UK bound....

Once our stint in France was over we had a very brief stopover in Bristol before we made our way to repeat clients near Worthing in East Sussex. Sadly, the lovely Cavalier King Charles, Jemima recently died so we just had the two girls, Persian cats, Minnie & Myrtle to look after - it was strange returning to our client's home without Jemima being around. However, it was lovely to be back and our stay was enhanced by the bizarre but welcome mild November temperatures. The house is minutes from the seafront and we enjoyed several walks along the beach without jackets, unheard of at this time of year on the east coast by the sea!!!
During the two-week stay there was plenty of time to catch up with paperwork and emails and when we'd had enough of administration a spot of fresh air and some great sunsets were the order of the day!

Jemima, gone but not forgotten.

After Sarlat......

Our short stay in Sarlat was over in a flash and we headed further south to our old stomping ground - we were house and pet sitting in a village not far from where we lived for a year or so back in 2007 when we first decided to up sticks and travel for a while.

Our charges were two delightful dogs, a greyhound and a doberman - both older dogs and both very sweet.

It was lovely to be back in familiar surroundings, nothing had changed and, it was also a great opportunity to catch up with old friends.

We managed a couple of get togethers including a delicious pizza at the local pizzeria and where one of friends now works!

Best of all we went to a local auberge and enjoyed a delicious fixed price menu (formula), which consisted of vegetable soup, hor d'oeuvres, omlette and french fries, dessert of fromage blanc with rasberry coulis, coffee and a pichet of vin de table - all for under 15 euros/head!!!! Good times.

We also managed a half day trip down to the pretty village of Arreau - we lived here for a couple of months and memories came flooding back. Again the weather was kind and we had a lovely afternoon revisiting old haunts and reminiscing - we never would have guessed back then that we would have had the good fortune and opportunities to travel as extensively as we have done over the last few years - life really is full of surprises!!

La France encore!

Early October saw us return to our beloved France. We flew Easyjet from Bristol to Toulouse and then picked up our hire car and headed for Sarlat. We stayed in the most beautiful Bed & Breakfast (chambres d'hotes), in the medieval centre of Sarlat.

Our reasons for staying here were two-fold - first off the location is just perfect and secondly, it was a chance for us to meet the owners (friends of friends) who have now become good friends of ours!

The link to their B & B is here: http://www.sarlat.biz/index.html however, despite the great website the photos don't really do the place justice - it is a gem in the heart of Sarlat and we were grateful for the opportunity to spend a couple of nights getting to know our hosts and exploring Sarlat a little more.

We are familiar with the area and have friends who live just outside of town near Proissans but each visit brings new surprises and this visit was no exception. The weather was glorious with sunny blue skies and temperatures more like mid August than early October!

The fine weather only served to enhance our stay - we were lucky enough to be in town on market day and whilst during the high season Sarlat can be overrun with tourists, this late in the season everything was much less frenetic, the hustle and bustle was more relaxed and it was a real pleasure to browse the stalls and enjoy the ambience and atmosphere.

We took the opportunity to visit our friends in Proissans and the weather was pleasant enough for us to dine al fresco at lunchtime - we spent a very pleasant couple of hours over a couple of very pleasant bottles of wine!!

Hidden Spring Vineyard

Immediately after our stint in Suffolk we headed for Horam in East Sussex where we were going to be staying for almost 2 weeks.

Plenty of pets to look after including; 3 dogs (one a puppy Springer Spaniel!), 1 cat, 2 ponies, chooks and ducks and a flock of sheep!

You can see some of the pets here: www.hiddenspring.co.uk If you think that was going to keep us busy we were also taking care of the camping site, campsite shop and of course, the happy campers!!

Anyhow, the time went by in a flash - due in part to the fact that our days were long and busy but it was great fun! We were lucky to have decent and dry weather which made all our chores and responsibilites so much easier.

The family of pets were great and we really bonded with them all - it was a very positive experience. The campers were also good fun and we made friends with some who we hope to catch up with later in the year when we go back to Hidden Springs for more of the same! (Without the campers this time though as it will be in November & December!!).

Suffolk in the sunshine

As we are coming to the end of a two-week stint here in Suffolk we are thinking how lucky we have been not only to secure such a great gig but to have had such fabulous weather whilst we have been here!

This is our first visit to this part of the UK and we have been very impressed. We had not realised how pretty this area was going to be although, the fact that both Constable and Gainsborough were landscape painters inspired by the area should have given us a clue!

The scenery really is quite something. The whole area we have been exploring is within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with footpaths and bridleways from the door.

We have been staying just outside the market town of Sudbury, still a thriving town in the heart of the Stour Valley.

From here we have visited Lavenham, a prosperous centre of the wool trade in medieval England and now a remarkable collection of fine timbered buildings.

No matter which route you take you cannot fail to be impressed by the medieval cottages and houses at the core of the surrounding chocolate box villages - most of which were once the homes of wool workers and merchants.

Equally impressive are the local churches who owe their grandeur to the generous donations of wealthy wool traders.

Bury St Edmunds a scenic 18 mile road trip from Sudbury is a bustling and beautiful town where the abbey ruins and cathedral dominate the historic centre.

A visit to one of the nearby National Trust properties (Melford Hall) at Long Melford provided us with an opportunity to stroll in the modest English gardens and browse through the many rooms of this family home.

In between our little trips out we had some great walks locally with the two dogs, Molly the Boxer and Mildred the Border Terrier,we have been looking after, and also got the chance to pick some really good blackberries! A visit to the weekly farmer's market in Sudbury and the purchase of some Bramley apples gave us all we needed to bake a tasty blackberry and apple pie!

Food, as always, has figured highly during our stay and thanks to the hens laying some great eggs and the discovery of The Veggie Red Lion (www.theveggieredlion.co.uk) at Great Bricett, not to mention The Greyhound in Lavenham
(thegreyhound-lavenham.com) and The Black Boy in Sudbury our voracious appetites have not been left wanting!!

Here, there and everywhere!

As we've returned to the UK for a spell it seems appropriate that we return to our Blogger Blog - our Wordpress blog detailed our fun and games in France and whilst we still hope and plan to spend time en France, for the time being we are back in England's green and pleasant land.

This shift, geographically, physically and mentally is welcome. Business is good (hence the delay in updating blog entries!) and we are getting to see parts of the UK we have never visited (or in some cases, knew existed!). It is quite the revelation.

Since returning (and in between short return visits to the South of France and the Lot - more of that later), we have met and made friends with a number of new humans, felines and canines.

We have lived in a town house in Kent, spent time by the sea in Goring (with the added excitement of an impromptu trip to Brighton where we met up with friends from New Zealand!!), travelled in excess of 1000 miles to a job near Aberdeen in Scotland, toured Loch Ness and Loch Lomond and currently we are enjoying the scenic Suffolk countryside - and we're only half way through the year!!

Our frequent trips to the south of France were prompted by the sad death of the husband of a regular client of ours - we were simply grateful that we were free to help out. A last minute request to help another regular of ours provided us with a week long stay in the beautiful Lot Valley - and there we were just getting aclimatised to the English weather!!

Aside from a couple of days without bookings (for which we were grateful as we had the chance to catch up with family and friends), we have been pretty much fully booked.

We relish the journeys and Bristol, Toulouse and Nice airports are almost home from homes now but hey, how can we say that when wherever we lay our hat(s) these days are places we call home!