ardeche gorge, caves, drive shafts, vegetables and a cat.....

afternoon all,

we've been busy busy busy recently getting work done on the barn (internal walls going up), finishing the guttering, working in the garden and generally keeping ourselves active.

after talking about it for ages we finally decided to take a trip down to the ardeche gorge a few hours south of us.

the drive was amazing with the road twisting it's way up and down mountains all the way through the national park that stretches from here to the gorge.

here are a few photos of the gorge and the pont d'arc which is pretty impressive:





this is the pont d'arc - take a look at the people in the kayak underneath to get an idea of the size of the thing!



the reflection of the big arc through a smaller arc.



and then.....we went to the grotte de st marcel d'ardeche which is a set of caves that were pretty impressive.

we had originally wanted to go see the 16,000 year old caves paintings of pre-domesticated humans that have been found in the area but they're closed to the public and so we settled for some impressive geological caves instead.

here's a few shots of inside:





this place was absolutely massive! they turned out all the lights and put on a light/music performance which sounds cheesy as hell but was actually pretty cool!



one of the best bits were these naturally formed sedement pools which cascade down a slope and are filled with water.



as a grand finale they had another music/light display in these pools on the way out which was again pretty impressive. you can see the lit pools below.



so after the caves and the gorge we decided that we wouldn't camp out for the night but would head back home but all was not well with sha-boo-boo (the landrover)!

not long after this shot was taken.....



.....we realised that the noise we'd heard earlier in the day might be something more serious and then - CLUNK - the drive shaft broke and we stopped dead. on the inside of a blind bend, sticking into the road with the wheels locked and going nowhere fast!

after a little wait we were towed to the nearest town (right by the pont d'arc) where we had to camp after all (ah, shame - it's what i wanted all along).

we made some food on a little stove and had a visit from a really beautiful fox who came to within inches of us (and later nibbled monkey boys ankles as he slept).

all-in-all a very nice time was had from what could have been a bad situation!

moving on.....

we've now harvested our onions, shallots and have taken the first of the carrots and parsnips out - take a look:

onions drying in the sun



shallots



and the first carrot and parsnip



finally, hobo seems to be getting better/stronger - here's a couple of cute kitten type photographs:





ok, that should do it for now.

hope you're well etc...

cheers, gairy.

piccalilli, a few photos, construction progress and a cat update!

you lucky people - where else could you get all this sensational information for free?

here's what's new with us right now.....

piccalilli:

we've made a batch of piccalilli in order to preserve some of the vegetables we've grown. all we've got to do now is wait four weeks till we can let you know if it's any good.

photos:

i went for a wander the other evening and took these photographs which you might enjoy.

an empty seed head:



some seed heads against the darkening sky.



and another shot of the same.



and finally.....a close-up of a little flower i found - pretty no?



construction progress:

- we've (well monkey boy really with our 'assistance') pretty much finished installing the guttering on one of the barns.

it's looking bloody brilliant!





- nikki's dry stone wall is pretty much complete now too!

it's taken a while (and some heavy rock lifting by me and m.b.) and some serious tinkering but the drainage retaining wall/flower bed is finished.

i think you'll agree that it's a hell of a first attempt at building a wall - nice one nikki!



cat update:

müca and hobo are doing fine and dandy!

despite thinking that hobo's days might be limited in number he's improving daily, getting fatter, becoming more alert/friendly and generally becoming quite a nice (yet very wild/cautious) cat indeed.

müca would love nothing more than to be pampered, over-fed, cuddled and fussed with 24/7 but she's gaining more and more outdoor skills as the days pass.

here's a good shot of müca:



they now patrol the property all day in an attempt to find new and increasingly sunny/comfortable spots in which to snooze - not a bad life!

ok, that'll do for now.

the next jobs we've got on are finishing the joists/noggins for the wooden floor in the big barn, the guttering on the second barn, rainwater collection tanks to fit/connect and loads more.

tune in next time for more updates.

gairy.

Bloody Brilliant Birthday Bath!

Yesterday it was my birthday and Gairy and Monkey Boy gave me a super present. They cleaned out an old bath (that happened to be left here by the last owners), and boiled tons of water on our stove and in the shower unit all without me knowing what they were doing! Then they moved it into the barn which will be our house and built a screen for privacy and put candles all around. They even suplied me with a bottle of Cava (care of Anna from her visit) and a Walkie Talkie so I could request a top up of hot water! It was really magic having a hot bath, by candle light, in our new-to-be-home. Those cold winter days are on their way and I'm thinking that the shower is not going to live up to my bath experience! Definately the most luxurious bath I've ever taken!

Not sure if you can really get the feel of it but see below.



An absolutely brilliant birthday bath!

Until later
Nikki

müca and hobo

.....now we are five!

via a chance opportunity there are now two tiny kittens occupying top managerial positions at simple-lodge headquarters here in france.

müca:



and hobo:



the name hobo because he (we think???) ran off to live in the woods (after two days of illness/the squits and not settling down at all) only to reappear yesterday much more friendly (and, we think, worldly!) and looking a little better (we think he wasn't well when we got him and are not 100% convinced he's going to make it).

.....and müca is taken from the timeless holywood classic 'the hunchback hairball of l.a.'. if you ain's see it then you ain't going to understand it - sorry!

we've now spent over 100 man-hours between us simply sitting watching the cats - it's nice.

we'll keep you updated with the many various comedy feline moments as they happen.

later, gairy.

p.s. anna, don't you think müca looks like kitty?

pam, drains and a bat!

evening,

here is an update.....

we had a splendid visit from pam (sorry about the dice-curling results!) and i think a good time was had by all.

we got some work done in the barn, some gardening/weeding achieved, many blackberries collected and most importantly the new chocolate pudding i made was a resounding success!

since pam left we've started work on the rain-catchment system that we've designed (before then fitting the guttering).

here's a couple of photos of the work in progress.



something very exciting is nikki's first dry stone wall which is looking much longer and even better now than it does on the photo below when it'd just started:



finally, monkey boy (whilst up the ladders checking measurements for the guttering) saw this young bat on the wall in broad daylight:





pretty cool huh?

ok, next time one of us will be writing about the two new feline additions to the simple-team - don't forget to tune in then.....

gairy.