Tiwi Tattler

So now we are back at home and trying to settle into a routine. It is proving more difficult than we expected but for all sorts of positive reasons.  Yve and John, who had been house sitting, dog minding and replacing me at the farm while we were away, made it all so easy. Ali, our dog, was glad to see us back but she now has two more friends who love her, the house and garden were in terrific shape and the farm was ship-shape. John's expertise in irrigation was much appreciated and is still ongoing at the school while Yve became a regular classroom volunteer. There was another occasional visitor to the garden while we were absent and a good thing it made a slithery departed before we returned.  We landed home one day after our first lot of visitors from Singapore had arrived in town. While I still had one more week of term to complete at the farm, Kim and Syd Pink were on their mid-year break already. Unlike us, they didn't have a 4 week break, only 2 weeks and it was m...

Wednesday 7th June Indispose - unwell Both of us woke feeling unwell. Eric couldn't get warm and I was too hot. I got up to have breakfast but instead ended up back in bed. When I woke the next time I felt much better. Eric had the chills all day so stayed indoors watching the French Open. Glenn and Jenni had already decided they needed a day of down-time as they have been on the go for about 6 weeks. We read books, watched tv and ate well. Thursday 8th June Anniversaire - birthday Jenni's birthday today, so I began the day by slipping downstairs to arrange a fresh fruit platter that could almost pass as a celebratory custard tart except for the fact that there was no custard tart underneath. It's the thought that counts. Eric was still feeling unwell so we stayed home while the Mundays took off to visit Rochefort en Terre, a village we have read has b een voted one of France’s most beautiful villages as a result of the geranium-bedecked houses within. It is a brighter day ...

Friday 2nd June Rappel - limit We set the car's GPS to Mohon in Brittany and took to the highways with 130kms speed limit. Some of them are tollways but the good thing here is everyone who uses them overtakes in the fast lane so you don't have to keep checking over your right hand shoulder as well. Remember we are driving on the right hand side of the road, luckily Glenn and Eric do.  We drove through green countryside almost all the way with the occasional chateau. The further south we went the more wind turbines we saw. About 4 hours after leaving Vernon in Normandy we stopped for lunch at a lovely restaurant overlooking the river in Josselin, in the Morbihan district of central Brittany.  It specialized in pancakes which were lovely. Sitting in the sunshine on the terrace we enjoyed a view of the canal and along to the castle.   10 kms later we pulled up in Mohon and were welcomed by Philippa and Allen who live in one end of the large stone cottage that was once a...

Wednesday 31st May Checking out of the apartment was made a lot easier by the fact they have a cleaner so once we had finished breakfast we caught the taxi to the airport. We flew to Paris via Amsterdam and it was interesting to note not only the change in the patchwork landscape which had become absolutely flat but also that all the rooftops were slate grey. Those that weren't glasshouses that is. The other most noticable difference was the language. Where German sounds so stuccato, French is immediately melodic. We found the hire car outlets and ended up squeezing into a Ford Focus despite the obvious dismay of the agent who thought we were sure to upsize. We must have looked like  to a can of sardines on roller skates as Glenn negotiated our way out of the carpark and onto the highway with the help of Eric and Google navigation. Jenni and I just kept quiet in the back seat as we snuggled into the suitcases between us that were overflow from the boot. After negotiating the exit ...