There is a series of 4 locks climbing up a hill into Agen. There is a small pound between each lock, like a glass pond when we went through because there weren’t many other boats. It was a great way to end our trip from Valence-sur-Baise. At the top of the locks we crossed the flooded Garonne River on a very long aquaduct and then boated next to peak hour traffic to the harbour in the middle of town. Great fun!

We’re still on the Canal du Garonne only because the rivers are flooding. Our plan was to cross the Garonne River and have a look at the Lot River, but both are closed to our hire boat. Luckily the canal is very picturesque and we have really enjoyed it. Yesterday evening, just after the rain stopped, we went for a walk up the steep hill into town. From the lookout there is this fantastic view of the Garonne valley. Today Shirley and I went for a bike ride on the tow path and stopped for a short while to do a painting.

Today was May Day in France which is a very well observed holiday. Everything was closed, including cafes and restaurants … but our port’s captains were English, and they didn’t mind opening their little office which doubles as a bar! This afternoon we enjoyed a drink at their establishment. Part of the fun was WIFI access, and I downloaded a 360 photo app for my phone.  Hence this wonky photo! It is of us sitting under an umbrella on the edge of the canal. In the background is a narrow boat, a few of them are moored here, ready for hire.

Arriving at Condom by boat is just amazing. It’s a beautiful, ancient town, and the harbour is quiet and peaceful, especially at this time of year. It wasn’t crowded at all, and we could moor any where. Getting off the boat and being right in the middle of town without having to find anywhere to park is brilliant!

Horseman and 3 dogs in the back paddock

All of this year I have been incredibly involved in my hobby of learning Mandarin. To be honest, I was quite tired of learning it, so I really wanted to get that bit over with. I wanted to start using it! So I set myself a goal of being able to speak by the end of March. And that’s why I haven’t made any posts. Up until a week and a half ago, that is all I did all day and all night … and I achieved my goal! (http://carmeljames.cajo.com.au/learningChinese/)

But I still have a ways to go because there is goal 2: to learn to speak well

However, before I start on that mammoth task, I am going to have a holiday … in Europe. And I will be documenting it here as we go.

Download audio file (the-back-paddock.mp3)

I can’t believe it has been so long since I last made a post on this blog. It’s only because I’ve been incredibly busy!
For most of November however I didn’t even have my computer. I only had a small notebook to work on. No fun making posts when you can’t quite see what you’re doing. My computer was at the doctors because it had a strange habit of rebooting itself when I didn’t ask it to. It was at the doctors for so long because they wanted to see this strange behaviour, and guess what! It didn’t do it! Not once! My guess is the 3 hour trip on a rough dirt road shook the loose parts back into their correct places. If I had known that, I would have just dropped it out the window at home .. to fix it

My next excuse for not blogging is that I started spending every night of the week talking with new friends in China! Yes, really! I found these people on a web site called Lang-8.com They can all speak Mandarin, and they are learning English. So we agreed to help each other. Amazing how much time you don’t have when you decide to do something like that every night. But that was only quite late at night after we had finished doing things around the house.

Because it’s summer here, the days are very long. Naturally J and I have things to do outside, things like putting an electric fence around our house! We did that in the week before Christmas, and then we went away for almost a week and stayed with J’s cousins, the ones that grow hay at Dungowan. Of course we had a great time, lots of socialising with neighbours and family. Sad when that was over, but then we had my family to look forward to.

The next week we had guests at home. My twin sister and her husband drove up from Sydney. It was a great week, especially when our sister joined us for a few days. She brought a tent with her and camped in the back yard! So still no time for blogging. No time for my favourite hobby either, that is, studying Chinese.

Since they all left and we’ve been alone, I’ve found a little time to study, but we have had another important job to do. We have to paint the roof of our house!!! After decades of wanting to, we finally bought a solar hot water system .. and a solar power system. Both have large panels that go on the roof. They can’t go on there though, until the roof is painted because it badly needs to be painted! It’s a tin roof and the paint is peeling off. We collect drinking water off the roof so it’s about time we repaired it. Because it’s summer, it’s hot during the day, too hot to paint a roof, so we’re doing it in the early morning and late evening. Just a little bit every day, well most days. Today it’s been raining … so I have time to write this blog!

And that is why I haven’t written anything in a long time.

Download audio file (20120116.mp3)

Flower pot brackets

Download audio file (Our-latest-home-improvements.mp3)

Yesterday, the weather was just perfect, and after an inch of rain last week, there was only one job that really needed doing. It was the mowing. And most urgent were a few areas just outside the house yard where thistles were shooting up out of the ground.
As I walked up and down with the mower I was struck by the resemblence of the thistles to tall pagodas. There were a lot of them and it was a wonderful sight. Luckily I could record it in a photo, because now it’s just yet another patch of lawn.

Download audio file (Pagoda-Thistle.mp3)