My Family and Other domestic Animals??!!**

We increased our Franklin capacity this week with the addition of Gavins cousin and his wife for a few days. They spent some of it with us and then spent some of the time looking at the coastline between Mimizan and Arcachon. The weather was changeable but mostly warmish and a vast improvement on the sleet they had in Cornwall the previous week. Having popped over from Zimbabwe I think the warmth that France offered was greatly received...along with the yummy cheese, fruit and Champagne I think they had a lovely time.
It's funny isn't it, how even though you have not seen someone for 10 years if it is family (or close friends) then it could have been just yesterday when you saw them. No requirement to explain who you are and where you come from. The only problem with a short visit is finding enough air time to fit in all the latest gossip.

So in the space of two weeks I have gone from 5 people to 4 people to six people to me. Is it possible to be on your own with 500 sheep, 10 goats, 3 chickens, 3 ducks, a donkey, 4 dogs and 4 cats?... Number 2 child, otherwise known as, Emily, has abandoned her family in the Dordogne, a life full of glamour and parties till 4 in the morning with the rich and famous, for a quiet student life in Tilburg, Holland studying religiously every day and observing all the etiquette of a Nun.....Well at least that is what she told me she would be doing.....
I expect we might see her again at Christmas time with her brother in tow, if we are lucky. Full of stories that I may not want to know about. The life of a farmer, though full of the basic things in life...poo,wee,vomit and reproduction...is in a weird way still quite clean, or uneventful, if you know what I mean. The children are still trying to explain to me when or where I may have smelt the smoke from marijuana but my sheltered, sububurbian upbringing refuses to recognise it. Maybe I am pot-smoke "nose-blind", or am like people who cannot smell the aftermath of an aparagus binge??? Hey ho we may never know.

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So I have helped load the car, organised the deliveries that Gavin is doing today on his way to Holland, had breakfast, my 4th cup of tea, put the washing on, hung some washing out, watered the lavender plants that I planted this summer and am contemplating reading the hurried list that Gavin wrote me this morning at 5.30 about what animals are where, and what I need to do. Everybody Loves Raymond is on the telly...I am avoiding the news... and I have lost the puppy once. She was asleep on the passenger seat of the van probably waiting for Gavin to come home. A busy day already and it is only 9am......Actually it is now 10.30am and I have finally selected the right....or maybe wrong photos.
The sun is shining and it is a beautiful day.
See you all soon
​Helenx

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