A little less isolation!

Finally, after 8 weeks, this afternoon we have just been for a bike ride! Yes, as everyone else (well, most people) after 8 weeks of isolating ourselves as much as possible as per instructions, a 12 kilometre bike ride to Plazac and back felt great and we're very much looking forward to going a bit further next time out!

So during the last 12 weeks we've done loads of gardening including extensive pruning and weeding, a lot of improvements and updating of various things around the property as well as the usual cleaning. Plus, a jigsaw, how many people I wonder, have resorted to this eventually over the weeks and how many as with us, ended up putting all the pieces available in place and finding out, as we did, there's one piece missing!?

Busy (last) week!

So, first week of isolation was house shutter renovation, the second week has been something I've never tackled before, renovate the surround to the house pool crazy paving. Didn't realise how fiddly it was going to be at the start, getting all of the worst parts on an even field took quite a while but have finished the bits I wanted to improve, pretty proud of it really!

Then last Saturday morning, a couple of weeks later than last year, the first of this years swallows returned, made itself at home again in the barn, today they're now 4, always a nice sight to see, a definite sign that summer is just around the corner!!

Job done!

One of the last shutterless pictures of the house taken last Thursday afternoon during an allowed daily taking of exercise walk, we'd just finished the final coat of all 10 shutters, all were looking very much better and ready for putting back up. 

And by Friday lunchtime here they are, back in place, the last time we refurbed the shutters was 8 years ago, they'll be good for another 8 now!!

Time to move on to the next project now.

Time on our hands!

These are certainly strange times all over the world, here in our part of France, as in the rest of the country, we are under orders to stay at home at all times except for trips out for food shopping or medical reasons. So we now have plenty of time for the work on the premises, first up this week, refurbish the shutters on the front of the house.

A total of 10 in total, all of which have now been stripped of loose paint, filler applied if needed to only a couple of small patches of over weathered wood and then sanded in preparation for undercoat and top coat, all of which should be done by the end of this week. As you can see below, the house really doesn't look right without them!

To all our blog followers, we wish you the best of health in the coming weeks and months and hope that this dreadful time comes to an end as soon as possible for everyone, look after yourselves and stay safe.

Back as it should be.

In my opinion, one of the most picturesque, peaceful and beautiful of village churches in France has had its surroundings restored to as it should be following the dismantling of a tourist 'attraction' that stood between the church and river.
This view of Peyzac church was one of the first posts I did on this blog when we bought our property 10 years ago, long may it now remain and allowed to be in its traditional position of peace and tranquillity.

Happy new year!

Where did last year go?! Can't believe my last post was at the end of August but we're still here, Christmas and new year spent in England and now back to it as normal for the winter projects.
So far the weather has been very mixed, fortunately no snow as yet but as you can see above, plenty of rain as well as cold frosty mornings!
Will try and post a little bit more regularly this year, hope you all have a great 2020 and we look forward to greeting all our regular 'returners' and new guests in the coming months.

Bits of stone!

A few small pieces of stone collected by one of our guests nearby to our property and handed over to me on their departure yesterday as a gift turn out to be a little bit more than you'd expect, each piece are hand made Mousterian (a prehistoric period named after our village) tools and are at least 50,000 years old!
The collector, who is dutch and has stayed with us before, say they are worked in the Levallois Technique (much easier to google this rather than me explain!), the pieces are very common to this area and can be found quite easily on the many ancient terraces surrounding us.

A brief break from the heat!

A couple of contrasting pictures, above, taken a couple of weeks ago when we were in the middle of a 40 degree plus heat wave, as a big storm was brewing in the distance and it certainly did cause a mess on its way over, the first storm and rain we'd seen for probably a month or so.
The picture below, taken at 9am this morning, shows Le Roque St Christophe from the Roque Terrace gite in the August early morning sun just after the river mist had been burnt away, a beautiful sight.

Where's everyone gone?!

Took this the other early evening, one of the baby Black Redstarts was sat waiting for a bite to eat before retiring to its roosting spot. For people who are interested in the bird life of the area, so far Les Granges is having a very good year for successful nesting pairs of Swallows, Nuthatch, Robins, Blackcaps, Cirl Bunting, Blackbirds, Goldfinches, Siskins, Blue/Great & Marsh Tits, Wagtails, Nightingales and not forgetting the Peregrine Falcons on the rock face of Roque St Christophe. It's a great time to come to this area! 

Beautiful find!

We had a visit from a neighbour who was walking along the track at the side of our property telling us that she'd spotted a rare orchid in all the long grass to the side of the track. Having cut back the grass to reveal 6 or 7 of the plants, from a distance they don't look very special but take a closer look (picture below) and it is amazing the detail in the decoration. Looking on the internet we're pretty sure it's a Lizard Orchid.
Nice pic by the way Philippa! 

Summer on the way!

Where is the time going?! Two months has passed since my last post and look at the difference, we're into spring in a big way now, the wisteria is in full bloom, the daffodils have been and gone plus the swallows returned to their nesting positions in the barn right on cue nearly 2 weeks ago!
We've been very busy in the garden, spring cleaning the gites, still plenty to do plus guests are already coming to stay with us....must get on!

A little cold!

Woke up to a beautiful cold crisp morning yesterday so had to put on the thick coat and get out to take the above view looking from the front of our property toward the Moustier bridge and Le Ruth behind. At -3 degrees it was a bit 'parky' but well worth the effort!

This morning it's all changed back to cloud and rain, getting better by the weekend thankfully.

Ancient window display.

Wandering around the little back streets and alley ways last week in Sarlat I spotted this very nice window in one of the shops built into the ancient buildings that date back to the 14th century. Of particular interest to me as it was displaying many of the artisan beers made in and around the town, most of which I've sampled, current favourite being the Perigord 24 brewery that make at least 5 different styles of beer.

Also found this pic of the truffles on sale (see previous post) which will give you a good idea of the cost of each unit of the delicacy, click on the image for a bigger view of the pic, they're very expensive!!

2019 Fete de la Truffe

We went to Sarlat yesterday to experience for the first time the annual weekend festival of the Truffle The main square of the town was full of people selling the delicacy as well as many other stalls preparing and cooking many different dishes to buy and try!

Example below, a sliver of truffle on a slice of foie gras on a small piece of toasted baguette, it was very nice but must say the taste of the truffle is extremely subtle but well worth the try!

Another tasting in the pot below was best described as very runny scrambled egg served in a small cup with truffle shavings added on top, very nice!

Think we shall return next year and do as the french do, buy a bottle of nice red wine and go from stall to stall and sample a lot more in a longer period of time.

Better late than never!

A very happy new year to all our blog followers!
We're back in France at Les Granges now after a 3 week tour of the UK visiting our families over the festive and new year period and not a flake of snow to be seen at any point of our journey!
Fortunately enough for us, there's no sign here in the Dordogne (at the moment) of the incredible snow falls that have hit europe over the last few days to the east of us, although there has been snow forecast for us in the next few days, camera at the ready if it does!!
We're really looking forward to 2019 and once again greeting new and returning guests to our little part of this beautiful area of France.
Cheers!

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!