GITE FOR RENT

The Gite is for rent next year 2010 from February.

Here are some pictures and details:

The accomodation comprises: stairs to front door (own entrance), which opens to kitchen/living room with fridge, washing machine and gas cooker. Table to seat 4.










Hall with shower room off with separate toilet.




Two double bedooms, one with double bed, the other two single beds.


The furnishings are basic but cheerful. The rent is low.
€150.00 per week March and April, €200.00 per week May to September, €150.00 per week thereafter. Gas and electricity included.


The house and gite are set in 8 hectares of field, forest, and river which is available to explore. It is quiet and peaceful. Come and get away from the hurly-burly of city life.

Read the rest of the blog: www.moulinduclout.blogspot.com for further information. If you are interested contact: readingdog@mac.com.

Three More Grandchildren

Yes, three, all at once! Aged 18, 15 and 10. A boy and two girls. How did this happen?

Apart from my three natural children Jim and I adopted another child; a mixed race girl aged 11 months. This was in 1963.

I think we were both rather idealistic and a bit naïve. Our previous two children had given us no trouble and we assumed that given the same conditions of love, comforts and attention an adopted child would be no different. We were wrong.

From the start she was nothing like our other two in temperament, development or behaviour. We struggled and, I think, made many mistakes – at least I did. I couldn’t believe that I couldn’t get it right.

In 1965 we had another ‘natural’ (for want of a better word) child, another boy. He was no trouble either, being a very placid child - he still is.

By the time Ellen (not her real name) was in secondary school her behaviour was causing concern outside the family situation. She was the first candidate for the ‘sin bin’ at her school because of her disruption in class and we were having real problems ourselves. We sought professional help and this eventually resulted in her attending a school for maladjusted children and subsequently she went into care.

Our lives now returned to something like normal although I think that the previous trauma has had a lasting effect on the relationship that I have with the remaining three children.

We continued to see Ellen at intervals until she left school when she went to London to work. We lost contact for a few years and then she rang us out of the blue and we exchanged visits. She had matured into a pleasant young woman and we got on well. She told us that she had a West Indian boyfriend and that she was about to visit his family in Jamaica. She said that she would contact us on her return. That was about 1987. We heard nothing.

I made several attempts to find her over the years but knew that if she had married or was living in Jamaica I was going to find it difficult.

A few weeks ago I was messing about on Ancestry.co.uk and turned up her name as having married in 1990 in London. I now had what I believed was her married name and started searching. When I had an address I wrote asking if she was the Ellen I thought she was. I heard nothing for six weeks and assumed that I had it wrong. Then I got an email during the time we were in France telling me that she was our Ellen, that she was married – now separated and had three children.

We are now emailing each other trying to catch up on all the missing years. It is so exciting. I am looking forward to meeting up with my new grandchildren when we can arrange it.

I hope that we can make a better relationship together now we are both older and wiser.

Moulin du Clout - 30th October

After We had deposited Fennie and Jay at Rodez airport (about an hour away from the Mill) we sped back as our son, Matthew, the owner of the Mill was flying from Brussels for the weekend. He was arriving in Toulouse about 4.30 and catching the train to Maurs where we would pick him up.

On arrival at Toulouse Matthew found a demo going on in the town with farmers on tractors protesting (I think) about milk prices. Despite the difficulties he managed to catch his train although without a ticket as there was chaos at the station.

We don't often get time alone with Matthew as now he has a family they are naturally his first priority so we like to make the best of these times. We chatted about our plans for our time here next year if he hasn't sold it by then. He doesn't want to sell it but with family committments he finds it difficult to spend much time here and it does need attention. We have scrubbed round the idea (for now) of the tipis and I will try and market the gite for the summer months.

On Sunday we had lunch in Montsalvy and discovered parts of the town that we hadn't seen before. We then went on to the Poterie Le Don, a futuristic- looking pottery run by Nigel and Suzy Atkins.


We make regular visits here and usually manage to buy something. A purchase last year was this splendid garden sculpture - a Raven.

This time I limited myself to a small covered pot although we promised Nigel to consider a large hare next time we visited - €800 - a bit much.

Not wishing him to miss his flight and wanting to visit IKEA at Toulouse we drove Matthew to the airport on Monday morning.

Jim has continued working on the potagers, finishing the first one, planting it with broad beans and garlic and making a start on the second. We should like three altogether. They are just raised beds really - for growing vegetables when we are here next year. As the materials are all to hand they cost nothing.

I have not finished my sewing project - the patchwork quilt for the double bed in the main house. I should have got on with it during the first week. I shall have to take it home now and finish it there. Here are two squares of it. There will be 72 of them joined togther and then bound with another strip of fabric.

Our last outing was to the Chestnut Fair at Mourjou. As it rained on the Saturday it was a bit of a washout but we went again on the Sunday which turned out very pleasant indeed.

On the Monday (when we should have been on our way home) we entertained a prospective buyer. He and his engineer friend spent four hours looking over the property and domaine. I gave them lunch. He wants a place where he and his wife can eventally retire and be fairly self-sufficient. It will just be our luck that he buys the Mill and we won't be able to spend next year there. It is in the lap of the Gods.