Squeak?

Squeak, squeak, squeak.  Silence.

We both sat up in bed with a jolt and switched the light on.  Figaro has exceptional hearing and had found himself a shrew which got through into the bedroom from the eaves.  He sat looking at it for a while, sad to miss a good game of catch.

Jon removed the lifeless creature and Figgy returned to his bed and slept the rest of the night.

It’s great to know that we are to be protected from any shrew invasion of the bedroom!

Our brave night-time protector!

The trip did give us the chance to meet up with many of our families, particularly Jon’s family.  It’s a sad fact of life that we only see many members of our families these days at those momentous occasions of marriage and death but we are always very pleased to see them and catch up on news of our offspring and, nowadays, their offspring too.

Our lovely catsitters are having problems of their own at the moment, so we had to keep our trip as short as possible, but we did have time to take in some sea air last Sunday morning at Wimereux. We certainly didn’t expect such a beautiful and mild morning in mid-November. The beach was busy with families; children building sandcastles, whole families on rollerblades, grownups digging in the sand in search of a free lunch of mussels.

Fortunately I was able to take a few photos without the crowds in:

No, no visitors, at least not since June, sadly, but we’ve been plotting, planning and generally getting on with ‘stuff’.

We’ve had book group meetings, music groups meetings, lunches, suppers, a 60th birthday, a 90th birthday and heaven knows what else.  But the main thing we have been up to is getting our house ready to sell and finding a new home.

Yes, La Vie is on the move, if all goes to plan.  We have found ourselves a dear little house closer to the Atlantic Ocean and have put our own house on the market.

We really didn’t know what to expect, the house market being rather slow around these parts, but we have been encouraged by a viewing per week since the house went on sale, and two very interested parties.

So, watch this space, we may have a whole new adventure and project ahead of us.

Meanwhile, if you are interested in buying a property in France, take a look at our website France House for Sale

However, we are not to be complacent.  My old friend Mr Meteo’s website reminds me this morning that we are about to encounter the ‘Ice Saints’.  Three Saint’s days on 11, 12 and 13 May that traditionally bring overnight frosts, but as soon as these days are over, we are not to fear frost again.

Just as well I’ve not bought my tomato plants and geraniums just yet!

Add to that a visit to the dentist.  Ours is just about an hours’ drive away – this is obviously not the nearest but one recommended to us some time ago and according to Jon, he’s very good (I’ve not had the need yet, or at least let’s say I’ve been putting it off).  The drive is through the most stunning Lot and Dordogne countryside and we get to see  variety of different plants and wildlife on the way.  Acacia trees in full bloom, swaying gently in the breeze and rustling, some walnut trees are far more advanced than others – must be a different variety and poppies – fields and fields of them like carpets of scarlet expecting a royal visit any day.  Hovering eagles and buzzards and red kites.

Hayfields have been cut and we even saw combine harvesters not so very far from here.  Villages too are swathed in colour, hanging baskets with tumbling petunias, lobelia and gypsophilia, roses clambering over walls and gateposts.

Such eye candy make a trip to the dentist a real pleasure.

She told me that she has been enjoying reading our blog, particularly our travel tales over at La Vie En Route and has, with extra time (enforced) on her hands, been digging a little deeper into the world of blogging, even going so far as to have entered into correspondence with a lady way across the Big Pond.

It’s amazing what this little tool does, this internet thing. You can read the daily goings on of people far away, follow people’s travels, even keep up with what your neighbours are doing.  I have made friends through writing this blog too and with my latest layout (it’s a little like rearranging the furniture in the lounge, it needs doing occasionally so that you can clear out the dust from the back of the piano!), I have deleted my blog roll so I thought I’d share with you just a few of my favourite sites.

Firstly food passions.  Ruth Clemens on The Pink Whisk was runner up last year in BBC2′s The Great British Bake Off.  Ruth’s baking recipes, mostly sweet but sometimes savoury have reignited my inner baker and inspired me to make cakes once again – something I used to do all the time when the children were small and before work got in the way.  Veronica on La Recette Du Jour is one of the few bloggers I have actually met and keeps a usefully searchable blog full of all sorts of delicious recipes – from there you can link to many other foodie bloggers, and Kath at The Ordinary Cook a recent discovery.  I do admire anyone who can cook lovely food AND take the time to photograph it and write about it!

My French favourites include Susie Kelly at No Damn Blog – Susie calls her blog a ‘pot pourri of observations and opinions’  which are often highly amusing and more often than not involve her faithful followers in follow up chats and comments.  Susie has recently published her fourth book ‘The Valley of Heaven and Hell – cycling in the shadow of Marie Antoinette’.  Sorry I’ve not yet read it, Susie, but if it’s as good as the others it won’t be long before I do.  Jon at The Vendee Blog is a witty observer of French life over there by the seaside amongst other things, and of course the diary of our good friends and neighbours at Les Poissons En France is one we visit regularly.

Jon is an avid follower of Police Inspector Blog so that he can remind himself on a daily basis why he is glad to have left the service himself and hit the quiet life in rural SW France.

There are beautiful photographs on The London Nature Photo Blog and if you like music – especially jazz, you might like to try the newest blog  All Jazz Cafe and be sure to click the link to download Steve’s podcast on iTunes – it’s free!

My thanks to Chris, on her crutches, for reminding me to go and have a look at some of my own favourite blogs past and present!

We have just had a week of beautiful weather, chilly sometimes in the morning and cool enough in the evening to warrant a log fire – these thick stone walls take a long time to warm through from outside, but the days have been sunny and very warm.

Apart from Jon getting the lawn mown, we have been mostly working inside;, I have been decorating the spare bedroom while Jon has been finishing the end wall of the loft at last.  We couldn’t decide what to do with it but the stone work is so old and tatty up there that in the end we decided to hide most of it and finish the wall to match the others.  It’s already made a huge difference to the light up there and when I get on with ‘washing’ the wooden walls, it will be even lighter.

There are still many jobs to go on with.  Four years on and we’ve still lots of little projects, but hopefully the next couple of weeks will see us doing more outside than in.

We’ve also had a little time for reflection after our overseas trip.  High points and low points – not that there were many low points at all – the long flights, slightly uncomfortable but mostly just boring, despite Cathay Pacific’s excellent entertainment system.

High points were many.  Seeing friends and family of course, being by the sea of course, the apparently relaxed lifestyle in Australia and the bustle of Hong Kong.  Re-acquainting ourselves with Hong Kong places and seeing a few new ones; enjoying the buzz of Central, SoHo, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok and the contrasting relaxed atmosphere of Lamma and Lantau.

Mui Wu village and Silvermine Bay, Lantau Island

We adored the East Coast of Australia, just the tiny amount of it that we explored, long quiet beaches, cliffs, country parks and small towns.  The only thing that surprised us was the long dark evenings – not the simple fact of them but the phenomenon on the campsites where people just disappeared after dark.  None of the convivial hum of people chatting, eating outside and generally being busy that we are used to after decades of camping in France.  Just a slow disappearance of people when the sun dropped from the sky.   Of course, most people weren’t doing as we were with the little house on wheels, no, the majority were grey nomads with enormous caravans complete with fully stocked fridge-freezers and satellite television – that’s probably what they were doing!  It seems to be a lifestyle choice rather than a holiday.

Many images will stay with us for years ahead, but here are just a very few of our favourites:

Karuah jetty

Seagull ballet - Noosaville

Wynnum Mangrove Reserve, Queensland

And of course ……….

A beautiful koala

Alan and Deb Reece in Sydney

Elaine, Hannah and Andrew, Pippa and Steve in Brisbane

Diana and Alan in Brisbane

Jacqui and Kevin in Sydney

This sounds like an Oscar acceptance now….. Cathay Pacific were great, comfortable (as comfortable as it gets in economy seats!), good service and polite staff.  Travel Wheels in Sydney, especially Shaun were very helpful despite the problems with our vans and the staff at Island Pacific Hotel and Silvermine Beach hotels in Hong Kong all played their parts in making our little adventure as much fun as it was.

Thanks also go to Mervyn and Maria Young in the UK for lifts to and from the airport and putting us up for a few days, my little sister also for putting us up.  Jan Robins for letting us take Twitchy the Mouse on holiday with us.

And the biggest thanks to our super friends Sue and John Herring for loving our cats for the last 6 weeks and letting us go away for so long knowing that they would be well cared for.

Life begins to get back to normal, but we are both still suffering from jet lag.  We had thought that a day flight, even though it meant we were awake for 27 hours, followed by a good night’s sleep would get us over the worst – it certainly did last time we took that flight, but maybe our bodies are just that wee bit older and are going to take longer to get over the time difference – three nights of not good sleep so far and both very tired in the afternoons.  Now we are home we can turn the phone off and sleep the day away if that is what it takes – if the cats will also settle down!

I have resurrected the sign and it is currently hanging in the kitchen.

We are really looking forward to nearly 6 weeks beside the sea, first in Hong Kong and later in Australia where we will be travelling up the East Coast as far as we can go without drowning!

In the interim period – our blogging will take place on a dedicate blog ‘La Vie En Route‘ which I hope you will pop in on from time to time, and enjoy the story of our journey and the photos I am hoping will upload!

For the meanwhile – Hasta la Vista!