Evening all. It must be heading towards xmas because I’ve just had my annual Fire Brigade calendar, and I’m now 20 euros poorer as a result. But, you do want that generosity to be remembered in the event of a chimney fire right? Feels like insurance to me, and of course they do a great job. As well as making really great chips. If you go to a local brocante or fete in the summer months and see the Pompiers are manning the BBQ, make sure you get involved. They know their stuff.

The usual apology for being quiet on here. After our summer trip to the UK for a wedding, within a couple of weeks we were unexpectedly in Wales to celebrate the life of my husband’s Grandfather aka Pops. I didn’t feel much like writing anything, or posting anything much in general to be honest. I never knew my grandparents, I was too young when they passed or they passed before I was born. Pops became my honorary Grandfather within seconds of meeting and what a privilege that was. Amongst the sadness and celebration of a life so very thoroughly well lived, was the joy of spending time with family which we don’t often get the chance to do. Lots of swapping stories and lots of laughs. He would have approved I think.

The Rugby Union autumn International games began this weekend, and we couldn’t really bring ourself to watch them. Our ritual was to always call Pops after a Wales game to usually dissect how rubbish they’d been. We’re just not feeling it at the moment. Maybe it’ll pass.

Hubs also brought me Covid back from his recent trip to London, and I am still struggling to shake it. Still not got my normal energy levels back and can’t shake the bloody cough. This is only the 2nd time I’ve had it, and it was way worse than the first. Spent 4 days in bed with a raging temperature, just ugh. Nausea, barely ate, everything tasted so bitter and disgusting. Very very glad to have seen the back of it. I’ve just dropped hubs at the station ahead of him flying to the States tomorrow. Woe betide him if he brings me back any other form of plague.

Can’t remember if I’ve told you this or not, but our storm damaged roof and tornado damaged guttering has now been repaired. The walnut sized holes punched through the brittle plastic guttering by the huge pre-tornado hail, all replaced with zinc pipework now. We thought it probably wasn’t going to be the last time we have hail of scary proportions so it made sense to future proof. Also the dented guttering above the kitchen window that caused a waterfall in heavy rain is now resolved, so I can actually plant a proper border now, the only thing I could have grown there previously was rice.

Dahlias have continued to be prolific, and only in the last week or so are the plants starting to slow, with a few of the earliest flowering varieties withering in readiness for winter. It’s very late for us to not have had a frost yet, instead we’ve had 20 degree temperatures last week and heading into this coming week. It looks like our first frosts will be here the week after that, so I’ve got various outdoor jobs to do in readiness of the temperature drop. Firstly, I have a couple of ceramic things outside that are not frost proof so, they need to move into the barn. The remaining geraniums need moving to in front of the gite so they can easily be moved inside when the time comes. All my hosepipes need draining and moving into the barn so they don’t freeze and split, and finally I need to find something suitable to cover the outside taps. I tend to favour cutting up the hubs old pairs of jeans for this. The grass is still growing like crazy so I need to cut that again, hopefully twice, before the cold weather is here. There may not be many other opportunities to cut the grass again before spring, and it’s pointless having planted 1200 bulbs that you might not be able to see…..

Once the frost comes I can put the dahlias to bed for the winter. I’ve been asked by a few people now to do a dahlia growing guide and I think I’ll start putting that together. I usually pre-order my Dahlias in December for delivery in the Spring so I’ll try to get something pulled together by the end of this month so you can do the same if you so desire.

We’re heading to Toulouse for the weekend soon to see Frank Turner, and it’s a city we’ve never visited. I have some saintly relics on my list of things to see of course, St Thomas Aquinas to be exact. I’ll give you my verdict when we return.

Then, early December, a quick UK trip to visit Mum before Xmas, which will be here in earnest before we know it.

This year is in danger of evaporating.

TTFN V x