I like it here

Today marks the fourth anniversary of us moving into Ségala and  we now begin the fifth year of our life here.

Time for a change of blog. I've never been good at diary writing ( a pity as there are such stories I could tell that no-one would believe now) always too busy just getting on with it but I have decided to try to mark this year with a daily post ( some days it will be just a photo) of our life over the year.

I have trawled my brain for witty titles without success then I remembered the slogan on the T shirts at the fête in Espinas in the summer.

A friend translated it from the occitan for us. It seems to mean something along the lines of my soul/heart  likes it here. Very apt for us,  "I like it here " is a refrain we use to each other at least daily so that's the plan - Aici sén pla - a year of daily musings from a contented retired expat who thinks herself  damned lucky every single day.



Its also a year since I took up patchwork again (after 25 years or so) and got seriously hooked so there are bound to be endless pictures of creations over the coming year. The hanging featured as the header for the blog is called Ségala sunrise and is my attempt to depict our life here in France in patchwork - our fabulous sunrises, our stone house full of birds, the garden, the hens, the cats and occitan music and dancing.

Looking back:

8th October 2010 - just us and a car load - the furniture would not be here until the next day.





And so fast forward 4 years and another Autumn season is under way. There's loads to do in the garden ( just like there was 4 years ago) the difference is that now it is very much OUR garden. There have been many changes and now there is the pool and the summer kitchen to winterise as well as the rest of the garden. Not yet though - the pool is just about staying at 20degrees so intrepid TC is still swimming.

This morning I planted the garlic using some splendid specimens from last year's crop, it did really well last year. Next job in the potager is to sow the broad beans, last year I tried sowing just a few in the Autumn to see how they did and it was a great success so this year I plan to sow lots more so we get them good and early next year before the peas start cropping.

One thing I had missed since retiring ( ie not just since moving here) was the company of children. So, when an opportunity presented itself, I took on the task of organising English classes for children with some other volunteers at Parisot library.

the poster the children made at the end of the school year has pride of place at the library entrance

Now Wednesday afternoons, ( no school  for primary children) mean songs, games and crafts trying to get 6 to 8 year olds talking English ( another volunteer haS the older ones). There are only 4 of them but they are all keen and after 6 sessions or so they are starting to respond well and today they all went off waving happy/sad clown puppets singing their new song  "How are you today?  I am happy!" ( By now the parents are probably fed up with that but at least its a change from I can sing a rainbow).