November 2014

No apologies for lots of mountain photos this month. The weather has stayed incredibly warm and dry just up until this weekend, and of course the Autumn colours have been wonderful, so we have been making the most of it! 
Not so good for the skiing season just yet - we have had a few falls of snow on the higher mountains but the warm conditions are not allowing it to accumulate - still, there is plenty of time for Winter!!

Lesley's album

Dave's album

October 2014

The blog is a little late this month as we have just returned from a most enjoyable 2 week visit to the UK to catch up with family and friends. 

We also spent a day in London in order to renew our passports - during the 4 hour wait we enjoyed a pint (and a half!), scampi and chips and faggots and mushy peas in a Whitehall pub, then walked down the Southbank from Westminster to the Tower to see the wonderful carpet of poppies.
It was a lovely day, if rather overcast.
Dave forgot his camera on this day so I made the most of it as you will see in my album!!

October in France has been wonderfully dry, warm and sunny. We spent another day walking at Soulcem with Lisa and Neil. Snow could start covering the mountains at any time now so it was good to enjoy the sun up there this late in the year. 

Here are our albums for October

Dave's album

Lesley's album

September 2014

Here are our photos for this month -  a bit later than usual!!

Dave's photos

Lesley's album

August 2014

The blog is a little late this month as I have just had a whistle-stop visit to the UK to see family.
Its been a very busy month with guests and the garden - but very enjoyable!

Here are our albums for August
Lesley's album

Dave's album

July 2014

July is sunflower and party month in St Victor Rouzaud - our party, the 4 day village fete....and we were also fortunate enough to have the Tour de France passing right by the village again.
We will let our photo albums tell the story.

Lesley's album

Dave's album

June 2014

June began with a most enjoyable family reunion and holiday in Devon. It was lovely to get everyone together and to re-visit North Devon.
Friends and neighbours very kindly looked after the geese here and watered the veggies in our absence. Both here and in the UK everything seems to be thriving in the warm sunshine and heavy downpours. 

Now in our 5th year here, the garden is definitely looking more like a garden than a field, and the vegetable patch is working better every year - but there is always something new to learn and experiment with.

This year we have discovered chard - easy to grow and very tasty with onions, garlic and pine-nuts!!

June marks the beginning of the Summer party season, with live music and village fetes.

Mid-summers day is the 'fete de la musique' all over France. This year it happened to be a warm and sultry evening so people turned out in their droves to listen to whatever live music happened to be on offer.

Here are our albums for this month

Dave's album

Lesley's album

May 2014

We have enjoyed some beautiful sunny days again this month - and with the cooler spring temperatures its a perfect time for walking.

Spring in the Ariege can also be very wet...but as a result it is very green and beautiful at this time of year. 
We have had a bumper crop of strawberries this year and bowls full of cherries from the farm. The potatoes and onions are happily growing away - and all the other veggies are settling in and enjoying some days of warm sunshine...and and others of heavy rain!!

Our goose eggs sadly didn't hatch - which is often the way in the first year. So it is particularly surprising that the one egg that our neighbours at the farm put in their duck nest did hatch!! That goose is now much bigger than his mummy duck - and its very funny to see him (or her!) waddle down into our garden each day with his duck family! 

We decided to buy some more baby geese to fatten up for Christmas, and to eat the grass!! Its taking a while for our 3 existing geese to accept them, but the babies seem quite happy and are growing very quickly.

Here are our photos for this month

Dave's album

Lesley's album