OH went foraging in the cellar and arrived with a scruffy bottle…
Chateau Bories-Azeau, 1994 Corbières… which we would have bought very cheaply in a Cave in 1994… after a free dégustation of whatever was drinkable at that time…
Mmm… checking the books… this should keep well for 5 years… hmmmm … that will be why we bought it… it would have been cheap, and on-a-promise for the future… but, will it still be OK ???
Well, here we are 25 years on… and I am pleased to confirm that it is absolutely delicious.
This goes against all Expert opinion…(let’s face it, we are drinking it 20 years after the recommended 5)…
We bought it on a celebration trip (25th anniversary)… and we have many happy memories of that 2 weeks here in France… such memories we have rekindled over a glass or 2… mmm… the fire is crackling and a certain mellowness is descending…
Started at the beginning and then realised I was looking at 2017 replies! Wondered how people were finding sunshine! However, like David Martin I have been digging out overgrown corners and over the last 5 weeks have worked on a large mound - found some beautiful boulders and masses of lovely pebbles and was sure I would find at least the skeleton of a beloved pet - but found just a trusty old lawnmower and a pair of much loved nylon socks!
Did stop to realise that I was in my element, still just cant quite believe I am here!
This is a thread that just goes on… and on… and why not… sometimes, we just need to read some good-news or a happy story… and sometimes we have had a special moment ourselves. The world is so full of doom and gloom… this thread is just a little spark …
Working on a new garden can be such fun… as you are finding out.
So glad you are enjoying yourself. Sometimes we almost feel like pinching ourselves to make sure it is all real…
Thank you - its great to read peoples happy stories!
I am pleased you still appear to feel that way too, I dont think I will ever get used to feeling just that little bit elated when I realise that this is France! Will be better when my husband is here full time, and yes there is plenty to do in the garden whilst at the same time keeping it just on the edge of feeling wild and untamed.
Fabulous, fabulous day spent on my local golf course here in the Ariege Pyrenees. It was day 1 of a 4 day competition of the national French Championship Men’s 2nd Division - players handicapped at between 0 and 4 - top notch, ages between 12 (!) and 55. I’m a volunteer marshall / ball spotter
Although golf itself can brighten any of my days - what struck me most today was the average age of the players - so young, so keen and so bloody good. Great for them and great for the game of golf - made the hairs on my neck stand up. Quel régal!!!
I’m on course again tomorrow, forecast good, air clean, scenery stunning, company amazing - I simply can’t wait…I won’t sleep tonight and don’t give a tinker’s cuss lol!
Ha ha… yes, we both still feel very happy… and OH suffers my hearty renditioning of … Oh what a beautiful morning… nearly every time we top the hill just outside our village… impossible not to be cheered by our surroundings.
My son making the holes and installing 30 fence posts for the start of what is going to be my ‘sand school’ (riding arena ) - although in reality it ought to be renamed ‘a fenced off bit of the field to discipline the naughty pony in so that Catharine doesn’t completely loose her bottle zone’ (still not quite back there after the broken jaw episode last year!)
And an amazing full English for brekkie made by Mr. H!
Our quarrelsome and hyper-vigilant but handsome coq has been humanely dispatched, and his denuded 3 kg remains are sitting on a dish in a neighbour’s arrière-cuisine, waiting to be marinaded
I am sad, he was a lovely boy and guarded his small flock enthusiastically and noisily. But in his absence the hens’ relief is palpable, a candle in the gloom. They are back doing their modest and cooperative thing, no long under gender-pressure to go here, peck there, scratch somewhere else. I don’t think (I may be wrong) that they miss him, and I get a feeling from their darling twinkly eyes and pretty cocked heads that they’re glad he’s gone.
Aaah, the only time I have had a cockerel in my flock he was a bit of a pain, since then have always just had hens who seem quite happy. I did have a goose and gander once and he was fine until they raised a gosling then became very protective and would chase me down the garden.
A neighbour arrived with a bunch of muguet and some home-made dessert…(yummy)… and I gave her some tiny strawberries from the wild plants on my terrace… they are suddenly ripening…and are so sweet.
Now, I am off to forage in the gardens I “keep an eye on”… I’m hoping there will be some muguet for me to pick, so I can spread them and “friendship” across the village…
Like Bob, I’ve been busy in the garden.
Monday, someone gave me some frisée lettuce plants.
Tuesday, I gave myself a few objectives 1, to weed the drive in front of the house 2, find some neighbours to take a lot of Swiss chard & spinach I had as we have more than enough in the freezer, 3, clear some of my vegetable garden to make space for the frisée. 4, plant out the frisée lettuce. Whilst hand weeding the drive in front of the house I got talking to a Nun from one of the religious communities that live in the village, she is interested in gardening, she gladly took a large bag of Swiss chard for her community of 10 Nuns. As she was leaving my next door neighbour came across for a chat & she left with the rest of the chard & a bin liner full of spinach. That made my day & hopefully theirs.
Wednesday, Mrs Wozza took me out for a meal.
Today, Mrs Wozza is making a Tartiflette & we will eat our first lettuce from my garden.
I’m dog-sitting this monster for my daughter; he sleeps at the foot of the stairs and, when I appear, his tail and the rear quarter of his body erupt into a frenzy of wagging and wiggling.
That brightens my day and, if it didn’t brighten anybody’s, they would have no soul!
It is a little blue Kia Picanto - supplied by ETS Mourier in Nimes - they offered a fantastic deal (huge discount), spoke excellent English and sorted it all out for me - I couldn’t have been more impressed by the service I have had. If anyone is interested in Kia speak to Olivier Mourier here - he is part of the family that have owned the garage for many years.
They even collected me from the airport and filled me with Espresso which was needed after a 2:45am start from UK.
I have driven the car back from Nimes to Bordeaux - a little 500km trip for its first run! Having owned all sorts of cars from big 4x4 to convertibles - I have to say this little car is great and comes with a 7 year warranty.
I would say he looks rather demure in his shocking pink coverall. I assume he takes it off when working. The pert little sticky-out protuberances under his coverall do seem to invite saucy comment, but I hesitate to suggest one. Perhaps @anon89172871 could come up with something (un)suitably Benny Hill-ish?
