"Hi Phil and Donna

I just wanted to say we really enjoyed staying in your cottage - very cosy and peaceful. You've done it up so beautfully - it was a treat to stay there!

All the Best

Jo"

I said in an earlier post that our recent guests enjoyed their stay. It is always especially pleasing afterwards when you get some nice feedback too.

I just thought I would update the get rich quick scheme. I have gone from $11.50 to $85.00 a month if the Agloco calculator is telling the truth.

I have absolutely no way of knowing if this will really work but it is causing a lot of excitement thats for sure.

If you have not already signed up for the Agloco scheme then here's the link.

I am getting so frustrated with the weather. It has severely hindered the progress on the barn roof.
I probably have 8 hours work to finish it and get it completely sealed from the elements before I can plasterboard the ceilings but the rain seems relentless at the moment.

I suppose it has given me the opportunity to re-build the well, cut some trees down for future logs and level some stone in the potholes on the track but it is frustrating to ay the least.

Reading This French Life this morning Craig highlighted a post from Bob Tovey on Computing in France about actually getting together for a chat about the Internet,blogging and France etc.

Now I am getting itchy hands and I have come out in a cold sweat. I am asking myself if there will be lights on in the bar and if I am able to bring my keyboard because I have lost the use of my vocal chords due to endless days spent at the computer.

The morning is so bright  and the air still.

It is the perfect time to jump inside the basket slung beneath a balloon and take a birds eye view of the Dordogne.

Montgolfieres, the balloon flight company provide flights over the Dordogne valley and if you have the head it could be the best way to experience this unique landscape.

Click 'continue reading' link below to watch a video of what you can see.

It was a pleasure to welcome our first guests for the season although the weather didn't extend the same courtesy. It tipped down for the four days and three nights that they were here.

However, it did not stop them getting out and about and to be honest we saw very little of them.

I noticed a story on the Telegraph website this morning about the amount of people who are now commuting to the UK from France and Spain.

"Research by Bergerac Airport, in south-west France, found almost one in five British residents in the region were commuting back to work in the UK."

With regional airports such as Bergerac which is closest to us it is so simple with an hour to Southampton and one hour twenty five minutes to Stansted it is quite simply easier and quicker than driving from the South coast into London.

We are hovering on the edge of springtime and it is a very pleasing feeling.

Yesterday, on out visit to the Doctors, Fleur and I saw this Prune in full flower although the rest of the orchard looked pretty dormant.
I am not sure if this means that they are there for some kind of pollination stimulation or not. (anyone knows the answer let me know)

The ducks are mating like crazy and the eggs are getting more frequent too. When the weather warm even more we will let the hens sit so that we can have some chicks.

The stress and the excitement is nowhere near the same as the 20th July 2006 but never the less the deadline for the first guests of the season looms large and we are preparing for Friday when it will all start again.

We are looking forward to it again but the little jobs need to be done before 7pm on Friday evening so I have been running around like Tommy Walsh with my battery drill and step ladders.

Jemima and the Puddleducks are obviously well settled in now and to prove their point one of the little darlings (best said in a Dame Edna Everage voice) laid us an egg.

We are hoping that this spring we will hear the patter of tiny webbed feet but on this occasion it was not to be as the egg had gone cold.

I guess it will end up in a cake mix or on a piece of toast so all is not lost.

Just hope the trend continues.

The little blighter's are also getting cocky. If I am late with the morning or evening feed they form a procession up to the house until one of them panics and they hot foot it back to the pond.

Its quite funny really.