Can you believe it? It’s Easter Monday already. Where has the time gone? But, guess what everyone - I know exactly as Nigel’s loaded Entourage onto Happy Lappy and am I ever organized now! Gone are the days of lost To Do lists, misfiled emails or forgotten entries in my agenda, I am now zippy sharp and focused! Though I still have a bit of a learning curve to do with this exceedingly powerful software, I’ve already found myself planning new projects linked with emails, To Do lists and notes. For me, this is an important leap forward in my quest to achieve my ultimate goal: additional contributing authors and broadening the scope and horizon of the website (without dropping any balls in the process).

So apart from learning some great and really useful software, what else have I been up to recently?

Well, last Friday morning I made the short drive to Valbonne to attend a book signing. The very well known and much loved author, journalist and broadcaster Deanna Maclaren was at the English Book Centre signing her latest novel: Villa Fleurie. Valbonne is a great place to go any day of the week but market days are extra special. The narrow cobbled streets simply buzz with people tempted by the sheer diversity of local produce and variety of goods on offer. Against the backdrop of this very vibrant market and pretty stone village houses, Deanna decided to make the most of this fantastic atmosphere and sit outside to sign her books. When I arrived there was already a crowd of people milling around her (I noticed some very well known faces) but I somehow managed to squeeze past them and have a quick chat with this truly lovely and very engaging person.

Only a few weeks prior to her book launch she’d kindly consented to giving me an interview from her home in Cannes and explained the background story about Villa Fleurie. You can read this interview and a review of her book in the June issue of AMB.

It being Easter Monday, Nigel and I drove to the very pretty medieval village of Bar-sur-Loup to attend their yearly Fete de l’Oranger this morning. If you’ve ever driven around this region you’ll have noticed numerous oranges trees. These are the bitter bigaradier oranges that have been cultivated on the south-facing terraces (or restanques as they’re called in French) since the 19th century. The tree is now the symbol of the village (much like the violet flower for Tourrettes-sur-Loup or the lemon tree for Menton).

With the day being so bright and sunny, there was a great turn out so finding a parking slot near to the village wasn’t easy. But perseverence paid off in the end and after parking the car, we then proceeded to walk up to the village centre to enjoy the festivities. I’ll be writing more about this festival in the April issue of AMB but suffice to say that it’s really excellent and if you are over here next year for Easter - mark it in your diary as a festival well worth attending.

Lastly, Maman Fleur is doing well and getting wider as each day passes. She continues her love of anything well, shrimpy, especially if it still retains its shell. While she crunches heads, bodies and tails to her utter delight (and downs the lot), our other cats sit a comfortable distance away from her, glancing over from time to time if a particular crunch is louder than another. But our mum knows a true fish when she smells it; herring, red mullet, tuna and tinned sardines are accepted with relish - but try and pass a surimi stick on her - and forget it.

A couple of months ago I mentioned the incredible Project White Horse 2008 that is to take place the first week of May. Yesterday I promised to show you the photo gallery of these brave and very beautiful horses. Over the weekend I will do another blog, this time about the long route these Camargue horses and riders will be taking. Again, if you’d like to know about this ride, the dedicated group of people organising it or perhaps offer some support by way of sponsorship, click here to view their website. So, without further ado, it is with great pleasure that I would like to introduce you to (from left to right)

Mogador de la Manade du Vent - Muscadeu d’Arbaud and then Osco de Layalle and Oural de St Gabriel

Pelous de St Germain - Quattro de l’Elevage du Petit Clos and afterwards Quito de St Gabriel

Perdigau de Layalle and lastly, Occitan de la Manade du Levant

These are the days I love the most. The latest edition of AMB Cote d’Azur has just been published, I’ve done my normal day-after tweaking of the site, and for a couple of days I have some free time to myself to plan the next issue and, of course, life in general (what woman doesn’t?).

No longer glued to the computer for hours on end, I’m now able to spend a little more time in the garden and see what lovely goodies are peeping through. The recent warm weather has brought forth a sudden wealth of spring flowers and there’s a bright green tinge appearing on the trees around us. The three dogs have also been enjoying themselves and have been bombing around the garden as if a herd of banshees are after them. Archie’s invariably in the lead, ears up and grinning, little Maggie May charges after her Big Bro while Freddy trails behind just in case he needs to double back to see where I am (he’s a mummy’s boy all right).

So yesterday found me more outside than in, with camera at the ready. I managed to take a photo of my first Red Admiral of the year as he fluttered and danced around the garden. I purposely leave a batch of stinging nettles at the bottom of our garden for them to lay their eggs on. Our mild Mediterranean winter must have helped them too, and now that the warms rays of the sun are here, it’s wonderful to see these colourful creatures in our garden.

This afternoon Maman Fleur went for her pre-natal checkup and, indeed, she is with kitten. Four of them. Her confinement is expected to be the second week of April and I shall be keeping you all up to date with her progress and of course, photos of the tiny tots when they are born too. I’m not sure who was the most excited, our lovely lady vet or me. Maman Fleur loved all the attention and didn’t stop purring once.

So we’re now in count down mode and can’t wait to see what markings her kitties will have. We did have a rather splendid marmalade male who came courting for a couple of days but, as our vet said “C’est sur qu’elle a trouver un voyou” (You can bet she found a rascal) and then went on to lavish much praise on this itinerant father for his daring (and very successful) deed and passing on some “redoutable” genes to his future bi-lingual (or should that be tri-lingual?) progeny.

I came across a wonderful ditty the other day: A clean house means a broken computer. Isn’t that brilliant? I simply fell about laughing at that one. But it’s so very true. You’ll be pleased to know that there has been some improvement with my washing machine routine (mainly because I plaster my monitor with reminders to take the washing out). Sadly, the vacuum cleaner gets a rough deal as I approach the deadline to the next issue of AMB and it doesn’t get to see the light of day for several days.

I’ve also not been very good at keeping this blog up to date and will pull my socks up and make a sterner effort. There are some exciting projects happening over the coming months which I’ll be sharing with you.

Tomorrow I shall blog about the White Horses Project and show you photos of the beautiful Camargue horses that have been chosen for the fantastic journey that occurs in May.

But for the moment it’s time for Maman Fleur to be fed (again) and yes, she’s still crazy for her prawns - and now a recent delicacy - cod roe!