Sunday 17 January 2016

Our French life - Winter has arrived at last

The winter and welcome guests

We are expecting guests, our dear friend Fernando who spends most of his time in America ( he is married to an American lady but is waiting for his full residency ) and his sister Chus who lives in Spain, 
After his long haul flight to Spain Fer (as we call him) set out by car with Chus on route to our house for a couple of days R&R with us, and this means partaking of a few bottles of the old vin rouge and the obligatory meal out, if you live in our part of France you will know that most restaurants are closed in the evening and only open fully for lunch but, we have a local hostelry that caters for lorry drivers and therefore while providing them with an evening meal is open for the likes of us too, needless to say the portions are good too in fact it is a veritable feast, that said, I must stress that just because they provide for drivers nothing is lost in the quality or presentation, the starter was as big as a main and a good feast was had by all..


        John with his apple tart



Fer with his profiteroles 

That was Wednesday and by Friday morning they were gone on their way to visit family in UK but not without us all having great chats and catch ups and so much laughing we feel like we have broken ribs..

After such lovely spring like weather the temperature has plummeted to below freezing and Le Meteo tells us that we are expecting snow during the early hours, I do not like the cold but I do get very excited about snow and could sit in the window all day watching it, something I used to do as a small child, and always loved getting my wellies on and being the first to make footprints on a freshly snowed upon field or if there were little animal tracks I would follow them in the hopes I would see the perpetrator, can you tell I lived in the country?

As I sit toasting my toes by our wood burner waiting with bated breath for the snow, I have a tinge of sadness for our dear friends who lost their beloved horse last night, 
R.I.P Tiffany, enjoy it on the other side of rainbow bridge. xxx


 

Wednesday 6 January 2016

Our French Life - I almost forgot

I know forgetting is a sign of old age....I don't need reminding, it seems to be happening a lot lately, well I am putting it down to stress and lack of sleep due to the ongoing cough situation ..

Anyway let's get back to the matter in hand,
the thing I almost forgot, it was this:















This was the most amazing full Moon I have ever seen, it was the one on Christmas Day the like of which we haven't seen since 1977 and we won't see it again until 2034, I am hoping we will still be here to see the next one although we will be really old and wrinkly by then, but I do think our life in France is a far better more relaxed life than it would have been in England, I think we get by far a better health screening and care so that should give us a few more extra years - we are keeping our finger's crossed anyway.

The most stress we have had today, we went shopping for some large storage boxes because we have a store room at the end of a bedroom which has started to take over the said bedroom so we thought let's get some storage boxes, we travelled to our nearest Gifi and decided on the largest plastic boxes (2 of them) at 15.99€ each, we were quite happy with our choice, we then popped across town to Action, and! you have guessed it the almost same boxes were 9.98€ each, yep 6€ cheaper, So I have to bring in to play here one of my Mantra's for 2016, try to find the good in every situation, well to be honest Hubby reminded me by saying "go on then find the good in that" me not to be out done thought very hard for 5 seconds and said " we will need more than the two we have and at least now we know where to buy them cheaper" there was a mumbling as he walked on to the next aisle - bless him..he is still waiting for the day when he gets one over on me.

Have any of you ever grown one of those Amaryllis flowers, I was given one as a gift in bulb form, I popped it into a pot as instructed, for ages it did nothing, Then it started to grow and I mean grow, it reached 30 inches and then it bloomed..





Oh yes and it was supposed to be pink and it is clearly white but beautiful

Speak to you all soon x





Sunday 3 January 2016

Our French life - Superstition

3rd January

I know we are not supposed to take down the decorations until 6th January but once new year is over I always feel they are surplus to requirements, so down they had to come, I must admit we don't put an awful lot up - The tree of course with lights and a few other bits and bob's, some of which have been around since I was a child, Christmas was very special in our house but never seems to be the same now






It is a very old one but I might just get a new one for next year





John always struggles with the lights, putting them up and taking them down, I just let him get on with it, he has more patience than me.








All packed away for another year.
We have a fairly big Father Christmas but I forgot to take a picture of him and he has gone back into hibernation now.



As you can see it was John who took them all down and put them away, So while he was doing that I was cooking a nice Sunday lunch, just roast chicken roast spuds carrots and sprouts with stuffing and cranberry sauce, really enjoyed it, I tried to save the big glass dish from getting baked on by lining it with foil before cooking the chicken and roasters in it but it backfired as it took longer to get the baked on foil off and then had to scrub it, not one of my finer idea's

Must set the alarm tomorrow as we have been getting up later and later and although we are retired we do like to have a project or job to do on a daily basis, got to do the jobs while we still can :)

Hope you have enjoyed this instalment - if so why not go to join this blog and never miss one...

Saturday 2 January 2016

Our French Life

Happy New Year


Well it is the 2nd January and I would like to wish all my readers and friends a very Happy and prosperous new year, and to be really honest 2015 wasn't the best due to my health ( had a cough since July which they now say is Asthma) but onwards and upwards as they say.
I am going to try and post every week in 2016 about my life so bear with me as my life can be a little boring.

I    saw today on a friends Facebook page 12 steps for self care.
1.  If it feels wrong don't do it
2.  Say exactly what you mean
3.  Don't be a people pleaser
4.  Trust your instincts
5.  Never speak bad about yourself
6.  Never give up on your dreams
7.  Don't be afraid to say "NO"
8.  Don't be afraid to say "YES"
9.  Be kind to yourself
10.Let go of what you can't control.
11.Stay away from Negativity.
12.LOVE.
I am going to add no 13. Always try to see something good in everything
Now that to me is a good way to run your life I think...Thank you Carol Gibbon.

That's it for today, Please leave a message below as I love to hear from you,
Have a great day...