Piggies Moving Day

Today has been a busy day and very hot. This morning was spent clearing out 2 rooms upstairs and sorting out books to sell. This afternoon ML decided he wanted to relocate the pigs. For their first year here they had a large enclosed area with 3 huge walnut trees to shelter from the sun and also lots of walnuts to eat, then by the time the babies were born, they had eaten all the greenery so we had to move them. We created a new area for them, under lots of trees, with bushes and lots of greenery. Now, 3 months later there is nothing left. They have eaten everything - all the trees and bushes are now bare from the ground to shoulder height where they have stretched up and eaten all they can. So today they were moved. Well Elvis and Mrs P moved but the babies decided they were not feeling adventurous and stayed where they were.

This is Elvis running to get back to his old home.

We left the fence open for the babies to follow but they were not interested at all.

Then we let the geese out to have some fresh grass and they decided to investigate the field which had just been harvested to see what there was to eat.



All in all a good day. We will try again tomorrow to move the babies. Will keep you posted.

Views from our Garden

Here are just a few views from our garden.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we do







For the first time ever we have sunflowers behind our house.

Getting Ready for Les Vacances

After today we are off for the whole of August. Well that is not strictly true as I know we will be working some days during August. When you have your own business it's difficult to stop working what with emails and the telephone on call forward to my mobile.
Anyway I was just chatting with S and she asked me what I had planned for the holidays. We are closed for the month of August so everyone gets to have a holiday!
I said that I was going to use the time to clear out my house, garage and porcherie of all the excess, unwanted and unused things that have accumulated over the years and where possible see if I can sell them.
One of my most difficult tasks will be to reduce the number of books I have and get them ready to sell. I must have 7 or 8 large bookcases full. Not sure how yet, Amazon seems to be OK if you have specialist books but just the everyday novels you would have to sell them for a penny and having read up about it, it seems this is not a good way to make money. Any advice??
My books are very precious to me. Living in France, we do not have charity shops where you can pick up cheap English books, so I have to buy mine from the UK or rely on friends giving them to me when they come over. I have not wanted to part with them over the years, I probably read a book 3 or 4 times. But this year I have decided to clear out and start again. Maybe I will look for a Vide Grenier later in the year but when I did that last time I only sold 1 book!!
Any ideas gratefully received.

Son's birthday

Today is my son's 16th birthday. How he has grown. There was a time, not too long ago when I used to rest my chin on the top of his head - now he does it to me!!
He chose his menu for tonight - Chicken Kiev, pasta, haricot verts followed by clafoutis. Normally this is made with cherries but we prefer it with raspberries - frozen ones work really well. Recipe to follow if anyone is interested.
For his presents he had the usual clothes and a watch and a shaver. wow - this is my baby, now he is shaving.
Today he has been castrating the maize, all the kids round here do it, it allows the under 18s to earn some money during the summer holidays. it's hard work, especially when it's hot like today. he has come home today with bright red arms, neck and face despite putting sun cream on before he left home this afternoon.

Hello and welcome

Just a very quick message to say hello to anyone who has found my blog. As you can see it is still 'under construction'.
Will add more to it later

Being 50