The little chicks are growing noticeably bigger now, and are becoming very much more adventurous; no longer cowering in their temporary home and nearly smothering each other at our approach, but running madly towards anyone who ventures out of the house, hoping for food treats. We even found one on the kitchen windowsill yesterday; I hope they don’t think they’ll be invited in when the windows are open (except to go in the pot, that is!) They’re becoming expert at hiding in the undergrowth (of which there’s loads), to the point that sometimes we have to search for them to check that they haven’t packed their bags and left!

On Sunday evening we went out to round them up for the night, but couldn’t find them in any of their favourite spots; after a few minutes searching, we found two of them on top of the spare roof tiles at the side of the poulailler, so we put them away for the night and started looking for the others. One of them turned up in the garden round the side of the house, presumably having flown over the carefully chicken-wired gate, with her clipped wings. By this time it was getting very dark and we were concerned about the last one; we searched the garden, the orchard, the field, even the vineyard, all by torchlight, and had all but given up when Kieran spotted her, outside the main gate to the road, quietly waiting to be let in! Kieran blamed the windy conditions for having given her the extra uplift she needed to get over the gate!

Before we can get the builder in, we need rid of the rubble mountain in the grange; so we’ve started digging out the soil from the path at the side of the house and will fill the space with some of the rubble, then pave it. It’ll provide good drainage and the soil’s useful to fill in some of the dips in the garden. It doesn’t look as though we’ll get any more done this week, though, as it’s forecast to rain for at least the next week 🙁

The end of a good holiday is always sad, but particularly so for Izzy yesterday; she’d had a wonderful time, learning to speak a little French, getting over her fear of all things animal, she made good friends with Julie and Adrian’s dogs and even better friends of our chickens, who she loved feeding. She’d also been walking and sledging in the Pyrenees, played with the Flemish speaking children from up the road (one of whom told her mother she thought Izzy must be speaking Chinese!), helped Grandad cast concrete lintels for over the workshop windows, done some woodwork and had driven the mower whenever possible. So there were tears on Saturday morning as they left for the airport.

Our hens haven’t started laying yet, so each morning while she was here, Nick put a couple of eggs from our neighbour’s hens in the hen house; Izzy loved going to look for them and having them for breakfast. But on Friday, we’d run out of “real” eggs and had to use some from the shops; there was a big debate as to whether or not Izzy would notice the date stamp, but we thought probably not. WRONG! She brought the eggs in to the kitchen, saying that there were some marks on them which looked just like letters. She wouldn’t be distracted as Nick took them from her and surreptitiously tried to scrub the date stamps off; even when he’d finished, she insisted on showing them to me, assuring me that the pink smudges had really looked just like letters when she got them out of the hen house! Eventually we managed to distract her, and hope the memory has faded.

The second week of their holidays wasn’t blessed with the sort of weather we’d had at the beginning; we had quite a lot of wind and rain, though it didn’t stop us having the odd barbecue. It’s much needed rain as France as a whole has had 25% less than it should have had this winter and the aquifers are well down; but that doesn’t mean we have to enjoy it! The plus side (apart from not having to water the garden)  is that there have been some quite dramatic views over the vineyard, sunlit in front of heavy, charcoal grey skies. Graham took some amazing photos which I’ll put in the gallery when he sends them to me.

For the rest of us now, it’s back to work. The bathroom needs finishing, windows need putting in the workshop walls, the rubble piles in the grange need relocating and we need to contact the builder to see when he can start on the major works. It’s going to be all go….

On Easter Monday, the weather was beautiful, so Nick, Kieran, Alex, Izzy and Graham all headed out for a day in the hills (no room for me in the car). Their plans to go paragliding came to nothing as we should have booked earlier, but they had a fantastic day nevertheless. A makeshift sledge, made from a large sheet of cardboard in the boot of the car, kept everybody amused for a few hours in the freshly fallen snow; then a walk , on which Graham found what turned out to be one of the most poisonous vipers around these parts, completed the day (for Graham anyway). They all arrived home happy, very hungry and sleepy.

I wasn’t idle for the day either, taking the chance to have a clean up; but the wash basin in the bathroom hadn’t been draining properly for weeks, so I decided to take the trap off to clean it out. Sure enough, it was full of smelly gunk, which I got rid of, but the problem was putting it back together……..  It had been quite awkward to remove, but simply wouldn’t go back, so I had to leave it for the fellas to do. Nick ended up dismantling almost all the drainage pipes behind the sink today, and unfortunately losing the washer down the inside of the pedestal. Naturally he didn’t have that size washer in stock, and couldn’t buy one locally, so resorted to making one out of a plastic lid; I don’t know how long it’ll last, but the water from the wash basin now flows away and not onto the floor, which is a distinct improvement. I think I might leave plumbing to the experts in future; I wasn’t flavour of the month, even when I explained that I was only trying to help!

The grouting and silicon sealing that I did in the new bathroom, on the other hand, look good, even if I say so myself:-)

While I took Alex, Graham and Izzy to Eauze market this morning, Nick and Kieran fitted the shower and cubicle in the new bathroom; it just needs the silicon sealant now, my job tomorrow.

There’s a deer  and wild boar farm near here, with a restaurant attached, which has a good reputation, so we treated ourselves to lunch there today. What a feed! We started with garbure (mountain soup), then two types of pate, followed by civet de cerf (slow cooked venison stew). These were just leading up to the main course; huge steaks of either venison or wild boar, venison sausages, magret de canard (duck breast), all cooked to perfection over a roaring log fire. Izzy was concerned for the health of the chicken whose leg she ate, asking, in all sincerity “How does a chicken with only one leg walk, Mummy?”. Chocolate mousse, coffee and armagnac followed, to much groaning and holding of stomachs.

After lunch, we went for a walk around the cerf farm, complete with a bucket of corn for Izzy to feed to the deer and the wild boar (great fun till she touched her arm on the electric fence!). Part way round the walk we met the front of house man  from the restaurant, now a farmer again, who gave us a tour of his armagnac chai. He produces a barrel a year and has barrels going back to 1996, but the bottles go back as far as 1962.

By the time we arrived home the weather had dried up, so we planted strawberries and did a bit of gardening, before spending about half an hour trying to encourage  Flossy and Flappy, the big chickens, to use the ladder into the hen house. The little chickens are still segregated for their own safety, and are living in the old poulailler at the moment; they’ve finally emerged from their cardboad box and happily peck at bits of bread and corn.

Since Alex, Graham and Izzy arrived on Saturday it’s been all go; mowing the grass (to let Izzy drive the mower), trying our hands at archery and badminton, eating out (of course), cycling and running to burn off some of the excessive calorie intake and, to Izzy’s great delight, our chickens have arrived!

We’ve got 4 little chicks and 2 layers; unfortunately, the big ones started to peck at the little ones so we’ve had to separate them in the hope that they’ll get on better together when the little ones have grown a bit. Izzy was thrilled to find two “freshly laid” eggs in the hen house this morning; Nick will have to remember to put some out till ours start to lay! Izzy’s been allotted the task of naming them; so far we’ve got Flappy, Flossy and Fluffy. I don’t know if we’ll adopt those names full time!

Our neighbours called round this afternoon to ask if Izzy would like to go and see the foal that was born this morning at the local stables; she was delighted and not at all frightened.

The tiling for the shower is finally finished; it still needs grouting, but I think it’s OK, reasonably level, even on the wiggly wall, and the joints match up, so I’m quite proud of myself! Nick’s had a rather more frustrating day, though, with the waste fittings for the wash basin refusing to play ball and after several hours of messing around, it still leaks. The sink was pricey, but came with free waste bits; I think I now know why! We’ll have to buy a new waste fitting before we can use it.

Alex, Graham and Izzy arrive tomorrow for 2 weeks holiday; should be fun!

Nick is such a kind soul, buys me such thoughtful, romantic presents; today’s being a 25kg tub of ready mixed tile adhesive. How lovely!

It was, however, just what I needed to get on with tiling the shower; it may not be the best tiling in the world and it’s certainly not been the quickest, but it’s all my own handiwork (apart from cutting the holes for the taps to go through) and I reckon it’s not bad for a beginner! I should be able to do the last two rows of tiles tomorrow, then the fellas can fit the shower cubicle when it’s dry.

I was a little envious, to say the least, of Nick’s and Kieran’s tasks today; both involved working in the garden in the sunshine (it was 25ºC in the shade), Kieran getting everybody’s favourite job of driving the mower round to cut the grass doing it now worse than professionals of commercial lawn mowing Brisbane we all watched on TV. The garden’s sprung into life in the last week’s warmth; there’s blossom on most of the fruit trees, everything has buds on and the first irises opened up today.

We invited our Portuguese neighbours round for aperos tonight, as a thank you for the loan of their plasterboard lifter; they had a tour of the work we’ve done so far and seemed impressed, lots of “Oh la la”ing going on and descriptions of how the house used to be when the old man lived here when they moved in across the road, 17 years ago.

We’ve had a busy few days, planting up the potager with the veg plants and seeds we bought last week, plasterboarding the last ceiling and trying to finish the bathroom in time for Alex, Graham and Izzy’s visit.

Once the floor in the bathroom was down and all the knot holes filled, I was able to seal it, then Nick and Kieran did the technical, plumbing-type stuff today while I made a quiche for them to take to the climbing club’s aperitif evening. I volunteered to tile the shower, but hadn’t a clue what I was doing, so resorted to picking a tiler friend’s brains (thank you John). It started off well enough, but I realised too late that the first row wasn’t quite level; I’m trying to gradually level it up, but I’m not sure it’s going to work. I’ve a feeling I may not be asked to do any more tiling in the future! I’ve had to leave it for now, though, as the water’s gone off; I asked my neighbour, who said that hers is off to and that when the weather’s hot they sometimes just turn it off for a while! Not too long, I hope!

If it hadn’t been for the bathroom, we’d have been out on the bikes with the cycle club this afternoon, so it was lovely to see them all, while we were sitting out in the garden, having lunch, (24ºC in the shade!)  as they rode past, waving and shouting bonjours and hellos to us. It may seem silly, but little things like that make the place begin to feel like home and as though we belong here.

Well, the hen house has been finished and ready for occupancy for a couple of weeks now, so we decided that we really ought to bite the bullet and get some little chicks to enjoy the luxury of this lovingly built, hand-crafted, palatial residence. Like most things here, it turned out not to be that easy. We asked where to buy chickens and were given very precise directions; go and see Madame Castex; left before the bridge, up the hill, past the place with the cows, past the concrete house (wouldn’t you think they could paint it?), through the wood, turn left till you pass Robin and Jane’s place (they’re English; don’t you know them? Lovely house), then it’s on the right; but beware, they have 2 enormous, very fierce dogs.  We found the place with no problem, and Robin and Jane, whoever they might be, certainly do have a magnificent house; we even found enormous, twin dog kennels. But of Madame Castex, or the dogs (happily), we saw no sign, even though we wandered around for a good half hour, ringing every doorbell we found.

So our beautiful hen house, complete with automatic feeder and water dispenser, remains unused. I think we’ll have to order them from Point Vert; unfortunately, they won’t arrive till after Alex, Graham and Izzy’s visit.

In the meantime, work has progressed on the new bathroom, though not as quickly as we’d like, since it needs to be at least useable by the time Alex and co. arrive next Saturday. The pipework is all done now, the knot holes in the new floor are all filled in and the basin is attached to its table. Nick skimmed the very uneven wall behind the shower today, but the plaster wouldn’t stick and he ended up scraping it all off again! He’ll have to even the wall up with tile sticky. The next job is mine; to seal the floor before they attach the loo, bath etc., so it’ll be all hands on deck this week to get it finished in time.

The weather has turned warm and sunny again, and we bought some vegetable plants and seeds this week; lettuce, strawberries, cabbages, spinach and beans. So we spent much of the afternoon preparing the potager; we levelled it as far as possible, then I decided using the rotavator couldn’t be as difficult as I first thought and talked Nick into letting me have another go. I managed half the potager, much to Nick’s amusement, as it first tried to bury itself, then veered off to the left, then shot off at high speed towards Nick’s newly placed edging blocks! After about half an hour, totally exhausted, I admitted defeat and conceded that there are some jobs (sorry, any devout feminists reading this) best left to the boys. It didn’t seem to need so much good technique as sheer brute strength. I think I’ve a long way to go before I’m a proper countrywoman (more of a Margot than a Barbara so far, I’m afraid!)

I mustn’t forget to mention our friends Kate, Rob and Holly, who live a couple of miles up the road and who came round for a curry last night. Nick treated all of us to one of his superb curries and we sampled several bottles of very cheap plonk, to help Holly with her research project. It was a fantastic evening; great fun, and I hope there weren’t too many sore heads this morning.

Isn’t it strange, how things happen all at the same time? Last week, on the same day, and after numerous delays, we completed the purchase of the flat in Harrogate and got the planning permission through for the house here in Caupenne. So now we can start on the serious work of building our new house!

The first job was a trip to Pau to buy windows for Nick’s and my workshops, plumbing stuff for the new bathroom and to collect the bath we’d ordered. Nick wasn’t overly impressed to discover that, having paid a small ransome for the bath of my choice, the legs were an extra 90euros. I wasn’t exactly flavour of the month! I hope anyone who visits will make sure to comment to Nick on the lovely bath, please!!

Last week, at Adrian’s, he commented that no-one could make lemon meringue pie like his mum’s friend; too much of a challenge to let pass, I’m afraid. So today, while work started on plumbing the bathroom, I made a lemon meringue pie; it’s passed muster here, so next visit to Brassempouy will see us arriving with a lemon meringue pie to see if it matches up to Ade’s high standards. I got a bit carried away, actually, and also made 2 quiches, a lemon cake and 15 jars of lemon marmalade.  Good to tell it was raining!