Andy's veg garden, la vieille maison, la cave et le chat....

Andy's vege patch.  WTF?  It's so damn beautiful.

Looking back from our swing seat, vege patch is behind us.

I stole a shot of Andy working in his "shed" The fact it's a 1600's house is unreal.  My grandad would have been very very happy with this setup. Nana and Grandad would have loved this place and they would be so proud. I think of them often here.  When I bake I think of my wee Nana. But mostly I think of wee Joey with her little notes.  She's so cute and my awesome dad, legs crossed outside on our terrace doing the crossword looking so damn elegant. I have nanas whisk in my cabinet along with a few pieces of her china.  And, thanks to Flippy and Warren we have grandad's coal scuttle. 

The extra room in the old house with another beautiful fireplace

The fireplace in the main room of the old house

The chimney in the old house

Looking from the old house to Andy's Vege garden

The big fireplace, it has our spare tires stacked but without those it's gorgeous.

Andy's getting sooooooo super organised.  He even has his tools on hangers, in the old house.

Dinner in the cave

We have an incredible cave.  It is unique.

We have visited loads of wine caves in the past decades and none have matched up to ours.  We think it is because the Chateau opposite us built the Gardeners House but wanted extra wine storage ( at that time this place was a huge wine region before phylloxera)
 

yummy dinner, all finished

And we check on the cat........

Dinner in the cave, first for summer 2020

Our first cave dinner for the season.  It’s been a really weird summer so far.  We had mid to late 30s in early June and since then it’s been quite nicely cool and some rain which is fabulous for the garden.  

By this time usually, we’d be sweltering. We haven’t had to use the air con in the bedroom yet.  The fan is enough.  We are very happy if those super high temps stay away. 

We went to the cave tonight because it was too windy to sit outside.  It’s so awesome down there.  It reminded us of how incredible it is.  Sooooo we don’t need to have madly hot days to enjoy it.  If it’s too windy for the umbrella it’s a cave dinner.  

Andy did have to take out 1 bird, 2 lizards and 1 vole.  Little Nudge.  Very naughty.  But at least he doesn’t bring them in the house.  It is kind of cute (except for the bird and the lizards). 

Dinner was mexican beans, smoked chicken, salad and charred flat bread.  It was SCRUM.  

Our trip the French Alps (Geneva)

I was so stressed about going into even nice health medical clinics.  So I prepared our food for our 4 nights away.  Breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  We ate very well.  Better than if we had gone to a restaurant or even a bakery for bread.  

We stayed in an incredible place in the alps.  AND the hygiene was undisputed.  They had it completely sorted with hand sanitizer at the door and the place completely sanitized.  We were pretty much there on business, to get some medical stuff ticked off.  Which we did and we even had a chaperone who helped out with every appointment. 

The routine was we pitched up, were issued face masks, had to hand sanitise and then we go forth.  I did actually ask if I could ditch my face mask for my face down MRI (which is with arms over the head for 50 mins) and they said yes I could but I had to remove it just before leaping onto the MRI machine (face down - not elegant when you're in an open gown with holes where the breasts are supposed to go).  I'm so glad they speak English in Switzerland.  The guy that was guiding me was Filippino.  Very French, extremely educated.  He loved that I loved Tim and Sandra's wedding.  

We did have a great trip all told.  The first 2 days were really tough with appointments and traffic and stress but the final day was awesome, driving through the Alpen route Andy selected to go to Lake Geneva for our last day picnic lunch, a spot our host suggested. It was a stunning drive and the spot our host loves is a really beautiful lake beach. There were only a couple of families playing.  Given it is now summer holidays were surprised with the few people.  If we'd brought along our swimming stuff we would have gone for a swim. But we were happy sitting, reading. Eating our bread, cheese and cherries with a beer.  

The drive back to Siggie was beautiful.  We took the no motorway route.  It took us high into the alps and it was incredible.  I even drove most of the way.  We were home by 1pm.  The drive itself was around 6 hours with no tolls and no motorways.  Usually, it'd be 4 hours.  Little Nudge was sooooooo happy to see us home.  He hung around us like glue.  He didn't mess up the cushions, he did 3 poohs in 4 days in his kitty litter, was on his bestest hoping we'd come home.  

My photos are completely out of order and to get them in order is a mish.  So.... they are what they are....

Melty cheese with salad and sourdough, final dinner.

As above.....

Picnic lunch on Lake Geneva 

Picnic lunch

Looking from the stream to the place we stayed

In the garden

That's where we were.  Washing out..

Smoked chicken, guacomole, salad and flat bread

Beef vindaloo with salad and flatbread

Waterfalls driving into the French Alps