Where did that week go....??

When I was still at work, whenever I met up with colleagues who had retired, every single one of them told me they were so busy they didn't know how they'd ever had time to work.  I guess I took it with the proverbial pinch of salt.... that is, until I myself retired!  Of course, the real difference is that everything we do, we do in our own time, taking as long as we like.  There are rarely deadlines.  Yes, there are exceptions like set appointments we have to keep, like our French lessons, but by and large, we fill our days with things we've chosen to do.

My priority this week was to finish shortening the lounge curtains plus make all the tie backs out of the surplus material.  Not only did I achieve that, I can show you the finished articles thanks to the "panorama" setting on Danny's new camera, a very smart Fujifilm camera acquired from the UK via the Internet! How about this.....?

 

(By the way, I have discovered that you can see an enlarged version of the photos on my blog, simply by clicking on them - thanks Donna!)

 

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Our weather has been extremely changeable this week although it has been pretty dreary for most of it.  In my last post I included a photo of our early crocus by the front door.  Now, it has been joined by a load of others...

 

It's so nice to see new shoots all over the garden; it makes you feel that Spring is just around the corner.  The trouble is, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the snow and/or ice so I hope all the little Spring flowers can withstand it.  Although we saw the house around this time last year, we didn't notice any of these shoots and it's so fascinating to see what is coming through.

 

Thursday was a bright sunny day, albeit still quite cold.  But it was enough to make me rush outside to hang out washing and to clean our front gates.... at last!  They were looking distinctly green instead of white!

 

By Saturday though, all sign of the sun had dwindled away and we had another grey, dreary, drizzly day.  We had arranged to go to a new dog training class over in the Vendée, in a village called Puy de Serre (I mentioned the dog training in my last posting on here). We decided that we would just take Liam to start with and see how he got on.   He actually did well - it's me that needs training as I was pretty hopeless!  This is a picture of Liam obeying my order to "stay".... he was really good at it, bless him....

I don't know if you can tell from this picture but the training is held in a large disused industrial greenhouse.  It was perfect given the inclement weather.  After the lesson, we had tea, coffee and cakes.... splendid finish!  Having got a feel for what it's like, we've decided that we will take Finn as well so we'll have to see how that goes!!

 

Just one last thing....I've written on here before about having to drive through a small forest to get to the Vendée.  At this time of year, the forest looks quite bleak and on Saturday it looked particularly desolate.  See what I mean in this picture....

 

 

And so, another week - and weekend - come to an end.  It feels like we've been busy all week, one way and another.  And as all those ex-colleagues of mine used to say, I don't know how I ever had the time to work!!