Sophie’s Birthday

On Friday night we went out as a family for a meal for Sophie’s birthday so today we had a little party for her friends at home. The girls enjoyed a treasure hunt in the garden (coats needed today—the wind was cold)…

and playing in the play-room…

and Sophie chose a ‘Galette de Rois’ for her birthday cake and somehow managed to get the slice with the toy in it so she got to wear the crown!

Then 'Happy Birthday' was sung to Sophie in four languages! (English, French, Spanish, and Catalan)

Thuir Market Day

This morning we went to the market in our local village—Thuir. This is less of a tourist market than Céret or Collioure so we really enjoyed looking around at all the traditional stalls. In addition to fresh fruit and vegetables (of course) there were stalls with clothes and others selling hot food. (We bought some yummy-looking meatballs in a rich sauce.) Various foods were sampled, including dried sausage made from sanglier (wild boar) and Brebis (sheep-milk cheese) both of which were popular with the girls. There was also a fascinating kitchen-wares stall with a huge variety of knives and other fierce-looking implements and several stalls with row upon row of buttons, ribbons, and wool.

  Before lunch we went ‘sticking’ in the hedgerows for kindling for the fire (which we light in the evenings as it does get a little cool at night with the stone walls and tiled floors in this old farmhouse). Here we are setting off for the fields…

and here is the result…

On the way we passed a tall, narrow building that was probably a pigeonnier (dovecote) but it looks disused now.

Every now and then we were treated to a hint of colour in the hedgerows—all kinds of pretty little flowers (in January!!)…

 The rosemary is flowering…

the holly has berries...

 

  and there are plenty of surprising plants around…

  Posted by Jo

Winter??

This morning Sophie and I drove to Perpignan to buy her some clothes for her birthday (Friday!) and to pick up supplies for a birthday party this weekend. On the way back we went to the wood yard and (despite the limitations of my French) managed to negotiate the purchase of a pile of oak logs for the wood burner. 

It was a glorious day today. We ate lunch outside…

played boules and badminton…

 

and tried dipping our feet in the pool…

although Charlie thought the water was a bit cold!

 I got a closer look at the delicate mimosa blooms...

and even found some olives still on the trees.

Posted by Jo

Moving Day

Yesterday was our last day at our temporary home of Mas San Julian. The girls were sad to be leaving behind the ‘play barn’, where they had spent many hours entertaining themselves building towers…

and having fun in the ball pool…

and lots of other activities...

We finally got some pictures of Lily’s puppies, too! We’ll be back to see them growing up over the next few weeks.

Next we said goodbye to the other animals--here's just a few of them (in order of appearance) --Max, Austin, Amy and Truffles!

Then it was off to our more permanent home. Here we are arriving:

We’re settling in and getting used to our new surroundings. It’s a little too chilly for swimming in the pool just yet (photos to come later), but the mimosa is in bloom.

I’m not sure how the blooms stay on the trees actually, because that wind is back! It’s like a Chinook but it lasts for days. I wonder how long it will last this time? 
Posted by Jo