Sunday 21st August
Another lazy warm day for most of us. Daniel and Amelia set off this morning for a walk to the ruined chateau. Jim joked with them to be careful about falling down holes and not being found for three weeks or so. Daniel queried if they wouldn't be missed before then. We did miss them around lunch time but went ahead and ate without them. They finally turned up later in the afternoon having got lost by following the wrong stream. We consoled them with tea and scones.
Memo to next walkers - take map and perhaps and compass and phone number.
They told us that they had seen deer including an injured one.
I made peach jam and used my new steriliser (following the instructions) to pasturise it. Nothing exploded. Amelia and Ollie followed this by making a pear cake. Delicious.
Alfie spent the afternoon quietly drawing pictures.
Monday
Still no good news on Tony's vehicle. The garage is now telling him that the gear box is kaput and it will take €4000 to fix it. He says 'no way'. He is hoping to get his family and Landrover the repatriated to the UK so that his own mechanic can look at it, but this awaits the RAC's decision. They are keeping him waiting. And waiting. We are more than happy to have them all stay here as long as they need to.
Meanwhile as we have two more visitors on Tuesday Daniel and Amelia have bravely volunteered to sleep in the tent until the gite is free.
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| Igloo tent |
The tent is from the 80's and used to be ours. We have camped all over Europe in it. It stands vertical by virtue of the five ribs which are inflated with air. It sleeps five and you can stand upright in the middle. Folk used to come from all over the various campsite to look at it. Now is not the time to tell you of the time it collapsed in Madrid.
Daniel gets a very short back and sides - including the top!
Gill and Brian have arrived so we really have a houseful now. Gill has brought me some jigsaws and some DVD's. Thanks Gill.
Daniel gets a very short back and sides - including the top!
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| Going out tonight, Sir? |
Wednesday
Tony and Jim set off for Souillac to confront the garage and to try and get some resolution to the problem of the Landrover. When they return we learn that the RAC are prepared to get it back to the UK and to pay a proportion of the family's air fares back to the UK. This is better news. Charlotte books the air tickets from Limoges to East Midlands.
Gill has a telephone interview in the afternoon and after that we hit the gin bottle while Brian keeps the boys amused.
The weather is beginning to change. Thursday morning starts with a storm and I was worried that we would lose the broadband connection and would have a problem printing out the boarding passes but all is well. Another snag surfaced. Tony has to return the hire car to Aurillac and then the family has to get to Limoges somehow. I offered to drive them there which I did. There were no problems and I got back to the Moulin in time for dinner - cottage pie and rhubarb crumble very kindly cooked by Gill and Brian. In my absence they went to Decazaville to look at the geology museum.
We shall miss the family in the gite especially the two boys Alfie and Ollie. Rufus has enjoyed having some lively playmates.
Here is the pottery made by Alfie and Ollie after the Raku firing.
Busy day on Friday. More storms early in the morning. Lights go out as a fusible has blown. Jim fixes it. Jo and David Ilsley arrived for lunch with their two friends from Autoire - John and Ann. They brought the rain with them again - it was so wet we were unable to show them any of the domaine or the nature walk although Jim did his mill tour. A very jolly time was had.
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| Anne, Daniel and Amelia |
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| Brian |
It's not.
Tomorrow Gill and Brian leave and we are going to the Poterie du Don - again, taking Dan and Amelia.
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| Message for Ruth - Rufus is very happy to have another Duckie, but this is to show you that he now loves the other toy you gave him last year |
All looks great fun, especially the tent. I now have a French blog to write which contains a new project for the Mill. Watercress! Is Mary and Max the film about cooking that I thought was awful? If so now wonder! Have lost track of who all your various guests are but you have a whole army there it seems. Time to convert the Grange into gitaparts. You'd get at least two gitaparts out of the barn and still have space for the bakeoven. Une vraie colonie de vaccances.
ReplyDeleteNo. That was Julie and Julia. Mary and Max is about two penfriends - one an eight-year-old Australian girl, the other a 44 year-old man living in NY with Asperger's. Not a lot of laughs I admit but quite droll.
ReplyDelete