Phew 30+ in the shade!

What a few days we've had, full sun and temperatures to match, even the honey bees are thirsty! With the weather comes the threat of storms in the evening, the last two days we've had alerts but so far nothing has happened, it won't be long until it does though.
The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed the main picture at the header of the blog has changed, it now shows the most up to date image of the house including new front door.

A couple of hours off!

Yesterday, for the first time this year, we managed to get out for lunch and travelled the short distance to our favourite retreat in St Leon Sur Vezere, the Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe, the beautiful cafe/shop on the banks of the river where many of our past guests will know.
A plate of regional cured meat and pates accompanied by a bowl of fresh salad with goats cheese on top, as my mother would say, it 'filled a corner'! Washed down with a bottle (or two!) of locally brewed beer in the sun, what a treat!

Before, during and after!

Last week it was the turn of the house pool for a clean & brush up! For the first time since we bought the property we completely emptied the pool.

All a bit of a long process as it took two days to empty, two days to clean and do some general repairs and then three days to refill, but the end result, below, has been worth all the work and it was all ready for our guests from the USA who arrived at Les Granges last Monday.

The end products!

After the post six weeks ago that showed two Swallows relaxing in the barn, above is one example of what has happened since, we now have 3 Swallows nests containing at least 14 young in total, 2 in the big barn and one in the boiler room.
The young Redstarts in the barn have fledged, 5 in total, one of which is seen below on the new terrace outside the front of the property waiting to be fed. In the meantime, the Redstart parents are re-building another nest, in the boiler room, so second brood batch will be on the way soon!

Remember, if you want a closer look at the pictures click on each one to display a larger version.

What a difference a day makes!

A couple of days ago we took off the gite pool winter cover, fixed the pool pump back on, filled up to the normal water level, treated the water and 24 hours later, the result is as below, much nicer!
If you have stayed with us before, you can also see we have taken out a flower bed that was next to the Walnut Store, an area we are creating to allow more room for a table, chairs and parasol for the use of that gites customers. We're just awaiting delivery of the furniture, when it arrives I'll post another pic of the completed area.

The parasols are out!

Philippa has been busy, she's potted up 8 hanging baskets and they are now all on display in various places (as last year) around our property.

We've had a couple of days now of very strong sun, everything is looking very colourful, the only things that are not are the walnut trees which traditionally are late to leaf. Much work still to do, the pools will be opening in the next few weeks as temperatures begin to increase, all is ready for customers though, we have 3 people arriving this afternoon all the way from Albuquerque, New Mexico in the U.S.A, what a lovely time to arrive!

A peaceful Easter Sunday in Tursac!

This is what some of the locals get up to in our area on an Easter Sunday, the Grappe de Cyrano, a two day motorcycle event that takes in several courses starting from and finishing up in Bergerac, the nearest to us being in Tursac last weekend.

It's the first time I've been to the event and it was a very enjoyable and entertaining morning with nearly 500 competitors taking part, the best way I can describe it is that in England it would be a cross between 'Scrambling' and 'Trial' biking, all the riders set off about a minute apart and compete to do a circuit as quickly as possible through woodland and fields ending up negotiating a very difficult assault course before the finish line. All good fun!