Visitors, hospital and days in the garden!

A week ago today, we were getting ready for our latest visitors, my stepson Paul and his friend Caine.  Well, their visit came and went in the blink of an eye!  I hadn't been sure of what to expect; after all this is rural France - not a hot spot of lively activity for young men, especially in March!  But it was a wonderful few days!  We think Caine fell in love with rural France and I'm sure he'll be back for more visits in the future (we hope so!).  Of course, they were lucky with the weather as it was dry, sunny and warm.  This is how we enjoyed one particular afternoon, having been down to our local boulangerie....

The dogs were delighted to have some "fresh meat" to get more attention from and hardly came near us for five days, preferring their new best friends. 

Here's Paul with Liam...

 

and Caine with Finn!

The boys went back to the UK on Monday after what we think was a good break for them.  Inevitably, the house felt very empty and quiet but these days, it doesn't take us long before we slot back into our usual life... and we know we'll have more visitors before we know it!

On Tuesday, I went back to the hospital for my "arthrography" (just to remind you, this was in place of the MRI which they couldn't do the other week).  I was in the hospital for a good couple of hours having various forms of radiologie and scans.  I had to have an injection of what I assume to be a kind of dye and it was possibly the most painful thing I've ever endured.  It was injected directly into my shoulder and it made my arm feel as if it had been clamped in a vice.  At the risk of sounding a bit melodramatic, it was all I could do to stop myself from bawling my eyes out!!  Anyway, it's done now and the next step is to see the orthopaedic surgeon again on 3rd April. 

My friends in the UK are suffering from further snow and bitter cold but here in Poitou-Charentes, spring has sprung.  We believe more rain is on its way but for now we are enjoying the sunshine and mild weather.  The sun brings out the lizards and our kitten Mo is fascinated by one that appears to live just outside one of the lounge windows.  She spends a good deal of each day, looking at him....

Look carefully and you can just see the lizard on the window ledge.  Mo is not too bright.... all she needs to do is go outside herself and she'd see him better!!  Still, this is a whole lot better for the lizard!

Danny and I took advantage of the good weather this morning; I pruned some of the hydrangea bushes (the previous owners seemed to love hydrangeas as there's about a dozen bushes around the place!) while Danny did the first mowing of the year in the back garden...

 

Finally, I am going to leave you with a funny story that demonstrates how difficult it is to learn the French language.  This happened to a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago.  The husband of another friend of hers had an accident and got a nasty cut across his head.  My friend called the ambulance service and explained the situation in her best French.  At our next get together with Hélène, she checked to see if she had been correct.  It turns out that instead of saying that the man had cut his head she had actually told the ambulance service that he had cut OFF his head.  There was just one itsy witsy reflexive pronoun missing and it just serves to demonstrate how very easy it is to slip up here!!

(By the way, I do love hearing from you, so do feel free to leave a comment below)