Nearly there

I just realised that it is absolutely ages since I even took any photos, never mind put them here.  I’ll have to rectify that as soon as I get the chance.

Meanwhile the salon is nearly there.  We’ve spent the day moving furniture around and trying various layout options.  We suspect the winter and summer layouts will be quite different.  We have also decided that we need a new TV/stereo unit as the one we have doesn’t sit right in the room. So I’m trawling the internet to see if there’s anything we quite like.  There is a problem in that where we would really like to put the unit, which is a corner, isn’t a 90 degree corner.  In fact we have yet to find a 90 degree corner or a flat floor or a straight wall in this house!

The other option will be for Jon to make something that will really suit us but as we have at least 387 other jobs on the list it will just have to wait.

The cats have had another upsetting day as they really don’t like it when we move things around, which has been every day for the last fortnight, if not the last two years, but they are beginning to get used to having to come in and trip over a sofa that is in a different place to yesterday and then go searching for their favourite blankets which have been moved several times a day!

I suspect they will eventually find their sleeping places again but with things moving around all the time they are sleeping in a different place every day – and night.  Figaro has taken to sleeping on the bed again but he sneakily waits until we are well asleep before he creeps in and settles between us.  This has been a recent move as he had been sleeping in the loft for several weeks.  As there really isn’t enough room for three, and he pinches the duvet leaving me with one cold leg and shoulder, I’m hoping he’ll get out of the habit again soon!

Returned – no photos

We’ve been back a couple of days now and I’ve been trying to update this blog but can’t get any photos to load, so you will have to wait for those.

In the meanwhile we have restocked the fridge and larder which we ran down before our trip and collected the cats.

I paid the usual ransom to allow them back home and they yelled at me all the way.  Honestly, I sometimes wonder why we bring them back!  The rest of the day was spent opening and closing the door as they couldn’t decide whether to be in or out.  Misty wanted to smell the fresh air but also wanted to be as near to us as she could.  Couldn’t we leave the door open for her so that she could come and go?  No.  We were now used to Spanish warmth and had to have the heaters on here at home.  But she really couldn’t decide in or out.  Eventually we replaced her blanket on the sofa in the kitchen and she settled down for a sleep.  It must have been so tiring for her going in and out of the door so many times, poor love!

Figgy disappeared for a couple of hours so that we were getting concerned that he was sulking and wouldn’t come back.  It turned out he was just out checking all the mouse holes hadn’t been repopulated while we were away and eventually returned with a little playmate clutched in his jaws.  Poor mouse didn’t last long!

When we finally went to bed, Misty decided she couldn’t bear to be parted again and slept next to me on the bed meaning that the two of us had even less room that usual (we have decided that our bed is really very small and will replace it with as big a bed as we can get into the loft space when the room is finished).  Misty then decided to tell me how much she loved me all night long by purring right in my face.  ALL NIGHT!

When eventually they both decided to go out for an early morning walk at 6.15 I went back to bed and had the best two hours sleep of the night!

Yesterday we went to buy Jon’s new toy.  An air compressor to attach to his new nail gun (that’s another story – I thought it was electric when I bought it but it turned out it needed the air compressor).  We poured over the pile of publicite supplied by all the local stores and blocking up our post box when we got home, and decided that E Leclerc was the best place to go.  But when we checked the small print, the offer was only available in certain stores so we had to travel north for a change to Souillac, not a store we usually use.

It’s rather fun going to a different store for a change.  They put things in different places and you find all sorts of stuff you wouldn’t normally see.

This one also has a garden and decoration store next to it.  We thought we’d take a look and found a real bargain.  Leather woven rugs.  Just perfect for the new bedroom.  They had two large ones for 28 Euros each, which we thought was OK, plus two smaller bedside ones for 8 Euros each.  We decided that this was a pretty good price for something that will suit the bedroom very well and were even more delighted when we got to the cash desk and they were reduced by 20%!!

We’ll be spending the next couple of days getting the house ready for the next onslaught on the alterations.  Will it be the knocking down of the sitting room wall, or the putting up of the bedroom walls?  You’ll just have to wait and see (that means we’ll let you know when we’ve decided!).

Happy Christmas!

St Noël

Happy Christmas to one and all!

A very early Christmas morning for me. I don’t remember being up this early on Christmas Day since I was a kid. Or was it when Jon used to have to work an early shift on Christmas Day? Probably that.

I’ve seem to have had a run of early starts for no apparent reason. Well, cats I suppose.

Anyway, here I am with a bit of time to reflect on the last few days.

The Christmas party just over the hill here went very well. Many of the guests joined in the spirit of things and did a ‘turn’. There were jokes, cello playing (with audience participation), stories, monologues and some dame singing a couple of songs. Luckily I managed not to screech off key too much and they seemed to go down well. Jon hammered away on the piano and everyone joined in The Twelve Days of Christmas bullied by myself into singing a line per couple and seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. The carols were loudly sung with the odd descant popping in here and there.

After the performances our friend, Sue, put on a brilliant supper for 28 people and everyone mingled well before disappearing in their various directions, probably to meet up again at drinks parties over the next week or so. We have told our friends that we are expecting a repeat party next year since it went so well. They are keeping quiet about whether they can face another one but I bet they do!

On Monday I was due to take Mrs H shopping but unfortunately her foster dog (which is a whole new story) took ill and she had to take him to the vet. I took advantage of the day ironing and making shopping lists and menu plans. We did make our shopping trip on Tuesday and it seemed that the whole of this corner of France had decided to do the same thing.

Or so we thought. Until Jon and I, up early on Christmas Eve, decided to make an early trip to market, via the supermarket, to buy our festive goose. We arrived at the supermarket 10 minutes before opening and watched the crowd gather at the door from the warmth of our car. It was freezing!

The French do enjoy oysters on Christmas Eve. And Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day… any party they can think of. A stall was set up outside the supermarket piled high with boxes containing 3 or 6 dozen of these funny looking shellfish. People were taking advantage of the supermarket not being open by buying up several boxes each and returning them to their cars.

Eventually the main doors open and everyone piled in. I was expecting a Sainsbury’s or Tesco mad dash all around the shop but no, everyone headed straight for the fish counter and stood in another queue.

Luckily this gave Jon and I the shop to ourselves and we managed our few bits of shopping – milk, cream, smoked salmon – in record time.

The market in town was bustling and we soon located the smallest goose we could find. Actually we didn’t have a lot of choice since we didn’t want a huge bird and there were no medium-sized ones to be seen. We decided that we will supplement the goose with a slice of Festive Ham, which I have cooked according to Nigella’s book Feast, in cranberry and apple juices with cinnamon, cloves and star anise (actually, Nigella doesn’t use star anise but I love that smell that reminds me of Hong Kong and Christmas both at the same time).

So today’s menu is:

• Chestnut soup
• Individual smoked salmon terrines with beetroot crisps and salad
• Roast goose and festive ham, chestnut, prune and pork stuffing, roast potatoes, maple glazed parsnips and green beans
• Selection of cheeses
• Muscat wine crème caramels with cinnamon biscuits and spiced fig
• Coffee served with christmas pudding truffles

Which reminds me – I’d better get cooking!

Happy Christmas, one and all. Have a wonderful day.

With love and best wishes to you all.

Sue and Jon

Dark days and warm places

St Gatien

Not terribly unusual that I was up early this morning – the unusual thing is that it wasn’t because the cats dragged me out of bed.  Quite the opposite in fact.  Figgy, who has been sleeping on our bed every night for the last week or so since we ‘liberated’ him from the cattery, was nowhere to be seen.

He crawled in late last night and after a brief kneading of Jon’s lap disappeared somewhere in the house and hid.

He didn’t stir when I popped down to the kitchen to give him his late night Whiskas kitten food (the only ‘wet’ food he gets) a ritual he usually loves and waits for.

So when I woke early and he still hadn’t stirred I began to worry.  As I roused myself, Misty appeared and asked to be let out, so I pottered down to the kitchen at 6am and couldn’t be bothered to go back to bed.  Figgy finally appeared about 15 minutes later but I still don’t know where from.

They’ve both been out on their usual morning patrol and are back indoors looking for fires, blankets and warm spots.

At 8.30am it is finally just about light.  I hate these dark mornings but then in the UK I used to hate the dark evenings.  There was nothing worse than going to work in the dark and arriving back home in the dark.  If I didn’t get out of the office at lunch time it was as if I didn’t see the light of day for weeks.  Our weather has been very dull for a week now but there is light on the horizon as the forecast for Sunday is sun all day.

We had a good day yesterday.  We finally were both fit enough to spend a day insulating the loft, and are very pleased with our progress.  The majority of it is now done but the last few sheets will have to wait for a few days.

Why?

Because Jon is now injured again after he fell (and we still don’t know how) off the ladder in the loft.  Luckily it is nothing more than a nasty bruise and a sprained shoulder and, like a good trooper, he climbed straight back up the ladder to finish the job.  Today he will be very sore and probably won’t be able to use his arm again for a couple of days, but we do hope he will be able to play the piano for our friends Christmas Party on Sunday afternoon, otherwise the carols will be very dull.

Cat burglars

St Samson

It was a lovely day yesterday, we had a pre-lunch swim and a sit in the shade watching the numerous butterflies and swearing at the flies (a particularly nasty little thing around at the moment, looks like a nic lacy winged thing but is very persistent and ticklish when it lands on you). I wandered back indoors to throw some bread and cheese on to a couple of plates for lunch.

I entered through the cave door and into the kitchen and was surprised to find a packet of Whiskas kitten food in the middle of the kitchen floor.

‘That’s funny’ I thought.

Then I noticed the Tupperware box of home made ginger biscuits was also on the floor.

‘Very odd’

Then it dawned on me. The kitchen windows were wide open and the fly screen was up in its roller blind. We had been cat burgled.

It was pretty obvious when I saw the kitten (now fondly (?) named Big Balls for obvious reasons) looking at me from the sofa. He was almost smiling and looked very comfortable and content.

Figgy and Misty’s food bowls were empty and someone had evidently taken a liking to Whiskas Temptations with chicken and cheese as the pot was half empty.

BB suddenly realised that maybe I wasn’t as happy to see him as he was to be snuggled on the kitchen sofa and he made a break for it upstairs to the lounge where he decided to roll around the floor looking cute.

It didn’t work and I chased him out.

There was no sign at all of his mother who is now known as Scruffy.

I called in the reinforcements and Jon eventually found her looking quite bewildered up in the attic as if she had just been beamed there from outer space.

‘I have no idea how I got here’, she seemed to say. ‘Could you please show me the way out and I’ll leave you in peace’.

She, too, was quickly shown the door.

These two ‘little dears’ seem to be with us almost all the time now but we are still resisting adopting them properly. A serving or two of biscuits a day has done them the world of good and they look much healthier, but we still refuse to let them in the house, hence the break-in. Still, they sit on the kitchen doorstep for hours a day hoping for us to relent (especially since BB found the cosy sofa). I wonder who will crack first.

I found BB this morning curled up in an old kitchen cauldron that we intend to paint up and use as a planter one day.
I’ve heard of eye of toad and wing of bat, but a whole cat?

Cat Chat

Ste Diane

We have a couple of problems.

This ……

and this ……

They are quite sweet really but they aren’t ours.

The tortie is a female and the tabby is a male kitten (unneutered). They started calling by a few weeks ago and gradually they are spending more and more time here. We started by refusing to have anything to do with them, in fact we actively chased them away but that had no effect and the tortie obviously enjoyed the attention because she was here more and more often.

Last week we took a better look at her. She is obviously under-nourished so we gave in and started to feed her. Now she has been joined by the boy who we think is her son. He is nothing but fur and bones but such a beautiful cat with a really loud purr.

We are fairly sure they belong to the neighbours, who are tenants, as the cats appeared around the same time as the tenants moved in. They don’t seem to be being fed though, just last week the neighbours weren’t seen for four days and the cats were here all the time. They do seem to disappear when the neighbours are home but they always return after a short while.

Misty and Figgy strangely take no notice at all of these two. Figgy, who has been seen chasing off other cats in the past, was even seen licking the boy in a grooming way yesterday and quite often allows him to follow him on his mouse hunting rounds.

We’ve not allowed them in the house, we just give them a few biscuits now and then. The dilemma facing us is how far we go with caring for them. If they aren’t being fed then they surely won’t have been vaccinated – the little boy should be neutered soon too. We’re going to be away for two days soon and can’t do anything for them. We’ll have to review the situation when we get home and see what happens. Meanwhile, we hope they start putting on a bit of weight – I wonder if their owners will notice?

Slugs and snails and puppy dog tails

Ste Gisèle

The wildlife count has gone up recently and today has been especially busy.

It started when Jon got up this morning to make some tea and found a lizard in the living room. He went to pick it up and as I was saying ‘It’s tail will come off!’ it ran under the cupboard and hasn’t been seen since. We don’t know how it got in, except that my theory is that it came in through the roof and ended up in the living room – bearing in mind the fact that the loft roof isn’t insulated and is open to all sorts of creatures climbing under the tiles at the moment.

The house fly and bluebottle population is high at the moment. Luckily our new fly screens, fitted last September and never really put to the test, are keeping most of them out. Those that we do find indoors we also suspect of getting in through the roof. It’s a good job those bees are still in the chimney and don’t find their way down through the roof too.

When I pulled back the pool cover this morning I found the largest frog I’ve seen around these parts on the margelles. It hid its face from me in the manner of ‘I can’t see you, therefore you can’t see me’ and crawled into the grass. I called Jon over to see him, keeping a close eye on The Little Bar Steward who was mouse hunting close by and he put him safely into longer undergrowth.

Speaking of the Little Bar Steward, we were very upset the other day when he brought home a red squirrel in his jaws. Whether he found it or caught it I wouldn’t like to say but I suspect the latter. He was suitably scolded and deprived of his prey which we disposed of in a neighbour’s field (Sorry!).

Finally, Martin from the pool company discovered our well the other day and went down the little steps to investigate. He tells us that the water must be just perfect down there as there are several salamanders living there.

Hmmmm.

Poor cat

St Jules

I was planning a silent Saturday but I’ve just spend a most frustrating afternoon in the chalet.

We agreed that J-J and Stephane could keep their tools in there and we knew they were also using it to shelter from the rain on and off.

As it was throwing down heavy rain when they left on Thursday evening J-J told me not to even look in the chalet as it was very dirty and they would return to clean it next week.

I was inclined to agree since I have plenty more chores to get on with without thinking about clearing up their mud.

However, I remembered this afternoon that they hadn’t brought back their dirty coffee cups from the last cuppa I made them on Thursday afternoon, so I went to retrieve them, knowing that the chalet was full of mud and tools. What I hadn’t expected to find was next-door’s poor cat who had obviously been shut in there for 48 hours with no food or water. The poor thing shot out of the door and straight to drink from the swimming pool.

Jon was ahead of me, took one look in the chalet and walked away looking rather pale. I told him to get on with putting up my new shelves in the cellar and leave the clearing up to me.

Poor cat. We don’t encourage it around as we have our own two to think of, but I wouldn’t have wished to shut her in a chalet on her own for 2 days. The men had left some jars of pate, luckily still unopened, and some bread which she had tried to eat and which had obviously (not wanting to dwell on it) disagreed with her.

The poor thing must have been terrified but after a long drink she took herself off home leaving me to clean up after not only her but the pool guys as well.

I had planned a big cooking session this afternoon as we have friends over to lunch again tomorrow. I hope they like beans on toast!

Our anniversary

Ste Ella

Let me take you back to February 1st 2007. The Big Day had dawned.

Jon and I woke before the crack of dawn in a hotel near to our, now empty except for three cats, home. We had dinner the evening before with youngest daughter and her husband and had been very disappointed with the food and the service. We had selected this particular hotel as we’d had very good meals there in the past, we must have hit an off night and it was a sad last night as UK residents. Oh well, c’est la vie, as they say.

We gathered our belongings, crept out of the back door of the hotel and returned to our house to collect three cats and a couple of thermos flasks of hot water for the journey.

Cramped into our packed little car, with one cat box on my knee, we drove to our pre-arranged meeting point where Jon moved into my mother’s car and the cat box was placed on the passenger seat of my own car.

As I climbed into the driver’s seat I noticed a rather unpleasant smell and, thinking that one of the cats had had a bit of an accident, I tried to see which one and whether there was anything I could do to clean her up. I didn’t find anything nasty so put it down to a cat with a nervous tummy!!! We carried on down to the Channel Tunnel.

The three cats were very well behaved and only shouted for ten minutes or so each time the car stopped and started up again.

At the Channel Tunnel I was stopped by UK Passport Control.

‘Good morning, Madam. How many people in the car? Just one? And three cats. Where are you headed for?’

‘France’ I said.

‘Where exactly?’ he insisted, so I told him.

‘And how long are you staying for?’

That was the best bit. ‘For ever!’ I said with a big smile.

He waved me through with a muttering ‘Lucky you!’ and I was pleased not to be bomb checked at the next point.

Arriving in France we didn’t see a soul and we began to wonder whether the £400 or so pounds we had spent on getting the cats vaccinations, rabies jabs, blood tests, microchips and pet passports had been worth it. But even though no-one else wanted to know we were glad that we had taken every precaution.

The long journey south was uneventful until we noticed thick snow by the side of the autoroute just north of Limoges and on southwards.

It got dark. One of the cats decided that she’d had quite enough of this being cooped up, thank you. Worked out that if she pushed her nose against her basket enough times the zips would come apart and she could make a bid for freedom.

Well, as much freedom as the back of one small hatchback loaded with bags, cat boxes, litter trays, cat beds and bedding would allow her.

The first I realised was when looking in the rear view mirror I saw the silhouette of a large furry cat wandering past the back window.

I pulled on to the hard shoulder – one of those points where it is really narrow. Jon pulled in behind me in Mum’s car but, sensibly stayed in the car. We both knew that if I opened my car door the cat would be out like a shot.

I managed to persuade her back into the basket and found a piece of something to tie the zips together. We were now only about 30 minutes from home.

On arrival we found a very cold, very dark house which we had expected and a white garden full of snow – we hadn’t expected that.

The cats were freed from their boxes in the kitchen. Queued up to use the litter trays and then hid under the sofa, the sideboard, anything they could find. One of them had been sitting for 12 hours on the unfortunate accident she had had back in Surrey and was a rather disgusting mess. Very embarrassed, she began to clean herself up.

Guess what we did?

We opened a bottle of champagne. Mum cooked us a nice meal.

The first day of the rest of our lives was nearly over.

One year on was it worth it? Yes. Are we happy? Yes. Do we find enough to do with our time, what with not going to work and all that?

Are you kidding?

This and that

Ste Agnès

I’m still struggling to get our big PC working properly. I’ve reloaded the operating system and it worked fine, then we seem to have got a virus – heaven knows how it got through the firewall and the anti-virus software but I gave it a Lemsip and it got better. Now it’s started giving me funny messages, something to do with Visual Basic, hunting for the solution to that the virus came back again so I had to repair the operating system (trying Beechams Powders this time).

Now the screen is playing up and I lost the use of the webcam which was working nicely with Skype last week.

So, between doing the housework and getting lunch I’ve been sorting out Skype (webcam now working again), and now we’re going through a mammoth defragmentation, which is soooooo slow!

It was great to use the webcam as we were able to ’see’ our grandsons over the weekend. Jack has lost his two front teeth – with a little help from the school playground I hear – Leo is talking much more than he was and they both seemed to enjoy seeing us too. Hopefully this means that Leo will find us a little less frightening next time we see him in a few weeks’ time. This may not be the case of course as he might think we are very small people who live in a computer. He was looking behind the screen for us the other day when we were talking to him and he kept kissing the screen. Can’t wait until we see him for real.

We’ve been making the most of some milder weather and sat out in the garden the other day. We were just chatting when Figgy appeared with one of his little mouse friends that he likes to bring back from time to time for a game of tag. I don’t think the mice much appreciate it but he thinks they are more fun that the balls he usually plays with indoors. Figgy and the mouse took a breather and we were astonished to be joined by a young tabby kitten. We were more astonished by Figgy’s and Misty’s behavour – they just sat and watched it as surprised as we were. The kitten clambered all aound the veranda of the chalet, where we were sitting, rubbed itself up against us and generally tried to make itself very appealing.

We were steadfastly ignoring it (we’re certain it comes from our new neighbours) when suddenly the mouse decided it had had enough of a break and made a bid for freedom. Figgy went to go after it but our new friend, who was a good 20 yards further away than he, also leapt into action and got there first.

We expected a battle, a chase and lots of caterwauling but Figgy just let them go! He and Misty just watched the kitten ‘deal with’ the mouse in it’s own way. If they could have been sitting with dropped jaws I’m sure they would have – so would we. In fact the only time Figgy growled at the kitten was when it tried to walk round behind him – he obviously felt a little threatened.

Yesterday the little thing was back again, trying to climb through the kitchen window (which was shut) and looking very endearing.

We don’t want to encourage it so ignore the little scrap, whilst not wanting to chase it away – next door is not so far after all. We are trusting to our cats to let this one know whose territory it is here. Not that previous actions lead us to believe they are capable of it!