 payment 
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