Well I have to say ....

Posted by Rosie

...... that I think we will be glad to see the back of July. It really has been a duff month for us.

Today I went to dig the spuds - I had seen blight on them last week, so cut off the tops and left the tubers in the ground for a week to ripen a little more. I wish I hadn't as when I came to dig them I was met with the tell-tale rot and stink that is blight destroying the tubers. It seems to have hit one variety (Ratte) almost completely, the Charlottes less so and the Desiree (I hope) not at all. To rub salt into the wound though, it was the Ratte that had the most tubers where-as the Desiree and Charlottes yielded only about a third as many potatoes.

And this at the end of a month that has seen one thing after another go wrong. For several weeks we had no Internet phone, the washing machine is broken, the printer has died and the replacement is refusing to feed the paper through. When Simon went to mow the grass yesterday, the sit-on mower refused to start. We have also been landed with an obscenely large tax bill for the renovation work we have planned which might explain why so many french buildings are left to fall down and tonight Simon came in to say the hydraulic arm on the digger has snapped.

July - you really have been very cruel. Come on August - be a bit kinder to us please.

As Happy as a Pig in ...........

Posted by Simon

........love. His woman has at last arrived and what a happy pig Pignatious - Boris (Monsieur le Maire) is; he was very pleased to see her. It was love at first sight - for him. But I'm afraid that Boris is going to have to work on those chat up lines. Isadora (please don't blame me for the names) was having none of it and by the look of it, is keeping him waiting. But he is following her around like a love struck teenager. Time will tell and maybe there will be the sound of tiny trotters soon?

And some French neighbours were around yesterday and we were having difficulty explaining why the pig is named Boris - Monsieur le Maire. With the aid of Google images we were able to show them - they understood. I daren't say more!

Reasons to visit Lénault in July

Posted by Rosie

Festivals and Fairs

At the beginning of July we went up to Bayeux for a Medieval Fayre. The town was full of people dressed in traditional costumes, there were exhibitions of cooking, falconry, dance and music and a large area where everyone could play typical medieval games including the chance to have a go at stilt walking!! The town was also turned over to a massive market selling a huge array of goods - most with a link to times gone-by. Unfortunately we had forgotten to take our camera on the day but if you click on this link, there are plenty of photos of the event.

And if the Middle-Ages are not your thing the area is sure to offer something of interest to you. There are simply hundreds of festivals and fairs of all sizes and on all subjects - e.g. photographic exhibitions, free concerts, street theatres, fetes to celebrate local produce, nature events and agricultural/organic shows. This web page gives a taste of things on offer (and it can be translated into English if your French is a bit rusty!!). Of course these are not restricted to July - in fact there are things to do and see here all through the year and there is sure to be something to interest you.

No time for Gite

Posted by Simon

What with going away and the poor weather we had before I went the grass was very long on my return. So I decided to have a good hit on the garden - grass cutting, hedge trimming and various other jobs. This meant that work on the gite stopped. We also found the neighbours cattle were escaping and going into the other half of our new field so I have fenced it then strimmed and raked the long grass. It's not that we minded the cattle coming in but they eat the grass and flatten it, which makes it difficult to strim/cut. Anyway it was a job that I can cross off my list - albeit earlier than planned.

Going to check the sheep had been a pleasure as the half of the field was a lovely wildflower meadow and was abundant with butterflies. It was due to be cut back soon anyway as the wildflowers had nearly all got over and the butterflies which had populated it had gone elsewhere.

Rosie has been very busy in the vegetable garden we now getting an array of lovely fresh veg and fruit. Hilda, the duck, has been sitting for nearly 40 days now and it look like the eggs are dead. The chances are very low for ducklings.

We have had friends staying for the last few days so we have been spending some time with them and showing them around the place. Including trips to the market, some walks, swimming and a trip to Festy Land (link to earlier post).

And some really good news - Ben had his plaster off last Thursday. Three weeks earlier then expected. He hardly complained about his arm but was starting to get fed up with it. Now he's making up for lost time. Going swimming, having water fights or playing in the bath were top of his 'I want to do' list.

Animal Update

Posted by Rosie

As promised here are a couple of photos of our latest additions. First the turkeys - all growing very nicely and looking slightly less scraggy then when I bought them. They do have names but I can't tell them apart - the 3 bigger ones are Zigomar, Pipi-o-lit and Flappy. The 5 smaller ones are ......... Turkey 1, Turkey 2, Turkey 3, Turkey 4 and Turkey 5!!



And now meet Scarlet and Pimpernel. Scarlet is at the front - smaller ears, less spots and her sister is Pimpernel behind - bigger ears and a spotty bum!! They seem to have the combined look of both intelligence and naughtiness so I believe they could be pretty entertaining to look after.










And I HOPE top be able to show you duckling photos very soon. Today is DH Day (Duckling hatching) and Hilda has been brilliant, sitting tight for the last 35 days. So I suppose we shall find out very soon if Harold played his part or not. And if he didn't we'll head to the market and buy some day old ducklings for her to adopt. Am I excited? You bet!!!

And Barney Came Too

Posted by Simon

Tom, Ben and I have been on a short trip to see Sally in UK. Rosie stayed here to look after (and increased numbers of) the animals. It was the Whatstandwell 6th Annual Beer Festival, on the Saturday evening and, of course, I had to be dragged, shouting and screaming, to it! It was a good evening with some really good bands playing, although the one I wanted to see had been and played by the time we arrived. Although it did rain rather hard for the latter part of the evening.

During our stay I took the boys to the Farm and Adventure playground at Chatsworth and they had a great afternoon playing. Tom spent a happy hour playing in the sand and water area especially with the Archimedes's Screw. This is while his younger brother hurled himself around on big slides and trampolines. I wasn't sure about some of Ben's exploits with his arm in plaster but it was impossible to stop him and in fact he was very careful.

We also visited the Crich Tramway Museum, which was having an Edwardian Weekend, with people dressed up in period costumes. We had a lovely time going on various trams and watching the events. They also have a woodland walk and a small children's play area which the boys enjoyed. Sally and I discovered the old sweet shop selling all the sweets we loved as children. Don't remember them being that sweet!

It was a busy weekend and we returned home yesterday. One of the highlights for me was the delicious Fish and Chips from Crich.

And Barney - well he came everywhere with us, including the play area.

Animals, animals, animals

Posted by Rosie

I was woken this morning to hear odd scratching noises outside and a dog whimpering inside. I came downstairs and let Saari out thinking she must have been desperate. No. She wanted the mouse that Henry was playing with under the car (that, I assume was the scratching noise). Poor mouse, now it had 2 large evil beasts playing with it so I intervened and put it out of it's misery, much to the disgust of Henry and Saari.

Back inside there were more noises - a light tapping sound which I traced to the woodburner. INSIDE the closed woodburner was a young pied wagtail, calming tapping on the front glass. It must have fallen down the chimney. So I evicted Henry (who was still sulking after the mouse incident), opened the windows before opening the woodburner to allow the little captive to escape which it did with great peeps of delight.

10 minutes later Henry must had thought feline Christmas had arrived early as a swallow flew into the house, right over his head. Realising it's error it tried to fly out again through the now closed window. Quick as a flash, Henry was there. I'd robbed him of a mouse, I wasn't going to rob him of a swallow. Not quite as quick as a flash I was there too; I grabbed Henry and managed to hold him whilst I got the window open and the swallow flew out.


Henry is really sulking now!!


Wild animals aside, our animal numbers are up again. I bought 5 more turkeys at the market last week and our weaners arrived on Saturday. But I'm afraid you'll have to a wait for photos as Simon is in England with the boys at the moment and he has the camera. (The photo is an old one of Henry showing him in his favourite pose!)

Time Flies

Posted by Simon

I've just seen that it is two weeks since I've done a blog. Well I'm still here and now wondering where the time has gone.

Well I have been plodding on with the gite and have finished the beams and joists. Today I finished digging out the lower ground floor. I found it was easier, on the poor old muscles, to do a little each day rather than in one one hit - I know 'poor old boy'! This area is for the proposed living/dining room. The next stage is for the hempcrete floor, which I'll explain as we go along.

I have put in the timber for the stud wall for the bedrooms. It may be a little early but it does give us a good idea of exactly what we want and will help in planning the location of the wiring. It has also helped with the placing of the window openings and in fact by marking the proposed window openings on the walls we have decided that one in the living/dining room would not look right and, therefore, now not required.

Speed of work has not been helped by the weather. Either extremely hot or heavy rain. I think the heat really slows me down the most though. There again the rain has been so heavy all of us have been soaked through at some time. Tom and I took up tree hugging the other day when the heavens opened whilst walking the dogs -it was the only shelter we could find and both of us ended up having to have a complete change of clothes. Rosie went to check the sheep today and came back dripping. She did try and share the sheep's shelter but they would not let her in - well they were there first!

My last blog was about getting the other field cleared, ready for the sheep. Well moving them to it turned into an Oscar winning performance. One of the ewes definitely getting the Oscar for Being the Best Pain in the Backside. I built a field pen that I could reverse the vehicle up to. Would the sheep go into the pen - would they hell. After they gave as a major run around I made another pen in the middle of the field which we managed to get them into. One by one we pushed and pulled them over to the other pen and into the vehicle. Rosie and I were absolutely exhausted by the end. The sheep were not much better but have settled into their new field now. The ram must be happy - he's back to ramming me again. That's gratitude for you.

We also have two pigs arriving Saturday and I had to cut the thistles down, in their pen, before they get here. As I strimmed away I saw something flutter up. Well the massive man eating butterfly turned out to be a rather large grasshopper. I've never seen one that big. Fantastic. And we did leave an area of thistles for him. Oh, and the pen marks on Ben's face well he's being a tiger - obvious surely?

Pah - who needs a jelly bag and stand....

Posted by Rosie

... when you have an upside down chair, a large piece of muslin, and some string. OK, it may not look pretty but it is functional and cost me nothing.

So what type of jelly am I making? This is the fruit from the garden a couple of days ago: Clockwise from top left there are worcesterberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, jostaberries, blueberries, tayberries and apples. Apples in early July? Unfortunately yes. Ben thought he was being really helpful when he picked all the apples from the young bramley apple tree. I wasn't cross but he was still so distraught when seconds earlier he had come bounding in, face beaming with his haul. Oh well, these things happen and all is not lost. It is the cooked apple pulp draining through the muslin that tomorrow I shall make into apple jelly.

Do you think they draw lots?

Posted by Rosie

The chickens that is. 'Cos every night when I go to put them to bed one will not be there but it is never the same one. At about 10 o'clock the chicken in question will saunter home with a look of "Yeah, so? What's the problem?" and proceed to run around the car/hedge/picnic table or anything rather than go to bed. I have this lovely image of them drawing (real) straws to see who will get the privilege of being a complete pain in the posterior tonight. Chickens eh - who'd 'ave 'em?

Well at least they never get as muddy as our neighbour's great-grandchild when she came over for a BBQ and to play with the boys!! Somehow I don't think those pale pink shorts will ever be clean again.

We've had a day off!!

Posted by Rosie

Yesterday was the last day of term for the boys before the EIGHT week summer vacances. Yup - EIGHT weeks so Simon and I decided we needed to have a day off to recharge our batteries before the boys were home for so long. We chose to take a leisurely walk around the Lac de la Dathée , a reservoir just the other side of Vire. It was a really pleasant walk; 6.6kms on well maintained paths with a mixture of sunshine and shade. There was plenty of wildlife to see and the dogs had a great time swimming in the water. We plan to go back sometime soon with the boys and their bikes and may even take a boat out onto the water.

Back to normality today and the joys of trying to sort out why our Internet phone isn't working. Since a storm a couple of weeks ago we've had Internet connection but no Internet phone (this being the phone-line that gives us "free" calls). Simon tried to find the fault without success so today I took it into the Orange shop in Vire where a very nice lady said she couldn't do anything and I needed to phone Orange. Oh dear - a phone call to a french call centre about a subject I don't understand in English, let alone French. Help! Anyway I phoned and waited, listening to an extremely annoying message that some-one would answer soon. 6 minutes later a man did answer but said I needed to dial a different number. Grrrrrr. 10 minutes later (still with the annoying message) I got through. 30 minutes after that, a combination of me on the phone and Simon doing what I though the man asked me to do (he kept speaking very fast) he announced we needed a new modem.

"I'll just see where your nearest tabac is" he said.

Did he say Tabac? Surely that's a newsagents/bar. It must mean something else in French as well. No - he did mean tabac and apparently the new modem will be at the Tabac de St Martin in Condé-sur Noireau on July 9th after 5pm for me to collect. The man from Orange will ring me that evening to see if the Internet phone is the working or not. I put the phone down, exhausted after the marathon call and completely bemused at the french logic of arranging for your new modem to be collected from the Pub!!