Wellbeing Living Essential Oils & Magnetic Therapy

What an amazing evening at the watching the genius that is ❤️ Great venue for an intimate concert and we were not disappointed. Just be reminded of Paul’s amazing talent and his brilliant band was awesome. What a special evening. Some folk really missed out - you know who you are 😎

Our first crop of strawberries have produced some yummy jam - from potager to plate in less than a day! The raspberries are next - if there are enough!! Bon appétit 🍓🍓🍓

An overdue visit to Les Rosiers de Montbron to visit Mark & Debbie at their extraordinary garden centre, dedicated to all types of beautiful roses. Shrub, climbers, standard, miniature, rambling etc in all the colours of the rainbow! Spoilt for choice. It’s two years since I purchased 3 climbers and 5 shrub roses which are all thriving despite my lack of green fingers. Testimony to the quality of the plants! Dutch stock! I will be returning soon 🙏🌹😀

Bon année tout le monde ❤️ Christmas was a joy shared with my (grown up) babies here in La Belle France 🇫🇷 2022 has been a blur of decisions, builders, hard work and “potagering” ( new word!) but much more importantly, visits from friends and family 🙏 We have many projects on the go plus more to start! Another busy year ahead 😀 Still one of the best decisions we ever made to be here. Grateful for supportive friends. You know who you are ❤️

My hero. ❤️ 25 years married today 💋Husband, Father, Brother, Brother -in-law, Friend, Confident, Sportsman, Hilarious and Cantankerous. Awesome Daddy!! But most of all, the love of my life. I could not have hoped for what we have achieved in our life together. Onwards & upwards cherie ❤️🇫🇷🙏💋

Needed to keep busy yesterday to manage my disappointment as one of my besties was unable to fly due to Covid 😷 Bless her - get well soon darling girl ❤️ So decided to power wash the courtyard tiles - the real reason was to see if we can power wash the grime off the “pink” walls of the house. We used to have diesel central heating which we’ve replaced with an air source heat system ✅ so no more air born dirt. Also, the westerly winds bring debris etc🍁🍂 Seems like we might be able to - with a little help from a environmentally friendly cleaner 💚 In the meantime, I’m very pleased with the results 😀 🇫🇷 ❤️

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but lots going on! Finishing projects that we started earlier this year including the top floor of the main house 🙏 We are very pleased with this transformation. The roof has been fully insulated and we have created a functional storage space too. And a bathroom with a bathtub! Feels quite luxurious ❤️Found the fab rug at the brilliant La Vielle Ecole 😀 More projects nearly finished!

What a fortnight! It was Party central here at Le Petit Porteboeuf 🎉 Sammy arrived two weeks ago with her gorgeous boyfriend, with the builders desperately trying to complete the pool project 🏊‍♂️ on time! They were the first peeps to use the pool - verdict 👍👏Lots still to do to finish the surround and landscaping as well. After lots of preparation 🙄 the rest of the group arrived ….. 31 students celebrating the end of Uni and Sammy’s 21st! Well, let’s just say there is a very good reason why they call Newcastle “Toon Town” - it’s party, party!! Despite scorching weather ☀️(40 degrees plus) thunderstorms (which closed our local airport) windy conditions 💨 the weather was actually very good 😀 Everyone had a fab time, the music & DJ’s were brilliant and there were no major incidents 🙏 plus Hendo & I survived it 😂 The builders are back to complete the Maison des Amies so more updates soon 🤞 🇫🇷

Finally, the pool is ready to be rendered and lined. The forecast looked amazing for this weekend so the builders started yesterday morning. However, a huge thunderstorm appeared last night (seemingly out of nowhere 🙄) after they had painstakingly rendered the pool 😩 Then the sun came out at 8pm ☀️So the builders are back today. But the pool isn’t dry enough to line so we wait another day 🙄 The good news is the weather looks very hot this week so we could be swimming 🏊‍♀️🤞🙏❤️

Whilst waiting for an MOT on my car, I wandered around the little village of about 12 minutes from home. Lovely church and Mairie plus two boulangeries! A re-visit required when I have more time!

Today is a national holiday in France 🇫🇷celebrating the end of WWII. Most towns and villages mark the occasion in their own inimitable fashion. We decided to have a day off and drove to Chasseneuil-sur-Bonniere (sadly we missed the brass band 🙄) but we did stroll around the bric-a-brac stalls. No purchases today but a lovely morning amidst the peonies and sunshine ☀️A total treat this afternoon - golf practice on the range followed by a delicious lunch on the terrace in the sunshine 😀

Loving my new solar lights 💋courtesy of .fr It’s so mild tonight we decided to BBQ the🥩The builders are cracking on, working 6 days a week to finish the block work on the Maison des Amies and the new extension which is the outside living kitchen and the pool 🏊‍♂️ 😀 It’s spring time 🌿🌼 🇫🇷❤️

Just occasionally words are not enough 🙏 🇫🇷

Finally it stopped raining last night just in time for the driveway to dry out! Good job as two enormous cement trucks turned up first thing to cement the base of the swimming pool. Looks simple but it really is a precise job - luckily we are working with an experienced team 🙏 Bring on the sunshine 😀

Support this brilliant project - an incredible organisation working to keep women safe on the streets of Newcastle at night. They are raising money to purchase a car to function as a taxi to get vulnerable people home safe. That could be your daughter, sister, mother or girlfriend 💋 Raising funds tonight ALL donations from tonight will go directly to PLEASE buy a ticket and donate what you can 🙏 AND if you attend tonight you will hear and see my beautiful, independent, awesome daughter 🎤🎧🎶❤️ ❤️

A busy afternoon outside benefiting from the glorious sunshine (bitter north wind though) Tackled rotivating the potager finally as only carrots left to pick. Weeded the potager (with the awesome ) earlier this week so we can start the rotation process and plant spring crops. Really want to plant flowers too for cutting in the summer. Now to decide what to plant 🥗

Building work continues both inside and outside the house. Thank goodness the rain has stopped and the sun is drying the mud out! Extremely warm yesterday and today and it feels like we are making real progress with the projects 🙏 The current internal project is to insulate the top floor of the house and create a new bedroom, bathroom, dressing area and plenty of storage space! A Velux window was suggested for the bathroom and here is Richard, our hands on Artisan builder, fitting the new window today 👏👏 Hopefully finished before Easter before the family descends 🤞🤞🤞 ❤️ #❤️🇫🇷

Great start to the weekend with a long walk in the glorious sunshine despite the bitter wind. The sun ☀️definitely was some warmth ❤️ 🇫🇷

Finally starting on the project. We are insulating the whole area, working in sections, and sadly will have to cover some of the timbers. But these beautiful A frames will remain on show - you just need to remember to duck when walking around! We are creating some bespoke storage space and a bedroom / bathroom / dressing room too. Hopefully enough room for a quiet space with a chaise lounge 🙏. This is the first of three major projects starting this month - busy bees 🐝🐝🇫🇷❤️ 🙏

We finally returned home to France 🇫🇷 on Tuesday night. An extended stay in the UK due to restrictions and Monsieur Macron deciding our children were not welcome in France over 🎄😱. So plans changed and we celebrated Christmas together in - lucky us 👍The New Years Eve festivities were cancelled in our neighbouring village of Massingnac so we decided to stay and luckily were invited to an awesome NYE party. All attendees were triple vaccinated and all tested negative with lateral flow tests that day. It was worth the extra effort as we were so ready to partay 🎉🎉 More tests to return to France et voilà we are back back back 🙏. Everything OK apart from a broken glass door of the wood burning stove? Apparently quite common (a first for us) due to extremes of heat and/or a log falling on the glass. Either way, it was replaced today courtesy of our local quincaillerie (hardware store 👍). Christmas decorations all packed away and the only reminders are outside lights. Tried to persuade hubby they should stay all year but met with some resistance to this idea 😂 One last evening with moon watching over. The quiet before the storm …….. builders due this month …… all will be revealed 🤞❤️

This rather cute dumpy Christmas tree 🎄has been renamed “The Pudding Tree” by the children! It’s the only one that would fit in the corner 😀. Not the Christmas we had originally planned in France but we are together which is all that matters ❤️ Monitoring the changes in regulations / restrictions in France 🇫🇷 and England 🇬🇧 on a daily basis has become “normal” 😳 So, will we here in the New Year - who knows 🤔 In the meantime, le sapin de Noel (swipe left) sits alone waiting for our return 🎄🙏

Another celebration 🍾 this time, after 6 weeks in a plaster cast having broken my right wrist (walking the dogs 🐶!) the orthopedic surgeon said the cast could come off - hurrah 😃 I spent two weeks back in the UK catching up with family and friends and can’t believe the progress the builders have made with the derelict gîte building 👏👏👏 A brand new roof will save the building from further disrepair whilst we wait for the architect’s plans and then planning permission 🤞So with a spell of wet weather due next week, the builders arrived today to finish the final membrane on the little barn roof and start fitting the guttering! Lots more planned but the builders are so busy with other projects! Hopefully they will return soon 😀

Becoming a gardener is not just about hard work and experience. There’s also the weather to contend with and then something else - disease! In this case potato blight which swept through the potager in a matter of a few days, and destroyed all but a tiny handful of green tomatoes 😕 Fortunately, not all the potatoes were affected and the chili peppers 🌶 are fab!! Rhubarb is delish and lots of winter vegetables to look forward to. It’s a learning curve! Grateful to be able to try!! 🇫🇷

With our very first UK 🇬🇧 visitors staying for 2 nights, one of our excursions was to the beautiful chateau at . Stunning 15th century frescoes and a modern art installation. Something for everyone. Even my little accident earlier in the week & subsequent trip to hospital didn’t spoil the weekend! Never a dull moment living en France 🇫🇷 💋

Another project we are embarking on is the restoration of the “Bread Barn”.
The semi circular roof underneath the tiled roof is the actual oven itself, brick lined and in good condition. Sadly, the roof isn’t so we shall be tackling that in the autumn. Having stripped back the icy, we need the stump grinder to take out several tree roots which have remained (after lots of digging!) the wall definitely needed some TLC so we have planted lots of Salvia, a stunning “Chocolate Vine” (Akebia Quinta) which produces masses of chocolate coloured, vanilla scented flowers! Underplanted with Erigeron karvinskianus - cute perennial which spreads low on the ground - hoping to keep the weeds at bay!! 🤞Pleased with the result - can’t do much about the lamp post or electricity box as the powers that be won’t allow climbing plants etc ☹️ But a definite improvement 🙏🇫🇷 ❤️