The Hens are Innocent

Posted by Simon

I have been extremely busy over the last couple of weeks. Fencing, moving soil and various other works in the garden. One section that I was fencing was solid concrete so this had to be broken up and removed. Then this area needed filling with soil so nothing was as easy it should have been. We have also been coppicing over at our friends. This helps them clear a field and gets us firewood for next year, plus bean poles, pea sticks, hedge laying materials and a much needed washing line pole.

I have also carried on with the play/boule area. It now has a post and rail fence along the back of the area and we have then planted a Dogwood and Willow hedge, with three standard trees, next to the fence. Hopefully this will give us some winter colour.

I incorporated a bed for planting in this area and we decided it would be a good place to relocate the herb bed. We had originally put the herbs next to the pond and veg garden but it was not very convenient for nipping out to get some freshly picked herbs for cooking. Anyway Rosie and I moved the herbs and watered them in, but as usual, with plants that have just been moved, they looked rather sorry for themselves initially.

The next day we were looking at the herb bed and watched the hens as they discovered that there was lovely newly dug soil and thought this was great fun to dig over even more looking for food. At this point I said to Rosie "the herbs seem to have bucked up". Her reply of "I don't see what the hens have done wrong" seemed a little strange. "The hens? I was talking about the herbs, I said they have bucked up" "oh" says Rosie "I thought you said the birds have !#?*ed up!!!"

F1 Dinner

Posted by Rosie

Ben asked me a couple of days ago if I would make him a racing car dinner from his favourite cookbook - Big Cook Little Cook and today I remembered to get the right rolls to do it. It's fun what you can make with a couple of rolls, some ham, cream cheese, cucumber, apple and some paper. Needless to say they gobbled it all up very quickly and then asked for more.

At lunchtime the boys have school dinners. In France children either have school dinners or go home for a meal; pack lunches are not allowed. The children all sit down together and are served the meal, eating together like a large family. These dinners are not the cheapest - €3.02 per meal but they beat anything I have seen in English schools. Each meal is three courses together with the obligatory bread to mop up the juices. Today they had tomato and egg salad followed by Beouf Bourguignon, petits-pois and carrots with cheese and fruit compote for pudding. Thursday it's carrot salad for starter, roast pork for main and chocolate cream for pudding. The food is cooked fresh every day by Madame R, the cook and uses seasonal fruits and vegetables whenever possible.

Simon and I, in comparison had a baguette and some paté. I wonder if we can sign up for school dinners?

That's that out of the window then!

Posted by Rosie

Well I had today all planned but as with all the best laid plans .......

We were going to go up to a Boot Fair at Caen and then have a picnic on the beach. But, the Boot Fair has been cancelled and the weather had turned miserable and not at all picnic-on-the-beachable. Oh well - I've got some chicken out of the freezer so I feel a nice stew followed by rhubarb crumble might be in the offing. I wonder if there is a good family film on the box this afternoon?

On a brighter note though, I saw the first swallows of the year yesterday plus a single bluebell. The blackthorn is in blossom and the days are now getting longer than the nights. Mind you, there is that country saying of "Blackthorn Winter" i.e. when the blackthorn blossoms we are in for a spell of wintry weather. So, where is that tv remote control?.........

Water Filter Experiment

Posted by Rosie

The boys had an extra day off school today as the teachers were on strike. In fact it was a National Strike in protest of Sarkozy's handling of the economy although speaking with our neighbouring farmer, he thought many strikers just used it to have a day off work. But what-ever the case I still needed something to entertain the boys for a while so I could then spend the rest of the day getting on in the garden and Simon could get on fencing and soil moving. Neither boy has a very long attention span if I want them to help me garden and Simon, power tools and small boys is not a good combination!

Tom had had an acid rain science kit for his birthday so following on from that I helped them to set up set up a water filter experiment. The idea was to show how filtering dirty water could clean it up considerably - and the results were quite impressive.

First take a pot of water and make as dirty as you can - the boys added mud, sand, leaves, rubbish and grass. Mix well. Then make a water filter. We used a flower pot lined with newspaper and topped with layers of fine sand, coarse sand and pebbles. Pour the water through and see how clean it gets. The first filtration was a bit disappointing but by the third it was noticeably cleaner.

The boys were happy, their experiment had worked and they then left me alone to garden whilst Simon was able to finish the fencing and gate into Pignatius's pen without tripping over two boys who want to "help".

There's a pig in our living room!

Posted by Rosie

Pignatius is settling in to his new quarters, namely the part of the old barn that will one day become our living room!! Simon finished the fencing around his pen today and Pig spent the afternoon in the sunshine, gobbling up grass and no doubt planning his escape!

He is a Kune Kune pig, a breed which originally came from New Zealand and means fat in Maori. Despite nearly dying out in the 1970's they are now thriving. We hope to add to the numbers as in a few months Pignatius will be introduced to Isadora Duncan and Charlotte Rampling, two females currently residing at our friends. Hopefully they will ermmmmm ....... "make bacon" and we will have a good supply of weaners for meat and maybe to sell on.

Welcome Pignatius

Posted by Rosie

Today I travelled over to Brittany with a friend to collect our newest animal addition - a Kune Kune pig called Pignatius (Pig for short!). But I'm afraid you will have to wait until tomorrow for photos and more information as I need to cook dinner for Simon just now. He has been fencing Pig's new home all day and is starving hungry and the water for the pasta has just reached boiling point.

The Grande Match

Posted by Simon

Today is the 6 Nations Rugby Match between France and England. I have been invited down to my neighbours' to watch the match and to possibly shout at the referee. This will be done at different times to my neighbour and of course when he shouts at the referee I'll probably think the ref. is right!

So I thought I'd better take something English with me and I found some bottles of locally brewed English bitter and stout beer. And this morning I have been busy making crumpets, which are considered a good English product. So as well as hoping England win I'm hoping these will go down well.

And for lunch we are are having traditional Sunday Roast.

Bonne Chance Angleterre

Reprive for Hedge

Posted by Simon

I mentioned in a previous post that I had one more hedge to look into and my instinct was to completely rip it out and plant with new. This hedge is predominantly an old box hedge but has been neglected for donkey's years, was very over grown and in places rotting. Also it was full of bramble, ivy, self seeded elder and other trees. Plus full of old barbed wire, either stapled (one of my pet hates) or tied on to the hedge, and other bits of metal. So you can understand my reasoning to grub it out.

I mentioned this fact on the hedge laying course as I had already cut single odd bushes of box out of the hedges we were laying, as in my opinion it looks horrible like that, and I met a lot of opposition to my plan. Basically they were of the opinion that this poor Box had taken years to grow and should get a second chance.

Therefore, after having a good look at the hedge again, I have spent the last two days pulling out old fencing, bramble and trees. Chainsawing and hedge trimming, raking and dragging the off cuts and rubbish and I must admit I now have a pretty reasonable hedge. A bit thin and gappy in places and still quite a bit of ivy in it but it's not too bad - well at least on the side facing the house. As for the other side well it is rather brown looking - but it should eventually grow back. Lets hope so otherwise you know what happens to it! And that will be an even bigger bonfire then I need now. I also managed to to dig out some of the trees and have replanted these in existing hedges - so second chance for those as well.

If only

Posted by Rosie

If only I had thought about it when it took two of us to get the duvet cover and sheet on the washing line because it was so windy.

If only I had only put one of the above items on the line.

If only I had taken all of the washing off 5 minutes earlier (especially as it was dry).

Then maybe I wouldn't have a washing line that now looks like this .......

Is it the wine or the praise? Well it's gone to me head!

Posted by Simon

I'm sitting here on a Sunday evening, enjoying a glass of wine, after running the hedge laying course for the last two days. We had a really enjoyable couple of days and achieved all the hedge laying I had planned. I am really pleased with the results. Everyone seemed to find the course helpful and had a good time which makes it all worthwhile. Below are some of the email comments we received after the course.

Simon & Rosie - We all had a great and informative day. Renauld was messing with his hedge til dark. Fab. Thanks Doug

Thank you for a great day, Great food, Great company, and a Great course, good luck with everything, love Glynis & Charlie

Dear Simon & Rosie, Just to say thanks for today, we both enjoyed it very much, most informative & well run. Sean & Colin.

This time we had two French people on the course and they both enjoyed their day. Remy could remember his Grandmother doing something similar many years ago hence his interest. Both said they are going to try laying their hedges at their places - in fact it sound likes Renauld has already began.

Now I have to plant up any gaps with 'whips' (small trees). Also the area we hedge laid round is possibly going to have the pigs in this year so I am going to have to fence the area. This will also stop Saari getting into the vegetable garden, where she has been stealing the brassicas on a self serve basis.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb....

Posted by Rosie


In January I dug up a rhubarb crown, split it into two and potted them up into two large pots. These I placed in the polytunnel, surrounded by bales for warmth and large pots for darkness.


Even the rhubarb I am forcing outside is only just getting started where-as this is what the polytunnel crowns had grown to today.


It yielded this which was just enough for that long awaited crumble.

Work for play - eventually

Posted by Simon

I've been working hard on the boule/play area and have at long last got the sleeper edging in place and have levelled the area off. Also the section where the play tower is going had to be filled with topsoil. I seem to have been moving earth around for the last week and if not earth, sleepers. But I'm pleased with the result and now ready for the next stage(s) - to have 15 tonnes of crushed stone delivery, level and compact it across the boule area and then get the top surface stone and level this. Build the play towers and swings. Plant trees and hedging. Do other planting and finish other landscaping. Oh and put a fence along the back of the area as there is a 1.5 metre drop into the neighbours field. Not much more to do then?

As I needed more subsoil and topsoil for the above areas I have had to dig it out from an adjacent area. This has now been named the quarry and will eventually be filled with soil from other areas as required. The subsoil is quite stony and using this as a base material much reduces the need for so much crushed stone, hopefully saving us buying so much in. The plan is I should end up with one final hole - the swimming pool. Well that's the plan.

Now the quarry has given the boys great entertainment value. They have played and played in it and it has kept them amused for hours. Which makes me wonder why I need to build a tower for them, especially when Ben asks if the tower can be built in the hole. Em, a 2 metre high tower in a two metre deep hole - now that's novel!

In between time I have been getting ready for the hedge laying course, like last year, that we are running this Friday and Saturday. Rosie and I have been getting the binders and stakes from our friends place and I've started clearing the hedges out ready. We have 7 to 8 people coming each day so hopefully we can get a lot done. When these hedges are laid and the gaps planted up we have nearly restored all the hedges on the property. Plus we have planted new ones. There is one more hedge that needs a decision made about as it is completely overgrown with bramble and needs ripping out, but that can wait for another year.

And I wonder why I'm so knackered!

Black Gold

Posted by Rosie

Look what Simon has dug out of one half of the compost bin - a large dollop of lovely compost, also known as Black Gold. I have recently finished using the manure our neighbouring farmer delivered last year so this pile of compost has arrived at just the right time. Already I have used some of it to mulch the fruit bushes and it will be used to feed any number of hungry plants as the growing season progresses.

And talking of growing, with the sun out today the spring flowers looked fantastic. There were plenty of other signs of spring around everywhere - buds swelling, birds singing and I saw my first cowslip this morning.

All the time I was digging this afternoon I could hear a woodpecker drumming away down in the valley. No doubt the wood-boring insects which form much of its diet are being more active now making finding a meal somewhat easier than through the winter. I also know that the woodpecker I heard was a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, recognisable by the way it drums into the tree. For a Lesser Spotted you will hear a short burst of taps all the same loudness as the bird repeatedly hits the tree. (Tap tap tap tap) In contrast, a Greater Spotted Woodpecker will hit the tree really hard just once and the ensuing hits will be the vibration of this initial hit. (Tap tap tap tap tap). See - you learn something new every day!