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!

Larry gets the sack

Hello - my name is Ozzy and some of you may have seen photos of me playing with my friends the lizards, voles and frogs. After I get bored playing with them I usually kill them, but that's another story.  

I am a cat and I'm named after the singer Ozzy Osbourne, from the pioneering and massively influential metal band Black Sabbath. I was named Ozzy because when I first arrived at Marc and Anne's (I hesitate to call them Mum and Dad, as that would be a bit weird wouldn't it?), my coordination was a bit wonky and I kept banging my head into the furniture (headbanger, geddit?). I do like Ozzy and I hope that, like him,  I can one day bite the head off a bat. There are a few around here, so who knows? Paws crossed.

So why am I writing the blog now and not Larry, I hear you ask. Well one answer would be that he is a small metal sculpture and they can't write blogs - but then I am a cat, so that logic doesn't really work. No, the real reason is that Larry has been sulking for the last few weeks. He feels ignored and undervalued since the influx of holiday guests has taken Marc and Anne's attention away from him. I have told him he just needs to deal with this. Once the season is over, he will receive a bit more attention. But it's no use, he just stares into space, his expression unchanging. Well let him sulk - some of us have got better things to do.

It has been a very busy and exciting time throughout July and August. We have had some lovely guests and we've enjoyed nice barbecues, children's art workshops and, best of all, some fun musical evenings. One of our guests was an excellent Belgian singer and songwriter. I'm sure he would be embarrassed if I told you his name, so I will: it is Pieter Cooreman. He and Marc had a couple of evenings when they entertained everyone with a selection of classic songs (and some slightly weird Dutch ones). Everyone sang along, following the lyrics on their iPads and it was a lovely atmosphere. They thought I wasn't around, but I was hiding in a tree listening and purring (I particularly liked that Cat Stevens song). 

Marc goes to get bread every morning at the local village, but not until he has fed me - I mean, one has to get one's priorities right doesn't one? After breakfast I'll usually sleep for three or four hours and then it will be time for lunch. After lunch I'll usually sleep for four to five hours and then it will be time for dinner. After dinner, I might have a wander around and look for some children to frighten, or I might play with some of my small animal or bird friends before killing them. Then it will be time to go out night-clubbing with my mates down the road. It really is quite a pleasant life. 

Well, that's all for now. It's another lovely sunny day and I'm off to find an unusual place to sleep. 

Catch you later! (as the cat said to the mouse)...
Ozzy

The robot has landed.

They've bought a robot! I was very excited that he could be a new friend for me, but it turns out he lives underwater and eats leaves. I am not allowed in the water - something to do with rust so they tell me. The robot has been named Robbie (what it is with this naming of inanimate objects??!). Here's me with Robbie before he took the plunge:

The garden is looking lovely now despite the constant battle with the grass which you can almost see growing by the minute. I don't know who this chap is though - he just stands out there staring (at least he doesn't have a name .....yet.....).

The beans and spinach are starting to grow. Fingers crossed that the bloomin' dog doesn't eat them. He certainly eats everything else - shoes, Barbie dolls, gloves, door stops. The gnomes have had to be brought indoors for their own safety!

We also have one of these - no idea what it is, but I was very sick after having a go on it:

I think it might be some sort of toy for Ozzy, but he is a very lazy cat and spends most of his time asleep with his pet doggy:

He might as well relax while he can - he will be going to the vet soon to have some parts chopped off. I think they might be called tentacles - I don't know what they are but I hope I don't have any - sounds painful!!!

Indoors feels much more homely now. The bookshelves finally arrived, and all 42(!) boxes of books have now been unpacked. I think this may now be my new perch where I can compose my next instalment in peace.

Scarborough Fair

So, another month has passed - time I updated you all on the goings on here at Le Domaine du Chasselas. In contrast to the dreadful UK weather, we have had some nice sunny days so there has been lots going on outside. The herb garden is looking good  and I have spent some pleasant afternoons foraging around whilst sheltered by the lovely new fence:

Here I am sitting in the parsley:

 

and the sage.........

.......can you guess what the other herbs might be? My more mature fans will simply refer to the title of this post for the answer - younger ones may have no idea what I am talking about as I don't believe that there has been a recent modern mangling of this particular song - if any of my readers feel strongly about modern manglings of classic songs,  I would refer you to the excellent Greg Davies DVD  "Firing cheeseballs at a dog" which has a wonderful rant about this subject.


Anyway, I digress.......Elsewhere in the garden, the mammoth task of cutting the grass has begun - as you can see, it was pretty high, but now it's starting to look like a proper garden:

The new games room was finished in time for the party, and I had a busy day trying out all the equipment:

The main thing I learnt was that you should never play poker with a cat - mostly because they are cats, and can't hold the cards in their paws.

After I had quality assured the games room, it was time to put my PR hat on and wait for the guests to arrive:

Happily, no-one was deterred by the thunder and lightning and a jolly evening was had by all. Lots of people brought gifts - many of which could be eaten or drunk - I was particularly impressed by this lovely chocolate lion (although I'm not sure where lions feature in the Easter story - you'd think they would just eat the rabbits?). There was also a giant chocolate egg, but that disappeared before I could get a picture of it - wonder where it could have gone?!

 The lion was a bit big for me to manage all by myself.......

.....so I had to enlist the help of some friends and we soon made short work of it:

Well, lunch-time approaches, so that's all for now, but I'll be back soon with tales of a busy Easter weekend........

My tiny hands are frozen

Hmmmm, turns out that the sunshine was just a cruel trick - it's freezing here today - I certainly didn't stay out there for too long!

On the plus side, I am allowed to sit indoors by the fire while the pesky gnomes are freezing their evil toes off outside:

It was an eventful weekend with relatives visiting from the UK - luckily the weather stayed nice for them, and  many tourist-type excursions were enjoyed. I stayed home to guard the house and, would you credit it, ANOTHER animal turned up. It's getting a bit like Dr Doolittle here - word has clearly got out to the animal community that there is free food available. I leapt on him from a great height and saw him off the premises - don't think he'll be back in a hurry!

All the banging and clattering from downstairs appears to have stopped - I think this means that the games room is finished now, but the humans are muttering about something called "painting the ceiling" I saw a very nice ceiling on the news last night actually - somewhere called the Sistine Chapel - wonder if it's going to look anything like that? I'll let you know..........

Monkey business

I have decided that I ought to start learning a bit of French - mostly so that I can chat to Ozzy (the cat) who seems like a fine fellow despite being completely bonkers. They do teach you some funny stuff in these lessons - I mean, when are you ever likely to say "le singe est dans l'arbre"?? Anyway, it was such a beautiful day that I thought I would continue my lessons in the garden where, much to my surprise............

....what are the chances of that happening.........??? (although if I was being picky, I would point out that technically, it's an orang-utan).

Next thing you know, I'll be stumbling across "la plume de ma tante" - funnily enough, my aunt did lose a pen last time she was in France - but it's hardly likely to turn up in the garden is it?

....no...... wait, what's this?

I'd better give her a call and tell her that I've found it before that pesky cat runs off with it.

Creature comforts

My goodness, what a busy few weeks it has been - just in case anyone thought I had got lost during the move, I didn't, but I haven't had a moment to sit down and update you all. I have been finding my feet here and we have had some lovely sunny days. This is the view from the front gate:

I don't really like being out in the garden though as there are these things called "chickens" walking around - I am a bit scared of them and they seem to be trying to replicate themselves:

 I thought that maybe I would be safer out on the balcony, but look who I found there- don't like the look of this one much!?

At least those pesky gnomes are nowhere to be seen for the moment. Maybe the chickens are holding them hostage? I shall retire to my warm, safe perch in the living room and spend some time composing a summary of all my adventures over the last 3 weeks. Come back soon and read all about it..........

Gnomes

So, Friday morning….one week until the big day. The house is starting to look quite bare, and there seems to be a constant stream of people arriving to buy various things (I hope I'm not on the list of things for sale!?) Anne and Marc are very busy every day, what with the visits to the library for an internet connection, and trips to the tip with yet another carload of things to throw away. They seem to spend a lot of time looking for someone called Alan Key – I don’t know who this is, but there seems to be more than one of them (big Alan Key, medium Alan Key  and small Alan Key) Whichever one they find never seems to be the right one. They must be important though, because they are definitely coming in the car with us on the big day.

Evenings however are  another matter. Much Scrabble has been played, and honours are more or less even (should anyone be keeping a tally). The evening meal is followed by a roaring log fire and some DVDs. The Killing and Spiral were immensely enjoyable, and I thought Hugo was a lovely film. The last couple of evenings’ fare have been a bit darker – Inglorious Basterds was rather gory, and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was really sad – I have to be careful not to shed a tear as I rust very easily.

They've acquired these wretched gnomes from somewhere and we definitely haven’t got off to a happy start – so far,Mr Green is the most suspicious, constantly taunting me when their backs are turned. His three friends (Mr Black, Mr Yellow and Mr Red) always deny seeing or hearing anything, and now I can’t get ”stuck in the middle with you” out of my head. Thank goodness I don’t have any actual ears to worry about. 

A moving story

Hi everyone, I’m Larry and I have been co-opted by my owners, Anne and Marc, to write this blog for them. A couple of years ago I was leading a peaceful, if somewhat dull, existence in a gallery in Kennebunkport, when I was bought by the d’Abovilles and repatriated to the UK. London -  bright lights, big city – how exciting, I loved it there.  But last year I could tell that big changes were afoot. Lots of conversations began with “Wouldn’t it be nice if……” or “Just imagine………….” They kept mentioning something called sunshine – not something that there was a lot of in 2012 in the UK. Then all of a sudden the house was sold and everything was being put in boxes – many, many boxes. At the end of November we arrived safely at the holiday house in Normandy. I have been here before (oh the stories I could tell!) and settled happily into my favourite spot near the fire. Christmas was approaching and I even got my own little Santa hat to wear. The family arrived and a very festive time was had by all. In fairy tales, this would be the point at which we all lived happily ever after, but I was beginning to realise that this was no fairy tale………….. (not yet anyway).

It turns out that Normandy is just a temporary stopover and that in a few weeks we will be moving *again* to the South West of France . Anne and Marc have bought somewhere called Le Domaine de Chasselas and we will all be living there and running a small business providing holiday accommodation in the form of gites, camping, caravan and B&B. So, not only is everything from the London house packed away in boxes, everything in this house is also having to be packed up/sold/got rid of – it’s like deja-vu all over again. My role will be to write this blog, and I have been reassured that, unlike here, there will be internet access (luxury!) so I won’t need to visit the library every day to get a connection. Apparently,  someone who seems to be known by the code name “Orange” will be sorting this out for when we arrive - I just hope it doesn’t turn into some sort of Reservoir Dogs re-enactment.

It is snowing as I type this and, pretty though it is, I find myself looking forward to the prospect of some sun and a house without boxes.