We promise to keep Grandma warm!!!!

We always keep our promises!! Grandma has just arrived and as we dont want FiL to worry we have made sure she is nice and warm!!!

xxxxx

Happy Birthday Andrew!!

As it is Andrews birthday we thought we would spoil him, let him have a lay in, buy him lots of presents, cook him steak for dinner, let him eat lemon meringue pie ............ Hmm.... He had other ideas. So what would Andrew like to do for his birthday then? Play with chainsaws, chop logs, climb trees, chop down trees, chop more logs, stack more logs, chop more logs ........ That's what he would do of course!!!! We love you Andrew, have a great birthday. xxx

PS We found some Edam for you Sue, hope you like the photo!!!!!

We do have photos!!!!

Just in case anyone is having withdrawal symptoms from the children and photos here are a couple to keep you going!!! Josh and Kirsty are on half term so we have them to occupy all week. Thankfully Grandma Irene is coming to help us out for a few days!!! Andrew is planning a day of rest tomorrow for his birthday. Somehow I dont see that happening!!! The kids are far too excited to let him have a lay in even if he does stay up all night watching the baseball!!!

Sorry, no photos!!!!

Well., time as always is racing past us. Even with todays extra hour I didn't get a lie in. Such is life. We make our bed and we sleep in it as they say, whoever they are. Today we have completed bridge works for the year, unless disaster strikes. Although there is still a stone wall to construct, it does not have the urgency of the remedial works recently completed. This morning we got the collapsed lintel back in situ and now the bridge and new weir are fit to survive another winter, fingers crossed. Focus is back on the gite accomodation which we will hopefully complete the concreting, of the first floor in the end room, by the end of this week. We've also put another trailer load of stones into the weir, thanks for the use of the trailer Ian, we will get it back to you one day. I must say, the trailer has been worked like a Trojan. Did you know you could get 18 bales of hay on it? or 1 Stere of cut wood? or a cement mixer, generator, 20 bags of cement and a load of hand tools? It has however suffered damage at the hands of big bro. An attack from the mutant misteltoe resulted in a broken light but that is his story to tell. His injuries were far worse. Only a few days till I'm even older than I already was. No probs though, big party here on Tuesday and I'm looking forward to everyone being here. We may even crack open a bottle of wine. It also looks like mum will be joining us Thursday for a few days of escapology from the UK. Anyhow, we have an extra hour of drinking time today and I'm planning to make the most of it. Bon Soiree. Me

The bridgeworks continue

Chrissy and the girls arrived on Monday night and started work bright and early yesterday. Well, I say bright and early, they got up about 11.00!!!!! After a slow start we all got dressed up in our Sunday best to start concreting!!! Helen and Mel were given yellow banana man suits to wear, they looked gorgeous!!!! After six cubic metres of concrete we were all a bit tired!!

The work continued today with the girls using the chainsaw and the big axe. Helen still has two feet although she did try hard to chop one off!!! The boys have done another cubic metre of concrete next to the barn in preparation for building the support pillars. One day we will finish all of the concreting!!! Any new visitors need to remember to bring their best concreting clothes!!

Love to all.

And then there was one ...

It seems very quiet in the house this evening and all of my card partners have gone!! Steve, Laura, Madison, Gary and Debbie have all gone this afternoon after working their little butts off for a few days. Well, Steve has actually worked his little butt off for two weeks, thanks loads Steve, you are a star!!!

It was Lauras birthday on Thursday and the day was spent making her happy. I am not sure whether the sumo wrestling with her husband and getting very wet counted as happy but I know it made Andrew smile when she had to sort out her moist clothing!!!!! Sorry Laura, I did try to warn you that he was coming!!!! Birthday dinner was excellent thanks to Tony and the champagne rounded it all off nicely. The birthday cake was also very tasty and handmade in the morning by Andrew. Next year, Andrew is going to make the teddy bear body as well!!!!

The boys worked like little trojans yesterday and managed to complete Part 1 of the bridgeworks. The concrete is starting to set and looks very professional with inset rocks!! Lets hope we have some more visitors soon so that the rest gets completed before winter sets in. Andrew was the official foreman for the day as he managed to hurt his back loading the trailer in the morning. Last times foreman just looked like Father Christmas after they finished!! Poor Gary had to borrow my boots for the day, he looked very fetching. I am sure Alex is going to be very envious but I promise to let her borrow them when she comes next!! Thanks Gary!!! Tony has also had some fun with boots this weekend. Thankfully Laura took pity on him and helped him to extract his legs!!

Debbie has also had her share of fun. Tony worked very hard to make her dirty. He finally succeeded after telling her that leaving the window of the Range Rover open was necessary for Health and Safety when you go off roading. Josh, Kirsty and Peter have also had fun making the most enormous sand castles. The down side is that Peter and Zorro seem to be bringing half the sand back into the house!!

It was absolutely great to have everyone here for two weeks. It has been non stop chaos, fun and work!!!! Thanks to everyone who has been here and worked really hard. Thanks as well to our new Chief Photographer, Laura, for taking some great shots, including my flowers and for not deleting any!!! Love you Laura.

No time to relax after the weekend

The boys have been very busy in the nice wet weather since the weekend. We are still amazed that we had such good weather, I am sure noone believes us!

Unfortunately, our bridge has started to collapse into the stream. This could be a disaster as the road could flood and we could be marooned!!! The kids think that would be great of course as they wouldnt have to go to school.

We have had 12 tonnes of stones delivered and the sand and cement should arrive tomorrow. The days will then be spent mixing and fixing!!!

The works are progressing well so far, even though the bridge started to collapse some more when they first started. The shuttering has now been completed on one side and the boys have remained completely dry throughtout the time!! At no point have they been wet or muddy!!! He he!!

Where do I start??? .........

I just do not know where to start!! We have had the most fantastic weekend here in France. The weather was absolutely brilliant, we even needed suncream! Can you believe that in October!?? The first visitors arrived just after lunch on Friday and we started to party. Friday evening ended very late after hot chilli for those who could stand it and a milder version for those of us valuing our tummies slightly more!!!

Saturday morning started with the traditional french breakfast of pastries, croissants and pain au chocolat. The sun burnt through very quickly and the temperatures soon rose. The eager ones were out on the field early testing out the pitch in readiness for the real match on Sunday!! The bale tossing was won by Andrew, (must have been fixed), with Tony coming a close second. Peter gained an award for trying the hardest!!! We made some new friends, Tony and Amy, who joined us for the day. Tony is a professional photographer so we are hoping for some great photos from the day!!!!! After an afternoon playing more games on the field we enjoyed a paella, lovingly prepared with the help of our sous chef Maddog!!! He got the great job of preparing the onions, garlic and squid!!! Our neighbours, the Vautiers, aka Thierry the friendly farmer and his family joined us for dinner and madness. Fun was had playing night time frisbee and 4X4 excursions in the dark in the valley. We all survived!!!! We couldn't persuade the Vautiers to play cards but the rest of us played until the early hours. Keith and Sue did not cheat at all, but I think that several people were "Poo Heads"!! (You needed to be here!!)

After a full crepe breakfast on Sunday the eager ones were yet again out on the pitch in preparation ....... I spent the morning wondering whether I should have asked the French team whether they played slowpitch or fastpitch.

The boys prayers were finally answered at lunch when an all girls team arrived to play! You can imagine the excitement! One of the girls has been picked for the French National team!! Oh dear, were our guys in trouble!! The rest of the French team arrived slightly later with their coach, would this be the end of the excitement, it was looking serious!!!

A small van pulled in the drive last. The French teams coach told us that he had brought the local tv station with him. Oh no!! A dirty t-shirt, no make up and I didnt have my lenses in!!!! Panic Panic Panic!!! The presenter was a lovely young lady who could speak some English, excellent I thought, no translating. No such luck!! They wanted to do an interview with us and someone needed to translate as her English was not good enough! Well, Andrew and I managed a great interview!!! I think I spent more time answering questions than translating though. At the end of the interview she asked if there was anything else that we wanted to add. Andrew had a great answer; "NO!!" He is definitely a man of few words!!

The game was fun and exciting. Needless to say we won, but we still gave them the Chateau Larcombe trophy and the MPV3 award went to the new French National player!! The team joined us for after game drinks and left in high spirits. We have invited them back for next year already!!

Sunday ended with another meal outside, watching Field of Dreams in the cinema, a girls only card session, night time frisbee and much more that I am sure I have forgotten......

The food went very well for the weekend, although I am biased!! However, we are still missing a large block of cheddar!!!! (Its ok Sue, I wont tell the real story, I love you!!!)

Thanks again to everyone for the most fabulous weekend. We are missing you all already. The game of cards this evening is a very quiet affair!!! Same time next year with more people????????

Love you all, especially you Sue.

And so it begins!!!!!!

You may be wondering why there has been very little blog for a while. Well this weekend is softball weekend and we have been frantically preparing everything ready for our numerous guests who will start arriving today. The softball diamond has been mowed and white lined, the bedroom has been plasterboarded and populated with numerous beds. I think we're up to 8 now plus a double inflatable. The cinema has been set up, trophies made, signs made and all sorts of other stuff. Coming soon we should have plenty of photos from the weekend of the softball and the social events running along side. We will hopefully beat our peeps in a barrel record, set our welly and bale tossing records and have plenty of fun in the process.

Do you like our new cinema screen???

Guess what we have in our loft?????

What to do if it is raining!!???

Well, what do you do in the country when it is raining? You cook of course!!!! You can make apple and plum (and possibly sloe) jam, hokey pokey, apple sauce, egg custard, jam tart (of the large variety), baked cheesecake, apple pies and custard tarts!!!!

YUMMMMYYY!!