My Birthday


13 July

Family of Black Redstarts in garden, also colony of tree sparrows. Driving to Eguzon this afternoon  a pair of Booted Eagles were low over the road. Saw a comma butterfly and a Beautiful Damoselle along with some unidentified insects, can't wait to get my natural history library out here.

As I am writing this sitting outside in shorts and tee shirt at 7 am (6 am uk) there are Turtle doves churring in the trees all around the gite and a hobby just flew out of the trees behind the garden.

Anyway I made it to another Birthday and thanks to everyone who wished me well on Facebook etc. My target was to get to France before my Birthday and I just made it.

I started the day taking the dogs for a walk around 6am, it is so peaceful here and we are lucky to have a dead end road right next to gite ideal for their morning trot, stroll or lumber depending on which dog you are watching at the time. we all managed to arrive back more or less together.

Mid morning Luc our landlord arrived, I hadn't met him before and a nicer more laid back person you couldn't want to meet. Basically he is more than happy for us to do as we like, even told me I can use his power tools to fix or change anything we need to. He also began my education on the workings of the Fosse (septic tank), these are no long just a pit in the garden but a very high tech item, in fact I think French Universities probably run degree courses on them. So I have learnt how to feed it enzymes and bacteria, how to flush it if it smells etc.

The most exciting thing I did today was to go and visit the house we are buying. This was the first time I was going to see it having put my faith in Sharron and my sister in law Debbie. I was going on my own as Sharron needed to stay with the dogs. Maison des Lis is about 35km from here so I put the address into the Sat nav selected shortest route (when will I learn!!) and set off for a exploration of the back lanes of the Haute Vienne, incredibly pretty but sometimes you felt you where driving through someones garden.

I have of course seen many photographs of the house along with live streaming video when they were viewing, however the day they viewed it was pouring with rain. So when I pulled up it was the first time either of us had seen it in its full glory. It was stunning, I will save the details for when we actually move in but as you arrive the garden is a mass of colour. I had a tour of the house every room is beautifully decorated. The kitchen is huge compared with what we are used to, you can easily feed 6 around the main table.

Outside the land is perfect; a meadow edged with oak and Chestnut, 2 wells, ponds paddocks etc. There is a huge barn and other outbuildings and a stunning swimming pool. We are also purchasing tractors and accessories with the house including this wood saw, which is slightly bigger than I expected.

I spent about 3 hrs there and had to sample Gill's excellent chocolate brownie, she is a great baker. When I eventually left I was laden down with a bag of Miribelle plums, Lettuces and Coargettes from the garden, along with lots of ideas for projects I can do when we move in, such as making a lot of nestboxes to place around the garden.

The drive back was much less eventful as I headed for Eguzon to pick up food for my Birthday meal, a nice Steak for me and some trout for Sharron. Also a very nice bottle of Cremant de Loire, nicer than Champagne and a fifth of the price.

After dinner we took the dogs for their evening walk and retired.