Hair disaster

No photos on this one. Ali & I have the very merest sprinkling of rather light hair in our otherwise dark and lustrous mops (we're going grey), so decided to chuck on a bit of colour to cover it up before our hols. Ali's turned out a treat.
Mine went the same colour as Kit the dog - I looked like a syrup pudding. In deepest misery I phoned my Mum who stopped being a hairdresser in 1958 but gives good advice. "Chuck on a darker one" is the precis of a long phone conversation.
We had a spare in the cupboard, but Ali thought it too dark. I didn't want to be seen out so she sweetly went to the superdupermarket for me. And came home with EXACTLY the same one as we already had after hours of deliberation in the shop. Never mind said I. So we did it. And now I look like a toffee apple. Which is better than a syrup pudding. I'm hoping it will tone down in the next 48 hours. Eeeeek!

Too busy to write

Gosh, I realise it's been ages since the last post. What have we been doing? Well, finally Ali, Erzsi & I have finished cleaning all baked on mud and clay from the ancient tiles that came from the chapel bit of the house.

As Ali's done 99% of the work on these tiles, over the past three winters, she is justifiably delighted that they're done. There were thousands, so don't think we're making a huge fuss over the few you can see in the photo.

Justin, my lovely brother (also known as Freddie), is going to be re-laying them while we are in Australia.

And we leave the day after tomorrow. I'm so excited. Thanks to our guardian angel M, we are being air-miled club class on BA all the way to Perth where Ali's family live. We are taking the fab TGV train up through France, then hopping onto the Eurostar in Lille. From there it's a short ride to London where our great-mate-Kate is giving us a lift to Heathrow. Next stop Singapore, although for only a moment, then on to Perth where we hope to be greeted by Ali's parents Don & PAm & her sis Trisha and her partner Tam. Then I suppose we'll sleep for a fortnight before heading back.

Meanwhile Lee, Zoe & Ioan get to look after Le Couvent and all its ailing animals. Because we are going away, Tabloid the fish looks close to death, the hens have all gone off the lay, Gouttierre the fat cat has decided to stop eating for the first time in her life, Kit looks miserable and Flynn didn't bother with breakfast. Oh, and the hot water boiler's gone on the blink - as it always does while we're away. Our phone hasn't been accepting incoming calls for nearly a fortnight thanks to a France Telecom cock-up, so everyone thinks we haven't paid the bill. Fortunately we can still phone out and have internet access. But apart from that everything's hunky-dory. And we're in excellent spirits.

Perfect October

It's one of those absolutely perfect days. On the hill in the vineyards today, around midday, I was cycling with the dogs. I could see the Black Mountains and the Pyrenees in a 180 degree sweep, with the coast to the southeast. It's deliciously warm in just a polo shirt & summer trousers. I could smell the warmth and took huge lungs-full of sweet early autumn air. The dogs were running free and beside me, obviously enjoying it as much as me. I stood on my pedals, free-wheeled and yelled YIPPEE!! at the top of my voice. No-one called back. They were all missing the pleasure whilst getting on with their Saturday morning lists. Lucky, lucky me.
The old convent smiled back when we arrived home.

Aphrodisiac Quince Marmalade

Well, I was in the mood, so I've made the marmalade. Quince from the vineyards and lemons from our trees. And it's absolutely delicious. Lucky us & lucky guests next summer.

Please find attached - two dogs

I mentioned in an earlier post that I cycle with the dogs in the vineyards each day. I use two fantastic contraptions called Springers on my bike that mean I can keep both hands on the handlebars whilst the dogs are attached. [You can click the photo for a closer look.] On occasions I take Flynn the husky & Kit the labradorable for a quick whizz around the village. We stop traffic.

Quincy, fruity gorgeousness

These are quince. I picked them in the vineyards yesterday and intend to make some quince marmalade with them in the next few days. Meanwhile they are making the kitchen smell wonderful. Apparently they are a symbol of love and happiness and were used as room fragrances by the Victorians. I like them because they are beautiful, smell like highly scented apples, have pretty pink flowers in the spring and are free. No-one else seems to pick them, so there are hundreds for the gathering.

Back to the garden

One of the best bits of the season changing is that I can get back to our lovely garden. When it's hot for weeks on end the garden looks as though it's holding its breath. When the rains finally drop a little relief in September the garden starts to grow again. So having looked flower-less for weeks we suddenly have zillions of roses, canna lilies, and oleander in bloom. And with all that come the weeds - with a vengeance.

We have two windows of perfect gardening weather, October to mid-November, then again from February to the end of May. Yesterday it was so hot whilst weeding that I was down to my bra. A visiting friend asked if I garden naked when it's really hot. Who gardens when it's really hot?

You have to laugh. All the gardening books tell you that vegetable plants generally need well drained, highly nutritious, ph-perfect, well watered and mulched soil. Unbelievably we have stonking results with tomatoes, aubergines and courgettes on heavy clay into which I sporadically dig home-made compost, and which is watered in great slooshes when I backwash the swimming pool. Fortunately the water's treated by ultra-violet light, so no chlorine or salt which would harm the plants. One of our guests during the summer said she was amazed that our tomatoes appeared to be growing out of concrete, yet were groaning under the weight of fruit. I guess they like clay.

So yesterday I planted celery, broccoli, cauliflower and blette. The books said they need very particular conditions and I'll do my best, but I know it won't be perfect. For example, celery needs long cold growing weather, which we don't normally have. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

Unbelievably the two remaining goldfish, Tabloid and Honda, look very chipper this morning. I'd like to be able to relax about the fish, but they make me very nervous.

Meze in October

Ist October and sunshine so warm you'd think it was June. Fab oystery lunch, snooze on the rocks, collect some small pieces of driftwood for a totem and home to find no further goldfish have died. Honda & Tabloid remain. All's well with the world.

Last day of the season

We finish the 2006 season today when our last guests leave. It's been fantastic. When I look back to the start last April it seems like last year, but I'm not completely exhausted, so it seems short too. We've had so many wonderful people to stay and more laughter than one can imagine. I feel extraordinarily lucky to live in this beautiful house that other people are happy to come to share with us.

TripAdvisor has been fantastic for us this year. I didn't know about it until one of our guests wrote us a very kind review, after which many others have too. The reviews are completely independent; we have no idea what people have written until it's published. So that makes me nervous too in case we get a bad review. So far we've been lucky but, quite rightly, it keeps us on our toes. Lots of people who've come at the latter end of this season told us that TripAdvisor sealed their choice on where to stay during their holiday.

As for the winter, we set to on all the thousands of maintenance and improvement jobs around this kind old house, take a bit of a holiday in Perth, Western Australia, and spend lots of time bringing the garden on. I'm in the middle of doing us a new website. I didn't realise how big the current one has become until I started anew. But there'll be lots of fresh stuff on the new site, so if you've stayed with us before do take a look in a month or so.

Next year is shaping up very well indeed. We have a stoolball tour coming to stay in May, and the lovely Pete Churchill's course. We also have bookings from travelling Australians right up to the end of September 2007. I've never booked a B&B a year in advance - have you?

And if anything was needed to mark the end of the season, it's lunch in Meze with our pals. Which is just what we're off to do. Cascades of shellfish - yummy!