Another day, another public holiday!

The sun is shining today for France's Fete National. Hopefully clear tonight for lots of fireworks.

A busy year so far and we must be doing something right ....our lovely guests have said such lovely things about us that Tripadvisor have awarded us this certificate.

Quite a lot to live up to, so no slacking this summer!

Over the last couple of months we have had some surprise additions to the hen house.

Our broody hens absolutely refused to give up their vigil, but I didn't really think they would hatch. We ended up with five chicks, none of them genetically linked to the broody hens. Four of them may be pure Lemon Cuckoo Orpingtons and one I suspect is crossed with the little brown hen - who is totally unimpressed by the chicks. They are now four weeks old and doing well. After a little hiccup with the first one, (slipped back into the nest once the others had hatched) the two Welsummer hens are perfect mums, caring for the chicks with no intervention from us. Fingers crossed that at least some of them are hens!

The flower market at Levignac was a bright and sunny day - plenty of plants to be bought and entertainment to be had.

Levignac flower market

Music and dance at Levignac

 In May we had a visit from Rob, Susie, Orla and Lucas with Susie's mum, Pauline. We had gorgeous weather and a lovely time, can't wait for the next visit.

One of our days out was to the rose garden at Boissonna. It was beautiful, we were inspired to create our own rose garden - still in the planning stage, and likely to be at that stage for quite a while longer!

We had another great evening with Dale Blade and the Roommates, this time at Domaine Gourdon.

This Friday they are at Monteton as part of a tour, fingers crossed for good weather.

We have had two clutches of Black Redstarts this year.

Four chicks in the first lot

and five in the lot that have just fledged

The latest chicks are still around the house being fed by the adults from time to time. 

A couple of weeks ago we went to The Naked Vigneron for lunch with my cousin Mary and Gary who were staying for the week.

We had the most fantastic, long, leisurely lunch accompanied by their lovely wines. Thank you Amanda and David for a lovely afternoon.

We've certainly had some 'weather' just lately. Scorching sunshine, hot and sticky one minute and cool and showery the next with amazing thunderstorms.

This is the forecast for the coming few days..

Hopefully more settled for the rest of the summer. Come and join us! The gite is full until the beginning of September, but we have some vacancies in our guest house.

See you soon

         Fiona and Hugh

June, July

 Most things drift on in a similar fashion at Vue de Duras, which makes frequent updates difficult -I try not to bore everyone!
But we do have an exciting  event to start us off this time......the arrival of grandchild number two, petit-fils, Lucas....

What a gorgeous addition to the family!

Lucas and big sister Orla

So, excitement over, back to the everyday stuff that makes our life here in France so wonderful. The weather finally changed from the dull, grey spring to full on summer almost in the course of a day. We have now had well over a month of hot, dry weather - until today, when we have had a bit of a break with a slightly cooler day following a night of thunder storms. More storms to come though, I think.

It rains here!

 An amazing full moon. We're looking forward to the Perseid meteor showers over the coming weekend.

Picture from Facebook

Hugh got on with the painting of the shutters - see below the half done garage - they are finished now!

The shutters are almost finished, Hugh continues to add to the list of excuses not to finish them, cold weather, rain, hot weather now includes an injured leg.

Enforced rest following an incident with the ride on mower. Everyone tells him how 'lucky' he is!
My excuse is overwork!

We have enjoyed revisits from old friends......

Gav and Martha

Tommy, Vicki and Taylor

Chris forced into gratuitous advertising!

 We have been enjoying the summer life in this part of France - so much to do it's exhausting - but as I keep saying 'it's a long winter!'

All-Rhoma at the first night market of the summer in Duras

George Smith at the Feu de la St Jean in Duras

Hot air balloons and fireworks at the Fete de Madeleine in Duras

Bête de feu at the Fete Nationale on July 14th

The bull alight - health and safety anyone?!

 The black redstarts managed to raise another clutch of  chicks.....

The chicks being fed a cricket

 One chick landed in a basket of geraniums below the nestbox and took a couple of days persuasion by the parent birds to entice it out.

A chick on its way

We have managed a few days out as well as the nights out!

Bordeaux...

with the new bridge behind Hugh

And the odd Vide Grenier - this one at Eymet

we didn't buy this lovely old car! (Well I could hardly shabby-chic it could I?!)

A couple of new photos of our lovely home...

A view of the house looking up through the vines

And a calm, misty morning before the heat sets in.

And of course, to finish, a few wildlife photos

Thanks to a our guest Nigel for these photos of the humming bird hawk moth.....

Swallowtail butterfly

March - May

Oh dear....
It's May already, and if spring happened it was short lived and summer is still a promise! But still, we've had some lovely days and there's definitely more to come.
While I am a hopeless blogger, Hugh is making regular posts on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/vuededuras. I will keep going - however irregularly here.
Here's a quick photographic run through of the last couple of months at Vue de Duras.

Spectacular storm clouds over Duras

View of Duras from the terrace

 

 Signs of spring....

Another four Black Redstart chicks this year.

 

The spring flower fair in Duras

Tree frog and geranium

We have tried to walk around the area a bit more, these photos are from a walk around Loubes-Bernac and one around Baleyssagues

We have a number of maps with well-marked walks around the area for guests to borrow.

A trip to a terracotta tile factory - part of our French lessons -fascinating.

Coffee and pain au raisin at the Monday market in Duras

Frequent trips to vide-greniers (flea markets). This one at Eymet....

  and at Levignac..

and at St Vivien de Monsegur

A day out to Issigeac...

 and Villeneuve sur Lot for a photographic exhibition.

We've also been working hard. The car parking area has been extended and gravelled

 with steps added to make access to the gite easier

me, shoveling

Jacquie with the wheelbarrow

John building the steps

Almost finished

Just the shuttering to remove in a day or two

The decking is being extended

another job almost finished!

 And then best of all, visits from friends and family.
Gill, Ed and Sam visited us, and we all visited the Domaine Laplace vineyard for lunch and wine tasting. I don't know what happened to the rest of the day!

Rob and Susie with Orla and bump came next

back from feeding the chickens

washing Granddad's face after lunch!

with Mummy and Daddy

Daddy's girl!

Feeding the hens in her new T-shirt

A rare sighting of Granddad on the other side of the camera for a change!

"No comment!"

lovely yogurt for Orla....

and tortilla for everyone else!

and with us at the moment, 'on holiday!', Nicole and Adam....

See you soon ....x