At the Races

The Fab Five went to the lake one recent evening for a picnic with the Fab Four in tow. That's four dogs: Biba, Noosa, Maddie and Lily Blue. The three younger girls were hardly more than a blur on the landscape for almost 4 hours of racing, chasing, tumbling and exploring. Lily sat down perhaps once for all of 20 seconds. Their energy is boundless and they're as entertaining as a good box set.

Maddie may only be half their size, but don't be fooled. She gives as good as she gets.

 Noosa with a second wind after a refreshing dip.

 Lily: This is my happy tail.

All three are rescue dogs. They've landed on their paws, but we're as lucky to have them!

Biba's much happier hanging out with us, a safe distance from the doggy olympics. 

We ate, drank and made merry while the dogs did the same. No need for the evening walk. Hello, why aren't we doing this more often?  Thanks to Alex for the lovely photos.

The Birthday Girl

I like this picture, taken by our friend Fen. We'd just arrived for Henny's birthday dinner at L'Escampette with about 30 friends. A wonderful, buzzy evening. Her birthday on 24th May kicks off the summer for us.

Happy Easter!

The weather wasn't brilliant, but Easter Monday saw us gathered at Colleen and Gary's for an amazing meal. Here's my bro carving the kid...de-lish!

Valentines at Ballantyne's

We've been excited about Valentine's Day all week. We were invited to L&A's for lunch at their new house up the road, with Lily! Today she was to meet her kissin' cousins Kit, Flynn and Jonty for the first time. It went really well.

Henny and I have missed coverage of most of the Winter Olympics, so we were lucky to get a recap of the 2 woman luge event. Pals, dogs and good nosh -- a great way to spend Valentine's Day.

Newly formed Walking Group -- the Inaugural Promenade

We went on a fantastic 3 hour walk with our pals Juliet and Nick. It was a perfect day. Either side was rainy and grey, but luckily good fortune and sunshine smiled upon us. Our circuit contained everything you could ask for: great company, clear blue skies, meadows, woods, a stream, a herd of sheep, a ruined chateau, an ancient chapel, and last but not least, a perfectly behaved dog!

12th Century Chateau de Lauzières

No Entry signs have the opposite effect on Nick.

Pilgrims in the 10th Century Chapelle de Roubignac

The chapel is the halfway point. Refreshment stop.

En garde!

Chapel gargoyle. Love child of a pug and a panda. 

We enjoyed ourselves so much, we've decided to form our very own walking club. Stay tuned for our next adventure. Henny's calling us the Durty Dog Walking Group. Lily's bound to roll in something.

Magic carpet

Like countless others, we had a go at bargaining for a Moroccan rug. One for our beloved J de P who looked after Pou and Lily so well. The other for us, or so we thought. There's been a takeover.

Morocco

We nipped off to Marrakech and Essaouira for five days and had a fantastic time. My gorgeous travelling companions awaiting lunch after a morning perusing wares in the souk.

Greg commented, "Henny surrounded by pouffs. Nothing's changed then..."

Gary and Colleen in their 'office' in our riad. We had the place to ourselves.

Cooking class. Making chicken pastillas.

If we had the funds, we could imagine turning this ruin into our Essaouira hideout. I loved watching the Atlantic crash into Africa. A la prochaine, Maroc!

Blue Surprise

On Christmas Eve our friend Erica presented us with a gift. Imagine our amazement and sheer delight to open this beautiful water colour of Lily, completely out of the blue! Erica shrugged modestly, "I saw the photo on your blog and decided to paint it this morning. I had a couple of hours spare." Hello?! It's absolutely our favourite present. And Erica, everyone who's seen it has been gobsmacked by your talent. We just love it, and you for painting it for us! Thank you...xxx

Happy New Year 2014

What a wonderful, warm holiday season we've had! Lavish drinks parties, delicious meals and the company of our funny, beautiful, generous friends. We feel very spoiled and truly, truly lucky. Last night was the culmination, Lizzie and Ali's big New Year's Eve party for a mere 46 of us. It was also the debut of our folk trio, Peter, Paul and Gary. We managed to pull off our set of 7 numbers in front of a very supportive audience.

Photo nicked from Richard Nightingale, thanks!

To clear the cobwebs today, an annual picnic at the beach. It was Henny's and my first time at this event, which apparently has been blessed by good weather 4 years out of 5. A great time was had, especially by Lily who ran around visiting lots of other dogs and was, hooray, perfectly behaved. We felt grateful and hopeful for this year to come. We wish you all good health and great happiness for 2014.

Merry Christmas!

Birthday Observation

I had a wonderful birthday! Surrounded by beloved friends all day, both physically and with warm wishes coming from distant shores via all means of communication. Thank you everyone for thinking of me today. What a very lucky girl I am! Today's photos are of our celebration this evening and the picture Henny chose to make into my birthday card. They say dogs and their people begin to look alike. When did Lily and I start sporting the same grizzly blue hair?

Our Pack

A month or so ago, the Boys adopted a young chocolate Lab from the S.P.A. where we found Lily. They worried about mixing a boisterous not-quite-one year old with the 11 year old stately grande dame of the household, Biba. It's all going really well though, and our new friend Noosa is a welcome addition to their pack -- and to ours! We love to walk with the Boys and Les Chocolats. Lily and Noosa frolic while Biba brings up the rear.

It's fun and beneficial for all. Today Sam asked Noosa to sit. She didn't get it right away, but Lily heard the command and sat, so Noosa did too. Biba seems to have more spring in her step even though she rightly thinks the young'uns are a pain, and Lily, who's terrified of the hunters' guns, is more relaxed with the gang. Humans get to chat while the girls do their thing. We meet other dogs along the way, those we like, and those we could frankly do without! The dogs are socialised and they exercise each other.

                         

Lily awaiting her friends this morning.

The New Supremes: Biba, Noosa and Lily Blue

Un petit bisou à demain. Thanks for another great walk Sam and the girls.

Big Tree Day

Today the local paysagiste and his team came for the annual pruning of trees and shrubs in the garden.  Strong men with chain saws on ladders. It's one of our favourite days of the whole year. The garden looks tidy and the view is restored. Ah, that's better.

Bathroom

Apologies for taking so long to show the results of our renovation, but in most areas we're still waiting for a thing or two to be completed. The new bathroom is up and running. Still to come, a mirror and some towel rails, though it's ready to make its debut to our patient followers. The finishing always takes its time, but it was worth the wait.

The TopTop Café

August was very busy. Electricians, tilers and decorators continued to work right through the traditional holiday month, and it kept us on our toes too. We're desperately awaiting the reappearance of the plumbers who are needed everywhere before others can crack on. The house and terrace are now tiled; it looks fantastic. Light fittings have arrived. Paint colours have been chosen. We're a month or so away from being finished, so I'm going to wait with photos. There's a lot of builders crud about and I'd prefer to show it when we've re-claimed the space.

Meanwhile, we've been enjoying some lovely evenings with friends on the terrace, aka The TopTop Café. The boys called to ask if the café was open so they could escape their busy guest house for some down time. Fantastic. Our own laid-back hideaway. It's still a little spartan, but it'll only get better.

We're thrilled with our outdoor sofas. They're long enough to take tall girls stretched out. We star-gazed during the meteor showers. We regularly read outside till late on our iPads. I've been known to fall asleep. When I wake up even Lily's gone inside to bed. The couches are light and easy to move around, so you can follow the shade or sun as you like. Pou lazes on them with a big fat cat smile on his face. All's very chilled at the café, and its been a real haven during the summer of builders.

Old Blues

Could these be Lily's ancestors?