January 2012 and the year is already looking very good!

It's January and it's very cold and wet but already I am looking forward to the Bretagne sunshine, it won't be long now.
Already we are very busy with our B&B with bookings coming in as far off as October 2012. It is only a 'paying' hobby for us in my retirement but already it's difficult to keep the lid on it. We enjoy it so much that it's hard to say no when enquiries come in. We want to do it a week on and a week off so that we can visit various places around us. We have been here nearly ten years now but there is still so many visits to be made both near and far.
We are going to the UK to see family and friends in February but already I am excited about getting back to our lovely house. Jane, my wife, is staying on a bit longer but I am returning as we have booked B&B in that week. I am being promoted from Sous Chef to head Chef so the pressure is on. I hope that Jane's standard has rubbed off on me, we shall see!
It's ironic really as both Jane and I just love cooking and baking but have to ration ourselves with the food. My bread and her cakes and puddings are a recipe for an expanding waist line. The saying is though 'Don't trust a skinny cook'
There is a big push in the UK to push real bread and so lots of smaller independat bakers are promoting it and getting the public informed. Once you have tasted proper home made bread there is no going back again. I do my bit here in France.

Christmas and New Year 2011

We at La Vieille Grange have just had the best Christmas and New Year. Christmas day with friends playing games around a very nice log fire. Good food, good friends and just a big chill day. Celebrated on Tuesday our sort of boxing day at one of our favourite restaurants in Moncontour. It was a long and leisurely lunch.
Our daughter has been in party mode for the best part of her school holidays but has had great fun. She had nine of her friends round on New Years Eve and between them cooked a roast Beef dinner and then afterwards just partied in the New Year until five in the morning. Give them all credit as they kicked us both out to our local bar and told us not to come back for a couple of hours while they cleaned their party war zone up! We came back to a near spotless house I am pleased to say.
We are all ready now for 2012 and so I wonder what that will bring.
Happy New Year!