The amazing Indian summer we’ve been enjoying has definitely ended. It’s been raining most of the time since Friday; the garden’s a swamp and there’s a mini lake in the grange. The temperature has dropped too, so we’re lighting fires in the evening now. Well, to be accurate, I’m lighting fires as Nick and Kieran don’t feel the cold, and I suspect there’s a conspiracy afoot to improve my total lack of ability as an arsonist. It’s surprising how easy it is when you use enough firelighters!

The old wood burner that we took out of the living room is soon going to be re-housed in what will become Nick’s workshop and to that end he and Kieran have built a plinth to stand it on. I can’t see it ever getting very warm in there, though, as it’s open to the roof, which is open enough round the edges to allow even birds as big as owls in and out without a problem.

I’ve been busy decorating the spare bedroom (for the hoards of visitors we hope to have next year), and Kieran has built a bookcase for it. We have boxes of books all over the house, so we should be able to empty at least a few boxes now.

For those who are wondering, we’ve been to our friends’ house every day since they went on holiday, to try to entice Minus into coming home with us, but he hasn’t put in an appearance once:-(

Once upon a time there was a black and white kitten, called Minus, whose kindly guardians were going on holiday to New Caledonia for two months. They offered to give the kitten to some equally kindly newcomers to the village, who had a mouse problem. The newcomers promised to look after Minus well, but he didn’t understand that, and every time anyone tried to catch him to take him to his new home, he miaowed and scratched and escaped as fast as he could (which was pretty fast!), leaving the newcomers feeling – well – catless.

Will this tale have a happy ending? You’ll have to visit us again to find out!

But no visit to neighbours in the Gers is entirely fruitless; we did come home with a large boxful of pumpkins, tomatoes and peppers; all home-grown, of course.

Nick and Kieran could wait no longer to get on with some “real” work, so this afternoon they started digging out the base for an extension to the garden shed and filling it with some of the rubble from the pig sty. We hope that we’ll get planning permission for it, though it hasn’t been granted yet. Still, it kept them amused for a few hours!

Daniel and Maria asked us round today, to collect the kitten they’re giving us, before they go on holiday. We arrived, complete with cardboard box containing an old curtain as bedding, and a roll of parcel tape to prevent escape. Minus, the black and white kitten, was missing, so Maria rattled various tins and jars containing his favourite foodstuffs, but to no avail. After a while, their other two cats appeared; Maria gave them some food and Minus arrived almost immediately. Maria picked him up and put him in the box, which Kieran and Daniel were ready to close behind him, but he was far too quick for them and shot out of it at high speed. He was left alone for a few minutes until he recovered from his fright and started eating again, then Maria put him in the box again. This time, the box was almost entirely taped shut when he managed to squeeze out through a crack and disappeared like a shot, leaving Kieran and Maria with scratches on their hands.

So we’re going round again tomorrow morning, this time with a holdall type bag with a good zip. If we ever get him here, I think he’ll be extremely efficient at reducing our mouse population; he’s a ferocious little beast. But for now, no photos, I’m afraid; I’ll try to get one tomorrow.

We spent last week back in Blighty; the traffic on the M1 was reminder enough of why we left, if a reminder were needed. We bought a French registered, left hand drive car, a Peugeot Partner, while we were in London; more of a van-with-windows, really. Rather less luxurious than the C5, but comfortable enough and it seems to go OK. I thought Nick and Kieran may come to blows over who would drive it back to Yorkshire, but Nick conceded and was finally allowed to have a go on the journey back to France.

During our stay, we met the people who are buying our house in Grey St; a lovely young couple who, I hope, will be very happy there. Their status as really nice people with impeccable taste improved even further in my opinion when they told us that one of the features that decided them to buy our house was the stained glass window in the hall, which took me 10 years to build!

Today was spent on the after-the-hols clear-up, but we did allow ourselves an outing with the cycle club this afternoon. I explained that, after 2 years off the bike, I wasn’t up to doing the whole ride, so they promised to ride at a very gentle pace till I turned back. I struggled to keep up for all of 9 miles (pathetic!) and it wasn’t till we’d left the rest of them that I learnt that the guy who took the lead today is an ex-Tour de France rider! (made me feel slightly less pathetic):-)

Yesterday we went to help our friend, Adrian, lay a new floor in his grange. The lads finished levelling the subfloor, and did other technical, boy jobs, while I got on with the important work of making lunch. We’d almost finished eating when a dark shadow blotted out the sun from the window; the cement lorry had arrived! It was all hands on deck to spread the concrete as evenly as possible between the bits of wood (shuttering, for anyone technical out there), that they’d put down. I think they all really enjoyed paddling about in the liquid concrete; Ade did say he’d never been allowed to play mud pies as a child. Made up for lost time yesterday, though! By the time we left it looked great.

This morning, we woke to a frost! It soon burnt off, but it’s soon going to be time to start lighting fires. It did, however, remind Kieran that they hadn’t cemented around the window in his bedroom when they replaced it, so there was a half inch gap down one side. Rather negates the point of double glazed windows, really! It’s now cemented up and he should be warmer tonight.

Nick call Flagstaff metal roofing contractors and with them went up on the roof today to repair the seal around the chimney, which allows rain to pour fairly steadily down the inside, onto the stove in the kitchen (no wonder it’s so badly rusted). Another little job out of the way before winter sets in.

I finished the first coat of emulsion in the orange bedroom, but had to spend most of the morning planning for today’s English class; numbers, times, days, months, etc. I don’t know if any of them will come back after half term, they found today so hard!

It rained today; not hard, but enough to keep us indoors. So Kieran started building some much needed book shelving to go in the orange bedroom, while I started to decorate the same. It won’t be orange any more, but I think the name change may take a while to get used to. Nick built some shelves to house teapots out of an old bit of wood he found lying around – very rustic!

Nick made and fitted some cross pieces to the window, to make it look like the old windows we’ve removed; the new windows look just too “new”.

We’re going to our friend, Adrian’s tomorrow, to help him lay a concrete floor in part of his grange; it was decided that wellies are probably the footwear of choice, but….where were they? They hunted high, they hunted low; eventually they turned up in the recycling!

There’s rain forecast for tomorrow, so we decided to tidy the garden as far as possible. Nick drew the short straw, so he had to use the small mower to cut the fiddly bits of grass, while I got the fun job of driving the big mower. It’s all neat and tidy now and ready for winter.

A neighbour phoned to say that he’d got some firewood we can have if we want it; the only downside is that it needs cutting, ie it’s a tree. It fell in the big storm of 2009, so it’s good and dry, but Nick seems to think we may need to invest in a bigger chain saw for it. He and Kieran are going to “have a look” tomorrow, which, of course, involves taking the chain saw and the trailer.

While we were at Daniel and Maria’s, they introduced Kieran to a kitten that’s adopted them, and is surplus to requirements. He’s called Minus (pronounced mee-noose) and is black and white and apparently quite feral; I know nothing about cats, but it seems to me that one which is on the wild side should be good at keeping down the mouse population around here. I think he’s ours as soon as we’re ready. Yes, I hear the cries of “But you don’t like cats!”, but I like mice even less, and people can change, can’t they? He wouldn’t pose for a photo, but the cockerel would, which is why there’s a photo of a cockerel today – handsome, isn’t he?

There was a distinct feel of autumn in the air this morning; a slight chill, a little mist and the leaves have started to fall from the lime tree. But by lunchtime it was sunny again and warm enough to eat outside.

Kieran and Nick finished clearing the rubble from the old pigsty; the rubble will be used to do the base of an extension to the garden shed, for which we’ve applied for planning permission today. The system is strange here; if we hear nothing in a month, permission’s been granted. They ordered some firewood today, too, which should arrive in a couple of weeks and will live on the now clear pigsty base.

We spent some time this afternoon clearing the rest of the packing boxes out of the grange; unfortunately, some of them were on the unconcreted bit of the floor and one of Nick’s coats has been ruined by the damp (we didn’t realise there were clothes left in there). On the plus side, we have finally found the address book!

We need somewhere to store all the firewood that we need to buy before winter; Kieran looks in need of a demolition type job. So we give him the concrete breaker and let him loose on the pig sty that he started to demolish a year ago. As you can see from the photos, he was quite a happy bunny and there is just the small matter of removing the rubble tomorrow.

I have, at last, finished painting and distressing my mother’s kitchen cupboards; I don’t think she’d approve of what I’ve done to them, but I think they look great. The lads moved them back to the kitchen so I could put some stuff away.

Later, after teaching my English class in Nogaro this afternoon, I started loading up the next compost bin from the heap that’s accumulated over the last few weeks. I do wonder if I’ll ever get to the end of it; every time I think I’ve made an impression on the heap, they pile more stuff on it!

We noticed today that the olives on the tree are ripening. We won’t be going into oil production this year as there are only about 20 olives on the tree, but I’ll have to ask our Portuguese neighbour what I need to do to them next.

Another glorious day dawned today in our corner of paradise. As the sun rose, so did the mist, so we headed out into the blue yonder (well, OK, so only into the garden), armed with the camera. Nick insists that I admit to having been still in my pyjamas at this stage of the day, but it was early!

Later on, Nick and Kieran fitted the last of the windows that we’re replacing, so we’ve got double glazing in every room except the bathroom now, and that one will take a bit more work. That done, they went out for a bike ride and to find some firewood for the winter; we’re going to get about 10 cubic metres delivered, ready to cut to length for the woodburning stoves. We’ll have to clear a large space to store it; more on that tomorrow.

We still can’t believe the weather here; about 25ºC again today and clear blue skies.