the march of time

Oh well - it had to happen - a "significant" birthday. Can't stop the march of time and the mathematics of another year gone! (Our dancing friends appreciated the croix occitane on my birthday cake)

Whilst I am not keen on many of the results of aging, it is worth remembering that its only because of the luxury of retirement at an age when there is still time to embark on new enterprises that we are here living la vie francaise.

It is almost a year since we left England, at that time without a French home to go to, in some ways it seems so much longer than that as we feel so much at home. We certainly have no regrets about our decision to come.

What do we miss from England?

• sitting in the pub with friends after clogging practice (and the beer)
• my hairdresser
• decent garden centres
• j cloths ( brought back a year's supply on my last visit to England)

Other than these not much else other than our friends. Family, who did not live near us in England, we are seeing as often as we did and travelling back to England for visits is really easy.


The list on the plus side is just too long. We are loving the weather, living in the countryside, the lack of traffic, the food, the lifestyle in general. Our new house and garden is just what we were looking for and we are enjoying our projects to make it "ours". Getting involved with traditional music and dance has been great for us , we have lots of new friends and Trevor is being able to extend his musical repetoire including learning a new instrument.

The one thing which would improve things for me ( apart from the above list) would be being able to speak better French. Day to day stuff like shopping is ok but the general banter of conversation is more of a challenge as the subject keeps changing. The local accent round these parts ( think Geordie) doesn't help either! I really must look into some lessons after the summer.



On other matters the kittens are thriving - unfortunately still all here and causing havoc - we have banished them to outside most of the time as their antics were wrecking the kitchen. Charbonne ( mother cat) is booked in for spaying next week - better late than never!

Then there were five or how lucky can you get?

We were so pleased when the little black cat from the farmers barn across the road decided to make ours her home too (see post/2011/02/the cat sat on the mat). Bit by bit it became friendlier and did indeed start to sit on our laps during the evening. We began to think of it as our cat and had also realised that it was a she ( Charbon became Charbonne) - must get to the vet we thought ! No sooner thought than it became apparent that we were too late - she was bulging!

And so it was that two weeks ago she gave birth to her kittens and we now have a whole basketful of lucky black cats.




Being a very young cat ( less than a year old we think) it was clearly too soon for her to be giving birth. The first kitten was born at midday but by 5 oclock she had given up and was becoming distressed so it was an emergency dash to the vet with cat and kitten in a laundry basket. The vet managed to remove the second kitten which had been the wrong way up and had died and did an ultrasound which revealed three more live kittens to come. So after a hormone injection we returned home to await developments. Instead of the shed our living room became the maternity ward and by midnight mother and four kittens were doing fine.





So now here we are with five black cats and obviously they are quite adorable. It is interesting to watch their rapid development and the maternal instincts of Charbonne as she cares for them. One of them has a tiny white bib so we have decided we will keep this one ( as we will be able to tell it apart from her mum) and have named her Purdy. As for the other three, if we are very lucky, ( and we do have a lot of black cats) we will find good homes with new owners bit this being the French countryside that is probably not very likely and we have been searching for local cat adoption agencies. Its lucky ( those black cats again) that we haven't got holiday plans this year - French resident visitors will have to check their bags as they leave!

half a year on

This week marks six months of us living here at Ségala - time to take a breath and pinch ourselves to check its all for real!

We have had an incredibly busy six months and become regulars at the local Mr Bricolage as we worked on making Ségala our own. We were lucky that apart from the new ceiling beam and bedroom floor the major works on the house were done by the previous owners who created a lovely home out of a basic barn building. All we have had to do is work on changing things like the lighting and kitchen to put our own touches.




The garden too was beautiful and well stocked with plants which it has been fun to watch springing into life with the warmer weather. I have moved many of them and with each small change the garden feels more like mine. The greenhouse was an unexpected bonus and it is currently crammed with plants and seedlings ready for planting out.








Winter in this area was a new experience - we had been here in November and February for short visits but not for extended periods. It turned out to be more lively than I had expected - clubs etc actually mostly run in the winter months ( our dancing classes for instance will finish this week for the summer)- there were lots of dances to go to and we have met lots of people and generally led a more sociable life than usual. We had to get used to being without central heating and a stone house can take some warming up but log fires and efficient radiators and gas stoves have kept us cosy. Despite some cold spells, frost and snow its not been as cold as we are used to and there have even been occasional lunches in the garden. Its also been blissfully short - here we are at the start of April and it feels like summer already.

Best of all has been our success in getting involved with traditional music and dancing in the area - TC has been able to extend his repetoire and we have met lots of people with common interests which helps to reduce any language barrier.

We love Villefranche which is our nearest town ( only 20 minutes drive away and so different from the traffic and hassle of the drive through Longton and Fenton! ) and visit its brilliant market every Thursday. Today we drove to Bruniquel to visit our little holiday house ( next issue is getting that sold) - a beautiful drive along the Aveyron gorge. The countryside is turning greener every day and as Easter gets closer the holiday businesses are sprucing themselves up and getting ready for the arrival of the summer visitors - glad I'm not one of those any longer!

Now we are looking forward to welcoming our own summer visitors - hopefully there will be plenty - to be able to share this corner of paradise we are lucky enough to call home.

To bourée or not to bourée?

To bourée or not to bourée?
For us there was no question.

Getting involved with traditional music and dancing was a vital part of our lifestyle here and we were lucky to find a nearby dance association running a course over the winter months . ( see blog 30/11/10 We have cracked the mazurka!). Not only were we able to learn some French traditional dances and meet lots of French people we had lots of "bals" to go to over the winter months. Recently the tutor at these classes has introduced us to another class she runs in her own village. This is, as she says, " des kilometres" away, but is brilliant as there are musicians there who welcome TC and he has been able to join in when they are playing as well as dancing. He has met up with a fiddle player in Albi who also has time to play ( ie is retired from the wage game) and on Friday was back on stage playing bourées while I looked for another partner to dance with!


After my retirement I had fancied the idea of calling at celidhs ( maybe a way of not getting left behind every weekend when the band was playing?) . Little did I know that my first try would be calling a " strip the willow" dance in French. Three out of four sets managed which did not seem too bad ( I have seen some disasters at English celidhs!) and everyone seemed to have fun.

So as Spring arrives in all its glory - are we glad we moved here ?

silly question - vive la bourée!

March winds

The south of France is often blown by winds with delightful names. Everyone has heard of the Mistral of Provence. The Languedoc France has the Cers, Tramontane, Maron, Sirocco and the one which reaches as far as us, the Autan. IT BLOWS! Described as a warm wind it doesn't really chill but it does batter the brains. ( I do remember how a windy playtime always spelt trouble on the playground - I think I know why now!).

On Saturday it was carrying rain and we had a rare day sheltering indoors all day. It made us reflect on the wage slave days when a wet weekend meant so much in terms of frustrated plans. For us it meant a day getting lots of little left over jobs done indoors before a nice meal and a bottle of wine ( yes we do drink wine on other days but usually it comes out of the box). I had thought I'd get some reading done but once again no time!


There was a lull yesterday but today it was back , this time dry but very gusty. The meteo gave the wind speed as 35kph with gusts of 65. Not really the day for erecting fences then but when did the weather ever stop us?




before

awakenings

No eyesore needing concealment, no overlooking neighbours, no prevailing wind needing to be fended off, no useful shade cover, no shortage of other trees struggling to compete, no room to manouevre in the drive - in fact no excuse whatsoever for huge, ugly, hacked about leylandii That's if there could ever be an excuse for Leylandii). There were five specimens lining the drive up to the house, cut back at the bottom to allow cars to pass and growing thick and dense - they HAD to go. It has been a mammoth task as we were determined not to be left with another mountain of leylandii debris as we had successfully cleared one of those left behind by the previous residents at Segala. A six day bonfire and much chainsawing later we now have a stack of logs and a lovely clear view across the fields. We can almost hear the smaller trees left behind breathing sighs of relief as they feel the sun.




I have planted daffodils along the line of the fence which hopefully will spread and in the summer we will sow a flower mixture along the edge of the drive.

Elsewhere in the garden things are starting to wake in response to some warm sunny days and some gentle February rain. Watching a garden wake up where I don't know every plant in the garden because I put it there is a strange experience. I have started sowing and planting myself so by this time next year I shall know what to look forward to - for now each day brings new and beautiful discoveries and some welcome tiny splashes of colour.







There is a time of huge disruption ahead as we have the installation of the pool to "look forward" to and the terassier has already warned of devastation and it is time to retrieve plants destined for destruction by hole and trench digging machinery and replant them elsewhere. This is good as with each replanting bit by bit the garden is changing shape and by next year will feel more mine own.

the cat sat on the mat

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder - well it has certainly worked regarding the little feral kitten we were trying to "adopt " before we went away for two weeks. Previously she was very nervous when we opened the door and did not like coming inside the house to eat ( even to escape the chickens who were always after her food) and certainly hated it if we closed the door on her escape route. An absence of two weeks has worked wonders and we now have a quite different little cat who follows me around the garden playing and climbing trees, comes inside to eat and has started to explore the downstairs rooms - maybe one day she will even sit on my lap!

Our trip to England was a great success. Combe Martin folk club was a gem and TCs performance was needless to say brilliant. We had a lovely time and enjoyed being back as part of the English folk music scene. North Devon too was delightful and we loved the scenery and being beside the sea.

During the following week we spent happy times with family, availed ourselves of retail opportunities before a stay in North Staffordshire for our "leaving party". The celidh was just brilliant and all that we had hoped it would be. There were over 100 people ( including our children who had travelled from Coventry and Norwich to be there), many reunions, great music and lots of dancing. We were showered with presents, there were cake and balloons (which stayed in the window of the car for our return journey and are still decorating our dining room) and we generally had an evening to remember.



During the evening I was able to clog again with Leopard spot which was great ( especially good to know I can still remember how ) and we also introduced the assembled throng to the sardane which we have learnt at our dancing classes her in France. TC had sent the music to the band in advance and they had made it their own! It was good fun even if only a few people danced a recognisable sardane( I blame the teacher). Next month we are due to teach some English tunes and dances at a folk event here - all round I think this could be trickier!

Although we had had a great time and it was lovely catching up with friends and family we were very happy to be home - and yes, here really is home already. This week we have signed the contract for the installation of our swimming pool ( our last grand project), we have painted our big bedroom ready for the carpet to be fitted and we are starting to plan the rest of our garden projects for the summer. We are looking forward to welcoming more visitors over the summer months and the last few days the weather has been just glorious during the day full of promise of an imminent Spring.

If TC can shake off the very English cough and cold he brought back with him without passing it on to me I shall be extremely grateful as I have a lot planned for this week!