2012--The summary

  Now that we`ve started a new year, I thought it would be good to look back over the last one and remember the high, or the low points of the year. To my mind, it has been a good year, with few serious crises  and some progress made. I have been looking over past blogs and the photos taken during the year to try to recall some of the events.
   January started fairly mild, with little frost. However, scarcely had we started to congratulate ourselves on a mild winter, when February brought a fortnight`s freezing temperatures, and then SNOW.  The house grew so cold that we abandoned upstairs and moved into the salon to sleep on our new futon, much to the pleasure of the cats.(see below)  Towards the end of the month, Kim was not displeased to depart to spend a few weeks with Alyson in the UK and to benefit from her central heating!




Some bricolage was successfully carried out, the kitchen tap, which was leaking was replaced and new bookshelves made in the salon. The  year`s wood was bought, delivered and stacked before Kim`s return.

  March was cold and bright, the vines were trimmed, the garden ploughed and Kim was able to plant her crops. Our two new ducks were growing fast.
   In April, we had our first eggs from the ducks but heavy rain caused local floods, luckily we suffered no damage.

  May saw some damage, however, when a lorry carried away the corner of the roof tiles of our newly re-roofed outbuilding. Luckily the damage was slight and Ian repaired it for us at a modest cost. A swarm of bees arrived at a neighbour`s house and a bee-keeper had to deal with them.  
   June saw us depart on our annual visit to the Pyrenees at Aucun, together with the Jubillee celebration and sheep shearing (no connection!) In July Alyson and Kerri visited us and we went to the Puy du Fou.  In August Patrick and Cécile visited, Kim varnished the kitchen floor and departed for three weeks with Alyson, including a week in Turkey, leaving me a grey kitten to bottle-feed--hello Storm!  In October hot water was at last supplied to the kitchen sink after a long saga and the quince tree offered only six fruits. In November, the only incident of note was a two day visit to Fouras and the Ile d`Oleron. In December the Christmas lights went up and we departed for our annual visit to Lille. If anyone wants more detail, click the appropriate month in the blog archives alongside...
  There were a few sad departures from the Ark`s passenger list, cats Bandit and Sunshine and a cursed fox took the two Muscovey ducks over Christmas. RIP all four...

  Well, I think that brings us up to date.  A happy New Year to all my readers and hope to welcome you aboard the Ark in 2013.

   Bye for now, going to roll up some tinsel!