Now that exam marking has been finished, I have had the chance to catch up with a few other things that were outstanding, like applying for a Postal Vote for the upcoming Australian Election and doing some design work on the new house we will be building on the tree farm at Kanumbra (yes that’s right, we will now be living on a barge called Kanumbra in France, and living in a house at Kanumbra in Victoria!). The tree farm was established in 2008, when we planted about 60 hectares of trees on the 160ha property at Kanumbra, which is about 40 minutes north of Taggerty. The “photo” below, created in Google Maps using the tilt feature, shows the treefarm in the foreground, and our Taggerty home location in the background, about 40km to the south near the foot of the Cathedral Range. The new house location is on the cleared location at the right of the treefarm near the front gate to the property.

After lunch, we decided to visit the nearby town of Auvillar, because of its beauty and also because of the art/sculpture gallery which we thought would be of interest to Jackie. So we headed out through St Nicholas de la Grave onto some quiet country lanes to enter Auvillar from the south. As always, the view over the River Garonne to the adjacent countryside was stunning.

The circular grain market building in the centre of the town square was also as intriguing as ever, and made you think of just what life was like in this town in centuries gone by. This year there was a new feature in Auvillar, with several Jean-Louis Toutain “fat lady” sculptures (similar to those near the Abbey in Moissac) spread about town. We hope this is just a temporary exhibition, since there are far too many of them and they really don’t go all that well with the "natural sculptures" provided by the old buildings in the town. Maybe one or two, but not a dozen - time will tell!

After walking around town for a while, soaking up the ambience, we went to the art gallery, but found it closed. The owner had left a note on the door saying to phone him if we wanted to go inside, but since it was a Monday, we decided not to bother him, and to come back another day. When we got home, Rita and Jackie took to the garden again, and their work was starting to bear fruit. Compared to the situation a week ago, at left below, the garden was now looking much neater, with many weeds removed, the paths made visible, the soil turned, and the herb garden started.