Wishing Everyone All The Best For

2010

Happy New Year

Back on Track

Posted by Simon

This morning Richard, an English neighbour, arrived here, which in itself was a bit of a surprise as I thought he was in the UK until after the New Year. And another surprise was that he had the parts for my digger. I was over the moon.

I dropped everything I was doing and carried out the necessary repair, which believe it or not was pretty straight forward - makes a change then. I was greatly helped by the person I brought the

spare parts from, who had taken time to explain the best way to go about the repairs. Although I did have to ring him to confirm he had given me the correct part as the one I took off had grooves in it. I was told they do not come with grooves in them. Ah, that much wear then!

So this afternoon I was like a kid with a new toy and played diggers. I was able to smooth out lorry and tractor ruts , fill in holes, and generally make the place a little more pleasant. Maybe one day I'll get my Septic tank and filter beds finished!

Oops Sorry

Posted by Simon

Now why 'Oops Sorry'? Well this is to all our friends and family who have not received Christmas cards from us this year. Now this is a deliberate ploy or as Tom would say a 'cunning plan'. You see we are going to send out cards in the New Year (with a letter) and because it will come separately you'll more likely remember it! Or there again, think 'lazy sods' they forgot and they're come up with 101 excuses for not sending them out. Now as highly intelligent people, that you all are, you will obviously believe the former. Though there are those of you who may think like me and head for the latter.

Well 'lazy sods' we are not - but for the 101 excuses I'm sure we could try hard to hit that target.

Now one of our excuses is this:

And the next one is this:

So 2 down 99 excuses to go.

So yes we got snowed in and we have been skiing - we'll post about both of those soon.

Anyway I'm sure I could make another 99 excuses but I'm also sure you'll look forward to receiving our card and letter soon. And I'm sure we'll do better than one of my mother's old neighbours who sent our Christmas card in June last year with a note saying "I'm not sure if this is early for this year or, as is more likely, late for last year"!

Snow

Posted by Simon

Snow showers were forecast so it was no surprise to us, this morning, that a few centimetres of snow lay on the ground. It was, though a lovely surprise for two small boys and even before breakfast they were out playing in the snow, even though it was still dark. In fact Tom just put his ski suit over his pyjamas. This surprise was made even better by school being cancelled.

So this morning they had great fun sledging, having snowball fights and generally having a good time. The dogs also thought it was great fun and chased around skidding and skating in the white fluffly stuff. On the other hand the hens took one look and headed back to bed, the pigs took one look, sniffed the air and then headed back to bed. The ducks were not that amused either and the turkeys were very unimpressed as they were got ready for Christmas!!!

It has been snowing on and off most of the day but, at the moment, does not seem to be settling. But the forecast for the next few days is shows more snowfall. Great fun for two small boys but for the animals I'm not so sure.

Lost in Translation!

Posted by Simon

Our two white pigs have now been slaughtered, butchered and bagged up. Only one of the pigs was ours and we had around 40/45kgs of meat from each pig. So the freezer is pretty full at the moment.

With the boys, it is useful for us to mince quite a lot of the meat. One, they like it and two, it's easy to cook up. So I made up 9 x 500g bags of mince. All very simple - so far.

But then I decided to make some sausages! Especially as one of our friends asked if she could have some and as she helps us out at times, I thought I'd go into production. So I set everything up. Mince, onions, oats, salt and pepper and of course the skins. All the ingredients the hand written recipe says.

"Rosie is tsp teaspoons or tablespoons?" I ask - well I can never remember.

"Tbs? Tablespoons" Now you see where this is going!

"Okay"

Right I've mixed everything up and ready to go. Rosie is in place to catch the sausages at one end of the machine whilst I feed the machine at the other end.

"Hadn't we better cook a bit to taste the mixture first?" suggests Rosie

"No, it'll be alright. It's based on last years recipe which was okay. I reduced the oats and the meat is not so fatty."

So with three very long sausages ready to be 'twisted' into small ones I proceed to cook a bit of the leftover mix. Smells good, cooks nicely and with watering mouths the taste test ......... Ugh! A mouth full of salt and pretty overpowering on the pepper too. These are horrible.

"How much salt did you put in, Simon?

"3 tablespoons"

"These will have to go in the bin, they're inedible, we'll have to adjust the recipe"

Rosie looks at said recipe to make the changes and then asks.

"How much salt did you put in?"

"What it says, 3 tablespoons"

"It says tsp - teaspoons"

"I asked you and you said tsp was tablespoons"

"I thought you said tbs"

And I'll leave it there! But for - we still have 6 of our 9 bags of precious mince but my mouth feels as though it has been assalted!!!

Connaissez-vous Mme Milcent?

Posted by Rosie

Which for those of you who do not speak French translates as "Do you know Mrs Milcent?"

I went to order some wood on Friday and having agreed to buy some, I then had the unenviable task of trying to direct the wood seller to our house, in French and made worse by the fact he was coming the cross-country route and .... well .... being as it was evening time he had already had a couple of glasses of his favourite tipple. Still, I struggled on and got the directions so far when I had an idea. "Connaissez-vous Mme Milcent?" I enquired. "Ah oui, bien sur," he replied. "In that case it's easy," I replied, with a sigh of relief, "we live next door."

Mme Milcent is our wonderful neighbour. She has been a godsend, helping us out with all manner of things and is like a surrogate grandma to the boys. Mind you, sometimes you have difficulty seeing her as she is so often out and about with friends or has guests visiting. She is one of those people who knows everyone and welcomes everyone to her home. So for a couple of English ex-pats who don't know their left from their right in English, let alone French, having her as a neighbour has been a life-saver, more than a few times!

Normandy Wellies

Posted by Simon

Now rain is something a future gite operator does not like to mention too often, although it is a necessary fact of life. Well like the UK we have had our fair share of rain at the moment. Plus the place resembles a building site. Your average mud wallower would be in it's element here.

So when our hard working Helper left he decided to take drastic action to protect his shoes. Well with a train journey to Paris and future flight to the States I can understand why.

I think the dogs where rather bemused - or perhaps they're thinking if they are available in doggy sizes!

Red Sky at Night ....

Posted by Rosie

...Shepherd's Delight.

Red Sky in the Morning,

Shepherd's Warning.

This was the sky this morning just after I dropped the boys off at the bus stop. It had been even more dramatic but the morning colours were fading fast and I was lucky to get this picture before they disappeared completely.

So, acording to the Old English saying I am now wondering what the weather has in store. A quick look at the 10 day forecast actually predicts a much brighter outlook. After several weeks of being rain and wind battered the forecast has light rain for part of the next few days and then a period of settled but much colder weather. I'm glad I found the box of gloves and hats when re-arranging the loft, Winter is well and truely here.