Hey guys, hope the weekend finds you keeping well and the Sunday blues haven’t bitten yet. I’ve had a lovely weekend, got lots done, caught up with friends, perved at ALL the doggies, happy days.

This week was exciting as we were contacted by some lovely members of our extended American family and I spoke to my 4th cousin Miriam for the first time. They are holidaying here in Yorkshire until the middle of June and we are all going to meet up for an family catch up to swap photos and tales from across the pond in a couple of weeks. Should be a lot of fun! 

Saturday started with the best of intentions, an early morning swim. When we arrived at the pool which is at a large local hotel, it was full of swimming lessons, pool noodles and chaos. Plus the aforementioned yummy mummy brigade cheering on their little Agatha and Clarabels from the sidelines. We looked at each other and retreated to Starbucks where hubs had a croissant and I had a cinnamon bun the size of one of the teensy crying swim-urchins. Diet on the front-foot I’m sure you’ll agree. This then led to me, not a scrap of make-up on, hair scraped onto top of head and wearing a slash-necked T shirt with a clearly visible Fat-face swimsuit covered in pineapples and tropical print, owning Asda like the supermodel I am. Once home, after procuring ALL the Jerk Chicken we could carry, I proceeded to deal with the jungle that our front garden had become for a couple of hours. Our front hedge (from the genus spiniusbastardusoutofcontrolus) needed some special attention, and without dragon fire and an angle grinder at my disposal has to use my feminine wiles and a tiny pair of secateurs, but got the job done. Why is it you never use your garden wheelie bin except on the day it gets emptied. No sooner had I placed a twig in it did the bin truck arrive. How do they know??!? Now it’s full to the rafters and it’ll be weeks before they collect again (or compost before I remember to put it back out….)

Yesterday the realisation that there were things I needed for France that I hadn’t yet sorted kicked in,  so I had to do that horrid sort of shopping, for stuff you actually practically need…. oh the humanity! Curtains done, curtain rod done, bath-mat done. Then I carbon off-set this with some work on artwork for the gallery wall I want to make in the hallway of the gite. I already have some bits and pieces that I’ve been collecting on a sort of woodland theme. I’ve got prints of hares, deer, owls, trees, a lovely chaffinch vintage print from a flea market, a full poster of all the macarons you can get from Laduree. I might frame my first article from French Property News too, not decided yet. Amazon then turned out to be the most delightful source of vintage reproduction travel posters, botanical postcards, dig for victory prints etc.They even had the print of testing hot air balloons over Versailles that I was looking for. I cannot wait to get some paint on and some picture frames foraged from the brocantes, (and Mr Bricolage). I don’t want to get too carried away as I’d like the gallery to grow along with places we’ve been and the memories we’ve yet to make, but I’ve made a great start! I’m going to love pulling this together. 

Sunday was spent at the Pickering country game fair, with so many dogs of a gazillion shapes and sizes, loved it! I’ve honestly never been to a steam fair before but it was actually fascinating. We loved the steam powered log saw, we totally need that for firewood in France. It seems there’s a whole sub-culture of caravans and camping chairs and weather worn gents sipping cups of tea, while the third wheel in most of their marriages, spits and coughs and powers anything from a mechanised butter churn to a small fountain on the grass in front. I loved the old carousel though, and I’ve always had a fondness for engineering and giant machines so genuinely enjoyed it. There were mini tractors towing around sleepy golden retrievers, one guy tweaking his engine while his 3 bright blue parrots looked on! Everyday scenes… Weasel was less than happy with the gunshot noise bless her, but the piece of pork pie made up for it! I had my fingers royally nibbled by a 17 week old Boston Terrier, oh my goodness-adorable! 

The main ring hosted the usual falconry and dog display teams, but there was also a thing called mounted games. Basically teams in bright colours waving flags tearing around on ponies like lightening. It looked kind of like Quidditch on horses. All voiced by a Peter Kay soundalike on the PA system…… Most amusing. 

TTFN xx