10k and beyond!

Above, the moon rising over the trees to the rear of Les Granges, in what was a definate 'red sky at night....' moment. The weather has certainly changed now, with the beautiful clear nights comes the very early morning frosts, consequently this morning the temperature has fallen to -4 degrees, a small price to pay for the beautiful view of the stars at night and very bracing pre-breakfast walks in the fresh air!
The title of this post relates to the fact that since I started this blog in November 2010, 3 years later we have just gone over the 10,000 hits/views mark, so many thanks to all of you for following the blog.

Winter is here!

It really doesn't feel like 12 months ago since I put the last post on about the migrating cranes, but it is, 2 weeks later than last year, this is the first chance I've had of taking a picture of them,  approximately 120+ birds in the 'V' formation for what is now an annual blog post, never the less, every year this has now become the signal that winter is here and consequently this morning we woke up to the first frost, not too serious temperature wise but it's due to drop further next week, time to pack up my shorts for another year and get the jeans on!!
This will not be the last time we see this spectacle, there are apparently 28,500 cranes at a lake east of Paris, Lac du Der, waiting to start their trip south to a warmer place for the winter!

Phew, that was close!

With 24 hours to spare before our guests arrived yesterday, we managed to finish repairs to one of the bathrooms in the house following a mysterious water leak that unfortunately happened behind a tiled shower cubicle that resulted in a flooded kitchen on our return from the trip to Toulouse.

As you can see above, we had to find the leak first, taking out wall tiles followed by the floor to make sure we had actually resolved the problem which was a copper 'T' joint that was faulty.

All looks as though nothing has happened now thankfully, the guests are here now and as I write this post are enjoying a break in the weather, sun at last after a few days of rain!

 

A week off!

Last week we managed to get away for our first real holiday in 3 years, quite appropriate really as the 1st November was the 3rd anniversary of us purchasing Les Granges. We had a break in our visitor arrivals for a few days so we looked at the last minute where the sun was going to be and drove down into Spain on the coast about one hour south of Valencia to a place called Gandia.
It was a great week, beautiful weather, quiet, just what the doctor ordered! We really didn't do very much at all, an excursion to Valencia, which was stunning, was the only real touristy thing we did and that was just for half a day, we'll definitely be going back there when we have more time

We're back home now, ready to receive our next guests, an American couple who arrive here this afternoon and also a family who are taking the house for a week as of next weekend, back to earth with a bump but the main thing is we both feel thoroughly refreshed after our break!

Falling nuts.

The walnuts have now decided to drop from all of our trees, the above being just one picking today, quite a few kilograms and all a bit wet following a misty and damp morning so drastic action is needed to dry them out, so the area in front of the fireplace in the lounge is now an emergency drying area!
Good news is that this years crop is much better already than last year so no shortage of walnut cake in the coming months for our guests....and us ofcourse.

Vintage farm worker!

Spotted in the front drive of a farm on the walk we had a few weeks ago through Chaban, this pre 1953 Massey Harris tractor that looks in need of a bit of t.l.c.
Now I'm not claiming to be an expert on this kind of thing but did manage to find out that in 1953 Massey Harris merged with the Ferguson Company to form Massey Harris Ferguson, 5 years later in 1958 the company shortened its name to the now very familiar Massey Ferguson.
Considering the tractor is at least 60 years old it looks in pretty good condition really, but I couldn't find any markings on it to find its exact age unfortunately!

Lucky escape!

Rescued from the house pool skimmer this morning, this rather large toad who was looking all a bit dazed and confused following what could have been a few hours in the skimmer whilst the pool pump had been running, unfortunately quite a few animals don't survive this ordeal but thankfully he or she did, now free to go and do what toads do, whatever that is at this time of year!