Bags are packed...I'm ready to go...again.

I always think of John Denver when I'm getting ready to go away.... and we're off again on Sunday. This time we're finally going back to Caunes...so my blog title will be relevant again. 

Janice will be in Caunes for the next 6 months, with a brief trip back to Hebden Bridge at the end of June/ start of July, for hospital visits and to see Le Grand Depart of Le Tour as it passes   ( almost) past our front door.

Getting ready to go back to France has meant making sure I see lots of people I wont now see for a few months, which has been fun.

Ashby Castle, 5 mins walk from Sue's house

The best was spending a few hours with 2 gorgeous women I used to teach with. We met 36 years ago at what was a wonderful school in Leicestershire. Sue was the Special Needs teacher, Melody was the Art teacher and I was the History and Social Studies teacher....we were quite a team. Sue and I left the school way back in the 1980s.... Melody retired from it last year, after 37 years.

3 ex teachers, enjoying retirement

Last week I drove down to Sue's home in Ashby de la Zouche. Daughter Jess came with me, and thoroughly enjoyed being with the " ladies who lunch".

Jess and Sue

The weather was excellent, we nattered, we drank coffee, we ate some lovely home made soup, and we talked about the past...which amused Jess no end. We walked into the town, past Ashby Castle, wandered a little, and then Jess and I set off for home.

Melody is coming out to Caunes for Bastille Day, and to see Le Tour, when it leaves from Carcassonne on the 15 th July. We will have fun. Hopefully Sue will come out later in the year too.

Celebrating 85

My dad would have been 85 tomorrow if he hadn’t smoked 60 cigarettes a day from being 20 years old until his heart attack at 48. He was very lucky.... the heart attack didn’t kill him, but made him stop smoking.... and he lived a further 30 years.

However, his dream, he said, was to still be striding down the fairway, playing another round of golf, when he was 85. ( Not playing subuteo with his 13 year old daughter as he was in this 1968 photo......just look at those curtains...agghhh )

It wasn’t to be. The smoking finally caught up with him and he died of lung cancer 7 years ago, when he was 78.

Sorry about the golf dad, but Jess and I will be spending your birthday, your 85^th birthday, together, and we will celebrate for you.

Dad, aged 77.....still gorgeous, and with us, on holiday , in France...as he was just months before he died. His last game of golf was with Mark, in France.....one to be remembered, always.

Happy Birthday Dad. 

Garden guests.

I developed our very small Hebden Bridge garden, with the specific intent of not having to do anything to it, once created, except an annual autumn clear up. It has worked well.

We leave it tidy(ish) in at the end of April, and return to it, still in a reasonable state, if a little overgrown, at the end of October, when we come back from France.

During the winter months when we are in our Yorkshire home, we can sit and watch the pond, with the birds darting around from the overhanging trees. We have seen the occasional mouse creeping out from under the compost bin, and squirrels visit from time to time.

 

At this time of year, some colour starts to appear and the green shoots promise that once again, my tiny self sufficient garden is about to bloom.

This year, we have had a few unexpected guests.

We don't know where this baby rabbit has come from and ....

yesterday, what I thought was the return of one of our mice turned out to be somewhat larger......

Living so close to the canal, I'm surprised we haven't seen rats before.....this one looks friendly !  I think he's a baby too. So, he is welcome, I just hope he gets on with the rabbit.

Poorly Izzie

We looked after Izzie yesterday as she wasn't quite well enough to go to her nursery.

Although she was a bit sleepier than usual, for most of the day she kept us on our toes....and we had such a good day.

As you can see, Izzie adores Grandad

We read

We visited the Hospice shop where I work.

and then we fed the ducks.

Then a walk home... with me pushing the newly acquired nana's buggy ( needless to say, re-homed from the hospice shop).