Au revoir juillet

I should have written my blog yesterday but I am finding it very difficult to make the time - what with looking after the horses - occasionally trying to help Paul - do all the usual housework stuff and now not watching copious amounts of Olympic hockey games on the dedicated BBC channel! Oh well as long as it gets done once a month ha - it will be up to every two months soon... but anyway we have had a good few weeks. Building wise Paul has finished the super deluxe horse shelter and thankfully it was just in time for some blisteringly hot weather and they do use it. We have finished the oak floor in one of the bedrooms which looks good. I also located some more oak parquet direct from a sawmill for a lot less money for the other bedroom which we will put in soon.

Paul has spent the last week or so doing lots of stonework out the front of the house - it now looks like we have a walls everywhere - some I have just uncovered that had been under the ivy. They all need to be jointed now which will be a good job for me and Gabs who we picked up from the train last Thursday night. She arrived with a bad head cold which it now appears she has shared with me as I have a very sore throat tonight. Not happy Jan!

Paul has also uncovered some old footings in the front yard along with lots of old bits and pieces. He has rebuilt part of the walls on top of the them. Would be so interesting to have more information about the building history.

A couple of weeks back we spent the day or some of it with Yves and some of his Belgian guests watching the Tour de France go past. It had a leg between Toulouse and Brive which passed only about 15km away from us so we couldn't not go and experience it. Most of the time it is just sitting around waiting but then the fun begins about an hour before the cyclists go through as lots of sponsors cars go past throwing out crap freebies/samples which we all had a lot of fun fighting over. Here is Paul and Yves in their free green lycra shirts and a couple of shots of the cyclists.

I have still been riding lots and have had a couple more dressage lessons - most recently this morning. I am starting to think I can't ride at all as I find it very difficult - there is just too many things to think about and Tolsan can be a bit on the lazy side so most of the time I have to be pushing him on at the same time as trying to adjust my seat and the reins - maintain my balance etc. I think I will be feeling the effects of attempting a rising trot without stirrups for weeks!! We went to the Cazal market on Sunday to pick up some fruit and vegies. I have to admit I feel so much more comfortable asking for things in French then I did even a few months back so hopefully the french lessons are starting to pay off. Here's Paul and Gabs wandering around.

It has been very warm here the last few weeks - and it is starting to really dry out. Some rain would be very welcome. We have had some hay delivered by one of our farmer neighbors ready for when our pastures have all been fed off which is getting to be very soon by the looks of it. The farmers are getting pretty desperate as a lot of their crops are mid season. We have a lovely field of sunflowers directly opposite our house. Harry decided to come with me when I walked down to photograph it.

L'été est là!

I am very sorry but I have been totally slack with writing the blog lately. My only excuse is that we are virtually never inside the house long enough to do it! The weather has been lovely and the days are so long - most nights we don't eat dinner until it is dark which is about 10 pm so as you can imagine it can be hard to find the time to do it! I was nicely reprimanded for always sending in my French homework late today - have promised my teacher to make time for it - will try to do the same for the blog! Well the past few weeks have literally just flown by. We had our friends Mark and Narelle here with their teenage daughters for a week so pretty much downed tools and played tour guides which was fun. Paul and Mark did build a very nice new garden wall in between drinking a lot of beer and generally having lots of lovely long chats. None of them had been out of Australia before so I think there was a little bit of culture shock going on. Some very funny incidents with the language ensued - side note to all potential visitors - we live in rural France - very few people speak English here - and don't need to - so it pays to at least know how to say hello and thank you. It's ok in the more touristy areas but generally around here you basically have to bumble your way along in French. Here are some photos from their visit. We took them to the usual spots - Sarlat - Rocamadour and went canoeing on the Dordogne near Beynac. That was a lovely hot day - Narelle and I were not able to participate due to both of us recovering from recent stints in hospital so we lazed around in the river downstream and waited for the canoeists to arrive. Such a beautiful area - will definitely be having a go next time.

We also checked out a 'famous' restaurant we have only about 15km away whilst they were here. "La Recreation" was the subject of a popular book although the original people who set it up have moved on - thankfully it lived up to it's fancy reputation. It's more expensive then most restaurants around here but totally worth it. We had undoubtedly the best meal we have had since moving here. Not only good looking food but yummo as well!

Since our visitors have left we have been busy with another side project. What started off being a small shade structure for the horses has now become a full on shelter complete with tack room. Paul has done a great job and it is nearly finished. We are about to do a trip back to the saw mill to get some more lining boards to complete it. The horses better make use of it! They looked pretty interested in it last night when we let them in to graze around it.

I have been riding nearly every day for the past week - I got the ok from the doctor to ride again and have been making the most of the nice weather. Even went on a three hour hack with the riding school on Sunday - was good because I now know some more tracks to use! Tolsan needs to have his front feet shod though as he gets very footy on the stoney tracks - he was trying to run on the sides all the time poor guy! I also had my first dressage lesson ever on Monday which was very embarrassing as I had an audience of about 10 people at the sand school as the gites there are all full of holiday makers. I have never done this type of riding before and trotting and cantering around in circles with no stirrups is very hard work I give you the tip! Tolsan hadn't fully recovered from the big ride the day before so I had a hard time getting him to stay in the canter - and my legs are still sore now! Here's my two - Ambre is nearly as big as Tolsan now and a couple of years still to grow!

Ok well I think that is all the news for now. Gabi is in Turkey at the minute and loving it although she is on one of those trips that goes everywhere but nowhere for any length of time so I am sure she will be off to the next country by now. Chelsea has just had a lovely week with her boyfriends' family in Florida before her preseason starts again in a month or so. Oh and here is a pic of the bath after I painted it up - hard to believe it was the same ugly dark blue one - what a bargain that turned out to be!