Dreams can be shattered

Dear readers
We have lived in France for 7 1/2 years now and built a good life here for ourselves, we are not rich (money wise) but we believe we are millionaires when it comes to our life together, our needs are simple, food on the table, good friends to share with and a roof over our heads, all of which we have.

We have a far better life here than we would have in England, we live in the countryside among the farming community in a house that is over 200 years old, we certainly couldn't  afford anything like it in England with the hyped up property prices in fact we would be lucky to afford a garden shed. Needless to say we want to stay here, we have wonderful neighbours and I believe we will live longer by being here.
So let's get to the reason for this particular blog and the worrying situation that we find ourselves in due to the incompetence of the English government, we are about to leave the EU which means for us that we may not be able to stay here, at the moment we get health care via our S1 from DWP, that would probably finish, we both need medication daily, plus they would probably freeze our pensions this along with the pound devaluing means we would not be able to afford to live, yes we could become French citizens but that means we would have to have better French, not so easy when you are in your late 60s as well as all the other hoops the French would have us jump through. I use the word probably because we don't know, no one has given us a second thought or answered any of our questions instead they are going to leave us in limbo for at least 2 years, and so we wait and try to enjoy what we have while we have it, I am hoping sense will prevail and they will listen and act on the petition with over 4 million signatures, so if you haven't yet signed please do unless you are in the leave camp of course and I respect that..if it all comes to fruition then we will all be coming back to Britain and we will all want somewhere to live and we will need benefits so brace yourselves...Until next time.

The Queen's Birthday Party

The Queen's Birthday Party

Or as they say it here in France -  a fête d'anniversaire de la reine.

We celebrated the birthday of our Queen Elizabeth 11 on Sunday at our friends house has they have a bigger garden than us, it rained constantly until it was time for everyone to arrive and then the miracle happened, it stopped for most part of the time, although we had two gazebo's up that were keeping us dry.

there were 25 of us half and half English/French
The man on the left of this picture used to be the Maire of our friends village, the man with his arms round his daughter is our friendly mechanic, so as you can see all useful people to have as friends.

The lady here on the left is our host and whose beautiful garden we invaded

Lady on the right is the community nurse.

A proper English tea party 

The Mechanics daughter Pauline entertaining us with her violin

The chap at the back in green shirt is my Hubby just coming for a beer

 What did you do to celebrate

Our French Life: June in France

Our French Life: June in France: Hello dear readers Yes June! I can't  believe it is June and we still have cloud, lots of cloud, there has been so much rain which of ...

June in France

Hello dear readers

Yes June! I can't  believe it is June and we still have cloud, lots of cloud, there has been so much rain which of course is making the grass and weeds grow at an alarming rate, Paris has flooded streets as does a lot of Northern France, there is a statue under the bridge over the Seine and they say if the water reaches his feet the streets will flood, well it is up to his knees so I guess they are in trouble, I know a little about flooding having experienced it twice in UK,
But this weather is boring and we are still eating cold weather food, Shepherds pie tonight followed by French Strawberry tart made with Strawberries from our garden

Strangely there were just enough Strawberries for this tart,, call it fate.

The Shepherds pie is our favourite recipe courtesy of the Frugal Queen
You can find her blog here and pick up the recipe

John has been busy for me too, as you know he made Le Spa, a 3 x 3 wooden structure to house our hot tub, well he had all these bits of wood so he has made me some planters to go by our back gate and a great job he has done too, we have filled them with our own compost and a bit of peat, just got to fill with plants now

As for the Sun, still we wait but word has it that it will be here next week, until next time dear reader's

Our French Life: Summer days at last

Our French Life: Summer days at last: Hello dear Readers, The French summer has arrived and my old bones are very grateful, the spring seemed to go on forever and we have worke...

Summer days at last

Hello dear Readers,

The French summer has arrived and my old bones are very grateful, the spring seemed to go on forever and we have worked so hard to get  "Le Spa" up and functional John putting so much into it even when his body told him to rest, there never seems to be enough hours in the day since we have retired as we always have a project on the go.

But here it is, there are still a few tweeks to do to finish it and you know me I will have to put my mark on it, it is warming up nicely ready for us to get in and soothe our old bones.

If any of you want to pop round and get some bubbles feel free, we could have a party  🎉....

Bird in the hand

Hello dear reader's

Yes a bird in the hand is definitely worth two in the Bush, I have always been thrifty, I have to be especially now we are pensioners, but just lately I have been a bit lax and sometimes I get carried away when food shopping (we do love our food) and I do like to have plenty in the cupboards.
I have been following a blog called Frugal Queen, I will link her blog below,  she has brought me back to reality, got me back on the straight and narrow if you like, you will see why when you read her blog, don't miss it.
It is amazing how much money and time you will save by cooking two meals, one for now one for the freezer, it also gives you a cook free evening every now and then, another item I freeze is pancakes, I make twice as much batter cook them all up, eat some freeze some, voila.
here is the link Click here

When you have a meal from the freezer all you have to do is make the salad 😆

thanks for reading, I will look forward to your comments, let me know how you are thrifty.

Bank Holidays

Hello dear blog Friends,

Well here in France it is another bank holiday ( May is full of them) this one is Pentecoste, I think that is how the French spell it.
I used to love it when I was working and there was a UK bank holiday that they didn't have it here, it meant that I had the day off and the shops were still open, now I am retired it doesn't make any difference, everyday is a holiday they tell me, let me tell you it doesn't feel like it, I really don't know when I found time to work, there are not enough hours in the day to do everything - Housework, gardening, washing, ironing to mention just a few, I have been retired 3 years now and it has taken me this long to get organised, sort of, I have a long way to go but I am getting there and it is rubbing off on John too as he has been tidier that is for sure.
I now have a planner that has things like a TO DO LIST which I follow for my daily chores and a WEEKLY TO DO which has a different job on for each day of the week and finally a MONTHLY TO DO I must admit so far it is working and I can't tell you how much more able I feel when the work is done, I don't always stick to it and I sometimes swap them around especially when I need to be in the garden or we decide to take a day out for retail therapy but at least the house is tidy and clean if anyone calls unexpectedly.
This is what we have been doing today.

The top one was John's project for today, although he did give me a lot of help, the bottom one was mine, it was full of weeds and now is weed free and covered in bark in the hope it will keep the weeds down, the two tall shrubs were huge with branches down to the ground, they have been cut down as they were going over the fence into our neighbours.

Needless to say we are both knackered and in need of a drink of wine, medicinal of course.

Don't forget to leave a comment and do let me know what you did at the weekend x

Healthy living

A cyber friend made me think about our health and the health service here in France, I am type 2 diabetic after being diagnosed here 5 years ago.
Things happen very quickly and there is no waiting for appointments, as soon as a blood test confirmed it I was whisked off to hospital where it was soon brought under control, I now have a blood test every 3 months to make sure it stays under control, I also have a yearly eye examination to make sure there is no glaucoma, I also have problems with blood clots and heart arrhythmia  I can get an appointment the next day to see any consultant and all covered by my Carte Vitale, John has since been diagnosed with pre diabetes and has received the same wonderful service.

 

So all in all we are very fortunate to be here in this wonderful country under such a wonderful health service

Well the weather has certainly  changed here in our little bit of heaven in France in fact it is feeling quite like summer is arriving and about time too..

Saturday we spent a wonderful afternoon with our dear friends Sue and John and Valerie and John plus we re kindled an old friendship with a couple we knew some years before only to find out they lived in our very own village.

Sunday we were planning on having a quite day when more dear friend's  turned up bringing these beautiful flowers for our wedding anniversary which was the next day and so the Sunday lunch was added to and a lovely impromptu meal was had sat in the garden, thank goodness I had frozen a rhubarb crumble and we were able to have dessert too.

Monday morning (our wedding anniversary) was spent at the doctors for our 3 monthly check and prescriptions, plus a trip to the lab for a water sample analysis for me, looks like I have a kidney infection which is a side effect of my diabetes, that all done we thought we would treat ourselves to a Chinese buffet meal, we drove there looking forward to it only to find they were shut. Bummer.

We then decided to purchase something that required ID so as the purchase was for me I produced my French driving licence which would have been good enough except that my driving licence is in my maiden name which I questioned at the time but was told it was normal, the cheque book is in our married name so was no good, luckily John was there and used his and all was well, .we used to carry our passports but stopped doing that once we had the driving licence but now I think we must do so again.

Please take a look àt a cyber friends blog, it is called an accidental blog,  very interesting blogger  Click here