Such an improvement. We have now got two full sides of the house done and the little cellar room 90% done. Which is pretty good since we have had a constant stream of guests since the middle of June. Some of them we did put to work but generally it's a time for a bit of getting out and about. We even took a week off and went with our friend Alan down to Collioure then Barcelona before going to Ibiza to catch up with Gabbi. Love most things about Spain - the food is generally great - although my personal opinion is that Paella is a very over rated dish - Paul strongly disagrees with this and would happily order it at most meals! I love tapas and having lots of different flavors to try. Anyway here is some pics of our trip.
We even did a dive at Ibiza - this was not a great idea and after having dived in Greece we should have remembered that we are spoilt West Aussies who actually enjoy seeing some good size fish and corals etc. Suffice to say the dive was pretty uninteresting - however it keeps Paul and my skills up to date for when we can get some real dives in.
At the end of July my friend Sherrylee dropped in for a couple of days - this was awesome as we hadn't caught up for probably over twenty years after having been room mates back in boarding school. As I had expected she hadn't changed a bit and we had a lovely time reminiscing and generally catching up. Since then Gabs has been here with a couple of her friends from Aus, which was great other then one of them ending up in hospital here in Gourdon with a rather nasty infection. Consequently their flights home had to be changed but they are now all back safely in WA. Unfortunately for Gabbi, who would have loved to stay in the UK and or Europe, but alas her visa has now expired and so she didn't have much option. It was nice that she had company for the long flight back though. Definitely going to miss having her always being only a short flight away. One day hopefully us and our girls can actually all live on the same continent again!
Paul has been very busy the past couple of weeks with raising a wall on the "porcherie" or pig sty and replacing the roof. This will mean it actually is a more usuable space. At the moment is has just been a dumping ground for firewood and wasn't somewhere you would hang about in, as the roof was very precariously balanced on some old rotten timber. He is currently putting back the tiles after pressure washing them - then it will be time to crepi the walls and it will be another big job done.
And here is a shot of Paul having a chat to one of the donkeys he drops in to see every now and again on the way into Gourdon.
I am back riding Tolsan most days after his feet and stomach issues - just mostly some casual hacks out. Here he is looking at the sunflower crop in the valley behind our house on one of his favourite routes.
The sad thing this year is since it is likely he is quite sensitive to sugar he's not allowed to have his usual snacks from the fruit trees on our walks. Dieting is just no fun for anyone! But neither is having very sore feet I guess..
