Take this morning. I had received the letter informing me it was time to have my free breast screen. I made an appointment a week ago for 9.30 a.m. this morning. I arrived at the hospital at 9.25 a.m. Parking can be tricky but I found several spaces right outside – if not I could have gone just across the road to the station car park. In reception there is a drinks machine but no shops, no café, no fast food chains and above all no noise! They have a ticket system so you can sit down in comfort and wait your rturn – there were three numbers in front of mine. By 9.30 I was checked in and on my way to radiology where they took my details again and off to the waiting room. Less than 5 minutes later I was called in and by 9.55 a.m I had had the mammogram and had been examined by the doctor. Another 5 mins for him to look at everything and then he came to give me the result and I was free to go. No waiting for a letter to come ages afterwards.

Everything was thankfully normal but I had an abnormal scan in the UK just before coming here 10 years ago. I had the scan and then later received a letter telling me there was an abnormality and that I would have to return in 3 weeks for a deeper scan. All was fnally well but when I had my first scan here in France the same thing happened. Here you wait until the results have been examined and if there is an abnormality they do the second , deeper scan immediately.

That’s the kind of treatment I am used to here now. Blood results come back quickly, appointment times mostly respected and if not apologies are made and you are kept well informed. I think UK health care staff are briliant but they are being prevented from doing their job by a system that has lost its way in my view.

So no – I won’t be going back to live in the UK for health care reasons – I’m happy and hope to stay healthy where I am.

I don’t suppose I’m alone in starting every year resolved to exercise more – I was hoping to start cycling but after a scary outing with my daughter over Christmas I have decided that I must build up some stamina first and so am back walking, going to yoga and working out with my favourite celebrity DVD once a week. I’ve also started running a gym club for the Club des Ainés (the old folks club) on Monday afternoons so that about fulfills that resolution this year.

I am an audio book fan and to help me with more tedious jobs I often have my ipod glued to my ear. Recently I was listening to Stephen Fry’s autobiography in which he recounts a meeting between a long established professor at an English university and a young newcomer to the common room. Putting his arm around the young man’s shoulders he offers this advice – ‘Don’t try to be clever – we’re all clever here – try to be kind’. This seems such good advice that I will adopt it as my 2012 mantra.

So what have you resolved to change, to improve, to continue or to aspire to in 2012? Or like Kevin do you resolve not to make any resolutions? Whatever you are up to in 2012 I wish you every success and happiness – but as everyone says here most of all good health – surtout la santé!

We managed to relax a bit ourselves. We gave an old threshing machine to a guy in the next village who renovates old farm machinery and were invited to see the thresher in action and to have lunch under the trees……..

………and we spent a weekend by the beach at Cap Ferret with friends where we saw the oyster beds and tasted the end result.

But most of all we just enjoyed our special corner of France – our petit paradis!

After lunch a boat trip down the Dordogne past 4 other chateaux. It was lovely along the river with trailing swathes of flowers moving gently with the current

We ended our day out to ‘la valléé des cinq chateaux‘ with a taste of walnut wine served by a pretty girl (to the delight of all the old men)dressed in traditional costume.

The second outing was nearer home with the Kiwanis club of Marmande that Kevin is a member of. They organised a car treasure hunt around the village of Cocumont famous for its wine. The rallye took us around the gentle rolling countryside stopping at mills and churches searching for our clues and ended at a farm where a few deciding point earning activities took place before we sat down for a delicious meal with a main course of beef cooked on an open fire all served with great local wine.

The third outing was a randonéé an 11k walk starting very close to Peyrenègre. The countryside around us is great for walking and this walk took us through hazel nut orchards, woodland and farmland with spectacular views.

Look carefully in the picture of the woods below and you will see one of the many complicated hides (palombières) that are built in the local woods and used for catching wild pigeons. Back at the starting point we had a welcome drink and one of the walkers had brought a basket brimming with cherries.

So how does the baby come into this post? Well our 4th grandchild was due on the 21st May and we are still waiting. I bought a rather special bottle of wine on the first outing into the Dordogne and it’s still sitting in it’s packet. So any day now we will welcome another member of the family and we are so excited. Only an event so special would make me leave my corner of SW France in June but next week I am leaving for the UK to say hello to the new arrival and help out as much as I can leaving Kevin to look after the gîtes and our holidaying guests.

We need another 13 tomato plants to make our 40 total and will be buying them this weekend and more aubergine, courgette and peppers for outdoor planting. We have also started sowing french beans, beetroot, carrots and parsnips – so fingers crossed for germination. It’s been so dry here that are thinking of doing a rain dance if nothing happens in the next couple of days. The spring flowers are getting ready to hand their colourful baton to summer blooms but are reluctant to leave us just yet.

I haven’t been able to find any sweet corn seeds here this year – our farmer neighbours grow corn for animals and it isn’t a vegetable they usually serve for themselves. Luckily one of our recent guests heard of my futile search and sent me some from the UK. I have found butternut squash (la courge musquée) this year and they are sprouting beautifully. You know I adore soup and I can almost taste the roasted butternut squash soup I’ll be making in the autumn.

We are already harvesting broad beans which we sowed in October – delicious. The cherries on one of our early fruiters are ripening and the artichokes proudly hold their gifts aloft for the taking. In the greenhouse the strawberries are plump and lush and lettuce ready for the table. We have been eating our green asparagus for a while too and made some delicious soup and I’ll be making more soup as I use up the last of the leeks.

There is so much satisfaction from growing your own and eating with the seasons. This really is the good life.

I love May here at Peyrenègre. If you want to come along and share this lovely month with us ( and some of the garden produce) check out availability here - we are offering special last minute rates for May.

We hope you are all having a Happy Easter too – don’t eat too much chocolate!

I love this time of year when the garden comes alive again and everything looks so vibrant and exciting. The tulips shoot up their trumpet blast of colour and the peony is covered in tissue paper like blooms.

There are signs of summer colour too as the canna lilies are pushing through ready to take their turn when the irises and pansies have taken their final bow.

I have lived in Putney at the start of the boat race and in Mortlake at the end of the race and have often been along to join the boisterous supporters along the route. A friend of mine this morning quipped ‘ In these days of Sports Fixes and skullduggery…….. can someone tell me how come no-one ever looks into how Oxford and Cambridge ALWAYS gets into the final of the Boat race ???? questions need to be asked;-)’ It made me smile.

My Mum wasn’t the greatest of cooks and certainly wasn’t known for her desserts but on boat race day she made her special jelly. Here’s how to make it:

Make up a green jelly and chop it up in a bowl (that’s the Thames)
Cut a banana in half and place on jelly flat sides up one slightly in front of the other ( they are the boats)
Place cherries along the bananas ( they are the rowers)
Put a toothpick from each cherry into the jelly ( yes you’ve got it they are the oars).

Voila – boat race jelly. Somehow I don’t think it’s a recipe I will be sharing with my French friends but it’s a little memory of my Mum on Boat Race day

What a great place to live!