Clean Air

After five weeks in the UK helping our son renovate his new house near Dover, we returned yesterday to our French farm in the clouds. Autumn has unleashed a breathtaking landscape of ochre and crimson-tinged trees in our absence. We've shrugged off the 'quick quick' culture of the southern part of Britain, and are appreciating the peace and tranquility of the Correze, where roads are clear, the air is clean, and the sun shines. There had been one little niggle amidst our re-immersion into bliss; the knowledge that I would need to make a phone call in French to retrieve our Carte Grises for the French car and trailer. The niggle was promptly unniggled, as our local Bureau de Poste had left a slip in our post box to tell us that they had the two letters there. So, today, we ambled up the hill to retrieve them, putting us in a state of full possessive legality, car and trailer-wise in France! The woman at the Bureau de Poste was eager to help us; I don't think she gets many customers! I entered the office in a nervous flurry and began by apologising for my terrible French, and she responded kindly that I was doing perfectly well so far! She nearly lost me, however, during her explanation of how the letters came and went after five days (there had been four little slips in our post box), and I had to confess my confusion on two occasions, but she was in possession of the registered letters and all is well.

 I may have judged Mr Bricolage* harshly in the past, but they had given us a voucher for 30 Euros to spend in store by the end of October; we hotfooted it there today to make use of it. As you may be aware, we, as yet, have no heating in cottage #1, so we chose a little portable electric convector radiator. It may still be quite hot in the daytime, but the night brings a bit of a chill...




The vegetable patch was hiding a few surprises...












Back to my favourite activity... 





 Okay. Now we need to get back to work! There's a kitchen to finish and two bedrooms to construct, not to mention the three dormer windows...

*I can't manage to establish whether it's MISTER Bricolage or MONSIEUR Bricolage!

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