Guardian squirrel

Spotted from our kitchen window on a very wet and misty morning last week, our resident red squirrels have been busy gathering as many walnuts as they can find and hiding them all over the place.
One of them, seen above on the Roque Terrace gite roof, was observing for over 5 minutes it's partner on the ground almost looking as though he or she was overseeing the work in progress!
Below, yet another spectacular sunset as the nights really are getting on cold side now, well it is nearly Christmas!

My favourite question!

One of the questions I ask most if not all of our guests after their arrival is "have you ever seen the I.S.S?" the International Space Station, in the majority of cases the answer is "no".
With there being very little light pollution here the viewings, cloud permitting, are usually very clear.
So here it is, the I.S.S, spectacular pictures from the NASA website of the station and the reason it is so clear is because the reflection of the sun from it's solar panels which are a total area of just above one acre, that's over 4046 square meters (4840 square yards), staggering when you think about it!!

Up up and away!

The last couple of mornings have been perfect for a balloon trip over the Dordogne and Vezere valleys, clear blue sky and very little breeze must have meant it really was a pleasure flight to who knows where!
The weather here is still amazing, over 30 degrees in the afternoon and still no break in the conditions for the foreseeable future, it's been an amazing few months for our customers and is looking good for the next few weeks for those who are still to join us.

A stroll in the park!

Thought I'd share these couple of pictures sent to me by returning guests (and very good friends) Val & Stuart from Scotland who during this week went once again to the gardens at Marqueyssac which are situated on the side of the Dordogne valley, the unusual hedges above are at the entrance to the park land and after a good walk you get to the view point (below) where this spectacular view of La Roque Gageac is made even better by showing how busy it is at this time of year with the canoe traffic!

What now?!

Yes once again I can't resist taking the annual baby swallows picture! These four (if you can spot all four!) had just launched themselves out of the nest and ended up a couple of meters away above the work bench wondering what to do next, not moving even when I was within touching distance away, needless to say they are now flying around happy and free!

Early morning dip!

Checked the house pool very early this morning and found this not so small toad having an early morning swim, after another very hot night it made it an obvious thing to do to freshen up for the day!

Time for a break!

We've got 4 or 5 nests in the barn all with young swallows in so you can imagine how busy the adults are feeding the little ones from dawn 'till dusk, so with temperatures now in the 30's, by mid afternoon yesterday the swallow above decided enough was enough for a while and took shelter from the heat under one of the house parasols for a short while just to cool off, I don't blame it really!!

Clearer view!

Yesterday Philippa & I went on a nice 35km morning bike ride to Montignac, perfect cycling conditions as the breeze had a nice cooling effect to take the edge off the sun, on the way back we realised on the lovely road on the south side of the Vezere there has been a lot of clearing of woods for a long stretch of the route which now clears the view of Chateau de Losse, built in 1575 it is one of the many chateau's that can be visited and explored in this area.

Blue sky at last!

 Can't believe it's nearly a couple of months since my last post, since then we've been very busy spring cleaning the whole property and doing general maintenance and other numerous jobs in preparation for the up and coming main holiday season in this area.
We've had a massive amount of rain and at last, the grey clouds have gone and blue sky and 30 degree plus daytime temperatures are here, we even went for a bike ride before breakfast this morning in order to avoid the high temperatures and it was 20 degrees at 8 a.m.!
Oh and don't worry everyone coming to spend time in our house over the summer, the pool is up and running now and already for you to take a dip and cool down during your stay!!

One out of two up and running!

After a couple of days preparation the gite pool is now up and running. We have three gites occupied at the moment and considering it's still only April the temperatures have been high for the time of year, in the mid to top twenty degrees.
I think the water will still be a bit 'fresh' at the moment but it's all ready as and when someone needs to cool down!

About time!

What seems like an age since my last post, at last the dark clouds and rain has disappeared and this morning has been replaced with clear blue sky. With all the rain all the trees (except for the ever late starting Walnuts) the new bright green leaves are opening giving the whole valley that fresh and at last spring feel about it!
Another job completed yesterday, the area between house and gites, dug over, weeded and potatoes planted ready for this years crop of news in a few weeks time, next in soon, the tomato plants.
Looking like full sun is forecast all this week...time for the shorts to be got out of winter storage!!     

Back to work!

Following a major water leak early in 2017, the first of the major winter projects has now been completed.

 After completely emptying the Walnut Store gite of all its contents the workmen arrived and quickly stripped all the damaged ceiling out, followed by inserting new insulation and sound proofing material.

 New plasterboard was then put up over the entire ceiling and filled ready for the final painting.

 All this work was completed in 3 days, which was about the same amount of time it took Philippa and I after to clean out the gite after the builders and to re-instate plus spring clean all the contents ready for our winter guests arrival. That's one tick on the list of 'to do's'!

Damp start to 2018!

We've been back in the UK for 3 weeks visiting family and friends over the festive period, returning to France last Friday. We'd heard that before our return there had been a lot of rain covering many parts of the country and it was no surprise that when we got back to Les Granges the River Vezere had reached the same height as 12 months ago. Half a week later it has dropped by at least 2 meters so everywhere is now drying off and all footpaths are now clear for our walks!
Picture below is as we left Portsmouth on the cross channel ferry last Thursday evening, we passed the brand new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, the photograph below really doesn't give an idea of the size of it, an incredible size and sight, just hope they've managed to fix the leak that's been reported quite extensively recently!

We'd like to wish all our blog followers a very happy and prosperous 2018, we're looking forward to welcoming all new and returning guests in the coming months.