Winter Pruning

Well, winter has finally arrived with a cold blast of wind from the North.  It's still difficult to accept that only 3 days ago we returned from England to sun and 30 degrees!  It's now about 8 and likely to be frosts in the mornings.  So, we have started to work our way around the garden in an attempt to be on top of it when everything starts growing again in the Spring.  We actually have a head start since JJ kindly tidied up all of the Iris beds and the box hedge whilst we were away.

Sue's first job was to begin pruning the roses; a large job as they haven't been looked at for 2 years!

Bringing You Up to Date

We've been busy since our last posting and so we felt it best to give you an update.

Our electrician managed to fit us in last week to start finishing off the electrics in the office, salon and third bedroom.  He was with us a couple of days and the office and salon are nearly finished.  It's incredibly difficult for him to sort our what wires run where and what our previous electrician had in mind when he did the prepatory work!  But it's nice not to have lots of wires hanging out of holes in the walls.

Hopefully, he will be back next Monday to continue!

Then, last Friday we flew of to the UK to see Guy and Carla, although I wanted to go to an exhibition at the Tate Liverpool first.

The exhibition was of paintings from the later years of Turner, Monet and Twombly.  It was an extremely inspiring show of contrasting yet similar works by these three artists spaning 3 centuries.  We enjoyed it even more as there was a large group of some 100 students at the exhibition, looking and sketching and we got into conversation with a few of them.  Very stimulating!

We spent a couple of days with Guy and Carla before moving on to our friends Paul and Jennifer for two more days.  We then had to run the perils of flying out of Britain.  We had absolutely no problem getting in to the country from Limoges but it was a different matter at Liverpool Airport.  We had requested a wheelchair for Sue when booking but, on arrival at John Lennon Sue felt she'd be ok.  However she started to get a bit wobbly in the long queue through security.  We were aware of the tight restrictions on 'Liquids' needing to be in a clear plastic bag, but, as we got nearer the head of the queue, that became 'Liquids, Pastes and Creams'.
When it was our turn to go through the security procedure, Mrs. Hitler announced that the bag we had was too big, as stated on all the notices on the walls and I would have to go back and buy one out of a machine for 50p.  This was a problem as I only had a £10 note and the machine only accepted coins.  When I went back to the Security people I politely asked a different lady what I should do.  A this point a sweet young girl infront of us (but they all look sweet and young!) gave me a 50p coin for the machine.  However the second lady official, (who had some shreds of kindness), stuffed my original bag next to my case in the tray  and let me go through.  Needless to say, no-one was the slightest bit interested in what liquids I had in the clear bag, nor, for that matter, for the toothpaste etc. which I'd left in our hand-luggage.

Whilst all of this was going on, Sue was becoming a bit upset but she was then singled out by Mrs. Hitler for a closer scrutiny; she maintained that she had to do this to 1 in every 5 passengers.  However, when Sue began to cry she must have realised that there was a potential problem, maybe even being sued, and she became very comforting and even ended up arranging for a wheelchair for Sue as 'it was a long way to the Gate for boarding'!  We were able to laugh at it all later, but we do get frustrated at the lip service paid to the whole process of airport security.

This and That

It is the middle of October, it has been warm and we have had some rain. The grass in the courtyard (sown two weeks ago) is two inches high in places and the back field has returned to green. I thought I would share with you our only splash of colour in the garden. The begonias shrivelled up to virtually nothing in the August heatwave and the ageratums are self set.

John is on a mission! Suddenly he's decided that we need to clear up, ie. he is sweeping up the mess he has created in the salon. The next thing I know boxes are appearing from the top loft and we are now spending our evenings sorting out family photos. This job was originally scheduled for 6 years ago!! However, he now needs old photographs for an "art work" he wants to do, so we leap into action.

Amongst the photos are lots of slides - remember that era - and we were going to issue an SOS to see if anyone had one of those mini viewers. Miraculously yesterday lunchtime a projector appeared; it belonged to his father and was found in one of the boxes.

The nicest part is to find that we once looked young, dare I say it, even quite glam in long dresses and exposing bits of flesh that were in the right place...... and did he look dishey with that long dark hair and moustache!! The moral of this story is never look back.

New Image

Sue's hair is growing well and she decided the time had come to have it cut in an attempt to give it a shape to aid future growth.

It isn't long and it is very fine, and she still thinks that the wig is easier to manage!

'Toys come Out'

We passed another milestone yesterday when, after 6 years we finally unpacked all of our books which had been in boxes since our arrival here in France.

It was wonderful! Like Christmas and birthday all rolled into one.  I kept 'finding' books which I had forgotten or about which I have remarked in the past, 'I wonder where that books is?'  I won't need to buy another book for years, and I'll be able to start writing my book now that all my source material is to hand!!!

Mas de Bouye Art Club

This afternoon became pleasantly warm and so Sue decided to do a little work on her sculpture.

She is in the process of removing all the loose detritus and bark and then starting to sand it down. 
(Notice the glass of wine in the background!)

At the same time, I've started on a new piece of work;  it's the first stage of building up the background to give an almost 3-d effect.  All will be revealed in due course.

In the Pigeonnier

I finally got the opportunity to assemble the bookshelves in the office today.  As my neighbour JJ reminded me, I'd planned to have this finished by Sunday evening and it's Tuesday today!  So it gradually went up.

However, now that it's up it's not finished.  I've got to do some work on the joints and then some touch-up painting.  At the same time, the Project Manager is reflecting, as there's some concern that it looks like Royal Mail Sorting Office pigeon-holes.  I've tried to reassure her that it will look different once there are books and cd's on show and, if we don't put them in the office, where else would we put them!  She is now going to mull it all over and we may end up putting a door there to hide it all!