We’re back. I mentioned in my last, misdated, blog that there wouldn’t be much progress at Kergudon for a couple of weeks and indeed there hasn’t. The reason is that David and I have taken a short break (I won’t use the term holiday!) back in the UK on a pre-Christmas tour of friends and family.
We had a great time catching up with as many people as we could and want to thank everyone who were kind enough to host us on our trip. Sorry to those we weren’t able to catch up with this time – hopefully sometime soon. We enjoy visiting just before Christmas as we can maintain a tradition we began when we lived in London which is to attend the Varsity rugby with David’s Dad who has been going for many years. This year’s match was pretty good to watch (they aren’t always!) and the result went the right way, for us at least!
Thanks too to our neighbours who keep an eye on Kergudon for us while we’re away and, more importantly, keep an eye out for, and feed, Mouse. They tell us that while we enjoyed some pretty good weather in the UK, which allowed us to enjoy lots of outdoor things, the weather in Brittany remained as wet and windy as it was when we left. Having had a very unproductive autumn I would have been a bit miffed if there was a warm, dry snap while we couldn’t do anything about it!
That said, our tree surgeon who had been cutting down the sycamore weeds on our boundary had managed to spend a couple of days completing the felling. It has made a huge difference to the boundary and the amount of light getting into our garden and so should help some of the plants grow a little better – and straighter!
From: To (although not a great pic):
It has of course generated a huge pile of branches and wood that needs cutting up and dealing with – something for later, probably much later as the ground right now is completely saturated just when the lawn had started to recover well from its scarifying in September.
Unfortunately we also came back to find the dishwasher repair wasn’t as effective as we’d hoped so it looks like a new one is required (grrrr). Perhaps not the best time of year to be without a dishwasher – it’s not as though there is likely to be much washing up generated in the next couple of weeks!
Having got back to Kergudon on Monday our focus has been getting the place decorated for Christmas. Yesterday we welcomed back a couple who originally stayed with us for a week in Hayloft in summer 2018. We are really pleased they have chosen to spend Christmas and New Year with us in Priory and we are delighted to welcome them back.
David has prepared lots of lovely treats for the Christmas Welcome pack. Along with the usual Quimper cider and local Moguérou rillettes are an amazing Christmas cake, homemade piccalilli and fig chutney and a mini panettone – admittedly not very French but traditionally Christmas.
We are also delighted that we have a lady arriving tomorrow and staying with us in Stable for Christmas with their family in the village. It has meant that we have decorated Stable for the first time.
While we don’t have guests in the other gîtes for Christmas we are very pleased that all are occupied for New Year so we will be decorating those during the week.
In the week since returning we have also prepared and decorated Kergudon for Christmas. With lots of wood stacked next to the burner and our tree up we are ready for the festivities and think it all looks very festive.
We hope you are all prepared for the festive period too and have a wonderful week ahead. David and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.