Mon Soixante .......................

Last Friday I joined the sexagenarian club and because Matt and Bethan and my brother Keith were here for the weekend so were the celebrations. So with apologies to Jude this a birthday shoot out in no particular order............I would have had to think to carefully about how I was loading the photos to get the order correct.

Bethan and Matt arrived just in time to see their sunflower seeds come to fruition. They are the tallest sunflowers I have ever seen. Remember Matt is over 6 feet tall!



On the Saturday after the party we had a lazy day in the garden after a late and long breakfast. Breakfast then morphed into a long boozy lunch, with much talk of wedding plans and the day culminated in a wine tasting session, more wedding planning and a session of dancing practice......

.............which as you can see didn't start off too well, mind you they were 2 bottles of rose and 4 bottles of red down by now!...................... however.............

things did improve as you can see............so hopefully the first dance will be fine..........no it will be more than fine!

This photo shows wine tasting and wedding planning in progress. The 4 bottles of red in question, not quite finished.

On Friday evening after the party we had booked a table at a local restaurant La Recreation which is in the village of Les Arques. We are just about to tuck into dessert.


This Keith relaxing the day after the party............

.............and this is frenchy John...........Guy and Christine our french neighbours came with a big box covered in wrapping paper and a card. The card said that the box contained everything I needed to be the "veritable frenchy". Inside the box was a baguette, a bottle of red wine, some cheese and a black beret!! Wonderful. This is the result.............
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The weather on Friday was a little changeable so we were in and out of the house in between showers....................


This is Bethan and Matt listening to Alice singing...............although I think Bethan is thinking about seating plans................in front of them are our neighbours Madam Gau and Bernedette Douriac.

In this photo Matt is cornered by two french ladies asking him, no doubt, about life in Saudi Arabia.

Time to cut the cake and blow out the candle.................


Alice singing and playing the guitar....................

And lastly our neighbour Guy wishing me bon anniversaire in true french style.............we remain just good friends..................

All the photos from the party are on facebook.

The Potager.....................

These sunflowers were grown from seeds given to us by Matt and Bethan after they visited The Eden Project. They must be 7 feet tall now and still growing!

I mentioned the potager in my last post but I was down there today and was amazed at how quickly some of the other legumes are growing, look at the size of my melons!!............... actually this is a double melon.......not sure how that will work out.......................

and when was the last time you saw a cucumber like that........................................

These two little frogs live in the stone wall of the terrace and they come out every night and sit next to each other and seem to talk to each other all night........like this........beep-beep.......beep-beep..........beep-beep........... yes all through the night!

We were having aperitifs with some of our French neighbours last night and we asked them if they knew what kind of frogs they were, they didn't seem to know, except for Guy who said he thought they were just frogs that needed their batteries changing...................

Tomorrow is Cazals market and then Francette's for breakfast quickly followed by a liquid lunch and then I think the hammock will be calling...............

It's raining rain, hallelujah.............

The heavens have opened this morning and the wet stuff is falling for the first time in awhile. It has been difficult for the last few weeks keeping the plants in the potager and in the pots alive and well, this last week has been especially hot, "canicule" is the word they use here to describe very hot weather, it's a great word especially if you are a geordie - it sounds exactly the same as canny cool, which in geordie tongue means exactly the opposite!

Everything is growing well in the potager, and at the moment we have the usual glut of courgettes and cucumbers and Lindsay is getting out the recipes for everything with courgettes! We have had the first harvest of peas and are now eating the first crop of potatoes. The "murphy's" have managed, so far, to survive an attack from the Colorado potato beetle, which are endemic in France apparently and very difficult to get rid of. We had friends to visit a couple of weeks ago and John spent a good few days picking grubs off the leaves and burning them. I have since resorted to spraying them with "agent orange" but they are still on the march and manger.

We had twelve tonne of castine delivered a few weeks ago to finish off the new terraces and the bottom of the drive. Thankfully it was not quite as hot as it has been lately as it had to be moved from the top of the drive by wheelbarrow!

This is the gin and tonic terrace finished, it faces the evening sun and is a wonderful spot at around 7 o'clock!

This is Lindsay leading another barrow load of castine to the bottom of the drive! A few year's ago I could not have imagined Lindsay getting involved in this or planting and weeding in the potager but she does it all now and enthusiastically !! Mind you she still insists on wearing gloves with flowers all over them ........ no soil must touch the hands, and sunflower wellies and shoes and now has her own wheelbarrow with flower stickers all over it!

Nearly there! Just about 6 tonne left to move!

This is Lindsay and Ann scoffing moules and frites by the lake at Frayssinet during La fete de Musique. They do moules frites every Friday evening at this small cafe by the lake and it is very popular with the local people and tourists alike.



We also had the annual fete du vin at Grezels a couple of weeks ago. All the local wine makers bring their wine for tasting and selling! It is a great event with picnic tables set around the wine stalls and you are able to choose and buy meat to BBQ yourself and eat with your picnic. It's great fun and much wine is "tasted" by everyone.
At the end of the day they finish with a barrel rolling competition.

This bloke seems to have consumed his fair share of wine, and maybe emptied this barrel.....they didn't win! I don't think they made it to the end of the course.

This is David, who approaches everything with great enthusiasm, in this case I think he approached the wine tasting with a little too much enthusiasm!

And this is John, who is looking very happy as he has just made sure that he has enough wine for his picnic!