Category: News

Short film of the pool on a lovely summers day

January 2014 has been very wet so far after a beautiful December. However, it has been dry since Monday, today is Wednesday and quite warm, 9 – 10dc during the afternoon. This has been a good opportunity to clear up the mess after we had to have a third of a huge ash tree felled. The tree had formed 3 large major trunks, the lowest of which was reaching out over the prairie. This was fine for many years however this branch had become so long and so heavy that it had begun to crack off close to the main stem. Also we had become aware that it was started to lift the rootball which would have demolished our hay barn. Chris, our woodsman, did the felling and we are harvesting the wood for firewood for the stove next winter. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is wasted here if we can avoid it. Also pleased to say that according to the weather forecast, although the weather is likely to remain fairly variable over the next 10 days, no frost is forecast & it is getting slightly warmer.

The winter season brings up some slightly different themes – the water company Veolia sent us a very reassuring report on the quality of our water here at Gary. In brief it all translates to the fact that our water supply here is of excellent quality, if somewhat hard, with little or no nitrates and definately no pesticide residues at all! That is very good because our guests have no necessity to buy bottled water at all. In fact our drinking water is probably of better quality than bottled bearing in mind the length of time it may have spent inside a plastic bottle sitting in the sun!!

We continue to bear in mind the difficulties and cost restraints following the financial crisis. We too feel the changes but have decided to absorb cost increases for another year as best as we can. If you have a look at our new Season 2014 Rental Costs Page you will see that we have made no changes except that we have decided to open for April too. We are also planning to instal a heat pump for the swimming pool which should mean that it will be open for use from the lst June instead of the lst July and stay swimmable into October! depending of course on the weather. Please continue to read our blog page so that you keep up to date with how we are getting on.

I go to Mirepoix Market most Mondays throughout the year, but summer – by which I mean April through to mid October – is not only special for the additional number of interesting stalls carrying crafts, jewellry & clothes from all over the world, but also because we are visited by what you could call real stolling minstrels. Actually these are usually musicians or performers of some kind who travel France performing at the most interesting markets. They generally only appear for a couple of week and then they are off somewhere else. I now have a new camera which will take a reasonable clip of film as well as good quality photos and I try to take it with me everywhere I go. Over the next few months I will be posting a new photo or film that has been taken during summer 2013 which I hope our visitors to this site will find interesting along with some relevant comments about our own activities, such as the lambing 2014 which should start next February, our gardening exploits, visits we make and things we might do. I hope anyone who reads this will be entertained.