RANDOM PICTURES.

A friend asked if we had ever seen Tia Maria or other coffee liqueurs in France.  She is on holiday and wanted to make a coffee flavoured tiramisu.

I wasn't sure so we looked and yes you can.  We might try this one ourselves, it looks like a sensible price.

We found out only recently that since March this year motorcycles have to have the French equivalent of an MOT test by early August.  It's called a CT test and previously motorcycles in France were exempt from needing one.  Goodness only knows how this morsel of information had passed us by until now and we only have a few weeks to get it done!  

There's allus summat, as my mother used to say!

 

We have been debating whether or not to keep the Harleys as we don't ride them very often any more and it costs a small fortune to keep them insured.  The weather this year has not been great for motorcycling and when it was we always had other things we had to do or visitors.  

This has rather focussed our minds on the issue.  In order to sell them or ride them they will need a CT and we need to get on with it sharpish!  The person who has done work on them for us before moved premises a while ago and we took a photo of the note on the door for in case we needed him again.  We need him now but couldn't remember when we took the photo and therefore where to look for it.  We have thousands of photos on our phones.

I decided to do a search and tried various things.  Only when I put "handwriting" into the search bar did his note turn up.  Clever stuff.  The photo was taken in 2022 so not that long ago.  We have arranged to take the bikes to his new workshop next week.  Progress.

A friend took this picture of a swallowtail butterfly when she and her husband came to dinner one evening.  We were sitting outside with our apéros and it flitted about on our lavender bushes.  It's the first one we have seen so far this year.

We didn't have to go and get our phones or cameras as she always has hers to hand.  Personally I don't normally keep my phone with me unless I'm using it.  If you see what I mean.

We have been to several musical evenings this year.  The opera performance in the church at Le Grand-Pressigny was pretty special.  I don't think I could sit through a whole opera these days but an hour of selected arias was a delight.  Apparently the singers are all on holiday in the area and agreed to perform for free (although a hat was passed round at the end of the performance).

All of these musical events were free.  We didn't pay an entry fee, or to park the car, or anything other than normal prices for drinks and snacks at any of them.  Welcome to France!

We are enjoying another watercolour painting course.

We have had three lots of visitors.  Our former neighbours from the UK came on their way home from a three month tour of France in their mobile home.  They have been to stay with us before when we had the little house in the village and love the area.

I did a quick trip back to the UK earlier in the month.  It was one of our regular scheduled visits to keep and eye on the place and fix any problems that have occurred during our absence.

This time, the ROP (rattly old Peugeot) was showing a warning light which said "engine fault, repair needed".  I have no idea what the problem is this time but it was running fine.  My visit had to be short because of the arrival of visitors in France so I didn't have time to do anything about it.  I parked it up on the drive as usual (battery disconnected) and Nick will take it for its MOT and find out what needs fixing next time.

Our first visitors this year were my cousin and his wife.  He has done a lot of work on our family tree.  His mother and mine were sisters so to have the information on my mother's side of the family is really good.  After she died my father researched the family tree on his parents' side and wrote a memoir about his life, which is fascinating, but contains very little in the way of information of my mother's family.

Before I went on my brief trip back to the UK I mentioned to my cousin that I have a large suitcase full of family photos and other documents that came from my dad.  I had never really looked at the contents although I had put a few other items into it just so that they were all safely in the same place.

We spent an afternoon looking through it and sharing childhood memories, something that definitely required a few pots of tea and a slice of cake, so I made a Victoria sponge.

One of the photos that my cousin brought with him was this picture of my grandmother.  He has discovered that she came from Irish parents and spent some time in Wales working in service.  She was born in Nottingham so it's a mystery how she ended up in Wales at a time when the only way to get there was probably by horse and cart.

I would guess from the photo that she was a parlour maid or something like that to a wealthy family but I don't remember her, or my mother, or my aunt, ever mentioning it.  Maybe they did and it didn't register when I was a little girl, even though I spent many a happy hour listening to them talking about "the olden days".