time for reflection

A week of anniversaries this week .

47 years ago I spent the day with the man who would become my lifetime partner and very best friend. I was only 17 years old and in my first year at university so a whole lifetime ahead and I often think how lucky we were to have got away with meeting and "settling" when we were so young. No regrets though, we have had a great life together, have two fantastic children  and are now enjoying our retirement years in our "paradise" home.

The other anniversary of the week is a first - a year ago tomorrow my beloved father died. He was 91 and had been very unwell for some time, it was his time to leave. His final few weeks though were hard to watch as he deteriorated in a hospital where the care was woefully minimal. Memories of those last days have disturbed my sleep this week.

But my Dad was so glad for us that we had found our dream home here, he and my Mum loved it here too and spent many holidays with us in France,  both at our holiday home and here at Ségala.

Towards the end of his life he was always so concerned that we should know how much he cared for us. After one of our last visits ( when he was still at home)  he said goodbye to Trevor saying " thank you for making Sue so happy". Amen to that.

Two very special men and with my son to make a third I am blessed indeed.

great timing

The snowdrops are very early this year.

I spotted a flash of white in at the roadside on my way home the other day and saw that the clump in my garden was open so I was keen to make use of any break in the rain to visit the woods behind Beaulieu abbey where the display is always a treat for the eyes. The forecast this week is dismal so when it brightened up as we eating lunch we decided to go for it.






Some years we have been a little too early, sometimes a bit late but this year we have caught them at their peak. A joy to behold.

Time to change the "altering cloth" on the kitchen wall too - the year moves on!

des' res'

We have spent the morning cleaning up the old chicken arc to make a bigger secure space for Emile - he couldn't even stand up in the rabbit hutch with his collar on .

He now has a veritable en suite bed sit - not sure he totally appreciates the lengths we have gone to though.

Adorable

4 years ago we had the three pusketeers ( 6months old then) - sadly Purdy was later killed on the road and at the beginning of December we nearly lost Emile to the same fate. What is the attraction of the other side of the road when there is open country in the other three directions!

One morning he did not turn up for food this morning - he "shouted" from the shed later- possibly a broken leg or hip, obviously in pain - unfortunately being Sunday no vet available - salon became hospital wing . We went to bed with finger's crossed he would  OK til we could get him to the vet the next day.


It turned out he had two broken legs - one tibia and one "ankle" (apparently the latter was the most serious as was  right in the joint). The vets were convinced he must have been hit by a car  and we were amazed that he had managed to get himself up from the road and into the workshop.

Both breaks needed an operation so next visit was to a vetinary surgeon in Montauban. Next problem was sorting out how we could keep him indoors for a month afterwards as we were going to be away for two weeks over Christmas .


After the operation the  poor cat had a cast like a ball and chain keeping his ankle immobile. He was thrashing about in the cage which was supposed to be keeping him resting! At least we had sorted out that he would be staying with the vet while we are away as there were lots of treatments needed for a month or so. He did get acclimatised to his new regime - sleeping in his cage, being taken out to eat, sitting on a lap watching TV and then back to cage. Him being "hospitalised" for the two weeks we were concerned until we saw the 5 star accommodation at the vets and we were happy that he was getting the best possible care.




During the first week we were away we had a call from the vet to say an x-ray had shown up a further problem with the break in the tibia and another operation was needed - merde as they say!






Well today he is back home again and thankfully unencumbered by the heavy splints. So far he is unimpressed with the small cage after the huge one he had at the vets for the last two weeks. As he is wanting to be more mobile now its going to be harder for him ( and us) keeping him confined but the vet says it will probably be for the rest of this month.
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He has been described as adorable (that does sound lovely in French) by the vetinary nurses. He is of course adorable but is it too much to hope that this experience will cure him of playing in the road?

Bonne année

2015 has been a year of ups and downs - which I suppose is only normal.

It didn't start too well as my Dad died in January. Although it was hard to lose him it was his time to go. It has been his final couple of weeks and days of suffering the indignities and neglect of the hospital which he endured which have haunted me throughout the year. It has also meant a hard year for my Mum, never mentally strong and now developing  dementia, she has struggled despite moving closer to my brother and having all kinds of support.

On the plus side over the summer we had loads of visitors including our children and their families. Lots of fun but not much blogging! We also had a couple of short breaks to Seville and Collioure at each end of the season to extend our summer.


 All too soon it was over and we were treated to a spectacular Autumn. Once more there were many blog posts I "wrote" in my head but somehow never seemed to get round to publishing.

Got some great photos though! These three were placed first and joint second in a facebook photo competition. Very gratifying result - as Trevor says one day if I work out what the knobs on the camera are for I could be quite good.

Autumn over and its back to sitting by the fire in the salon, a room which only really gets used in the winter. So far we have some hard frosts but it is still fairly mild by day, there's loads to do in the garden and now Christmas is behind us we can get down to it.

We have just returned from spending almost three weeks in a rather damp,dark  England for the festive season. We had a lovely time catching up first with friends and then spending time together with our family in a rented house in Great Longstone near Bakewell in Derbyshire. It has been a real treat to see everyone and we had a lovely long Christmas break,

After two days on the road  it was great to be home yesterday. Our New Year celebrations were low key as we arrived very tired after the journey and today has been spent getting the house straight.

Planning a civilised meal this evening to celebrate the start of 2016. As for blogging I'm not planning on any resolutions about frequency of posts - let's just say I'll do my best.


Bonne année et bonne santé as they say and  Aici sén pla say we two.