Happy New Year

Xmas in Australia - Santa arriving on the local fire truck

It's been a long time since the last blog post. I had meant to update everyone and make my excuses much sooner and now here we are into another year. It's odd that as kids we often said 'I didn't mean to (insert catastrophe)' whereas now I'm forever excusing myself with 'I meant to (insert any number of jobs)'.
When we left l'Avenir in Buzet at the end of May we had thought we might return for a month or so later in the season but we winterised her 'just in case'. As it turned out this was a wise move.
And so, to the reason we had such a short summer season in 2016. We became grandparents for the first time and what a delightful experience that has turned out to be. Our grandson was born in mid June and is, of course, entirely gorgeous. The one drawback to being at home has been we have had to endure our first Melbourne winter in nearly 10 years. And yes, it does get cold and wet in this part of Australia.
We will return to France in May. As per usual we haven't made any plans except to explore the Garonne and Midi in more detail and hopefully without the trials and tribulations of last year. We are also tentatively looking into acquiring some sort of land transport so we can see a little further afield.

All the best to everyone for 2017.