Harvest Abondance

Having collected walnuts on Friday, we took our visitors to Cahors market on Saturday and it was a festival of Autumn produce ... all manner of mushrooms and fungi, chestnuts, pumpkins, leeks, etc, etc.

We didn't see any parsnips!?!

Sue's Little Helpers

Our friends Bob and Jenny are here and have been helping us in the garden.  But they were also able to help us profit from the walnut harvest.

Jean-jaques and Nadine had invited us to collect walnuts from their trees and so we were keen to have a stock of nuts for cooking over the winter.

We now have to dry them before we can use them!

Our helpers have earned their keep!!!

Everything in the Garden is ....

...being moved!
The Management Committee decided that all efforts should be concentrated in the garden.  Sue has great plans for splitting up a lot of things which do well here and moving some of them into the long bed at the back.
So we've been digging up Irises of differing varieties and some Day Lilies and rearranging as we go!

But of course we sometimes had to create a space for the transplants and the Cannas have been lifted and potted up with a view to trying to keep them over the winter!?

We have some more friends coming out for a few days next week and they are gardeners so we're hoping that the weather stays good and we'll be able to take advantage of their help.

A Change in the Weather

We went to a lovely concert in Cahors last night to listen to some friends who sing in a choir there.  When we left afterwards at about 11 pm it was 7 degrees but when we arrived home after about half an hour it was only 1 degree in the Ceou valley!!  Fortunately there was no white frost this morning but I saw a little puddle of frozen water on the table outside.  The cause of this change in the weather is Sue and her autumnal work in the garden.  Firstly 'we' took out the geraniums from the front garden to attempt to keep them in the porcherie over winter.  They have been replaced by Pansies.

Then she set to and has lifted all of the Petunias in the beds up against the front of the house.
Again these have been replaced by Pansies.

As you can see, this was done with the supervision of a certain dog who has gone from a scruffy dog .......

 ......to a skinned rat.

We hope that the cold snap doesn't last too long!

Too Much Socialising

We seem to have been having a lot of distractions the past couple of weeks; meals out with different friends (some of whom have now fled back to the UK for the winter).  Then we had Paul and Jennifer, our best friends from England, out here with us for a few days .... too much eating and drinking!
We ended this leisurely period by going to our Bridge Club for a competition.

The competition was followed by a big buffet (with wine of course!) .... we are now back on a diet!!!!!