Failing Miserably!

I have to admit, at this early stage, to being a MISERABLE failure in the Cat Herding business. I used my best falsetto to call the FOOD< FOOD< FOOD call that the hosts insisted would bring them all running, and it did for a bit, and then they all tore off outside again. I tried keeping them inside, but they obviously wanted to be outside again, to do their post dinner 'business' and so we are missing three of the 6. Heck! What am I supposed to do now? The cat door is still open, but I have the door into the kitchen closed so that those already inside, cant go back outside. Not that I think they will, as they are looking pretty comatose, to be frank.
I took this photo earlier in the day when Jolly (left) and Holly were all snuggled up together. Holly reminds me of my last cat, Zippo.

Here are the others.
Scruffy is a Maine Coon Cat, super fluffy, a real lover and lap cat and plays 'fetch'. She went straight up the tree when she went walking with us.

 Cocoa has gorgeous stripes, and probably Siamese parentage. A bit scary, she is currently MIA!
 Scruffy on the ground for a change. She is the one that gets onto high things. She is often found on the table and counter...she gets short shrift from me on both counts.

 This is Alfie. He is a large young man but is a real cuddler, a bit aggressive when he wants loves, and is happy to push the others out of the way to get them. He has a pretty face with interesting ginger markings.

 Jolly is a tripod cat. He is missing his left rear leg, but this doesn't appear to slow him down much. He is a real lover, and the eldest in the crowd. He is currently all snuggled up with Holly, the other black and white cat.

We are missing Elsa, who is a gorgeous light  brown striped moggy, and one other, I cant remember, right now. Heavens!
We rose around 8.30am, slowly dressed and made our way downstairs hoping not to be in the way of our hosts who were busy putting their lives together for the next three weeks. We took a look outside and found the sun rising high in the sky, happily. The little maple outside the kitchen door is stunning in it's fall foliage and looks stunning against the blue shutters and white house.

When our hosts had departed, we did a little tidying up and made a long list for the supermarket.
We are always amazed at how little we spend for so much. $120 bought us a treasure trove of tastes. He is a photo of our 2pm lunch. Pain Cereal...grain brown bread...this one cut already. French butter, which is rather at a premium currently, a gorgeous blue cheese, Duck pate, and a bowl of butternut soup. The perfect kind of meal. We finished with a cup of tea and a Chocolate Madeleine. The latter is made just up the road in their factory.

 We love the price of this Duck pate.

 I still put butter on my brown bread before adding blue cheese. Talk about cheese overload...we could have bought the whole case-full.

 This large wheel of blue cheese was only 3.69 euros.

 We finished our lunch of soup and bread with pate and cheese, with a cup of tea and a Madeleine with chocolate on the bottom. They taste like egg sponges with chocolate on the bottom. Just what they are, really.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning, walking outside with the cats in tow, and getting acquainted with the property and house. It always takes  a few days.

We met two other couples in the supermarket, who speak English. They had been in these parts for 10 and 17 yrs respectively. It was good to be able to ask them about the best products and where would I find...? etc.
So much fun finding what we want for about a week, in the supermarket. We bought three new bags there, which we use at home in Florida, for our groceries, among other things.

We plan to go tiki-touring in the next day or two. Plenty of places to go. Some Chateau, and some more rock faces.

We have BBC TV to watch, so we will go and watch some news programs shortly, and catch up on what is happening in the rest of the world.
My Cappucino is now finished, and I feel tired. I didn't sleep too well last night. We are sleeping in the traditional European way with a douvet as our top cover. No  tucked in sheet, as we do at home, which stops Waz from stealing the whole duvet. He swears I am to blame for that happening, but I remember getting up in the middle of the night to  redistribute the duvet, lol. There will be more of these 'debates'!

Au  Revoir. Im off to relax for a bit....after I have had another operatic moment out back to see if the cats are listening. If they aren't, we will leave the cat door open in, but they wont be able to get back out, in the middle of the night. There is food and a dirt box in the kitchen area, so they will be fine. The rest of the moggies will be sent downstairs to the sous-sol (basement) and there they will stay until morning.

Night night.