“the metal ball game”.

HOSS found his soul mate when Josh came to stay, they played in the garden chasing balls running from one end of the garden to the other. I caught them here taking time out just sitting together. For Mike and me  it was a good test of HOSS’s good temperament with a full-on energetic youngster around the house and we were full of  pride in the way HOSS behaved.  I took Mia, Kiera and Josh for a walk around the block and bumped into a number of neighbours who were keen to say hello so at least Mia and the kids got to hear a bit of French and HOSS showed off what a good boy he can be by just waiting for all the niceties to finish so he can get on with his walk.

As you have seen on previous blogs our sunflowers are a huge success this year.  I am determined to grow a square of them next year so I can walk through them. The arrival of a keen young family on site asking what they can help with was music to my ears and a morning de-seeding sunflower heads so that Mike can dry them and then add them to the menu for winter bird fat balls, went down a treat

Everyone got a head as big as your face, we all worked in silence and the concentration was palpable. Mia lives in London so the whole Brevands experience was just one big, WOW. Pulling thousands of seeds from sunflower heads with the prospect that each seed is potentially a plant as big as it’s mother was an amazing realisation. For me of cause it meant that I didn’t have to spend hours processing these giants myself, so good job done.. A gang like this at work is like a gift from heaven and it did not stop there. They all donned their gardening gloves and went right through the allotment on a weed hunt  and then I had three keen as mustard wheelbarrow drivers to take all the weeds to kitten corner where  the cuttings can rot down and not spread weed seeds around our precious cultivated areas.

Sadly it is all too soon over and we drove our happy and tired gang back to Cherbourg to catch the fast ferry back to the UK.   Both Mike and I were pleased to see the garden being used for play and fun, we sat and drew one of the gardens whilst Mike mowed around us  and then we played boules, or as Josh calls it “the metal ball game”.