31st August 2026... Dave's thumb

Due to getting a very deep splinter from a plant in his thumb on friday 28th, Dave finally ended up in hospital in Montpellier this morning having it surgically removed OUCH!😵‍💫🤕👍🏻

26th August 2026... Elee's 18th birthday

Some pictures taken at Elee's 18th birthday.

Karine, Tom, Jon and Elee.

With us Grandparents 

Pete, Chantel, Elee, Me and Jean-Luc

Elee with her aunty Stephanie 

With her great aunty Anik

With brother Jon

Lightning with windbreaker Granddad Peter

Elee

Tom teaches Elee how to open a bottle of her favourite wine....

25th August 2026... Ardèche

We go to the Ardèche for my granddaughter Elee's 18th birthday.....

Dave and Tom

Baby chickens

This breed is called backwards feather chicken in Chinese..

Its a good description, they lay green,  low cholesterol eggs.

Dave in the campervan 

23rd August 2026... garden

Some roses are doing well, but tiny flowers...this is Princess Charlene of Monaco... beautiful perfume flowers all summer, normally!

Seeds gathered for my friend.

A false Black Widow spider,🕷️ just under the plastic pot...

21st August 2026.. juicing the apples

We have a Coxes Sunset tree, which has produced a lot of small apples this year, unfortunately due to heat, drought and wind, a lot fell off and we decided to pick the rest (before the hornets) and juice them ....

A slightly cloudy day

Cats finding the shade..

18th August 2026....walking up the mountain

Nice to be able to walk up the mountain in a comfortable temperature.

The boys think so too..

15th August 2026....RAIN !

The day started with mist/smoke obscuring the view.

Around 3 in the afternoon the heavens open... complete with large hailstones!

We managed to collect 3000 litres of water, and the plants all got a good watering 😁 

Last rain of any consequence was May 10th.

13th August 2026...Olives and Butterflies

Well.....with all this heat, the olives are doing very well, both trees are loaded!

A frittilary butterfly on small flowers on the budleja bush.

10th August 2026..... plastering

Sun rise... another hot day ahead 🥵

Bérengèr comes to do some more garden wall...

Just the interior of the walkway walls to do now.

At 7h he arrives and at 10h there is a shower of rain 🎉🎉🎉 unfortunately not enough to put more than 300 litres in the reservoir.....but at least no watering tonight 👍🏻 

Garden side

Walkway side 

Must strip those gates !!!

8th August 2026...dying ash trees

7th August 2026.... llama?

A new resident in the lower village....

1st-6th August 2026....Hot, Hot heat damage

Monthly pic.

Our lovely, and now dying lavender.

Temperatures soaring from 35 to 39 ish often....and a few "storms" yielded 350 litres...(one nights watering)...which we are doing every other night.

Last good rain 10th May! 😱😱

Many berries and fruits are way ahead , these are sloes... usually turning blue in September?