11th August

Just had to add these 2 images of our very own sunflowers!!

August 8th 2011

Have just spent another lovely weekend - this time with friends Melanie and Steve. The weather forecast was for rain all weekend but luckily it turned out to be wrong! We spent a hot and sunny afternoon at the pretty hilltop village of Carla Bayle - see photos above.

It is now the height of the season so all the artists studios were open and it was probably as busy as it ever gets with tourists -mostly British! However we didn't witness any sales so its probably not worth investing in studio space just yet!!

We ate outside on both evenings but had to rapidly retreat indoors on Saturday when a perfectly calm and warm evening developed into a storm with gusting winds and heavy rain - within minutes!!

Otherwise, the grass continues to grow and we have more visitors in the house this week. It feels very good to dee people enjoying the house and grounds - and especially the swimming pool!!

1st August

We can hardly believe it is the 1st of August already - where did July go?! We arrived back at La Maire on Thursday at 11.00am after a very early flight and spent the rest of the day grass cutting and shopping. The rain of the past week has given a new lease of life to both grass and weeds -good for the farmers but not for holiday makers!! However the sun has returned this weekend, just in time for us to welcome our very good friends the Pollocks and the Deweys. We all enjoyed several happy hours of walking, eating, drinking, table tennis, lively discussion and lazing by the pool.
Thankyou David Pollock for the first 3 lovely photos above.

A French family also stayed with us at the weekend. They were here for a wedding in the village - and some wedding it appeared to be!! There were 500 people at the little village church, and then afterwards at the family home just across the valley. However in true plain and simple simple Ariege style, the wedding car was a landrover decked out in local greenery - see photo above!

Since the family left we have had all sorts of weather conditions thrown at us - unsusual for the Ariege, or typical?! Who knows!! A couple of wild thunderstorms interspersed with both cloudy days and also very hot and sunny days have encouraged both grass and weeds to grow like crazy, and have also created the most wonderful cloud formations at times.

The sunflowers have been at their best and temperatures have been plenty warm enough for swimming. Lucy has been in most mornings before breakfast! The pool is now finished, coping stones and all, but we just need to landscape the surroundings.

We enjoyed having old friends Claire and Paul here to stay for a few days, and we had a lovely meal at the Auberge in Carla Bayle. The restaurant is high up in the village so when a huge storm battered the windows during the meal, it felt as though we were on a boat in a stormy sea! Luckily it abated in time for the walk back to the car. There is a photo above of us all in the village above.

On another wet day, Jean Paul took Lucy and I to Toulouse. Luckily the torrential rain stopped for our wander around the city - a very colourful city with a lively square and lots of old streets to wander though and a pretty tree-lined walk along the river. See photos above. We had a nice lunch and found a few of our favourite shops for a browse before driving home - again in torrential rain!!

Daniel left us to return to Maidenhead on the Friday, then we enjoyed having more visitors to stay - both English and French. One sunny evening we enjoyed dinner in the garden with both English and French guests. One of the pleasures of providing chambres and tables d'hotes here in France is the opportunity to meet so many different people and also for them to meet each other, to sample each others traditional foods and attempt to converse in each others languages. We ate pate made at the farm, chicken chasseur and sticky toffee pudding!

We are now back in Maidenhead for Lucy's graduation ceremony which took place on Thursday. It was a lovely day and we were very proud to see her receive her well-deserved certificate for a 2:1 in Graphic Design.

We will now enjoy a few more days here in Maidenhead before returning to La Maire to welcome more friends and customers to stay - August will be a busy month and we hope that the sun will shine!!

10th July 2011

La Maire is feeling very quiet this afternoon after saying goodbye this morning to Clive and Sue and the girls and Mum and Dad. They all arrived last Sunday, along with Daniel and we have had the most wonderful week. It has been great to have the house full for the first time and of course to be able to spend the week with them all, as it doesn't happen very often!!

We spent the week eating, talking, swimming, relaxing in the garden, playing table tennis, walking and visiting local towns and villages. Everyone helped so the catering was never a chore!!

On Friday evening we had our eagerly awaited party to celebrate finishing (well, almost!!) work at La Maire. The weather was perfect - calm and warm. Our guests were a mixture of French and English friends and it was great to get everyone here together. Jean Paul's band 'Shaker' played for us after the buffet for a couple of hours and were really fantastic.

I would like to be able to put a video up - but will have to make do with some photos - here they are....
http://picasaweb.google.com/lesleyolver/TheFamilySVisitAndAPartyJuly2011

2nd July

So - July has arrived! This was always our deadline to get everything completed in time for Mum and Dad, Clive and Sue and the girls arriving tomorrow - and of course Daniel as well. We have just about made it - just the grouting around the pool stones to finish, and banisters in the attic, otherwise we are all ready!!

Lucy and Andy arrived last week and joined us for a couple of lovely evenings with visitors Ceri and Peter. We then enjoyed a few days with Andy's family before they left on Thursday to travel on to Andorra and Spain. We now have our first French visitors here for a couple of nights - they stayed for dinner last night and we had a very enjoyable evening. Lucy is doing remarkably well with her French!!

The pool has been a real treat! A bit cold still at times but it soon warms up when we have some hot weather. Lucy has been in most mornings for a pre-breakfast swim!!

21st June

At last!! The pool is full! Unfortunately this was followed by 2 days of rain, but Dave has now been in and I have had a paddle! We just need to lay the coping stones now and tidy up the surroundings - but it has been well worth the wait.

Friend Helen from Maidenhead has been to stay with us this week and we very much enjoyed her company. Despite the 2 days of rain, we have had some very warm and sunny days as well, so were able to get out and about, including a lovely climb in the Pyrenees on Sunday morning.

We also had an evening out with Helen to a small local town to see Jean Paul's band 'Shaker' in concert. They were really excellent and Helen and I had a good bop!'Shaker' will be playing for us here in the garden on 8th July for ourSummer party - so we will look forward to that.

More photos of the pool and the past week can be seen here
https://picasaweb.google.com/lesleyolver/LaMaireJune2011#