Dear Diary....

.... I am sorry, I have been neglecting you again. But the big news is .............. we have accepted an offer on the house!!!!! Thanks to a private advert on the Le Bon Coin website a week ago, a lovely Belgian lady and her son visited the house on Sunday afternoon, came back on Monday and again on Tuesday and have totally fallen for the place! The notaire is currently drawing up the Compromis de Vente (the initial agreement for the sale) which we should all have signed by the end of the month. We are delighted and can now start our search for a new home. We have a tentative 'completion' date for the end of April which should be plenty of time for us to find somewhere new. Hurrah!

But in other news, the weather has been wonderful since the torrential downpours of two weekends ago. It has generally been shorts and T-shirt weather, with temperatures in the sun up into the low 20s. We have spent a few afternoons processing and stacking a good quantity of wood, just in case poor weather does arrive, although word on the street is that this warmth should continue well into December. I do hope so!

We have had a couple of good outings in the good weather, starting with a personal best time for the Col de Port route forestiere circuit, 7.9kms/270m+/46mins on which I was able to run the whole of the 2km long/200m elevation gain hill with relative ease, which I was delighted about.

A few days later, we headed up the steep zig-zag path above the Col de Port (20 minutes) and had a lovely run in the sun along the edge to the Rocher de Batail (1 hour bang on!) where we enjoyed lunch of homemade pizza and a fantastic view before a great run back down.

Our other outing last week was up to Mont Ceint from Coumebière which is one big long slog uphill (700m of height gain in 4.3kms) for which you are rewarded with some fantastic views of the high mountains bordering Spain - this is a stitched panoramic shot, courtesy of Andy, which is best viewed full screen!

The legs and lungs have been feeling good and strong on all of our recent outings which has been most encouraging - uphill is no longer a problem, which I never thought I would say. However, I now need to start increasing the distances that I am running as I have now entered the Trail des Citadelles 40km/2000m+ race which takes place on the 8 April. The longest I have run to date is the 26kms/1300m+ of the Trail de Piemont Audois race which I completed back at the end of March. I hope to be able to complete the Citadelles in 5h30m but that won't happen unless I get in some good time on my feet this winter!