Happy New Year

Happy new year to everyone.Its new years eve here and I just loaded some shots that Georgia took of Lola in July after a hot day at the beach, so heres a taste of some of them.Had some good waves this morning at Anglet and i'm gonna check Seignosse again later for a high tide session soon.Should be ok 5-6ft and quite clean conditions

Merry Christmas everyone.

It was a merrry xmas here with 13 of us for dinner on Xmas eve.All except 2 stayed the night and we wrapped it up about 3am after a big night with plenty of good food and plenty of good wine to match.I cooked a big leg of lamb and a Chapon which is a castrated rooster bred and fed up for festive occasions.3 kgs of amazingly tasty,tender,juicy poultry like ive never tasted before,surely a treat!We started with some oven baked nibblys and then the traditional oyster starter and smoked salmon to follow .We opted not to serve the foie gras as we were running behind and the main course was ready.Some sensational cheeses followed and then finished off with some delicious French patisseries and the ice cream log.OOHHHH!!!!5 bottles of champagne, 2 bottles of White wine and 5 bootles of red.Not bad considering 4 werent drinking.A great night was had by all
Lola received lots of presents and was surely rewarded for the excellent results that she received at school.Well done for a great year Lola.And well done to myself and Corinne for a successful night!

Snow!

I was right.It did snow overnight,not much but it has just started again and its coming down quite thick

Lolas concert

Our Indian smmer is over!!!!!

Its going to snow, I can feel it in my bones.Its snowing everywhere else in France and it could snow here by Saturday.It is very cold, with days this week not getting above 2° or 3°.BBrrrrrr!!!!!Beautiful still clear days,so at least its not rainy and windy with the cold.We should be back up to double figures by Christmas,hopefully!

We had some solid waves last week 8-10 ft at la nord(the north).Perfect and not toocold.Iput a couple of shots on but they dont do it justice as it was much better and bigger than it looks with the camera zoomed in so far.

The poele has been burning non stop and we have even been cooking on it.

Lola had her christmas concert in the church at St. Vincent de Tyrosse on friday night.

Yahoo! Ive finished painting the walls and ceiling in the main room.Next is the woodwork, windows,doors etc.

Had an ugly week with the paint brush last week ,painting the rafters and putting the final coat on the ceiling.Not much fun and i have at least another 3 days till i finish.My dodgy neck doesnt like it much.I think i'll do the walls next,it should be easier than the high work.

The heater works a treat, warm house and doesnt use much wood.Very efficient

No waves at all the last 2 weeks,A bit unusual as its the best time of the year for surfing.It has been a terrible autumn for surfers and maybe the worst stretch since we arrived in April 2007.I'm getting a bit anxious as winter will be here soon and i want to get some time in the water before it gets really cold.Lucky i've had plenty of work to do to keep me busy.

last night on the beach

new wood heater

Just picked up our Poele(woodheater) and installed it.They wanted 1000euros for installation.No way, i thought it looked too easy.And it was ,5 hours later we have a new poele in our house and ready to keep us warm.It looks great and we hope it works as well as it looks.

Its Sunday and we went to a Vide Grenier at Josse this morning and picked up a wood box , a lamp and 12 small plates for 18 euros.

The warm weather continues with every day this week around or over 20°, unusual for late november and i'm not complaining.

I started painting the ceiling and rafters last week and hope to finish this week.I hope i finish soon as its not much fun

Rendered walls

The Colours of Autumn

Autumn is well and truly here with leaves everywhere on the ground.I must clean them up at least once a week to keep it under control.It really is a beautiful time of the year with coloured trees everywhere we look.The weather has been a bit more like winter than we want with lots of wind and rain.It has been oddly calm in between the ugly days,with some magnificent weather to keep us sane.

I havent surfed for nearly 3 weeks,very unusual for me.The swell has been very big and out of control for too long now but looks like settling down with maybe a chance to get in the water tomorrow.I have had the chance to get a lot of work done.I've rendered the walls and i'm pretty happy with the result and we're ready to install the Poele(pronounced ' pwarl ') which is a wood heater like a potbellied heater.It will be delivered on Saturday and because i've already installed the flue it will be burning after about 15 mins.We've ordered an old style, like the original french style Godin.A very well known brand here.Should look good, and they work very well too.I'll update with some shots when its in place.

Harry called me this morning to say that the bed has gone and been paid for,so except for som smaller garage sale sort of stuff,everything has been sold and pretty much sorted.He told me he delivered it for the people to Somerville.Thanks H,youre a legend,You really didnt need to deliver it for them.After a logistical nightmare sorting all the stuff out in OZ,it would not have been possible without the help of Harry and Melissa, and ,Skip and Claire and of course my family too.Your help was very much appreciated , so a big THANK YOU!!I hope that i can return the favour some time in the future.

We're back!!!

Sorry about the long hiatus.

I went back to Oz to tie up some loose ends and was so busy before i left that i didnt have time to update the blog.Now things have returned to normal i'll try to update a bit more regularly

Things were certainly busy in oz and i needed a few days off to recharge when i returned.

It was so good to see my family and friends after 2 1/2 years; strange though coz the only things that have changed is that all the kids are growing up,everything else remains the same.

Now i'm back its back into the house and i have plenty to do.

I stripped the old render off the column next to the stairs to expose the original bricks like the other side and am very happy with the results.Now i am rendering the internal walls of the new part and its a challenge as i know nothing about rendering-but am about to learn(the hard way)

Autumn is here and weve had some beautiful weather-such a good time of the year here.Lola has a new bike and weve been taking advantage of the good weather and going riding on some of the many trails here

I've been surfing heaps;Most days i'll sneak in a quick one with nothing epic but some quite good sessions with the stronger autumn swells calling for a step up in board size more often now.The last week I've used my fish,6-3,6-5,6-8.The next week were expecting wild 6metre swells which wont be surfable for magybe over a week .Time to get lots of work done

School holiday time,so while looking after Lola i can get some small jobs like patching the old brick wall and clean up the mirror for the bathroom

I'm reminding myself of Bill Murray in Caddyshack!The taupes(moles) are driving me crazy building their sandy mounds all over our garden.Corinne is constantly finding me outside with the garden fork in my hands waiting for the little devils to appear!Hopefully my latest aquisitions will be the answer.Solar powered spikes that emit high pitched noises to scare them into my neighbours garden