Pete does pruning...

Some photos of pruning & springtime!

Well here it is, much like those government instructional videos...

When I am old....I will....

I hope than when I am as old as Madame is next door (not sure but over bus pass age) that I too can stand on the back of the tractor lifting gear, like Boudicea, whilst my husband drives somewhere in his best pink jumper and then drive it home again with the wind in my hair.

Until then I will continue remorselessly pruning until my hands and shoulders ache. We hope and aspire to have it finished before the ski-ing, even now P is doing calculations that will no doubt result in his driving the whip more and the abolition of tea breaks; suddenly electric pruners seem much more appealing, then again P has cut himself twice already with the regular types having left his fingers in the way... think it best if I say nothing more now.....

Tomorrow though we might try and find Sarlat again...

Then more more more pruning.

To the tune of Dory... "Just keep pruning... pruning pruning"

3 meetings and a lesson...

My head is ready to explode, three meetings yesterday morning... one of which was with a woman who waited until near the end of the hour before launching into faultless english.

The man at the Tresor public is helping with our tax and lord only knows when we'll here from the people at Agri-Mer. Ho-hum am off to talk to the vines as I prune them...at least they don't answer me or worse look at me blankly after I've attempted to ask them something!

New Windows, taille et apperos..

Well they have started the windows this week and hopefully they'll be finished this week. They look very new and shiny and are lovely and warm... I have to confess to missing the wobbly view through the very old glass. The gite is starting to look like it could be lovely.

Serge came and gave us a master-class in the Taille which means that we now know what we are doing and are setting about rectifying years of not-so-good pruning. Which translates in a lot of sawing with the pruning saw. I spend the days doing a curious dance of gripping the secateurs in both hands, using the long secateurs against my stomach and sawing madly bent over and muttering. I'm going to need to get myself a small anchor tattoed onto my Popeye-esqe forearms soon. It's all very brutal and looks a little like a massacre out there!

On Friday evening we had our french friends round for apperos and we were extremely nervous with P instructing me that I was not to go the toilet at all and leave him with them. It went really well and after 2 G&T's my french had improved massively, or rather I suspect I just cared less... it was a lovely evening and was just what I wanted when we moved here to be able to socialise and be part of French life and not live just as an expat.

Yesterday P and I decided to have a proper Saturday and we set off to go to Sarlat and the market, unfortunately I programmed the wrong Sarlat into the sat-nav and we arrived somewhere considerably further away with very little to occupy a visitor! Sneeze and you miss it. We did however then go to the medieval city of Uzetche which was lovely and worth the visit, we'll try Sarlat in a couple of weeks..!!