Soropila,Basque Country, France

Immaculately kept crops surround us, dispersed amongst grand ye olde castle type buildings, standing proudly within the captivating landscape as proud beacons, with their uniformed exteriors of cream paint work contrasting so luxuriously with the crimson wooden painted shutters. The air is freakishly warm, despite being surrounded by abundances of Autumn leaves, and our northern endured brains telling us we should be freezing our butts off by this stage in the year. And although blue skies mainly been belt down upon our elated exploratory ways, there in the distance circling the great peaks of the Pyrenees exist temperamental stormy clouds + spinning sockets of changing air drifts that occasionally scatter by in swings and swirls of exciting atmospheric moodiness..

So we are here at Soropila, and it is just like paradise. For two or three weeks we will be living and working here. Working in exchange for living; everybody wins. It's like a palace, our new home, or maybe even bigger. Endless rooms and staircases, big dusty bookshelves holding a never ending library of early great literature and huge wooden windows jotting out in all directions, framing their own perfect view out into the bumpy hills. We are surrounded by various animal choruses and if we listen hard enough, we are sure that we can hear the dozen or so donkeys that live up the road. More immediately though, three purring cats, pander around our feet and let us cuddle and stroke them as much as we want to.

Work begins tomorrow, so today was spent exploring the extensive grounds + pootling into the gorgeous little village. We walked up some blustery hills and sighed with relief that at last, things were beginning to fall into place. It is already apparent that feeding times will take on a fine feasting form, with numerous additions for plentiful plate action in the form of steaming wholesome food mainly picked from the garden. Full bodied local Basque red wine creates an inevitably much welcomed addition to the table, as does the interesting chatter with our great hosts, Jane and Tony.T [who j u s t to happens to be the brother of my hero Annie.T]. We can't wait for it to begin, I'm look forward to pulling my sleeves up.