C'est tres froid, encore!!

Not sure if the title makes any sense but you probably get the picture - It's cold again today and not just a little bit - enough to turn the heater back on at lunchtime. And this is after we have had a week or so of lovely warm sun - no rain much and it finally looked like it was going to warm up towards summer. Oh well - the forecast has it getting warmer again in a few days so I will just have to get the winter clothes out of the barn again! We had some weird thunderstormy weather last week - I got this picture of the clouds brewing over Jouanicou. Pretty specky.

We had a lovely day on Sunday - we took Paul's little BMW motorbike for a bit of a long run with our neighbor and his girlfriend on his big Honda. We went to watch an Endurance horse race at Beaumont du Perigord. The weather was perfect for it and with all the spring flowers and crops looking amazing it was very nice. It was interesting to watch the Endurance goings on too - would love to do one but I don't think my chunky boy would make the 20km distance let alone 90ks! Here is Paul in the square at Beaumont.

In other news life has just been speeding along as it does - I am sure when you have deadlines the weeks just disappear into the ether. We have come to the conclusion that no, the spare bedroom and bathroom will not be ready when Gabbi arrives at the end of next week and possibly unlikely to have it all done when our friends from Aus are due at the end of next month. It should be nice weather for camping by then anyway ha. It's not like we aren't busy or working on it - we are - it's just that everything seems to take longer then expected and we often have delays with sourcing materials that can hold things up. Paul has pretty much completed all the plasterboard, plumbing, electrics etc etc on the second floor. We have a plasterer coming in next week to finish the joints and make it look pretty. This past week we have been working on the ground floors walls which are coming along nicely. Paul has had to raise some lintels and we have decided to knock through the back window to make it into a door so we have some access to the back of the house. Actually Paul really didn't want to do this but I have finally convinced him it will be short term pain for long term gain. It will be one of those things that we will regret not doing down the track if we don't do it I think.

I have been having some fun with my horses. Tolsan was initially brilliant with no problems at all but he has formed a bond with Ambre that is very strong and they really don't like to be apart at all. So much for me getting Ambre so he had some company. I still believe he needs it but it has made life a little difficult in the short term. He has also developed a big problem with the bit and I have had lots of trouble with bridling him - to the point that I was using just the halter and lead rope to ride him. The first time there was no problems at all but the next time he noticed that I had given Ambre her breakfast before we left and he decided he wasn't going anywhere! We pretty much had a rodeo going on in our front yard - the neighbors must have been having a good laugh but it freaked me out a little as I am not a fan of rearing as having a big fat horse fall back on you is not something you want to experience. So long story short I have had his trainer out today but in the meantime I have spent hours with him doing some ground work and getting him better at taking the bit. And today the trainer worked with him and me for a couple of hours and hopefully it looks like he will get over his big issue of leaving his little girl friend. It doesn't help when as soon as she can't see him she starts whinnying and making a huge fuss. Thankfully when the trainer came today he didn't turn into the perfect horse when she rode him although it wasn't quite as dramatic due largely I think to having a bit in. The trainer is a French girl but she can speak some English so we do a lot of Franglaise and always seem to understand each other in the end. I was able to ride him out for quite a while at the end of today's session without too many incidents and it was an awful day for it as it was blowing a gale. If he can go around our valley with that wind he should be able to cope with anything. Anyway in other news I am really looking forward to next week as I am taking the train from Gourdon up to Paris to meet Gabs. A couple of girlie days in Paris will be lovely. She has been flat out getting her life sorted out as she has got a two year working visa for the UK so has had to organise all her possessions - get her apartment ready to rent out etc etc - anyway she had entered a hair dressing competition and was freaking out because it was on the night before she had to vacate the apartment - but the big news is she ended up winning it! She has won a trip to NY and possibly even more importantly her look is going on the front cover of a national hair dressing magazine. Should help with the London job prospects! Well I think that is about it. The days are so long here already - sun is up by 6ish and doesn't go down until about 9.30 - means lots of hours for working which is good but we are both pretty tired at the minute. I do a French conversation class on a Tuesday evening but the last two weeks I have been pretty hopeless mainly because I am too tired to make any sense in English let alone French! Will have to start trying to go to bed a little earlier...good luck with that..