Pictures from our tropical garden.

Trip to Angers

Blink and you'll miss it - look carefully (but not too closely please) and you'll even see some rare shots of yours truly in this little lot.

Age! The Man!

One of us has just had a Slush Puppy and one of us has just had a Smarties ice-cream and we're very happy on e-numbers thank you very much!

Getting on a bit

I was 39 a few days ago, but a couple of weeks beforehand I went into crisis mode, more over the fact that my fortieth is not so far away. I then launched myself into a 'get fit before 40' campaign. At first I was convinced it was just a phase and would soon pass and I was therefore not unduly worried. I am now into the third week, have lost about 6lbs, got into my smaller jeans and still cycling and swimming. I also start the day well, eating healthily, drinking water etc. Although I only get to about 4pm, when the cravings hit and I have to succome to the temptations of the fridge and the contents of glass bottles and then the sufferings of eternal guilt. Hopefully I will get over all this silliness soon and get back to a normal life on the sofa with the cat.

Am currently painting the kitchen blue. We have done nothing to it since we moved in and I was fed up with the paint job of the previous owners. Has taken me three weeks so far. Not that the kitchen is that big, but that I can only do a bit at a time, usually after the girls have gone to bed. The blue is almost done now and I do like it, but sometimes it feels a bit like being in a swimming pool. Got some white gloss to paint the door into the garage today (it's currently maroon leaded paint, so it's not going anywhere, I just have to hide it), plus some primer to paint over the tiles and cupboards. I am hoping it will be finished before I'm forty otherwise I might end up having another crisis. One unfortunate thing though, shortly after I'd started painting the kitchen, I went into our bathroom, which also has not been changed since we moved in, and realised that the colour that I hate in there is blue and coincidently very similar to the blue I'm putting in the kitchen....

One more week of the gites being full and quite frankly I think we'll all be glad when the weekend comes and they all bugger off. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy it, but now we need to wind down a bit and get some of our own space back too. We've still got bookings through September, which is good, but they're mostly adults so it will feel different and the week-end changeovers should be easier.

Night of the home brew

See previous post 'Home grown produce' (02/07/09 'In the Garden') for details of this little soiree 'en famille'. With thanks to Virginia for these pics.

My mother is on the left at the back seemingly snuggling up to a man who is not my father (he's opposite with wine in hand).

I must admit that I don't remember this photo being taken... The offending item is there in my hands, it seems I only have myself to blame.

the apprentice french folk...

Not much to write about at the mo, we are very busy with the gites/cottages and what have you, loads of washing for me as we provide bedding and towels for 22, plus all that the girls generate, spending most of their time outdoors...

Mostly had some lovely guests in so far, apart from one cottage that we cleaned a couple of weeks ago that was absolutely disgusting. Four adults and two young children stayed for a week, you'd think it was a year and that they had never cleaned, it was completely gross, I will not go into details here as I am trying to forget about it, although I keep getting flashbacks, especially when I go back in there. It took six hours between Adrian and myself to clean it, it was so bad. Fortunately they had paid for the cleaning service, but it worked out at €5,00 per hour, much less than the minimum wage! Never seen anything like it and we've had a few dirty gites since we've been here (luckily most people leave them in a reasonable state, but the bad ones stand out unfortunately).

Anyway, weather is good at the mo, I believe it is raining in the uk, ha ha, you should have come here for your hols! We have now booked out all the summer and are concentrating on getting some more september bookings in now.