I have a feeling that the logistics to moving our four dogs, seven cats and four kittens to our new home is going to prove a tad challenging. While all the felines can certainly travel in Gus the Bus, it’s the number of cat baskets we’ll need that’s slightly daunting. Having said that I think we have as many computers as animals now and finding packing boxes for them should prove an interesting exercise. Various coloured folders are now on my desk filled with an assortment of action plans, To Do lists, maps and property details. Staying focussed will be essential but, unlike many people when they move, we are not tied to a deadline - though I would like to be ‘in’ by Christmas . . .

Nigel and I have decided that our best course of action is to rent a place initially. Like intrepid adventurers our first trip will be one of reconnoitring the lay of the land and seeing what kind of properties exist. Shall we buy a ruin or something partly renovated? There again, moving straight in without having to do any DIY or building work might suit us best. Above all, there must be an internet connection. It will also be important that we work with a truly trust-worthy estate agent and while using the internet as a basis for my property research has been a god-send, dealing with a professional but caring team will be essential to the positive success of our venture.

I must admit that the thought of moving from here scares me a little but at the same time, fills me with a sense of anticipation and excitement. The Lot and Garonne/Dordogne region of Aquitaine, known as the Other South of France, is a land rich in chateaux, medieval villages and architectural sites so I’ll feel right at home there. In fact, Nigel and I made a brief visit there in August 2004 to interview the very charming Polly Platt and vowed to return to discover the region in more detail. Four years on here we are planning to move there. Funny old world.

Further afield is the Gironde and the Atlantic coastline and Arcachon Bay that claims to have Europe’s largest sand dune, the Dune de Pyla, whose tip is called rather brilliantly Cap Ferrat. After the pebble beaches of Nice it will be fun to discover over 3 kms of uninterrupted and beautiful golden sands. I hasten to add that this is not one of my photos but one found on the internet. I look forward to the day when I shall stand in that same spot, sand creeping through my toes, and take a photo myself.

‘Would you like a baby donkey?’ I was asked a couple of days ago. Talk about temptation I thought, my mind twirling round the idea on how I’d get this animal past Nigel without him noticing. But the question was not so daft as I’d mentioned a couple of weeks ago to Liz that Nigel and I were planning on moving perhaps by the end of the year to bigger premises with more land. And with our burgeoning family of dogs, cats and kitties - what’s a donkey here or there?

These past few weeks, if not months really (though Nigel says it feels more like years to him . . .), I’ve been wanting to find a larger home with land rather than just a garden. Sadly, the type of place I’m looking for is beyond our financial reach here on the French Riviera so I’ve been looking at properties further afield. Thanks to the magic of internet, my nimble fingers have danced across my keyboard and most of France without me once having to visit an estate agent. My virtual search has led me to some beautiful places but also to wonder if the whole of France isn’t up for sale. Though I will admit that, at times, I may have gone off on tangents out of sheer curiosity (New Zealand at one point) I managed to restrain myself and cast my net within the boundary of what I understand to be the South of France.

In view of all these forthcoming exciting and more personal adventures, I felt I should extract my current blog from AMB Cote d’Azur and create a dedicated blog site with a new face lift in the process. The new blog also reintroduces an old favourite of mine: Highslide. If you’ve not seen it before, quite simply you just click on the image in the blog and up pops a bigger one, much like a Jack in the Box. I’ve already set it up on the one here so have a go.

I’ll get round to putting Highslide on all my blog photos though this won’t happen overnight but more likely in my dotage . . .

If you clicked on the photo you’ll know that it was one I took when visiting Ile St Marguerite last Sunday. The photo was taken on the fort where once the Man in the Iron Mask was incarcerated. You can read more about my trip in the upcoming issue of AMB.

We start our first round of house hunting at the end of May with Freddy and Bertie tagging along for the ride as we head off to the Dordogne to look at four properties. I know many of you dip into my blogs from time to time because you find them fun but if you’re now thinking of buying a home in France why not follow us on our adventures to see how we get on and if, finally, we find our dream property with room for a baby donkey.

Speaking of which, Nigel darlin’ . . .

It’s been a bit of a mad rush recently. After the heavy rains of March and early April and before the heat of the summer sun sets the earth rock solid, I’ve been busy making the final touches to my English Cottage Garden. If you remember last year I’d started turning what was once patchy and forlorn looking grass just outside the office into something more elegant and fragrant. Like the little hamster I am, I sped off to all my favourite garden centres returning mission accomplished bearing armfuls of plants and seeds capable of surviving our summers and, truth be told, sometimes our cold, frosty winters. Yet one plant proved elusive and which would have been for me, the ‘icing on my cottage garden cake’, a Lady’s Mantle, Alchemilla mollis. So imagine my surprise and delight when I found it this year and bought, not just one plant (which of course would have sufficed as they self-seed with total abandon) but four. Happy Days!

While creating my cottage garden it was also very important to me that I make it bee and butterfly friendly. I thus paid special attention to growing their favourite plants as well as leaving a few nettles as caterpillar food. So now I have this wonderful hotchpotch of cottage garden plants such as forget-me-nots, foxgloves, ferns, buddleia, and campanula mixed in with runner beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, peppers, lavender (of course) and snapdragons all interspersed with thyme, mint, chives, sage, rosemary and nasturtiums. Many are still young plants that will need time to grow and develop and while most are in the ground, others jostle side by side in big earthenware pots. Photographed here is a carpenter bee enjoying a restful moment on the petals of a mauve iris growing down by our pool house. These are Big Boys with Character. On more than one occasion I have found myself face to face with one of these guys and they do not give way, standing their ground or, more frightening, matching your every move so all you can do is back off slowly. Scary.

I also tend to squirrel away tubers, crowns or bulbs everywhere and then forget where I’ve put them or what they are when they finally poke through. Such was the case a couple of weeks ago when a rather smart looking plant surfaced. Wow I thought, this is great, believing it to be the peony I’d planted a year or so ago. Which of course I had but not there. In fact, much to my embarrassment (after showing off my green fingers to Nigel) this rather gorgeously leafed plant turned out to be a humble yellow buttercup. The real peony was round the front of the house lodged between my vines and honeysuckle and completely hidden from view - until it blossomed into pure pink magic.

While I truly love watching my garden grow and delight at the sight of a seedling growing purposefully, I find it is the unexpected discoveries I love the best and afford me such special moments. Like finding the elusive Lady’s Mantle or a group of bluebells hidden in some undergrowth or enjoying the sight of masses of hollyhocks, plants that once lay dormant for years and now return in abundance. Long may I hope to continue discovering these special moments!