Home again, home again joggety jog...

    It`s nice to be back home!

 We have spent last weekend with our friends Arlette and Laurent, who live near Orthez in the Pyrenees Orientales. They have a large, old fashioned farmhouse deep in the country, and the family rear chickens for meat, buying them in as day-old chicks and selling them to a contractor after they have been fattened up. They have, I think, about fifteen thousand birds, it`s not a small enterprise! They also grow most of their own feed for the hens, about a ton a day, and incidentally, most of their own food, too! Laurent is semi-retired from the business, which is carried on by his son, Joe but remains always busy with his huge garden and fruit trees.
   We had stayed a few days earlier in the year with these hospitable folks, but the excuse for another visit was a kitten named Mounette, who is currently purring on my knee as I type. Their cat had just had a litter, which were to be put down apart from one, reserved by a friend. Kim fell in love with a tiny, grey tabby and obtained a reprieve for her. We have just fetched her home and find she is a very cuddly and adaptable cat who is not giving any trouble in settling down. Her name derives from the lieu-dit of the farm, La Moun. It was too soon during our last visit to separate her from her mother, although we have reared young ones on the bottle, they do best with a good start from mum!

  So here we are, back at the ranch, with one more mouth to feed, never mind! One extra cat among a dozen doesn`t make any difference, and it`s always fun to have a kitten about the place.

  I wrote in my last blog that we have a new vehicle in prospect. We had hoped to have it available to do the trip to Orthez, but it was not ready in time. Our garagiste, also called Laurent, is doing a full service and Controle Technique and `en principe` it should be ready by the end of the week. In fact, I was just as pleased not to try out a new car on a long voyage before we had established its reliability and the little Peugeot 106 is still running steadily, didn`t give us a moment`s worry on the 850 kilometre round trip. If the Berlingo can do as well. I shall be overjoyed.

  Well, must wrap this blog up and cuddle Mounette. Bye for now, I hope to write more frequently now the rentrée is here!