Joan and Colin had one of Smudge's nine little Hudges (Not so little now though) born last year in April. They have a place out in France in the Alps region and send me updates of Alfie and the goings on in the Alps, which I feel are to good not to share.

"Hi Jane,
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​ seeing poor skunky bear made me laugh quietly as it looks like the some of the huddles have a great need to eat their toys! Alfie has skanky teddy which he loved so much he has to eat a little bit of it every day so i'm on daily patch up duties. The lovely rabbit you gave him as a puppy now bears no resemblance to a rabbit, having no ears, no face, and is covered by layers of Colin's old walking socks so all that is left is the squeak! It must be in the genes.

I find now thats its best to give him nothing with stuffing.... the best toys for him being kong squeaky balls inside a sock and tied at the end! He loves to play and spends quite a lot of time tossing his toys up and then pouncing on them... a joy to watch. 

He is enjoying his quartering activity up here in the mountains especially after a nice snow fall.I tried to film him yesterday, but my camera failed me... the batteries don't like cold so I need to get some special ones for cold conditions. Today we have full sun and blue skies, snow at our level has gone as quickly as it came, but on the mountain just behind us there is still and icing sugar dusting. 

We had a spectacular avalanche near us last week, you wouldn't believe the noise it made.... deafening , all safe for us tho'. Colin is outside now building a high retaining wall of local rock so I hope we have no more snow as he's determined to get it finished. 

The scenery this time of the year is spectacular as the shadows are very sharp and the grass is so green. The fields are full of yellow flowers, lots of dandelions but also celandine, coltsfoot, yellow anemones and masses of cowslips and primroses. and when they are peeping through the snow it's beautiful

There has been a lot of animal activity around us this spring. Last week we had 5 massive wild boars on the hillside opposite us, and we.ve also spotted eagles, buzzards, chamois, ibex and lots of small spring birds, crested tits, marsh its, blue tits, great tits, chaffinch, cuckoos, We even had a couple of swallows doing a reconoitering exercise last week but they departed very quickly as the flies will only arrive here when the cows come us!  I'm in my element here with binoculars and telescope at the ready!..... spring has definetely arrived! Hopefully the cows will come up next week, they are out in the fields at the foot of the mountain already, and the goats are out in the village.

We are a small scale cheese farming village mostly, although we get a lot  of walkers here too, as well as parapenters. The mountain behind us is called "The Tournette" We are even having the Tour de France come through the village this year which will be brilliant! We aim to be here for that! The village is called Montmin and it has its own small website with some nice photos.

I remember reading  one of your blogs from last year that one of Alfies litter mates spent some time at Annecy last year too, but I can't remember which one it was, and that he swam in the lake. I would love to contact his family to find out where they managed to let him swim, as a lot of the beaches around the lake don't allow it... it would be good to know for us.

In the meantime back to work doing some bread and cake baking for our visitors arrival this weekend.

Love and best wishes to you all

ps I'm loving the baking and cooking blogs. It looks like Florrie has a real talent.

Joan and Colin and not forgetting Alfie x"

I just received this video of the cows arriving today from Joan.

A few photos of Treacle's pups this morning now 18 days old. Cold here in Devon at the moment, but dry and bright. Jack Frost had been about this morning.