Retirement - I love it!

Since we came to our new house in December 2008 we don't seem to have had any time at all. What with the builders starting on 7th Jan and sorting them out, doing their "shopping" - one day we went to Poitiers in the morning and Limoges in the afternoon getting materials - and making tea for them. Still, they are promising that we can get into our new bedroom and bathroom in the next few weeks. Laura will be able to come back then, and we will have room for visitors - if they don't mind the rest being a building site still.

Lambing - we still have 140 sheep - came and went. They had to look after themselves this year and lamb outside, but all seems to have gone quite well. It helped with the weather in March being good and dry.We are now hoping to get them clipped on Thursday, and have booked the services of Louise's boyfriend to help with the catching of the sheep. Let's hope it doesn't rain Wednesday as we have nowhere to get them in for the night.

Hannah, our sheepdog, also seems to have taken early retirement. She absolutely refused to work when we had to get the sheep in for the vaccinations for Blue Tongue - it took OH and I, and Jack (one of the other dogs) 2 hours to get the sheep in and 20 minutes for the actual treatment! We are now in the process of buying a sheepdog puppy.

My main occupation at the moment is gardening. To say it has got away from me is an understatement - it has actually escaped! Am doing this blog now as my back is burning from the sun yesterday and OH is fencing, in the shade I hope.

We have been to Paris twice recently, once to see Tina Turner with Louise and Laura, and then OH and I went to see Lionel Ritchie. OH has also got this retirement lark between his teeth.

Tina was fantastic. The girls loved it and sang every word - they may not be familiar with nursery rhymes but they know their Tina songs. Of course they both had a t-shirt (as did I). On the motorway back there was an accident on the motorway and we eventually crawled into bed at 6.45 a.m., and a materials delivery was expected at 9!

Lionel was very good also, but this trip was the first leg of a two-day trip to England to buy lights and various other bits and bobs. Good old Laura farmsat for us as she was on half-term. It's so much easier now that we don't have so many animals and hours of work to do.

Well, I'll go and see if there is any shade for doing some more weeding, and will report again in the near future.