You might have noticed there was a big gap in my blog postings – from July 09 to January 10 to be precise. I’m not quite sure why it happened. We certainly were very busy during the summer with the gite and our llama trekking business. And during the summer months we’re outside pretty much all the time so not much computing takes place. However, I did keep going with my own blog at www.bloginfrance.com so you can catch up with happenings during those months there.

And here’s a very quick recap of the major events:

Caiti did really well in her brevet and got into Lycée Pierre Bourdan where she is so happy.

Benj packed myrtilles (bluberries) all summer in a refrigerated room while the rest of us basked in the endless sunshine. He bought himself an x-box so all that suffering was well justified

We got a splash pool and are so glad we did. Ruadhri holds the record for six swims in one day. We kept it up until the middle of September but finally we found 14 degrees a bit too chilly to swim in!

Amélie the alpaca arrived at Les Fragnes from Cote d’Or in July. Sadly she lost the baby she was carrying but she went back to her previous owner for an amorous tryst so we’re hoping for our first alpaca cria this summer.

Gabby the llama recovered from a serious illness.

Several litters of rabbits were born. Rabbit tagliatelle is proving very popular with the kids.

Ruadhri started at St Marien school. After three years of cycling or walking him to school, he now has to take the school bus as it’s about 14 km to St Marien, and very hilly too. Not cyclable on a daily basis sadly.

We moved into what had been the gite at the end of September, finally fulfilling a long-term plan. Our old house is now Notaire’s House, and is the perfect gite with its beautiful large downstairs room and direct access to the middle lake.

We signed up with the excellent Angling Lines fishing holiday company who are now our agents. They’re great to work with and we’re looking forward to a brilliant future with them.

We restocked all three lakes in December, adding an extra tonne and a half of fabulous carp. Chris, a fishery employee unloaded all that lot between us. And then Chris had to pull their lorry out of a spot of mud with our faithful old, and the emphasis is on the old, tractor!

We’ve had a major lake maintenance session and cleared away some snags that had formed. We discovered a large population of swan mussels in Alder lake, a sign of a very healthy lake.

It’s been a cold, snowy winter. The children have missed a week’s worth of school through being snowed in, to their delight. And it’s by no means over yet. We’ve had a very heavy fall this afternoon. We’ve had frozen pipes in our house but after cutting lots of holes in the plasterboard, Chris located and dealt with the problem.

And we’ve chopped and lugged an awful lot of wood. It’s our main source of heat so it’s just one of those things you have to do!

There we are – pretty much up to date, at least for the moment. No more lapses, I promise.