Time out

Sometimes even we have to have time out even though it has been lovely weather, the fields are green and sprinkled with the prettiest of white flowers, the animals are plump and happy, and our petite ferme looks everyone's dream of what a smallholding should like, this having been said several times by people who have visited us lately. It does not always look so lovely, not when winter and the flood arrive. Not to worry, even then prettiness can be found somewhere if we try hard enough to look. Or I can look back at the blogs and be reminded that it is worthwhile to keep persevering at learning to be a smallholder's wife, reading about how far we have come, what I have learnt, what I need to do better with, etc........ And then I can go visit my fellow blogging friends, and read about what they are up to, how they are managing their farms / smallholdings / homesteads, and then I feel that I am not my own, and that there are other people out there doing similar to us. But we still need to have time out sometimes.......

And so we organised a trip out with friends. A concert at Aire sur l'Adour is where we went. Listening to a band playing Irish music is what we did. The French playing Irish music is not the same as our DIY band playing Irish music which is nothing at all like a proper Irish band playing Irish music. Nevertheless it was a grand evening. Listening to other people playing similar music, well you can two things. You can either be highly critical of their playing. Or you can listen attentively and absorb what they are doing, how they are doing it, and what you can do to improve your own playing, which is what I did. 

Where we were....

Aire sur l'Adour

La Chapelle de Ursulines

Who we were going to listen to....

Two bands, Etceltera and Salicorne,

Inside the chapel where the concert was being held....

And the good friends we went with......

Mike, Valerie, Lester (Hubby) and Ann

It was treasure of an evening, 

and today we are going to take time out from farm and renovation work to sort out new music for our little band. 

But first I need to make bread, gather some more fennel seeds, ask the pears in the fridge waiting to be put into canning jars if they can wait another day before being processed, explain to the broom that there is no need to sweep today because moi is busy elsewhere, tell my head that it is better to stay awake and do things because napping stops me from having a good night's sleep, tell the lawnmower to stop moaning about not being used and that perhaps tomorrow it can go for a run over the grass, convince my sewing machine that I do love it and not to worry about my lack of effort in switching it on, tell Labartere (our farm) that I do love her but that sometimes, just sometimes, trying to do the best for her can make Lester and me feel that we are pedalling a bike which is going nowhere, but this is only when we are tired and need a change of scenery, just for a while, not for ever, because we could not think of living anywhere else at all.
So with batteries recharged I go off into my day, 

Hope you have a lovely Sunday,

and hope your batteries are getting recharged as well,

Vx