Out with the Old

What better way to see out the old year than with your head down the drains?!

With Guy's help to get rid of the buckets of effluent the job wasn't half as bad as I feared.

What I'm actually doing is emptying the grease trap from the kitchen and we get a build up of grease which gradually impairs the exit of the water, principally from the washing machine.  I think I'm going to have to empty the trap a lot more regularly!

And a happy New Year to you all.

Enthusiasm Renewed

I became interested in Bonsai in the 90's and developed some trees over the course of the next ten or so years.  I brought a few choice specimen with us when we came to France but last year they (and many other plants in the garden) succumbed to lack of water and care.  I felt that that was a phase of my life which had finished but suddenly, two days before Christmas, the urge came upon me, when I was considering New Year's Resolutions, to resume my interest in Bonsai.  And, if you believe in signs, Guy came to us for Christmas and gave me an indoor Bonsai for a present!

So today, we all went for an exploratory walk up the hill to where we own a small parcel of land and we 'harvested' 3 Junipers which can be trained in pots if they survive the uprooting.

The only problem is that we'll have to find somewhere else to grow our tomatoes!

Santa's Helpers

....have been busy!

All work on the stairs were stopped by the management ... too much dust for the forthcoming festivities.  So all attention was turned to finally, finally finishing the 'guests' bedroom before the first guests arrive for Christmas.  And so, after only about two and a half years, the room is ready!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully, future progress will be a little more speedy.

In the meantime the cleaning staff have been furiously bleaching and polishing ready for Santa Claus (and our guests).

So, we are now not only spick and span but also seasonally decorated.

Happy Christmas to all our friends and followers.  Thanks for your kind thoughts and comments throughout this difficult year.  Let the adventure continue!

Eureka

Yes, we have now hit the "eureka" moment.  I saw the specialist this morning and he told me that the MRI scan showed that the cancer is blocked and the small tumours in my lungs have actually shrunk a little. We would say that I am in remission but they don't use that expression here, they just say that I am stable. Whatever the terminology it is great news. To be honest I felt that that would be the result as I feel so much better but I was anxious not to count my chickens.

I am to see the specialist once a month and he will monitor the situation with the aid of blood tests. The side effects of the chemo have just started to dissipate so a few weeks without it will give my body a chance to recover. I am to have a bone density scan, to ensure that I can have a hormone treatment in the future which will be belt and braces to ward off the cancer.

Now for more important matters...........we invited some friends over for Sunday lunch last weekend and our friends Annie and Donnie kindly brought us a trailer-load of manure! Enough for all of the vegetable patch!

We've had rain off and on since then but this afternoon John was able to spread it evenly over the beds so it can work in during the winter.(It's getting late now, that's why the photo's dark!)