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Category Archives: The seasons

There is nothing like being in the crisp, cold air…

18 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by in My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The good life, The seasons

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You’ll all be glad to know that the Incredible Hulk is now back in his cage.

Yesterday after blogging and writing I spent the afternoon in the garden with hubby and the puppies.

The sun was shining on this late autumn day, and it was cold, with a nippy wind, and I loved it. I let the cold air blow through my brain, and remind me, as the Tao so often does, that what is needed is what you’ve got.

We spent the afternoon using our wonderful new tool that has been a life saver for Rich, the log splitter:

Nearly three years ago we chopped down fourteen pine trees that divided our garden and cut out the light. They were big babies and trying to cut through them with just a chainsaw was nigh on impossible.

But with the log splitter life was made easy because Rich could cut the logs to the right size and the log splitter did the rest. Making light work of it – almost

They’ve been protection for the chickens, an extra to make sure Wiglet could not get under the wire. They have been used to hold the fencing down around the garden, and they have been used as perches for the chooks. But the time has come to use them, before they rot.

There is nothing more rewarding than using what is available to you, letting nothing go to waste. Add to these the logs we have from the sycamore we pollarded in January, with more to cut; and the oak logs, with more to cut, that will not be ready until the winter after next, and we are set up for the next three winters.

So the log store is full with a mixture of pine and hardwood (you can burn pine providing you mix it with other woods) I’ve burnt calories, the puppies are happy and our garden is getting tidy, in small steps.

I don’t have a lot in material things, but what I do have money cannot buy. I am blessed.

Moisy

Have a good week folks

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Change – Windswept gardens and saving lives

12 Monday Nov 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, My family and other furry creatures, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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Only last week I posted this picture or our garden.

This weekend the hooley escalated to what looked like a typhoon, we literally felt as if we were enveloped by the storm, the rain and hail were so torrential that you could not see the field beyond our garden. Winter is letting us know that he is on the way!

All week our new roof has been fantastic, but this rain was exceptional and just found the couple of small flaws that we knew would be there, because such is the case with a new roof! Of course they were where the concrete seal had been added and are easily remedied; after not having a roof at all for three years we have learned not to worry about small things – we literally ‘don’t sweat the small stuff¬’

But the trees and the gardens took a battering and on Sunday morning we woke up to find the old heavy oak door (that had once been our front door) that we had propped against the tree of Tao ( to give the impression that you could walk through a maginal door and into another secret garden – I love a bit of folkelore and mysticism me!) had been blown over and the oak bench in front of her had literally been flipped upside down.

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As you can see the trees have been undressed of their leaves and in just two days the door is virtually covered! As is the rest of the garden.

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The serial killer known as ‘Wiglet’ was however in full form. On Friday she had a wonderful day with me, as I collected the twigs for kindling she protected me from anything that may be lurking in the branches that I was pulling out from the huge pile we have to deal with. Harley was with me too, laying at my feet, but she was snuffling backwards and forwards in the twigs (as far as her fat bum would take her) and behind them. She disappeared for a while and when I went down to load the logs up and into the wheelbarrow to bring in to the house I found that she had left me a present – a big fat dead rat! I told you had nothing to worry about!!

Sadly though this meant that she had got a taste for murder and after the wet weather on Friday night she set her sights back on poor Claudy the cockerel. Rich had to go and get her from the fence by the chicken coop on Friday night and on Saturday morning, whilst drinking my first cup of tea of the day in my jimby jambies, I heard a noise. I quickly got up and opened the door and could hear screaching and clucking – she had got back in with the chickens, by managing to move a post that was pliable in the soft wet ground!

Without further thought I ran up to the chicken coop – remembering what Rich had said about making a loud bang with something,because Wiglet does not like loud bangs, in fact they terrify her. Needs must I grabbed my prop from my washing line and, dreading what I was going to see, headed for the chicken coop gate. But a surprise awaited me – whilst she was giving Claudy the odd nip, she had not gone in for the kill and the other chicken was also alive (all but terrified!). I quickly banged on the corrugated iron of the shed and she ran to the corner of the coop giving Claudy time to squeeze himself between the new chicken house and the fence so she could not get him.

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I shouted at her ‘arretez’ which means stop in French, and she answers to French commands better than English in times like these. To my surprise – after having a quick lunge at the other chicken – she sat and did as she was told. There was no killing frenzy she actually just stopped! Rich came up and got her out, because although she had got in through the tiny gap she had made she could not get her fat arse back out!

A decision had to be made: I love Claudy, he is a stunning cockerel and chats to you whenever you go up to the coop, but if we keep him his days are numbered, because she will kill him one day. It is a bit like a lion, it goes after the one wilderbeast no matter how many are there, and Wiglet has had a taste of Claudy!

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So with heavy heart Rich and I contacted a friend who has just re-homed ten battery hens, he is an animal lover and he has agreed to re-home them both, giving them a safe haven from the serial killer. I will be sad to see them go, it is the end of an era. Butm we have to think of Claudy and the one remaining girly, and, as we know, all things change; and this season is the one to remind us of that like no other.

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I know! Butter wouldn’t melt right?!

Moisy

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Why I have come to love wind and rain

07 Wednesday Nov 2018

Posted by in My family and other furry creatures, My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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I am surrounded by trees. My home has so many in the garden I could not list them all, but not least is my tree of Tao…

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I have written before how much I love this tree, as she blows majestically in the wind, no matter whether it is light breeze or a hooley, she never seems to move any faster and her branches always sway slowly as it to say she will not be hurried, and what is needed will come.

Last night a hooley blew in. Living on a hill we are susceptible to high winds and when I first moved here I wondered if we had made a mistake, especially when we lost our kitchen roof, and the tornado struck!

We didn’t realise quite how high up we were or how much the wind would blow around us; but as time has gone on I have come to love the wind; I love the way it blows through the branches and leaves of the trees, I love it when you can see the leaves, at this time of year, swirling and dancing their last dance, and I love it because it reminds me that we need to blow the old away to bring in the new.

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So  last night as I lay in bed  (I tend to wake at night, and often cannot get back to sleep)  listening to the wind and the rain battering against the shutters, it made me feel safe, and it made me feel lucky. Here I was laying in bed warm and loved with my husband snoring beside me, one of my Welshie’s snuggled up to me and the other snoring in her bed (she loves her new bed our baby!) and I knew that was all I need.

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I felt protected by our house, and the shutters, and I felt blessed that I was where I was. It really is the simple things!

Sometimes I can lay awake for hours , but  last night listening to the wind and the rain it was as if mother nature had sung me a lullaby and I fell back to sleep.

Today when we woke  the hooley was still in full swing, and as I sit here now writing this the rain is battering away at the window pain, my Welshie’s are asleep on our spare bed and one bar on my gas fire is keeping me warm.

But more than anything the thing I love about the wind and rain is that whilst the rain can calm you the wind can blow your fears away. I woke up today with something on my mind – you know – when there is something there but you cannot quite put your finger on it! So I decided to embrace what life had sent me and I went out into the garden, with my beautiful dogs, and as I did so the sun came out! I just stopped and looked out over the valley, with it’s sunny skies and dark clouds reminding me that the hooley was still with us and I took a breath.

I do not do this enough; I get caught up in the day to day things (writing two blogs, sending my book to agents, admin, unicorns – I know obscure!) and I don’t come out here whatever the weather, with my beautiful puppies who, God willing, will be with me for as long as they can, and even then that will still not be enough; and just spend an hour a day with them surrounded by nature.

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As I spent over an hour gathering the twigs from the enoumous piles of trees we still have to sort,  they hunted whatever I had disturbed from it’s winter hideaway, and just ran around with me, happy that I was outside with them.

As  I let the wind blow through my mind, and blow the cobwebs away, I looked at this amazing place that I am blessed to live and in it reminded me (as it so often has in my life) that we really are just small things that are here for a fleeting moment, and all the things we have on our minds are insignificant really.

Did I find out what was on my mind? No, but I did come in with the reasurrance that whatever it is it will all resolve itself in the end.

Moisy

Doesn’t matter where you live you just accept things as they are..

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in My home, Reflections, The seasons

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Image result for quotes about being too positive

Here is a blog that I wrote last week, and forgot to share with you – sorry about that folks! I would welcome comments on this one….

Since the chilly temperatures last weekend the weather had now become weirdly very warm, and ever so slightly wet. Last year we had the wettest winter ever recorded in France and it can get very grey, very fast over here, which I know gets some people down.

As I look out of my window from where I write there is drizzle in the air and a feeling of dampness everywhere. The Welshie’s are snuggled and asleep and I have lit the fire early today. (I count that as a blessing as we have enough wood to not worry when we light it – for the first time in three years.)

Grey is my favourite colour, most of my house is painted one shade or another of it, and I often sit up here on the hill alone, whilst Rich and my neighbours are at work. It would be quite easy to feel isolated but I don’t. I am someone who likes her own company, I am busy with my two blogs now, and I am writing for hours every day to hone my book because come hell or high water it will be published – with another month heading to the eight thousand views scenario I would be mad not to believe in it.

I do a lot of reading as part of my research, and today I read a post where it said that it was okay to feel down and it got me thinking (which I am blessed to have time to do whilst living on this French hill) am I too positive?

I have blogged in the past about how someone told me that I was – but then she was a person who never seemed happy in her life, no matter what it gave her, and had often suffered from depression.

So can you be too positive? I know from reading the Tao that where there is good there is bad and where there is bad there is good, and perhaps it is that thought that keeps me going through the bad times, that I know that if I believe eventually good will come my way – in whatever form as long as I believe it. I also know that we continously focus on the negative only negative crap will come our way because we are attracting it. But do I not see the negative shit? Or am I now able (after reading the Tao) to just accept the fact that it is ‘just life’?

Let’s look at our roof scenario – it had major damage from a storm in the March of 2016, and then the insurance company refused to pay out. At that time I had lived here a year and yes I was stressed about it. Wondered how we would survive, berated the world for sending crap our way, and it just seemed as if we couldn’t get a break. Then two months later I started to read the philosophy of the Tao (The book was called ‘Change Your thoughts, Change Your Life) and it did change my life. When I first started reading it I wondered what the hell it was talking about, but I perservered and now I get it; but boy did it take time!

In the September a tornado ripped through our garden tearing the silver birch tree in half and finishing off the roof. As you know if you read this blog we had only a tarp that kept us for the elements and we had that tarp for another two years.

But here is the rub: I had learnt that to worry about it was not going to change it. We didn’t have the money to get it done, the water was going to come in but I had to accept that there was nothing I could do until the opportunity arose to fix it. Yes it could have got into the electrics – but it didn’t – yes it could have rotted the rafters – but it didn’t (well not completely) but what was me worrying about it, or being fed up about it going to achieve? Nothing!

I learnt that when the time was right we would get the new roof we needed and we have, we still carried on living here, we did not die! The same as with the water, I learnt from that lesson never to waste water or take it for granted again.

As the years  have gone on I have learnt that worrying and stressing will get me nowhere, and I just have to accept what life dishes out to me, and go with the flow.

Where there is good there is bad and where there is bad there is good. If I don’t know the bad then I won’t know the good.

So am I too positive?

Moisy

Being positive joke

Cloud Watching – Believe,

06 Tuesday Nov 2018

Posted by in My family and other furry creatures, My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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It was cold over the weekend and although we had decided to have a bonfire in line with the traditional bonfire night in England (November the 5th folks, when Guy Fawkes, who was a Spaniard (are you keeping up?) was found guarding a huge amount of gunpowder under the houses of parliament and hung drawn and quartered for his sins, even though he was not the main conspirator. So as we English do we celebrate this gory event with bonfires and fireworks – I know we’re weird!) Anyway back to my story….

We had decided to have a bonfire to burn the huge amount of crap we have to burn, not least the smelly damp chicken hay, from the now defuct Chicken Hilton and the old rotted wood from our old roof. But hubby had been at work for half the day and had been busy all week so we decided against it and just had a lovely evening with some friends, drinking lots of wine and eating very hot chilli! (Are we getting old!)

Because Rich had been busy all week and worked yesterday I had promised him a lie in (it is so easy when you live this life to work every day all day and you would still not get everything done!) and a snuggle in bed. What better a thing to do on a cold frosty morning?

Bus Sophie, the Sofa Loaf, (also known as Nitty, Nutty, Nora) the toothless cat that we have adopted since living here, had other ideas and decided to Meowly Meow at the top of her voice as soon as the sun started to rise. So as husband snored (seriously he could sleep through a tornado that man – Oh wait he did!!) I decided to get up, let the mad cat out and make some tea (as I often say we are English after all!)

As is the way life showed me the way and I was greeted by the sun just rising over the horizon and it took my breath away.

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Yes! I was out in my garden again in my pyjamas and dressing gown!

I had to do it, I felt the need to embrace that beauty on that crisp, cold morning. It was stunning and as always made me think that without the cold, and the cat waking me up I would not have seen this.

Everything in life happens for a reason, you just have to look sometimes to find out what it is.

The whole sky was breathtaking with rolling clouds all around us

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So as I was preparing for this blog and downloading my photos, I saw this one and it made me stop in my tracks ……

I thought for a brief moment that I had caught in the clouds a face of a cat, and my heart stopped because I thought it must be Tinky Tiny Tilly, our beautiful little black cat who never came home nine months ago. I ran down the stairs to Rich and showed him and he could not believe it either, until he noticed the orange lines on it and I remembered that I had taken the photo the day before – it is a photo of Sophie in her favourite place – my car!

Perhaps I am the Nitty, Nutty Nora, or perhaps I just wanted to believe!

Have a good week folks, remember enjoy everything life has to offer, you can get comfort from the smallest thing.

Moisy

Do you ever take the time?

01 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by in My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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I ask this question to you all, do you ever take the time to just see what is around you and look at it in awe. I know I have so much that can make me think feel this way, I am surrounded by Mother Nature, God, the Tao Te Ching, whatever you want to call it, it is all around me every day; and I know for that I am blessed. I have never lost sight of that.

But I know that some think they don’t have the countryside around them, so it is not so easy to see the beauty in the simple things; but it is! It is all around us all, no matter where you live, look at the the rain for instance falling around us, from the drop on a leaf, or railing, to the blade of grass, glistening with beauty. Have you ever stopped and just watched a drop of rain hanging from a rail, quivering and glistening, and waited until it plopped?

Rain knows no bounds, it is in the countryside, the cities, the suburbs, in slums. No matter what you feel about your life it is amazing if you just stop and look for a moment.

Or what about the sky? When was the last time that you just stopped for a moment and looked at the sky?

When ‘The War’ was raging around Rich and I eleven years ago I sought solace in cloud watching, as I watched the clouds just go on their way, slowly, unhurried and always  so beautiful and serene I was reminded that in the whole universe the pain that we were going through would pass, and wasn’t as bad, or as important as I thought.

I have never stopped cloud watching, and living here I am blessed every day.

So Ithought that on the first day of November I would share with you some of the beautiful sunrises that we were given to us in the month of October. I want you to imagine me, every morning at about eight o clock out in the garden snapping these shots, in my dressing gown (it’s spotty if you want the detail!) This one in particular was what inspired me:

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One morning when we woke it was chilly, despite it being very warm for October the previous few days, I opened the door to let the cats in and the dogs out and this caught my eye, the mist over the valley and it just rising took my breath away and I just had to capture it.

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Rich got up to find me scurrying around the garden in my pyjamas and said ‘What are you doing now?!’

‘Look at this I said, we are so lucky.’

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This set the pattern for the next few weeks and I hope that you enjoy them.

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I ask you all to just take the time today to just stop for thirty seconds and see something beautiful. Here is what I saw this morning, looks like November is bringing it’s own beauty to the party..

As the great poet W.H Davies said ‘What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.’

Moisy

Reminisces – I love the way this life has changed me

29 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by in My home, Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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We have had a wonderful warm Autumn here in France, it has been recorded as the warmest October on record, but over the last week winters has started to creep in with the wind; and today, as I sit here with Sofa Loaf (the toothless cat we rescued when we moved here) fast asleep beside me it reminds me how much our lives have changed since moving here.

I am sitting in my fleece, with my old computer (with an added keyboard because the keyboard went on it years ago!) and the electric heater on very low. The clocks went back this weekend and the sun is low in the sky because the evening is drawing in already. Summer seems a long way away now.

Rural living is simple living if you don’t have a lot of money; so over the last three years I have learnt that everything counts, including the twigs from the garden – used for kindling – and the small logs from the cob nut trees we coppiced three years ago, now tinder dry and perfect for keeping the fire burning.

Yesterday as I stood in the biting late autumn wind loading the logs to take indoors I remembered how three years ago I was so excited about our first winter in France; about having to survive, it seemed so exciting at the time. But as that winter wore on I begrudged having to go out in the cold to collect the logs, and I wondered if I really was going to enjoy this life. It seemed so hard having come from our old house in England with it’s central heating that could be turned up at the click of a switch and the open fires we would light for atmosphere more than necessity.

As we were collecting logs today to re-stock our log cupboard, and also to try and finally fill the log store we bought (it is like something out of ‘The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe’ no matter how many logs we put in it, we havem’t managed to fill it yet!) I looked at Rich and said ‘I used to hate this, and now I love it!’ I love being out in the cold getting what I need to make our house warm and ‘snuggly’. I love all of the elements that every season brings and I embrace them all.

I am not dreading the many cold, grey, damp drizzly days you can get in this part of France in the winter. Instead I enjoy looking at the grey mists that surrounds us, I love the atmospheric feeling of being in the middle of nowhere snuggled down amongst the mist, feeling safe, and making do with what you have got.

I do, I love the fact that to use something I have to make an effort and get it, gone are the days when I can just have something in the time it takes me to click my fingers, and it made me realise that I love that aspect of our lives now.

When I used to live in England I would sit in my house in just a T.Shirt, I don’t now! Our only form of real heating is the log burner and you will never see me without a fleece, thick cardigan or fluffy warm dressing gown in the late autumn and winter months; and I love that! I love it that I have collected the walnuts (that we let go to waste the first year we were here, we literally left them to rot!), and that this weekend I will make us a walnut pie (bit like pecan only think Walnut!)

We don’t have money to go out, but in all honestly even if we did we wouldn’t, we are happy in our home, with our beautiful Welshies (the perfect dogs for autumn photos) all our cats, our fluffy slippers (well mine anyway!) This and to just walk around our garden, is enough.

I love what this adventure is showing us! Be gratedful for what you have got and just enjoy each day; and if you cannot do that then just enjoy a small thing each day and be grateful for that! I know it is hard sometimes, trust me you only have to read some of my older blogs to know how hard it has been, but live every day is if it were your last, for someone, somewhere it will be.

A good message for the beginning of the week I hope.

Moisy

As I sit here…..

17 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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As I sit here this morning, with my first cup of tea of the day (I am English after all!) I have found the urge to write.

The picture above is my garden at this present moment that I am writing this. The view from the valley as you can see is totally obscured because there is a thick fog and autumn has finally rolled in. A complete contrast to just weeks ago..

For the first time this season we have condensation on our windows, and single figure temperatures outside, but our house is warm. The roof on our kitchen has finally been replaced (more of that to come in another post) and add to the mix our new front door and the difference it has made is immeasurable. I smiled to myself today when I looked at our doors, and there was no condensation on them.

Sadly they are nowhere near as pretty as our old door, but it had to go, it was beyond repair (and trust me I tried) the oak had split from the hundred years of driving rain and wind it had endured so it could not be saved. We have re-used it (as you would know we love a bit of old and vintage, and will repurpose where we can, you only have to look at our Etsy shop) as a feature in our garden, it now plays the part of a secret door into a fairy kingdom.

I know we’re mad! But helps in life sometimes!

I love the autumn, One of the biggest things for me about living here is the changing of the seasons. I’ve said it before and I will probably say it again; it is a constant reminder that things change, and that although they will come back again they will never be the same as the one before. Nothing in life ever is. For me the autumn is the most poignant because all the things are dying off, it is the end of something that you will never get back, and it is a reminder to treasure every moment.

As some of you may know I am sharing a story from long ago about Rich and I, it has taken off. It is a sad story, but remembering where we are now, it is a story of hope. It too is a story of something dying and then coming back again, but in a different way, it was never going to be what it was before. Perhaps it is apt that I decided to share it in the autumn!

For those who have read my blog over the years you will know it made us stronger, and gave us the courage to take this adventure; and despite the hardships we have had along the way they have never broken us, almost sometimes, but we have always got through.

We have learnt that money really does not buy you happiness, and material things may give you comfort but they don’t make you happy. Because despite having no water, no roof, a leaking cesspit, dodgy cars at one point, and at times been down to the last six euros to our name, things have always come through, because we are happy in our minds. We have the ability to laugh, sometimes at each other, every day. We lost our egos.

So yesterday we read a passage from the Tao and the explanation asked a question, to think about what you thought made you happy and then ask yourself if that were true. It was designed to help people realise that the material things they bought did not really make them happy. So Rich and I both thought about it independently and both came up with the same answer, independently: it was to sit in our garden and look out across the valley.

We love our life, we love the simplicity and we both agreed that even if we had enough money to not have to worry about spending it, we still wouldn’t go out for meals, our greatest pleasure would be to sit in our garden and look at the view, with each other. (And all the furries of course!)

We are blessed.

Have a food day folks, enjoy the small things.

Moisy

If you want to learn more about us you may want to check out:

Makingthisbetter.com my new blog

PetiteFrenchfancies @etsy is my shop full of eclectic (of course) things.

You can also find me on Instagram as moisfrenchadventure, and Pinterest as moisfrenchadventure.com

The Wind – The Godsend that clears my mind

12 Friday Oct 2018

Posted by in Reflections, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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For mental Health Week in England I thought that I would share with you one of the things I have always found therapeutic and that  I especially love about living here – The Wind.

As a lot of you know our garden is full of trees, we have at least four Oak trees, a big old sycamore, two Silver Birch, some pine trees, our gigantic Walnut tree, Cob nut bushes, cherry trees and never least what I call my tree of Tao.

I have said many times how I love to watch this blow and sway in the wind, almost as if it is reaching out to me and saying believe me everything will be allright.

Today is one of those sunny, blustery Autumn days that reminds me of why I love this season so much. I felt the need to clear my mind and sat in the garden with the trees blowing around me as I read my passage for the day from the Tao.

As always as the wind blew through my hair it was as if it was blowing out the cobwebs and confusion and clearing the way for me to reflect and see clearly. Add to that the leaves swirling in the wind as if my thoughts had materialised and were being blown away, no longer required, discarded, and I knew that I had done the right thing, to sit in the garden and let nature show me the way.

I bring this up on Mental Health Awareness week because the ability to reflect is very important to me, and sometimes very painful. But reflect I must because I know that it is the only way that I can learn and grow.

So if you are feeling anxious, down, or confused in some way – You know what I mean- when there is something on your mind but you just cannot put your finger on it – then just go out in the wind and sit somewhere away from others and let it clear you mind for you.

I am blessed I only have to step out of the front door….

Have a good weekend folks, enjoy the Autumn, whatever the weather.

Moisy

Rural living – Autumn

30 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by in Change is a coming, My home, The adventures of living life in the French countryside, The continuing adventure, The seasons

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With the first of October nearly upon us autumn is here, but subtly this year. She is stealthily making her way in, lulling us into a false sense of security with her still warm days (some days last week were twenty six degrees, but out of the sun the breeze just had that slight edge to it, letting us know that autumn is really here) and cold nights.

We have still not lit our fire because the sun has warmed our old stone house up sufficiently that the cold is not seeping through it’s walls; but as is always the way with rural living we know that we have to prepare. So yesterday we spent a day in our garden, Rich tidying up the building site that is at the front of our house due to the new roof. (He is right he has to keep on top,of it or it will be a mammoth task!)

My main job was to start to collect the kindling that is all around the garden from the trees we chopped down earlier in the year. Natural kindling is the best and I am not paying for sanitised kindling when nature has provided it for me. One of my biggest lessons from living out here, I don’t let anything go to waste! I have five bags of twigs so far, and counting!

The wood from the sycamore tree that was pollarded earlier in the year is tinder dry and needs to be collected. So Rich and I spent an hour yesterday loading the wheelbarrow and moving into the log store. Eight barrow’s later and it is still not full

Looking at just the wood that has been cut we estimate that we have more than enough wood for this winter, and with all the other logs needing to be cut, and the cobnut wood that Rich cut over two years ago we probably have enough wood for the next two years or more. It feels good to be ahead of the game, and that is what you have to be if you choose rural living.

The plants have all been watered and are ready for extra feed before the winter kicks in, and they have been moved because our seating area, and the scene of so much hilarity and fun during the summer, has gone, my workspace has gone, the tables put away, or moved for the winter, the chairs put to bed.

Due to imminent changes we have also emptied and moved our water but, and you just have to be a little bit mad sometimes, and do what you have to do….

At six thirty we sat down at our table, now safely ensconced on the patio, for a well earned glass of wine, in the autumn evening sunshine, we looked across the valley at the changing colours and I said to Rich I was so happy with my life, and he said “So am I”.

So,today we are going to some of the last vide grenier of the season, they celebrate this time of year in a big way, celebrating the harvest, and there are numerous agricultural fayres and fetes, and who knows what treasures I will find.

Autumn, I love this time of year.

Moisy