Just in case you were unaware it is 9 weeks today until Christmas Day. And to get some of you really uncomfortable I have actually been out and done some shopping in preparation for the event. I feel one of those annoyingly organised Christmases coming up where I manage to be super Mum....mainly born out of necessity as I will be at work right up to, and including 24th December. So to get you all hot under the collar and panicky there are 9 Saturdays left to hunt the perfect gift, and I will also mention at this point, that for those of you who like a practical shopping experience rather than the more soulful centre of Bordeaux option, there is a very large shopping centre in Bégles, Rives d'Arracin attached to a Carrefour. 
Other news from our house is that Number 3 is officially no longer small as she attended her first disco last week and stayed out til midnight. And so it begins again....
Patrick is settling in to Holland by the sounds of things and has done his first days work in a kitchen doing food prep. My opportunity to crow at how all those enforced skills they have learnt at home stood them in good stead for future employment. I do believe they find me rather annoying at that point...It's great being a parent.
Both the big kids have exams and tests coming up so it will be a good measure for them on how things are panning out. With any luck we will all be together for Christmas. Today has been a typical Sunday morning..the sheep escaped and Gavin has spent 4 hours fetching them home and moving fences. Luckily someone else is cooking for us today.
See you all soon
​Helen

Well finally we had a little rain last night and this morning. Not enough to do any damage thankfully but enough to lay the dust, soak into the ground and hopefully start the journey towards some grass growing ready to put the boys and girls in the right frame of mind and condition for some lamb making. As you can see from the picture the market was packed at 8.30am. 
We are usually quite busy and this week was no exception. Gavin has been madly moving sheep around the fields to try and break the fly cycle that seems to have been bothering us at the house this year. I had thought that with such a dry summer the flies would be less enthusiastic, but it seems to me that they hang around the house and water troughs more, as I suppose that is where they can find food and water since it is so scarce further into the forests due, of course, to the dry conditions. Need to have more chickens probably to do the cleaning up necessary to eliminate the fly egg production. However if I said that out loud it would mean Old McDonald (alias, Gavin) would have more excuses/reasons to purchase more animals.

Designed a new sausage this week. Hungarian flavours so it lends itself to a cassoulet or lentil based stew neither of which I had time to make on returning from the market. So here is a quick version to serve with rice. Number 3 thought it was delicious.
1/ Brown your sausages only use oil if you really need to. Remove from pan.
2/ Chop an onion and a green pepper fry them in the oil left by the sausages. Add a tin of tomatoes and half a can of water and a teaspoonish of thyme. Put the sausages back in the pan either whole or chopped. Put a lid on simmer for 20ish minutes. Get the water ready for the rice.
3/ Chop some spinach/swiss chard or something similar put on top of sausage mixture replace lid. Cook the rice.
4/ Serve and eat.
Note: Do not add extra spice, salt or pepper until the end after checking, and only if you really need it ;)...... just trying to look after your health folks.

Lunch at the butchery on Thursday. Yummy bacon butty.

And playing with Border Collie puppies on Monday, not ours I hasten to add. It's a tough life but hey someone has to do it.
See you all soon
​Helen