What a month May has been with regards to the weather. I have never known so much miserable weather both here in the UK and in many parts of France too I understand. Last month we were disappointed by the chilly and damp conditions in St Aygulf and we understand that May has not been an awful lot better. And here in Cumbria, it has been so wet at times that, we considered sending out for materials to construct an ark! But once again I’m getting ahead of myself so I’ll backtrack a bit.
The 1st of May found us still in France and I enjoyed getting my small bunch of muguet (lily of the valley). We ate out that day at our favourite bistro and it was lovely to see friends of the proprietors, Eric and Magali, arriving with bunches of muguet for them too. It really is a lovely tradition. We spent the last couple of days sorting out the flat ready for my godson, Jamie and his new bride Rachael, who are going to stay there for a week’s honeymoon in July. As always we felt sad to be leaving St Aygulf again and I was extremely sad to have to abandon my favourite soap opera (Plus Belle la Vie) again, just after I’ve caught up on storylines and new characters once more! Hey Ho…! We spent the last night in France at Nice as usual and enjoyed eating in the Italian restaurant in Port Olympia which we like very much. Our flight and train journey back to Carlisle went very well and it was lovely to be met at Carlisle station by a very excited little one…who couldn’t wait to give her Papi a big hug 
We arrived back in the UK on a bank holiday weekend….and yes it was typical bank holiday weather (i.e. rain) so we just did normal things …church (where we were welcomed back with open arms) and then lunch with Hazel and Phil which was nice. On the Monday we were not tempted to go far either but we did enjoy having coffee with some friends in their lovely park home, so all was not lost entirely .
We met up with our friends Linda and Mike on the following Wednesday for lunch and a long catch up on family news as they had just spent a month in Australia visiting their daughter there before we disappeared for our month in France. One of their other sons and his wife were expecting their first baby any day so Linda was keeping her phone very close by so as not to miss his arrival! Geoff and Mike went off on a walk to find some bluebells whilst Linda and I caught up on lots of news over a coffee. We all met up again the following week and we all had another bluebell walk, this time to Rannerdale in the Lake District which is renowned for its bluebells….and yes, they were really spectacular. I found a lovely little stream – that was not difficult really there as the ground was very wet due to almost continuous rain during the previous week, and really enjoyed getting my feet (only my feet again note!) into the icy cold water for a paddle!
The rain continued to fall during the next couple of weeks. Fortunately, it didn’t dampen the birthday celebrations of both our daughter Hazel, and the little one who celebrated her third birthday in style with a visit to Blackpool to meet Peter Rabbit and The Gruffalo. We were invited on this trip …but declined _ I absolutely hate Blackpool! We did join them all in the afternoon though for tea in the garden (the sun had put in a rare appearance by then) where we taught the little one how to use her new water pistol on her Daddy! What are grandparents for after all??? On the way home after babysitting for them so they could go out to celebrate Hazel’s birthday we were treated to a rather muted display of the Northern Lights. Others in Carlisle and the surrounding area had a much more colourful display and unfortunately our phones were not good enough to take great photos but we were thrilled to have seen them at all and stayed in the garden watching them dancing for a long time. We never expected to see this phenomenon here at all so we were very happy indeed.
We have just completed re-making our wills. Geoff had gone to see a notaire whilst we were in France, to check where we stood on the succession of our French property. We were pleased, that when we contacted the notaire where we first did a French will, when we lived there full time, to check that they had indeed registered the document which covered our wishes with the state and as they had, all seems to be good for our new property. It just means that should one of us die before the other, the succession is protected by our English wills. Of course, when we both pop our clogs, French law takes over and the property passes to our children and there are no problems there at all. We have now reassured our solicitor here that all is sorted for the French bit and we have signed the wills now. We can now die happy….but not yet we hope! We did wonder though whether others in our situation ever look into this will situation when they have property in France. I suspect there are many who don’t!
We managed to dodge the seemingly never-ending rain to get out and about a bit more recently. We really enjoyed visiting a “Show and Tell” event which was held in Bitts Park here in Carlisle, where local organisations of all kinds were there to tell folk what they do and where to find them. It was very good and it was also great to see so many people there and enjoying a rare sunny afternoon. Carlisle really is a great place to live and there is lots to do and get involved with if you want to get out and about. We also visited a beautiful garden, at Brampton which was open to the public as part of the Garden Open Day scheme. It was fantastic…almost as good as some of the show gardens you see on the TV. It was quite expensive to get in and cost £2 for a bit of cake! But as the proceeds were going to a charity which we support we paid up with a sort of smile! The garden was lovely
This latest bank holiday weekend saw us out eating yet again. We drove down to Kendal to meet up with Hazel, Phil and the little one’s old foster parents for lunch which was lovely. It’s so nice that they get to see how the little one is progressing and as they brought with them their latest foster baby, Geoff was in his element! He just loves babies! We also had another visit to the Lakes (this time in the rain!) to try out a new place which advertises itself as a non-alcoholic eaterie (music to my ears!) but we were very disappointed with it. No real choice of appealing drinks for me and I thought the food was very mediocre. We won’t be going back! Also, Keswick in the teaming rain was not entirely attractive. I felt so sorry for all the holidaymakers walking round in their wet weather gear looking miserable. We made yet another foray into the Lake District (well almost!) this week and enjoyed another great lunch at The Trout Hotel (one of our favourites) in Cockermouth. Our main reason for going there was to go to an exhibition of wildlife photographs at the Wordsworth House. Now as some of you might remember I am not a fan of Wordsworth’s poetry… almost a sacrilegious thing to say around here! However, we did enjoy the visit (after we had recovered from the admission fee – the National Trust owns the property 
) and the exhibition was really good. I also loved the walk around the garden there too – the sort of higgledy-piggledy garden I really like, with lots of wild flowers in the borders. It was worth a visit after all…and no poetry in sight, too. Bonus!
We are, as I’m sure that you all know by now, in the throes of a general election campaigning time. So far, we are not really impressed by anyone and so choosing how to vote will not be an easy task. Some of the proposals by both of the major parties are leaving us cold….most 16 year olds that I used to teach would not have a clue about politics, let alone why or for what they were voting, if that goes through. And as for this proposed National Service idea for all 18 year olds…I despair! I certainly do not want my grandchildren to go and learn how to kill other human beings and if they want to volunteer I’d like it to be their idea and that they really want to do it, not to be made to do it. I await some good ideas which will hopefully come along before July. This will be the first time we have been able to vote in the UK for many years so I hope there will be someone meaningful for us to vote for, by July.
And so we come to the end of a fairly miserable, wet, May. Happily, Carlisle managed to escape any serious flooding this time as although the rivers here did burst their banks, the flood defences did their job, thankfully. Our farmer friends were not so lucky and had whole fields under water and crops ruined…not to mention very soggy sheep. Everyone is now hoping that June will be hot and sunny…including a very unhappy Geoff, who fears he is losing his sun tan lines now! We are off on a little jolly next week to Northern Ireland and we are looking forward to that…and hoping for good weather!! Meanwhile, it is my birthday today so I’m going to enjoy it, hopefully being spoiled by my family this weekend. Oh…and if any of you who are reading this in France could just keep an eye on the goings-on in Plus Belle la Vie for me with a few updates, I would be very grateful!!
A bientot mes amis ….