let our harmless hitch hiker out.

The epic story of the job that creates another job is over and instead of all the rain water from both sides of our huge roof draining off  here!! and creating a big puddle, it will now cascade down the plume and splash into the ditch on the other side of the garage wall. Mike has had to dig his way through two foot wide walls, negotiate his way past different ground levels and then patch it all up so that it works, and today it rained and …it does .

Whilst we are worried about where the rain water will go to save us from damp walls and flooded court yards we are just a bit miffed that we are loosing the water in the pond. By this time of year we should be full up  to the willow tree. We have watched the waterline go down to quite scary levels this summer so I chatted up one of the farmers to see if this was normal and he gave me a worried look and sucked in through his teeth and said that by now the ditches should be full and that confirms that we don’t have a leaky pond just a very low water table. We will welcome any rain now better still if we can have a  biblical torrent and get things back to normal.

We got the call from Jacqueline to say that the cider was ready but when I told her that part of our working party was still in the UK she  set off on one,  lamenting the moon was in the right quarter to bottle and if we didn’t go in the few days all would be lost. She then cast a spell on me and all I could say was “We are on our way”  Four of us were ready with our bottles washed and dried and after we had jovially filled, corked and wired a few hundreds bottles between us we set off for a picnic on the Avenue in Brevands. Bottling this year then will be in two parts, and there will be no difference I am quite sure

…..or am I !!!

Mike pulled down the sun visor in the car the other day at speed, we were dashing along the N13 and when we looked up there was the biggest and  most horrible spider building a nest and not happy with the intrusion. I  am not that bad about spiders but in a closed space at 70 miles an hour and him on the move gave for interesting squeaking and squealing noises and then our thoughts went out to the kids in Australia and giggled ourselves to a stop to let our harmless hitch hiker out.   

Still be there in another 30 odd years.

8 Rue Bucaille, Brevands

A house has been on this site since 1750

Last month we took a pumpkin over M et Mm Leboulanger, the people we bought our home from four years ago. We have kept in touch and last time they were with us I showed them the pumpkin patch and Ginette ooohed and ahhed and I promised I would bring one to her in October. During our visit to their third floor flat in Carentan they showed us again the pictures they had taken of the house when they bought it in 1977 and a few precious shots of the work in progress which we now understand took 10 years to finish. They talked about moving in during the late 80’s whilst Mike and I were busy making a family and living in our little cottage on the London Road in Bracknell. 

This is 8 Rue Bucaille in 1977, sitting by the pond is Eugene in the blue shirt. He bought the property for the land in order to keep cows, he was a butcher and wanted to rear his own. The land is now our garden but in 1977 it was a farm and with it came an old farm house and by all accounts it was in a bit of a mess. Eugene and Ginette then took on the task of renovating this house and for that we are very grateful.

The house was pretty much taken apart as they wanted to put height in the upstairs rooms and added an extra meter on before reconstructing the roof

We have 1980’s inner beams throughout and in the next picture you will notice that the beams actually went in the opposite direction. We know that one of the beams from upstairs was made into the mantelpiece in the kitchen so Eugene was frugal and careful throughout the build.  They once told us that all the wood that came out of the original house went into the wood shed and it took them five years to burn it all.

Here is the aspect which looks over our polytunnel. The upstairs hole is our side bedroom window and the bottom hole is the lounge window. We have been keen to look into these pictures to learn a bit about the build We can see that the door in our bedroom is in the same place.

You can see where the builder has added concrete blocks to lift the roof height. In the loft it is  clear  where the old roof used to come to and we have always  wondered how they actually achieved it, well there’s the proof.

All the windows and doors have stayed in their original position and Ginette said that they were really keen to keep the look of the house the same but make it grander and bigger, and I think they succeeded.

This picture was dated Autumn 1991 and we presume they were already moved in and had just finished installing the gates which still look as good now as they did then.

Here is Eugene, reconstructing the pond. We know this was before 1991 as the gates are not there but we were interested to see what it looks like  blow the water level. It all looks very solid I think it will still be there in another 30 odd years.

there may just be profit to be made.

Lets start on a jolly note and, “love a chicken” The girls are let out of their enclosure now and then to forage through the potager but Mike is getting a bit fed up with their successful escape plans and the kicked up mud all over the path but I am much more tolerant and find all of that stuff endearing. This is my oldest hen one of our first purchases when we moved in and she is still looking gorgeous, not laying eggs, but still looking gorgeous.

We have had a week of, one job leads onto the next, starting with a trip into our barn to deal with a heap of kitchen units Graham had thrown out of his barn. I think Graham expected us to put the units on the bonfire last week but we have seen possibilities in them  and HOSS for one has benefited from these chuck outs and has a lovely cupboard in his room to keep all that dry food behind closed door and away from the pesky  cats who send him nuts by stealing his food.. HOSS still loves his cage and when the cover is on he knows it is night time sleep and when it’s up he can come and go unless he is in the dog house and then we close the cage door, and that means he is really in trouble.

The other cupboards were destined for the garage and Mike decided he needed to make a new concrete plinth to put them on. We had the ballast so all we needed was a bag of cement so the job was organised until he decided to take up the floor tiles to make it easier to lay the concrete then he decided we should perhaps dig it out and put in a drain pipe to evacuate the back yard when it rains and then he decided to see where the rain water from our large roof goes and then decided he had bitten off more than he should be chewing and the simple little job, is a mammoth task

and now, he is digging trenches and laying pipe and smothering his wonky knee with pain killer gel. We had a good routine, work in the morning and rest in the afternoons and I can see this being flouted to get the job done.

I went to trim the lavender today, saw that the cultivated blackberry was layering new growth and ended up potting 36 young plants and at five euros in the shops there may just be profit to be made.

isn’t that amazing.

Yesterday afternoon we started to prepare for our belated bonfire party and frankly it felt more like setting up for a summer BBQ. We were working in shirtsleeves and I could not help but stop and marvel at the quality of light and how everything in the garden still looked vibrant.  Our guests were due to arrive at 7:30 and as we sat out just us two in the warm November breeze clutching a cup of mulled cider, I suggested Mike light the fire so that we don’t have a mad panic with out of control furnace and a crowd of people standing around watching me running about clutching fire blankets and extinguishers which actually is the norm for me when Mike decides to light any size of bon fire

Graham and Ann arrived with a swanky dressed Guy fawkes and I heard Mike comment that the guy was better dressed than him. We waited for our token children guests  to turn up before we pulled Graham off BBQ duties and then onto guy burning duties. You can see that the fire was well down already I think my out of control fire phobia had taken it’s toll but our friends understood where I was coming from and I think I was forgiven for not have a roaring and frankly ridiculous fire to step back from in fear of  being frazzled.

We tried to keep things really simple and opted  for the traditional French feast of sausage in a baguette, lots of nibbles my special mulled cider and lashings of wine. You can see that  despite putting out loads of seating we all bunched together in a huddle around the bar and food table chatting and listening to cassettes of old French crooning music. At the appropriate time Mike set off with the Oakes lads to set off the fireworks which at great expense was a loud and bright display that only lasted for fifty four seconds. Good thing really as I had not paid attention to HOSS who ran to me when they set off  lay on the ground and barked like a possessed hound , I won’t be doing that again.....

When some of the guests went home those left decanted to the kitchen to warm  up on coffee, cake and when Mike opened our treasure trove of a drinks cabinet the whole event kicked up a few notches and we sat around my beloved table both French and English laughing and making mad conversation until the wee hours. Two in the morning to be precise, and then Mike and I went back up into the garden to bring back all the left overs. I sat out watching over the remains of the fire and in wonder of this fabulous November weather. We have had the proverbial duvet day today and I have just taken HOSS for his last walk and scraped over the fire only to see that after 24 hours it is still alight and giving off heat…isn’t that amazing.

we were snowed in.

Gardening is a great pastime, relaxing, good exercise, exciting and amazing, but today it was also sad. Today, we had to cut down the row of conifers we have been growing since 2006, and for all of you who know your dates, yes, we had these trees before we even came to Brevands. They arrived on the removal lorry in pots stacked up amongst the fridge and washing machine so  I did feel a little guilty and sad but once Mike had sawed them down I was excited with the actuality of a clear view into the allotment and the prospect of the land handed back to me being full of flowers and stuff we might eat. Mike is on light duties so we will have to wait to load this huge pile of tree into the trailer but I have the land back and I can now start planning my 2012 veggie patch 

The chickens have settled well into the pottager and I am training them to come to me when I want them back in the enclosure. They are clearing the autumn leftovers and feeding themselves so we don’t have to. I am not going to grow outside of the poly in the pottager so anything there is for them to forage. I always wanted to shout “come on chicky chic chics, come on” and have them respond so I am thrilled that when I go clucking about in  there  they come for  a handful of corn and then I trick them into the enclosure to shut the gate on them. Luckily hens have a very short memory and the trick of shutting them in is a constant surprise to them ……the power I have over those hens is intoxicating

Mike came up into the allotment last week with a bit of a face on and said “ good news or bad news,  I demanded the bad news first, Your duck is dead, “so what is the good news”…one less duck to feed and the reality of living with the wild and untamed was accepted, The duck was a female dressed as a male, blind in one eye and as old as the time we have been here, so her time was up and as we had only borrowed her from mother nature we  said our goodbyes and threw her into the hedge row for nature and all she looks after to  make use of her and close the cycle. We dispose of all our passing visitors that way, it makes sense  and feels right, from where we are here in the middle of it all.

I will not explain this picture but the autumn pumpkins in the back ground will give it away. Daffs in November…..absolutely ridiculous…but quite inexplicably exciting, We are all waiting to see what  winter has got in her plan for us. I am however, reminded that in three weeks time last year, we were snowed in. 

UK shopping list for next time…!!

What’s going on in the Kitchen……Eric and Gill came for the weekend from Port Solent and as we were invited to a Halloween Party it was time to step up to the plate and make use of those abundant pumpkins from the garden

We made three and we sent one to Marianne and Ray’s to prepare for their ghoulish party. I promised to make an aperitif dip and at the last moment I had to ring my Mum to remind me what needed to be done but I can’t tell you or I will have to kill you, it is now a very closely guarded secret, only Ann and I  know about it over here in France.

I have a very strict rule about fancy dress, OK, go ahead and play along but don’t go Ugly so Mike went in his tuxedo, nearly Dracula, and I just hung fluorescent skeletons from my earrings, not too ugly then. The rest of the guests came looking ugly, scary and I don’t know how I slept that night. I got a mail from my mate Shirley who wrote “dear funny fanny and James….It took me a minute to decipher the code but she was referring to us, arriving all  suave 007 and fab and them looking like they had just fallen off  Jackson’s Thriller film set.

As always our visits are over and it is time to send our guests home, Eric and Gill were one of our first visitors four years ago and although we have seen each other every year in other places we were pleased to welcome them here and what a difference they have seen. There was lots of ohhing and ahhing and you all know how much I love that!!

And lastly…Mike needed to buy a halogen light bulb for his spot lamp. We are planning our bonfire party and he wanted to light up the Willow tree and throw some atmosphere about. We looked on the Internet and found a company in the UK who sold them for £1.67 but would not post them because they are delicate. I then went on the hunt here in France and, WOW, I found a supplier in St Lo, only problem is, they cost  16€   …HOW CAN THAT BE…..so it’s halogen bulbs  on the UK shopping list for next time…!!