Saturday 16 November 2013

Keep the home fires burning

November already? How on earth did that happen??? Only 38 sleeps until Santa comes (thank you to my friend Karen for keeping me abreast of this important information).  As you can probably tell, Ozzy has turned out to be even more useless at blogging than Larry so from now on the humans will be updating this. Actually, it was us all the time - did you guess? Here is Ozzy doing what he does best:



This year has absolutely flown by - seems like only yesterday we were wilting in 40 degree heat and here we are with the heating on thinking about Christmas. The good news is that after many visits from the plumber, much head-shaking and the occasional flood at the beginning of the year, the underfloor heating is now doing exactly what it says on the tin - and very nice it is too!

September was an exciting time for Ozzy (although that may not be the word that he'd choose). In a brief flurry of activity over a 2 week period he learned about travelling in a cage in the car (not popular!), getting stuck with needles by the vet (tolerable), being relieved of his manhood (indifferent) and spending a week in a cattery (confusing). He remains totally bonkers and is an endless source of entertainment - albeit a rubbish blogger.



So, what have we been doing with ourselves? Marc has been busy putting together a fortnightly radio show for one of the local stations. You can have a listen here: www.antenne-d-oc.fr/Britdoc
We have had guests in La Maison and also in the B&B, The pool and the Safari tent have been put to bed for the winter and the grass just keeps on growing.  October was gloriously sunny so it was an opportunity to finally get around to making a start on the vegetable garden. We've been busy thinking about next summer and rewriting our advertising - there will be some changes on the campsite and also additional outside "private" space for our B&B guests. Our website is next for a makeover, so look out for some changes there too.








There is some great garden inspiration to be seen locally - the scarecrow competition in Montcuq was great - I particularly like the first one!




Still,  you know what they say about all work and no play - there have been visits from family and friends and even a quick trip back to the UK where we became unnecessarily well acquainted with the rail network due to some confusion over the requisite documents needed to obtain a hire car :-(

The summer tourists may have all gone home, but there is still plenty going on here. The local town certainly made a big effort to entertain the kids at Halloween. I don't think either of us have ever been to a Halloween party in our lives, but we went to 2 this year. The standard of dressing up was spookily high - just a shame the rain intervened to cause the late cancellation of the ghost train.


On a startlingly hot day in late October we went to visit Bamboo Park - they too were gearing up for Halloween - slightly incongruous in such bright sunshine! Sadly, we found out that the park is closing after this season - such a shame as it is very beautiful. There is a ruined house in the grounds which would be "ideal for the DIY enthusiast".......












The local markets are bursting with seasonal produce - very colourful - and we have, of course continued our tireless research into local restaurants.............

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Well, that's all for now folks. I'm off to write myself a reminder to publish a further blog post before the end of the year......................






Friday 23 August 2013

Masks and music

Well, this blog writing lark is harder than it looks - so I have been spending time honing my word skills with a few crosswords:


Huge thanks to Barbara who regularly tops up the supply!

All the children joined in for another craft workshop - masks were very popular this time and some of the cat ones reminded me of my relatives in the wild - Auntie Pearl always did overdo it a bit with the eyeliner:





Meanwhile, back in the UK at the Green Man festival, Louis was also busy running some toy hacking sessions (must run in the family!) You can see some of the creations here - http://exploring-senses.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/green-man-festival-day-1.html 

The humans have been very busy with all the work to keep the site running smoothly, but they have also found time for some "extra-curricular" activity. Marc's band - The Boogie Brothers - have done a few gigs now and have 2 more lined up next week. Friday night was Le Boulve where a fine time was had by all and everyone was up and dancing well into the night:




Tuesday 13 August 2013

Look what's been happening!

Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are just some of the things that we have been up to over the summer..............

The art workshop was very popular and all the children contributed to the final piece which now has pride of place in the outdoor eating area.







 We have had several BBQs which usually ended up with a sing-song (gotta love those iPad apps!) and also a musical evening which was very enjoyable:













 With temperatures pushing 40 degrees for several days, the pool has been very popular - even at night!