Ruthie insisted on a traditional steps photo for Max’s first visit to Le Petit Marais. He had a great time throwing sticks off the treehouse, playing on/off, on/off, on/off….. with the fountain and hurling himself fearlessly into the Moody pool. Shame about the weather.

Codgers love tradition which means doing exactly the same as last year unless the Maire has banned them. Last year Le Patron brought along some of his finest preserves so in October……

If you go to www.figsinwigs.com you will find other Petit Marais based videos from Suzanna Hurst and the Queen Mary’s team who are currently in Edinburgh on the Fringe.

The tree house was built by the Codgers a long time ago and its floor had rotted and rungs on the ladder kept snapping under your weight. Not a good look for a tree house. A few decking boards b(r)ought from B&Q and a few hours later and it was restored ready for Spike.

For a long time the landline at Le Petit Marais was hopeless and getting worse. Many men came and looked and merely complained it was my fault because of so many tree obstructing the line. One day Allan turned up to discover the pole had snapped off and was lying in the road. The call centre still denied there was a problem but eventually called a man who called another man who called another man until there were five men and three vans – one with a cherry picker. Works perfectly.

Steph was fishing off the jetty and caught this french type fish that isn’t a trout or a roach or a chub – the giant from the deep that attempted to remove it from the line was a pike. I have that on the authority of Steve ‘two kingfishers’ Connor, Steph’s dad.