I contacted Pascal Douis, Finn's breeder to ask a couple of questions. He answered them, then asked if I had realised I had forgotten to sign the cheque paying for him......We went to see him, and he both approved of how Finn was looking and accepted our signed cheque. Whoops..

As you can see he has taken up his rightful place in the family right from the start!

In November I sold poppies for the British Legion again. Always a good response in a pretty small British community – able to send in over 140€.

As my friend David Lush had hurt his ankle, I took him to Toulouse Airport to pick up his wife Rhonda on her return from Texas. An easy run, and a very nice meal in the restaurant overlooking the runway and the Airbus factory. Rhonda arrived on time as well.

We had a few problems with our waste water system, you really don't need to know the details. The problem was in a long pipe which descends through our garden, so we were lucky to be able to cut this out and connect up to the new sewer that has just been laid in our road. I say “we”, but some nice gentlemen did the work for us, for a large, but not begrudged, sum of money.

As the year drew to a close the mosquitoes didn't. I still appear to be rather allergic to their bites, so I'll be trying different sprays to see if anything puts them off. And no, they don't bite Judy.

On our way back from lunch in Pompadour we diverted to look at the birthplace of Pope Innocent VI, who was pope when the papacy was in Avignon in the 14^th century. The site is now a 19^th century house and two huge blocks of stables – it was connected to the National Stud in Pompadour. I fact I did a plan of the whole thing several years ago.

I have been carrying on with my photo slideshow project – showing our part of France in the past and today. I have actually created a Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/slideshowthenandnow.

For Christmas we decided to buy ourselves a new TV. Of course one of the connections was a different type, so entailing another trip to Brive to get one. Then I found one on Amazon for a quarter of the price.....

It really has not been the best of winters. We normally expect bright and sunny and fairly cold. Well so far we have had a bit of snow and lots of rain falling from a grey sky. As I write this we have just had some snow which actually settled for a couple of days – although it has all gone now.

Interesting trip to the Saturday market in Brive just before Christmas. It was absolutely packed, and lots of people were buying their truffles!

We spent Christmas itself very quietly, just the two of us, and had some friends for lunch on boxing day. We did have a tree though!

Having pretty much retired from the exciting world of floorplans, I was surprised when a former client asked me to do one for her as a favour. She project manages and the job was a lovely and very empty house near the village of St Cyprien in the Dordogne. In fact the house is pretty nearly in the Dordogne – just 10 metres or so from the river. As the house is being heavily refurbished, my plan helps to decide where to put up / knock down walls etc. Judy came too with the dogs and we had a nice lunch and gave the dogs a couple of good runs.

As I think we may need a slightly larger car, I have been hunting for one for months. As soon as I decide on one model I spot another one – so no great progress yet. Also, because in France you only pay tax on a used car when you re-register it, the frugal French keep their cars longer and second-hand prices are markedley higher than in the UK.

We had a a very enjoyable meal out with friends for Judy's birthday at the Table d'M in Uzerche. Highly recommended.

To keep up his socialising we try to take Finn into Brive. While Judy went shopping in the sales (her birthday present – what a coincidence) Finn made lots of new friends. My comment that he is only a puppy and just 7 months old are always received with amazement!

Just in case you are worried he is growing quite nicely:

A quiet few months – I'm sure we'll have a busier time in the months to come.