Mud

Following a complaint about blogging slackness, here is an even slacker cut and paste from a catch up email I sent a friend:

Yeah I have been slack with the blog. But I have an excuse. Mum and Dad have been here for a couple of weeks, and for the 2 weeks before they arrived I was in a bit of a frenzy trying to get prepared. It's been a while since I have seen them so I am not sure what I was preparing for but it seemed important at the time.

So, while they were here we almost lived like single people again. They minded Betty Jean while we went to the Champagne region. I think you would have loved it. We stayed in the South at a place called Troyes. We stayed at Champs des Oiseaux - the website and photos don't do it justice. It was so incredibly relaxing not to have one eye on the kid 24/7.

Oh, and we're having an Ursula/Ossi in September. It's so funny how laid back you are about the second kid. With the first you're obsessed! You devour every bit of information about babies and childbirth. With the second it's more like you're building on your family. Which is nice in a different way.

Our garden is all mud thanks to continuous rain. It's sunny for a day, then rainy for a day. But we've started our Spring planting. Melons, eggplant, tomatoes, cumin, chives, onions, lettuce, beans, the lot. No brassicas though. Don't like brassicas. Oh, except for purple broccoli.

We got some friends drunk enough to agree to minding the chooks for 2 weeks in May so we are going to Positano and maybe to the castle (Julian's family have a castle. I know. Unbelievable. But more of a liability than an asset. It is quite a few hundred years old. They lost it at one stage - they overtaxed the villagers and they revolted. The new owner, many years later kindly gave it back).

How bout you?
x

- and here is where you can email us and tell us what's going on. If you feel like it.
More soon, with more detail and pictures. Mum picked 200 photos of Betty Jean that she wants printed, so we are shopping around for quotes before we get those and my Lomo Francais printed and scanned.