My goodness me how this year is flying by already and before we know it the time has come to plant seeds and pot-on, till the soil and allocate growing space. I have made two plans for the allotment one with my idea of the path going down the side of the plot and the other with Mike’s idea of having the path down the middle and guess who’s plan we are using. It actually makes good sense as Mike is the ground works department and he has the authority to choose whatever the configuration of the growing plots should be, because, he owns the keys to the tractor and the skill to use the cultivator. All I ask however is that he gets the keys and his skill out soon to get the job done before the vegetable seedlings decide to walk out in protest.
We took a day off on Friday to celebrate Anna birthday. The six of us have made a pact to celebrate all our events through out the year and Anna’s birthday was next so we packed picnics and bottles of bubbly and went to Carteret to walk along the cliff edge then we huddled around a picnic table in one of the millions of picnic areas that the French cherish as their right to a meal al fresco and en famille. When we arrived there was a stiff breeze and a mist on the sea to eliminate any chance of seeing the Channel islands but it was good to chat and walk and laugh and sing Happy birthday and then the sun came out and the afternoon was perfect
On Saturday we had a “two reasons” drive to the bottom of la Manche. We had planned to pick up an above ground swimming pool that Mike found on Anglo info and as it is all in English and the people who are selling are ex-pats of one type or another I had no input into the plans for our outing until Mike remembered that he had seen a commercial roller in Le Bon Coin not far from where we were heading so then I had to get involved to see if we could hit two birds with one stone. I made the call and got a very young voice who proudly announced that the rouleau was still for sale. My call was going well as he agreed to see us the next day at about midday and then I asked for his address for Lovely, the GPS and then the whole information transaction went into a steep decline when I was totally unable to understand a word this young man was telling me. I thought I was getting good at this address taking lark, such a simple activity but oh so fraught with difficulties. I had only managed to decipher from this deep agricultural French accent, two words menil and tove and the code, which, unlike the UK post code gives you an area of many kilometres to cover. Our 50500 code takes us into Carentan and out the other side so we know not to think it will help to hone in to a definite position. Mike got Lovely out of her case and started to put in the info we had and like magic the address jumped up and she programmed herself for a two hour drive and promised to know exactly where we were going. We like a run out in the car and we like it even more when there is purpose and I have mentioned before that we have our board meetings in the car and get a lot of stuff off our chests and plans are realised quite quickly. 
Mission accomplished, a large unopened box in the car with a 12x24 foot swimming pool and a trailer loaded with the most divine all metal, all singing and dancing agricultural roller. Did I sound a little too enthusiastic? Well so sorry but I am, we have had our eye on one of these for ages and decided it had to be cheap and with the two deals in the same area we guessed it was all worth while.
The young voice was a young farmer who is an apprentice on another farm during the week and he works with his Dad on their farm at the weekends. I have renewed hope for the next generation when I come across a youngster like him. I handed over the dosh and he carefully counted it to the last euro in front of me and that I admire, and I can only guess he had observed his Dad counting the lolly throughout his life and thought nothing of it. So there we have it, Mike can now roll away the indents the JCB has made to the lawn and I can swim in my garden, what more can you ask for.
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