Ooh errr

totally new to this idea! Have always been a fan of paper but in line with my new green image I need to save a few trees! Please bear with me as I get used to how this works.
So, who am I? A middle aged women with middle aged spread, grandmother of three, mother of three and married to the man I met when I was sixteen! Something to celebrate do you not think?
I qualified as an SRN in 1978, the same year I married. I took early retirement at the age of 50 and moved to Normandy in France. And there the adventure began!
I was a townie with all mod cons. Two pedigree cats and a large disposable income. We bought an almost derelict farm built in 1832 in 2007. A main house and a collection of barns, big and small. With this came an acre of land. Along with waist high weeds, brambles and ivy.
We did a bit on our house, converted the upstairs hay loft into two bedrooms and bathrooms and putting in a staircase. We formed the kitchen from three bedrooms and removed the kitchen from the lounge. We have a wealth of big oak beams which I love. We removed the downstairs bathroom that will one day be a study come craft room. Then the French government decided early retiree expats were not allowed access to the health system. So phase two began. We had to create a business and pay enough tax to get cover. After a lot of work, money and angst last year we launched Gite number one. It opened in May and we had fourteen weeks booked! The Gite is a small ( but beautifully formed) one bedroomed place for couples ( and up to two dogs). This is one end of a large cow barn and milking parlour. This year we have 17 weeks booked. The rest of the barn is well on the way to becoming two more small Gites. Our business is born!
The other side of this is how much I have changed! I will talk about this in later blogs.
I hope this will be of interest to someone. There are so many blogs around now. I will sort out some pictures too if I can work out how.