– new corners has my house. In all truth I should not use the plural because my house is only supposed to have one new corner. But that would not scan. Indeed, I do not know in reality whether the house has its new corner yet. It was supposed to be put in...
It is wonderful to come back to the Dordogne in May after a long wet and cold winter. Spring was suddenly unusually warm and now everything is in flower – roses, roses everywhere. There is a two foot high wild sage stem on the slope up to no: 8 green. But the...
Two of my favourite men were in front of the sitting room fireplace. Grand-père was kneeling and muttering imprecations in alternating languages. Petit fils no:1, Nathan, swinging a small plastic jug, had stopped playing with his bath-toys in the bidet to...
The autumn croci, leafless pale purple spears, arrived early – again. This year a full month ahead of the official date of 22nd September. Some fruit has ripened early also but most, despite storms, is still hanging on the trees in a threatening manner....
It is high time the 2017 weather gods came to their collective senses. We are now in the seventh month of their year and they are still behaving as though they are in the second. They blow tempestuous short term tantrums, hot, or cold or wet, sometimes a combination...
The wild orchids with which La Chaise is plentifully endowed are tougher than their scarcity elswhere would lead the innocent to believe. The very earliest ones, the lazy purples that look like red clover from a distance, are trodden on and sat on by the sheep. I...
It is not even the end of the second week of May but April’s left over rain has been teasing Dordogne folk with its comings and goings. At present it is coming which is sad for holiday types but much needed to fill underground water reservoirs. My problem is...
The storms and rains of January through to March have brought dramas to the Perigord. Most were about trees nearly missing …(enter your favourite target here) as they fell, occasionally not missing. There was also heavy grumbling about the inevitable power cuts...
The First Born of 2017!! ROGER THE RAM; HIS STORY. This is the Firstborn of the 2017 millesime, my fourth year at La Chaise. It is a boy, a very large, very active boy. I am well pleased as is his mother, one of my senior women. A good beginning to the Chinese...
It is an unspoken truth in the Dordogne that its country dwelling places are biodegradable. This applies to farmhouses, the attendant barns, pig sheds and workers’ cottages. Obviously it is not true of chateaux, maisons de maître and the little shrines over springs... 
