What are we?

 We came across these birds on a walk through the fields at the back of our house …

At the risk of revealing that we are a pair of ignoramuses (the dictionary tells me that ignoramuses rather than ignorami is the correct plural - so much for my slog through Latin forty years ago!), can anyone tell us what they are? We've looked in our bird book here in the UK but our better guides are in France.

The birds were really well camouflaged against a frost covered gravel pile.

Perhaps we are more used to seeing them plucked and oven-ready...

Icicles ...

Saturday was crisp and very cold.

However, nothing like the temperatures experienced in France at the moment. Martin and Denise who ‘look after’ our house, report that out toilets are frozen and that the tennis balls we placed in the pan haven’t had the desired effect! Perhaps it has been just too cold for too long. Luckily our water supply is turned off and Martin will return when the thaw is underway to check for leaks etc.

We are pretty pleased that we decided to spend February half term catching up with jobs at home. Although we have a wood burner and a large, relatively efficient (albeit old) boiler, Le Pre Vert doesn’t have double glazing and has ten sets of French windows. In the winter my electric blanket is an essential item!

Our friends Chris and Sally have braved the journey, trying out the new Manchester to Tours service operated by Ryan Air. Last night they were shivering at their house near Angles sur l’Anglin …

A must have?

Last weekend Tim bought a dremel at B&Q. When I queried whether we really needed to spend the best part of £100 I was told that it was essential for all sorts of DIY!

I'm wondering why, in the 34 years I've known (and loved!) him, he has never found one to be essential before ...

Just what we needed ...

We’ve had an enjoyable weekend. Good food, wine, company and we made some progress with our bathroom renovations.

The early morning sun glinting off the windows of Sandon Hall.

Saturday began with an early breakfast, and a long walk around the fields at the back of our house where there is an old troglodyte settlement. More about this another time, when, by way of comparison, I can take some similar photographs of some troglodyte dwellings in France.

Old troglodyte dwellings at Tinkerborough.

Following the walk we went to out to buy a mirror and a bathroom cupboard, having decided to rethink our original plans. When we married nearly 31 years ago our friend Eric made us a beautiful pine corner cabinet. Eric died a couple of years ago, so besides being a piece of craftsmanship it also has sentimental value. We haven’t found anything else which will fit into the space so Tim has sanded the cabinet is painting it white. My preference would normally be for a natural wood finish, but it fits the space and looks good – or will do when it has had another coat or two of paint. We still need the mirror! I'm a Libran and find it nigh on impossible to make up my mind!

At the DIY store when we were looking for a mirror we bumped into our friends Barbara and Kevin who enticed us for tea and what was left of their delicious Christmas cake. By 4.15 we needed to leave as we were expecting friends for supper. However, by this time the road conditions were treacherous so we had a conversation with John and Maureen and we decided that Saturday supper should instead become Sunday lunch! It just wasn’t worth the 20 mile round trip when it was still snowing.

For supper Tim and I had ‘left overs’ of the beef and lentil casserole now being kept for Sunday lunch – good job I’d prepared too much – and watched another LoveFilm thriller; Russell Crowe in what I think was called ‘Three Days’. It was excellent!

This morning we woke up to about 10 cms of snow, which due to the fog and cloud was already beginning to thaw. We’d been looking forward to our morning walk but the snow scenes were disappointingly ordinary.

Over lunch we put the world to rights, and ate dessert in the living room as we watched Wales beat Ireland – although it was a close call! Sorry, no photographs of lunch, but I have been asked for my recipe for 'hot cross bun and butter pudding' so I'll write a post next week.

A fairly ordinary weekend, by many people’s standards, but it was just what we needed...

A thrilling diversion from a tough day at work ...

Monday was a tough day at work. I found myself in a situation which in 33 years of teaching I have never been in before. Everything has been sorted, my colleagues are very supportive and it isn’t really a problem, but it has unnerved me.

I can’t, through these pages, say what the issue was, but it has left me feeling frustrated, angry and upset.

Last night, as a diversion, we watched a streamed DVD from LoveFilm. Yes, after a few emails back and forth, Tim managed to get the system to work. We also think the streaming option will work out cheaper. Currently we pay £13.47 for a package of unlimited DVD’s, three at a time + streaming, whereas the streaming only package is less that £7.00. We haven’t yet found the ‘catch’, but it's probably there in the microscopic print!

I can thoroughly recommend ‘UNKNOWN’ starring Liam Neeson. I won’t spoil the film by giving away too much of the plot but it is a real thriller. You can view a trailer here.

Every cloud has a silver lining ...

Yesterday morning we travelled to Birmingham to look for a bathroom cabinet for our newly refurbished bathroom, and to pick up a new lens for the camera. We didn’t have any luck with the cabinet, although in hindsight the city centre probably wasn’t the right place to go. We did get lucky with the lens - a good price, with some extras thrown in – or so we thought!

On our way home we decided to take a route via the new John (never knowingly undersold) Lewis which has recently opened in Tamworth. I love JL and could browse for hours! Again no luck with the cabinet, but we did pick out a voile panel and a couple of café curtain poles to dress the velux window in the bathroom.

I’m very disappointed that when I find one of those special bubbly de-corkers that Jean wrote about a few weeks ago, Tim thinks it’s another unnecessary gadget. Surprisingly I listen, and meekly put it back. So now I’ll have to make another journey back to JL to buy it!!

The difficulty with the bathroom cabinet is due to the sloping ceiling where the cabinet will be sited, over the sink. It needs to be the correct size, with a mirror and light. I would also like it to be made from oak. I have scoured the shops, and the internet, and can’t find anything that matches our requirements.

We arrive home, and after a late lunch get ready for a long walk to try out the lens. The lens in the bag isn’t the one we bought - something to do with image stabilisation! We quickly ring the shop, who firstly can find no record of us buying the lens, but then agree to get the lens sent, at their expense, to our local shop. They are also persuaded (aka arm twisted) to give us £25 vouchers ‘for our trouble’.

Last night we try for hours, unsuccessfully, to get our LoveFilm subscription to stream through Tom’s PS3. We kept being told that our user name or password were incorrect. Of course they were correct, but we gave up and watched Casualty instead. Another exciting Saturday evening!

This morning Tim put up the curtain rails and we find that the voile panel isn’t the correct length…

Still, every cloud has a silver lining. When I change the voile panel I can pick up a bubbly de-corker or two at the same time!

STOP PRESS - Jean's gadget is different, and probably better, so I'll wait until I can find one. Isn't it lucky that I allowed Tim to persuade me not to buy it ....

Hope it tastes better than it looks ....

Rhiannon reached the ripe old age of 26 yesterday, and I've just worked out that in three years time she will be half my age!

Rhiannon and Tom together in August

While Rhiannon partied with her friends, we were invited to a delicious supper with our friends John and Maureen,  back in the UK for the winter. We celebrated Rhiannon's birthday, at a distance, with glass or two of sparkles. Tom, in Boulder, raised a glass of Keystone Light.

Rhiannon will be visiting us later so I've baked a cake, which hasn't quite turned out as planned ... 

A large hole in the centre … which I filled with lemon curd … then remembered that it is Tom, not Rhiannon, who would kill for lemon curd!! Just where is Tom when you need him to eat a cake?

So I decided to cover the lemon curd with chocolate, which didn't really work either...

Then vanilla frosting …

If the chocolate ever hardens it will be covered with frosting as well.

In future it might be better to commission a virtual cake from Jean at Baking in Franglais ...