Andy Baird has been a skiing client of ours in the chalet in Chamonix for over ten years now and this year he came to visit us in the Pyrenees with his family.  They are staying at the Auberge in the village with Rene and Anouk for a week before heading to the coast.

They arrived in cloud and the next day the sun shone so we trundled up to the Port D’Aula.  We all made it up to the Spanish border and the kids had a swim in the second lake on the way down.

Since then they all came up to the barn for a BBQ one evening and we are planning to go walking again in the next couple of days.  Its FAB to meet the kids and spend some time in the mountains with them.

Looking back you occasionally remember life changing moments. Like when you got a colour TV (for those of a certain vintage).  Some life changing moments here at the barn have been things like the fridge, being able to keep food fresh for more than a couple of days and chill wine without having to dunk the bottle in the river.  Then we finally got running water out of the tap rather than having to use the outside tap.

Well now, our days of showering under a tree outside are numbered.  We are still gonna be using a solar shower bag for a while but when the wind is cold and it is raining cats and dogs we are gonna have the luxury of showering indoors.

For the second year we have been invited to the Hunt and Fishing Lunch in the marquee in the village.  As an a-political and free meal it gets a good turnout.  About 150 people from all over the valley sit down on benches at trestle tables and eat, drink an’ chat.

Sadly we did not win the ham in the raffle but we thoroughly enjoyed the company and the fodder.

Afterwards we met up with Andy Baird and his family at the Auberge for a drink.

So far this summer, apart from Nicole and her family we have had a handfull of folk over to eat and some have stopped overnight.  Last week we had Clive and his family over for the evening.  We chose an Italian theme with salamis and salads followed by home made pasta and a trio of deserts.  Clive’s son had brought over a Chinese lantern come hot air balloon which we set off and watched drift into the clear night sky.  We had an outdoor fire in Ken’s fire basket and I got my fire clubs out and taught Matteus some simple tricks.

We also looked after Alison and Peter’s dog, daisy for a few days.  It is amazing how quickly you get used to having a dog around and how you miss them when they are gone again. One day we shall get a dog again.

We now have 3 buildings. The later Breezy has dubbed “The Man Cave”.

We have a roof of about 7 varieties of sedum and the bast thing is that we no longer have any scrap wood in the main barn.  It’s all in the cave.  Actually I think it is slightly bigger than the first outbuilding where Breezy and I lived for 4 years. Oh, the good old days.

Anyway it’s done (except for a door).

As we go on walks we will pick up any different varieties of sedum and add them and hopefully this time next year it will be smothered and be flowering nicely.

The days are busy whatever the weather.  We have lists.  Lists of indoor things to do; outdoor things; internet things; food ideas for the winter; new recipes to try out; walks to do; emails to send.  The tables are covered in lists and we really ought to start a list of lists so that we don’t duplicate.

Here’s a little round up in images.

I worked with Nicole in Meribel many moons ago now and they came and visited us two years ago on their campervan trip and decided they would like to come for another visit this year too.

Niq is the guy who had researched water pumps for his garden and gave us all the info on which pump we needed which is now installed and making life so much easier.  We were very lucky with the weather glorious sunshine every day so ideal for the kids to play by the river, trips to the waterfall, bike rides, walks up to Cirque D’Anglade and a trip to the auberge for a few aperos as well.

We almost managed to have 3 meals a day outside every day too, drinks on the helipad and lots of good food, wines and of course plenty of chatter and catch up time too.

The last time they were here the kids climbed the totem pole, this time we arranged a treasure hunt for them which ended up climbing a cable ladder to the tree house platform to retrieve their prizes. Seemed to go down well.

Great to see them all again and now they have another 4 weeks cruising around France in the camper, should be great.

Thats it, the cement mixer can go back. It was great of Clive to loan the mixer to us while he was on holiday. The walls are finished; the roof timbers are in place and there is a reinforced concrete ring around the top so (fingers crossed) it ‘aint going nowhere.  Next shopping trip we will pickup the rest of the timber for the roof and we can finish it at our leisure.  I think that we have all the rest of the kit we need to put a sedum roof on it.

We could have got it all done in less than a week however we decided that doing a couple of hours a day while the weather permitted was going to be a little easier on the bodies. Hauling the sand up from the other side of the bridge to make the mortar. Buckets of water for mixing , and 3 or 4 ton of rock all take quite a lot of effort. Breezy will be very happy if she never has to lift a rock again.

We have got a few “nice to do” things ticked off the list too.