What are the chances!

Bluebell has consistently been coming in to heat on Sundays which is a bit of an inconvenient day to call the AI guy. Particularly as Doug was having driving lessons on Mondays. This time she was a few days late and chose Thursday which meant it would be ideal if the AI guy came Friday morning. Which wasn't as convenient as it could have been as we are going away for the weekend! So we didn't call him.

However in an amazing stoke of luck he turned up just as we were having breakfast as he needed our Cheptel (small holding) number so he could bill us for the last time.

He didn't have any jersey sperm with him so he did Bluebell with highland. V exciting. It may be hard to tell until spring whether she has taken, as they will stop coming in to heat for winter, and perhaps the longer cycle was a sign of it stopping anyway. We shall see!

Tiles and rendering

We went to Leroy Merlin (a DIY MEGA store) in Pau on Saturday to collect the tiles we ordered a couple of weeks ago for the floor in the outdoor kitchen. 

The are called Grey London Stoneware. We didn't chose them because of the name! They are a slightly textured pale grey. We though pale would be good not to pick up too much heat from the sun, and we wanted fairly neutral as there is a lot going on already with the stone and wood. There will be a bit of color in the (small) red tiled work surface.

We are planning on rendering/repointing stonework with white lime, a sample of which is on a slate beside the tiles. A bit of the wall has experimentally got grey lime, to the right of the slate. We are planning that it is quite rustic and rendered with some bits of stone showing through.

Here are the tiles for the red work surface - bit of a while until we are ready for those still! Splashback will be red and white checks.

A fellow flyer

Floor is finished

Well technically not finished as it needs tiling still, but the concreting is finished

Looks AMAZING!

Next thing is reprinting the walls a bit before doing the tiles. We need to go to Leroy Merlin in Pau to get the tiles too - we ordered them a couple of weeks ago.

Mini digger!

We have a mini digger. Doug had to drive it all the way from the road as the lorry that delivered it was huge! We bought it in the UK as delivery was surprisingly reasonable.

Doug has done a bit of ditch digging and scrapping the drive with the plough bit. We also have a jack hammer for it and some different size buckets. We are thinking of buying a flail mower attachment to help keep the sides of the drive under control.

Autumn planted legumes

Last year we planted mange tout and broad beans in the autumn. Both grew better than when we planted in the spring (the broad beans were still not great, but the mange tout did really well)

So last week Doug planted, sugar snaps, peas, mange tout and broad beans. They probably should have gone in a bit earlier, but the weather looks warm for a while (unfortunately when it comes to skiing!), so hopefully they will do ok.

We still have some carrots, beetroot, kale, sprouts and cabbage, but the potager is generally a bit of a mess. Needs work soon to put it to bed for winter.

First drive with Doug the Driver

Well, many years ago we did have a car for a short period,mand Doug did drive on his provisional license in the uk. I don't think either of us enjoyed it much. 

But this time it was awesome. The driving lessons have made his driving much better and I wasn't scared at all! It was really nice being able to look around at the scenery.

We went up to Payolle which is not really far, but a decent drive with plenty of challenges, it gets quite narrow and plenty of bends