Hooray, summer feels like it is finally here. Thanks to our latest guests, Abby, Pete and Sophia Holden, who clearly had the sun tied to their car as they drove through France. The Holdens were here during one of the busiest weeks we’ve had (pilgrims, cyclists and new classes a-go-go), which could have been really hard work. But they were always there to help out, whether with concreting, kids or learning Zumba. We miss them already and can’t wait for their return trip.

Also in the photo are our new Liverpudlian workaways, Craig and Hannah. Keen to try their hands at anything, Craig is like the Duracell Bunny and Hannah has already demonstrated many talents, being gifted at both digging the potager and cleaning. We look forward to another four weeks with these two.

The kittens are now six weeks old and growing up fast. We have hopefully found homes for all of them, thanks to the wonderful website, Le Bon Coin – the French equivalent of  Gumtree. Ebay isn’t big here at all so Le Bon Coin is king, selling everything from chickens to yachts.

India’s current favourite kitten is this wee one – named Coco by our Kiwi friend Allyson, who tried and failed to convince her husband they could take one home to New Zealand.

We still don’t know who’s the daddy. If I hadn’t taken Happy Cat here to be castrated myself I would put money on him. He does look as though he wants to eat them every now and then, though. Not sure if that’s a natural paternal feeling…

It’s official – new friends are good for the soul. Spending time with like-minded people, even if it’s just for a weekend, always fills me with fresh ideas and inspiration.

Just back from a wonderful weekend in Biarritz with the Guerilla Yogi himself, Marc Holtzman, and hosted by the lovely Rose Capagli (sitting, taking a photo), an Anusara-Inspired teacher like me. It was my first yoga training in French and could not have been more perfect. The sessions were taught in English and translated into French by translator and yoga teacher, Terence. For me, a week before I take my yoga to a wider French audience, it was manna from heaven. And around the frantic note-taking I also got to do some amazing yoga. Happy days.

I made some wonderful new yoga friends – from Belgium, Poland, France, Italy, Canada – and thoroughly enjoyed our bilingual conversations, flitting between English and French as if it was one language! Lunching on calamari tapas by the sea, I found it hard to believe I live just two hours away…

As with all good yoga courses, I came away filled with energy and fresh ideas. Perfect timing as next week I launch my new Happy Fitness timetable upon the good people of Maubourguet and surrounding villages. You can see the new timetable on the Happy Fitness page. Very exciting!

I am also making plans with a lovely new friend and fab Pilates teacher, Debbie Adams, who lives 40 mins away. We are busy planning the first of many Yoga/Pilates events for the local English-speaking community. Oh, and a final thanks to Thierry, who made everyone on the yoga course a CD of his group – Ocho Y Média. I have been listening to his incredible salsa/mambo/ska all day and can’t stop dancing!

I collected my hard-won ‘Carte Professionelle’ today and am now officially an ‘Educateur Sportif”, able to teach any group sport or fitness in France. It was a scary ride but I’m so glad I persevered and didn’t give up when the going got tough.

The going is tough at Happy Coulson at the moment as the weather is horrible. It is so cold that my roll-necks and big jumpers are out again. The kids even have hot water bottles tonight! The unseasonably wet weather means we’re nerve-wrackingly behind with all the outside jobs and are instead forced to spend days inside catching up on paperwork. Yuck.

We have been collecting piles of letters from various French government departments – social security, child benefit, the regime for self-employed people etc – putting off the day we tackle them…

That day arrived yesterday and I spent an incredibly frustrating morning on the phone (paying for EVERY call, even if after several minutes of music they said all the lines were busy and I couldn’t be connected!). The first few people I spoke to were so unhelpful that Chris had to calm me down (hello, role reversal). Then, thankfully, I got through to a wonderful monsieur who answered all my questions and made sure I understood exactly what I have to do next. The clouds lifted and all was well.

Today we took the children (Wednesday = day off) to our nearest city, Tarbes, for a seven-hour mission sorting out paperwork and buying supplies for the house. They were so well-behaved we took them to a fantastic Chinese buffet restaurant for lunch – only 11,80€ for adults and 8€ for kids. The kids had a ball – Tana reminded us it was our first meal out since last August and that was only at the local supermarket…

I’m feeling a little guilty as I’m heading off to Biarritz this weekend for a weekend of Anusara yoga with the amazing Marc Holtzman. It really is work as the sessions will be translated into French so I will be learning loads of new vocabulary for my classes. Convinced? Neither is Chris.

Lovely BBQ last night with pilgrims Maurice, from Québec, and Massa, from Tokyo. You won’t believe it but these guys are 66 and 67 respectively and Massa has walked more than 7000kms on trails like this.

It was wonderful listening to how Maurice and Massa had met during another pilgrimage several years ago and had stayed in touch. They decided to do the full Camino de Santiago together.

It is great for the children to sit down for a meal with people from so many different countries. We have already had 11 nationalities staying with us – French, English, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Belgian, Swiss, German, French Canadian, American and Australian.

We had a houseful last night, including Mark and Lynette Dagless, who have been staying with us as B&B guests for a few days. Mark worked with Chris in Norfolk and says he seems to have adapted very well to his new life in France!

Mark and Lynette have been all over the place in the last few days, visiting the mountains, Lourdes and Pau, flying home first thing this morning. Like us, they were horrified to experience the cold spell we’re having and cosy fires were the order of the evenings.

Oh my word. Most surreal meeting ever. Last night, I was invited to Acunca (www.acunca.fr), a fitness centre in a truly beautiful setting about 25 minutes away, to find out about teaching classes there. The studio is a wonderful space, with a glass wall overlooking trees and rolling countryside.

The meeting, of the ‘association’ which runs the centre, was supposed to start at 19h30 but actually got going at 20h30, not with committee business but paté, bread and wine. This was followed by local goat cheese. Then came a basket of gateaux dipped into what I thought was apple juice. It wasn’t.

Two hours, two glasses of wine and three glasses of cider later, and after several hotly debated agenda items (no decisions reached), it was my turn to speak. By this stage I could barely remember a word of French but managed to introduce myself and I was the topic of discussion for another half an hour.

I made my excuses and left the meeting in full swing at 23h00. Slightly unsteady on my feet and with none of my questions answered but with a new group of friends and an awakening insight into why things take longer in France. As it said on Acunca’s ‘Mot du jour’ noticeboard: “Rien ne sert de courir si l’on n’est pas pressé” (Pierre Dac). “What’s the point in running when you’re not in a hurry”. Brilliant.

The lovely Dutch cyclists who arrived less than an hour after we put a Happy Coulson sign at the end of our road!

These guys have cycled all the way from Holland and are following the Camino Santiago over the Pyrénées and into Spain. They arrived with us on Day 16, 1600kms in and averaging 100kms per day.

Busy bees at Happy Coulson this week. Our new workaway, Dave from Brooklyn NYC, is helping Chris put up the fences around the potager (veg patch) and chicken run. When that is finished, it will be all hands on deck to finish the concrete and tiles around the swimming pool so we can get the fence up and the outside shower built. It is wonderfully warm here now and summer is just around the corner so this has moved right up the priority list!

We were also joined by some real bees yesterday when a swarm appeared in our field. They hovered around a tree for a while before settling on a fence post near the orchard. There is an organic honey farm here in Lahitte so we presumed the bees had come from one of their hives. We had just decided to phone the farm the next day when a truck drove past piled high with hives.

We waved them down and told the two white-suited ladies about our swarm. They were very grateful and came this morning to leave a hive in the hope that all the bees will be in there by this evening. We can’t keep this hive but maybe one day…

First planting in the Happy Coulson potager: potatoes and onions. Serious teamwork with our French student, Claire, making the holes, Indy dropping in the tiny onions, Tana filling in the holes and Chris in the role of farm manager!

We have bought seeds for carrots and beans and Chris is going to plant the pumpkin seeds and lemon pips he has been saving for just this occasion. We also have a fig tree waiting to join our growing orchard of apple, pear, plum and abricot trees.

The weather is still unpredictable – in fact, we had to light a fire yesterday for the first time in ages. Today’s forecast is sunshine and lightning. Apparently no rain, just lightning. That will be interesting. But as of next week things definitely look up, with temps up to 23 degrees.

Another change at Happy Coulson… our new French car! Actually just our old car with its sparkly new French number plates. Now we really do get funny looks when people see us sitting on the wrong side!

There has been a steady stream of pilgrims calling in at Happy Coulson, unfortunately not all of them captured by us. After missing out on five in two days we now make sure we leave signs everywhere with mobile numbers and promises to be back soon.

Numbers of pilgrims are down on previous years due to the unseasonably wet and cold weather. Happily, though, it’s May tomorrow and I have been hearing this optimistic proverb all over the place: “En avril, ne te découvre pas d’un fil. En mai, fais ce qu’il te plaît”. So fingers crossed next week we’ll be doing just as we please and taking off all our threads…

Five visitors who have stuck around are the kittens born to Tinchy Stryper in the Happy Coulson shed. Now four days old, we will be doing everything we can to find them new homes but have been warned that it won’t be easy as it is kitten season and everyone has some to give away. Hence why our other female cat, Gizmo, was taken to the vet this morning for her ‘sterilisation’.

We also have our first French student, a charming 13-year-old called Claire, from Toulouse, who is staying with us for five days to improve her English. Tomorrow we’re going to do some yoga together and plant the seed potatoes, onions and carrots in our new potager.

Nervously waiting for our first real guests who we have never met before. The house is spotless and smells wonderful, thanks to Allyson’s pork and Armagnac casserole which is warming in the oven. Allyson has provided supper as the guests are her make-up artist and photographer, sent from Paris by the Australian Woman’s Weekly. Allyson is New Zealand’s answer to Delia Smith and is living in a nearby village for 18 months with her husband, Warwick, and children Jean-Luc (10) and Olive-Rose (5). Tomorrow she is doing a photo shoot for the magazine and we are all helping – with translation, pot-washing and childcare.

Allyson, Warwick and I had a trip out to Rabastens on Wednesday, in search of interesting backgrounds for the photographs. We met up with the marvellous Eric (Chris has a new beard icon) and raided his junkyard for old doors, shutters and tables. We also saw a stack of old cow yokes (‘joug’ in French) and instantly fell in love. Between us we bought the lot! I’m going to hang mine above the door of my new yoga studio (currently the barn) as the meaning of the word yoga is ‘to yoke or unite’. And it reminds me of my farming roots – for you, Dad xxx