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January 2011 at Gone Fishin

January at Gone Fishin has found us whenever possible sat out in the garden wearing wooly pullies having a coffee, but on the whole it has been a typical cold January with some sunny mornings and especially beautiful blue skies.
We have been delighted with our gite - cottage holiday lettings for 2011 and only have 4 weeks available for the rest of 2011 and can you believe it we have taken a booking for 2012!!!
We have taken time to explore Aiguillon, why you might ask, simply because having put together a comprehensive web- booklet exclusively for those that have booked at Gone Fishin on places to explore within 2hrs including Châteaux, museums, theatres, caves and frescoes and explaining in detail places with historic significance, and having given Aiguillon a full page of amazing history it has intrigued us to explore as we hope it will our guests in 2011.
We found this little gem of a place in Aiguillon Atelier Lunac. The lovely French lady showed us around her exhibition and her workshop.

Christmas Greetings to everyone..........

We Wish you all A very Merry Christmas and a      *********Healthy and Prosperous New Year.*********


              We look forward to seeing our returning guests in the Gite and "new" guests for 2011.
We have added a new little venture ( just to keep the wolf from the door!) only for in the winter months whilst the gite is closed, perhaps of interest to a fisherman... http://fishing-ticket-area47france.blogspot.com/

We had 2 new visitors arrive on the lake yesterday!

Unusual arrival for Dec, left after about 4hrs.

Winters arrived ..a thin layer of ice on the lake.

The one fruit that comes ready in December is the Kaki...often used to make jam but resembles a big soggy tomato when ready......it's horrible!!!!!!!

November been and gone in a flash!

November sees lovely changes of colours in the countryside, but also lots of activity as many of the late apples in the orchards are now being picked for commercial sale.
Alan is busy hoovering up leaves and more leaves, finishing trimming trees and I am busy spring cleaning the outside paintwork etc ready for Winter.

Alan hoovering the leaves

Even in November we have very warm sunny days.The ducks have already paired up for spring!

Lovely blue skies, a painters paradise.

This little chap is I think looking for a place to hibernate!

October at Gone Fishin Aiguillon in the sunny Lot et Garonne

Our last guests in the gite left us on October 2nd and what a delightful couple they were all the way from Australia. It's lovely signing off the gite on such a good note, certainly no complaints for 2010, a full house!.

We are eagerly looking forward to 2011 as we have 8 weeks booked already.
We have splashed out in anticipation for 2011  in the gite in buying a beautiful settee and 2 armchairs in fine Italian leather with lumbar support... better than what we have in our lounge!!! also for the gite we have bought a flat screen  TV showing UK channels and radio stations. We also have added an extra cupboard on the wall at eye level to save those with a bad backs from bending down.

Our new flower bed to cut down some work... No they are not gnomes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For a treat to ourselves we have slightly changed our garden so we can cut down planting so many bedding plants .... not quite got into gnomes!!...

Septembers Colours at Gone Fishin', Aiguillon france4two.eu

This time of year the landscape starts changing -the autumnal tones peep through and the  sunflowers and maize  being harvested allows an opening up of a totally different aspect of the countryside.
At Gone Fishin' we are still full on with the gite/holiday  accommodation, enjoying looking after the garden and orchard and yes,!!! we are still feeding the ducks.

To answer a query about Pigley who suddenly arrived last year 2009  and as suddenly disappeared no, he did not come back with a family we are convinced he landed on someone's plate!

Gone Fishin's wild ducks coming in to be fed (france4two.eu)

We enjoy keeping our websites up to date......  www.france4two.uk  This has replaced our dot EU site
We are still feeling elated that the terrapin was caught and dispatched, what we find amusing is the very log that sits proud in the lake where the terrapin sunbathed is now taken over by any duck that gets there first .... it seems to have become a sentry post!

Another predator at present that is being tracked by the local farmer is the magpie, what a menace it is .... taking duck eggs and ducklings and is also a pest to anyone with free range hens. Here is a trap set, the idea is to put the caged magpie where it is known there are magpies, they will protect their territory and go into the cage of the strange magpie to play heck! and voila it's caught!




The night time reveals wildlife out and about. Our little tree frogs shelter from the heat of the day behind the shutters as do the fruit bats. At around 4am when it nice and cool its surprising whats waking up!

Mr Natterjack Toad

The Tree Frog Faminly at Gone Fishin (france4two.eu)

Not to be outdone we have some wonderful plants that display their strong perfume only in the early hrs of the morning The Brugmancia (trumpet plant).

Brugmancia

..

Terry The Terrible Terrapin August 2010

August already! The ducklings (well, those that survived being eaten by the terrapin, herons, and buzzards) are enjoying themselves in the lake. From this week onwards they have one predator less to worry about .
All thanks to Gerard  a great fisherman, who not only caught superb specimens of Common Carp, Crucian Carp, Rudd and Sun Perch but caught Terry The Terrible Terrapin - 

Terry The Terrible terrapin Captured

His suitcase is packed ...the ducklings at last can swim in peace and quiet!

 

          

Gone Fishin in July

The summer is flying ....where has the time gone! We have welcomed back many holiday guest (some for their 4th year!) and of course guests staying at "Gone Fishin" for their first time, we are having a bumper season and have already taken bookings for next year...2011.

The carp in the lake are getting bigger every year this chap was caught in May 2010 .

Grateloup - a village just 10 minutes away had a celebration day of the new sails having been put on the recently renovated working windmill, other old working machinery was on display .

New sails on show at Grateloup

Also on show were working Oxon- warm work in such a thick coat!!

Oxon at work at Grateloup Village open day celerbration.

May and June at "Gone Fishin"

We are fortunate to be all but booked up in the Gite/apartment here at "Gone Fishin". Some new guests to the area and others returning. An unusual amount of rain this last week but at last the summer we know has arrived.

As usual the drakes from the lake have been bringing their wives over to the garden to nest in safety, we had a surprise in late May when we noticed a duck had laid 2 eggs in with the hens, at the same time one of the hens were feeling broody and decided she would sit them. Normally there would be no chicks as we do not have a cockerel! but to our surprise and I think the hens surprise the 2 duck eggs hatched!!

She made a wonderful mother far better than the duck, but sad to say only after the second day one duckling disappeared, but the surviving duckling had us and our gite guests in laughter. We placed a large bowl in the garden and the duckling would go for a swim as if in a gold-fish bowl , with mum and aunties looking astonished.
We nicknamed him Donald, he survived about 15 days but sadly mum could not keep up with him and he just disappeared. Three mums have been  successful in their sittings .

Do visit our new website So much to see and do on holiday all here             

First ducklings arrive today!

Ahhhhh how sweet is this....  

Having hatched under a Mulberry bush! she then takes them for a walk around the garden before going across the lane to the lake.
                          

She is greeted at the waters edge by 2 drakes both claiming to be dad, hey ho!

Catch up with Gone Fishin in March .

March is turning out good weather in this lovely area of the Lot et Garonne.
Night temp extremely cold, going down to anything between -1 to -4 C, the mornings are beautiful blue skies but white underfoot , by 11 am coffee time we are sat out in the garden and by lunchtime the temp is up into the  30's which for us means lunch outside, a few zzzzzz's after lunch catching the vitamin D rays!! Our usual quote of the day is "This is the life". Long may it last.
The lake is a bustle of activity with ducks doing what they do best this time of year (making whoopee) herons calling in for a quick snack! and the dreaded cormorants that can cause damage to our fish stock, not so much eating them but just by spearing them for the hell of it. We have a few tricks up our sleeves which at present is keeping the cormorants at bay. Do take a peak at this very interesting clip at the BBC click Cormorant swallows pike                                      

BBC reports on the storm in South West France

Thank you for all the emails of " are you both ok". Yes, we have escaped the storm with no damage. Apparently we will get a similar storm arriving Wednesday after lunch. 


February is one of those months we keep our heads down, catch up with a bit of decorating in the house and just enjoy life.We do keep spotting the arrival of spring out and about and feel that very soon we will be sowing seeds in the garden and getting ready for our first gite guests of the year in May.


Below is a good link about the storm.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7848719.stm

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit the region on Sunday.

The impact of the storm was felt from the Channel Isles to Barcelona, but the strongest winds and heaviest rain were concentrated on south-western France.

Snow @ Gone Fishin

Snow took us all by surprise this morning. The "girls" (hens) took one look and decided it was breakfast in bed, all nine of them.

The ducks just seemed totally confused as the maize landed and simply dissapeared.

Pigley gone but not forgotten!

This last week we noticed that some of the ducks have been pairing up already (it certainly does not feel like Spring). Poor Pigley seemed to be left out.
A couple of morning there was no sign of Pigley so Alan and I would go for a walk around the lake to see if we could find feathers ,which would tell us if she had been pounced on by a fox, nothing.
Later in the day we would see her come flying in!! not the most graceful birds - usually a belly flop landing.
As the days went by she came and went and appeared to be increasingly on her own. We wondered if it was instinct that she was restless and needed to find a husband... now for the last 3 days no Pigley at all.
So we can only presume she flown off to find one of her own, her fate does not look too rosy being that its still the hunting season and has lost her protection now she has left our lake.
Fingers crossed though that she does not return to us with a family.. buying the maize does not come cheap and she became quite greedy, if a duck was coming to eat close by to her she would pick it up by the tail feathers and shake it!.

BBC's Terrapin feature is here at Gone Fishin!

We couldn't resist the opportunity to show off our Terra of the lake . He or she has been with us for about 4 years and only shows itself off sunbathing in July-August.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8434389.stm

The lake does become that bit lower, leaving just an edge of a log showing proud of the water which becomes his beach towel.
To think he was once someone's pet..... to feed them just click within the tank with your mouse and watch!

Duck not on the Christmas menu.

We are pleased to say that we are in an area where there is no right to hunt without permission.
Hunters are very respectful of our wishes.... proof of the pudding is the wild ducks that reside around the lake.

Young Pigley (the Muscovy duck) arrived out of the blue last April and seems quite content ..so far.

Watching the weather in France.

Sadly (I think!) no White Christmas for us here in Aiguillon. Should you want to have a look at our weather just click the link http://france.meteofrance.com/france/meteo?PREVISIONS_PORTLET.path=previsionsville/470040/20090713150000T
The one thing we seems to notice at Christmas time in the shops ...would you believe is the abundance of boxes of chocolates.
As soon as The New Year is in they all disappear and its one heck of a job to actually buy a decent box of chocs for a present.
 Well, we are off for a last wander around the shops, we hope you all have a Wonderful Christmas and thank you  for your warm Christmas Greetings.

Gone Fishin

Last September we spent two glorious weeks at Gone Fishin. From the moment we arrived we were made welcome. The gite is very nice and immaculately clean, the bathroom is huge.

You have your own barbecue area in the garden, together with gazebo, table and chairs, and loungers, lovely to lie and relax with a bottle of wine and watch the day fade into night and see the stars appear one by one.

For us the jewel in the crown was the lake, two minutes away across the lane. A stroll through the wood and a walk round the water leads to a variety of places to sit, but our favorite was the one closest to the gate where we would sit at the picnic table in the early evening and watch the sun go down over the distant hills.

The weather in early September was truly excellent, with sun every day we could not have asked for better.

The gite is in a rural position, but it is not isolated, with lots of lovely places in easy reach to visit. There is a supermarket in nearby Clairac, about 7 minutes away by car, but there are some large hypermarkets a little farther afield. Dining out is no problem as there are lots of places to go.

If you crave peace and quiet to unwind completely, or you like to get out and about and explore the area, Gone Fishin is ideal, you won't be dissapointed.

We are returning for another visit next year.

Margaret and Roy

A Merry Christmas to all...see you soon.

It's just started snowing!! even though the forecast was for Thursday.

We are feeling Christmas has all but arrived, so with that in mind we hope you like the card!

Here we are in the summer of 2009.........

PRICE UPDATED IN 2017. THIS NOW REFLECTS UPDATE ....Just 390 per week. This is not a fishing holiday .It's a bonus. It's free.

2 acre private carp lake 

Jenny & Alan .... A warm welcome awaits, you arrive as guests and leave as friends