Going Green is taking a break for the Summer

Due to a lot of other things I have on my plate at the moment, I have decided to give the Going Green linky a break for a couple of months, giving me time to catch up on myself!  I am aiming to be back with the linky on Monday September 3rd 2018 and hope you will all have plenty of fabulous, inspirational green posts to link up.

In the meantime I will continue to blog a bit, when I can find the time, and will read as many of your posts as I can.  If you have a blog with a green theme please do add a comment telling me a bit about it and adding a link.  I'll pop over and have a read and share some posts.

Have a great summer everyone and see you on September 3rd for the next Going Green.

A Green and Rosie Life - New Name, New Focus, New Linky

Notice anything different??!!  

Welcome to my new blog - A Green and Rosie Life.

Today is the anniversary of when I wrote my first blog post.  Eight years ago.  Gosh, can it really be that long?  Mind you I know of one blogger whose blog will be a teenager this year!  Simon actually started the blog here on February 5th 2008 but it wasn't until March 20th 2008 that I first committed finger to keyboard.

Originally the blog was meant as a means of keeping friends and family in touch with what we were doing here in France and to be honest, I have no idea how many people, if any, read anything that either Simon or I posted.  However as we neared getting the gite ready to open we got a surprise email from a Dutch family asking if we would be open by July 17th 2010 as they wanted to book, having read about the gite on the blog.  Well, that certainly focussed our progress and we did indeed get the gite finished (JUST) and welcomed our first family thanks to the blog.

From then on I realised the blog had potential as a marketing tool not just a diary of what we were up to but it did have one problem for our SEO as it was not actually connected to our website.  So early this year we created a new website with a blog attached which rather left this original blog a bit in limbo.  After 8 years of writing I did not want to just let it disappear, I wanted to develop it and take it further which is why, today, I am relaunching as the name you see above:

"A Green and Rosie Life"

Guest Blog: holidaying in france

Guest post by Cheryl - welcometoholland

This is a blatant big-up for my friends Rosie and Simon, who have a VERY child-friendly holiday gite on their smallholding in Normandy. Go and stay with them. They're fab!

This time last year we were getting ready for our Excursion To France. We used to travel in France regularly BC*; but since the arrival of the kids we have been too scared to branch out from Blighty.

Rosie and Simon own and run Eco-Gites de Lenault, on their smallholding in Normandy. They live there with their two almost-teenage sons and they have converted their barn in to a lovely holiday cottage. I met Rosie quite a few years ago now via the downsizer website - an online community of yoghurt-knitters like ourselves. We have become real-life friends on her visits to her family who live near us in the UK and we felt sufficiently confident in her to give Abroad a try again with the kids. The gite is set up for children and that was a big draw for us, particularly given all the extra kit that comes with a disabled child.

One of the other big draws for us was Rosie's willingness to provide home-cooked meals for families that stay with them. I loved the fact that we could have someone else cook for us but not have to take the children out in the car to do so; we took our motability car, with all the children's clobber and Nenna's wheelchair. We spent a lot of time sat on the little patio outside the gite, watching Leo race around like a maniac on the playground, with bikes, trikes, balls, a castle and a trampoline. The children were also able to go and help with the animals - because they don't get enough of that at home! - and because we were the only ones there, they really got to engage with what was going on.

So much child-stuff is supplied free of charge and Rosie, Simon and the boys were so friendly and keen to make sure we had the best holiday we could possibly have had. I was a bit worried that we would all feel obliged to be friendly, because they were next door; but it was very much on our terms. They clearly had their lives to get on with and I didn't feel they were looking over my shoulder in case I broke the crockery. Which I did, actually. And wasn't made to feel like an evil clutz!

All the child-stuff is included in the price - cot, bedding, high-chair, stair-gates, the toys, games and books. The only thing not included was for the TV for the week; in the summer, lots of families choose not to have this and prefer to spend all their time outside. We were quite early in the season, so we paid the extra. However, because we got a 10% discount on the ferry booking by using the gite discount code, I felt that that made up for it! The other thing that I liked was that we could choose whether to pay for cleaning at the end of the rental, or to do it ourselves.

All in all it was an excellent choice for a first-time abroad trip with two young children. The accommodation is lovely and the setting is beautiful, with lots of rural countryside and market towns to explore. 

We will definitely be going back.

*Before Children

We're on Twitter

Posted by Rosie

I am not yet sure if we are tweeting or twittering but Eco-Gites of Lénault is now on Twitter. You can find us at @EcoGitesLenault and this should be the link.  Come and twitter/tweet with us ....

New Blog Layout

Posted by Rosie

When Simon was writing his blog yesterday he was trying to sort something with the photos when he found some other layouts.  The blog is 2 years old now so it seemed a good time to give it a facelist.

Hope you like it.

Simple Woman's Christmas Daybook

Posted by Rosie

I saw this idea on Our Front Plot's Blog and thought I would add my answers for today so readers can have a sort of instant view of life here today without having to come and visit.

Outside my Window - it's getting dark and the Christmas lights have just come on.

I am thinking - that I really must get and cook the boys some dinner. It's back to school tomorrow so an early night is needed.

From my kitchen - I can smell nothing because I am on here rather than cooking the boy's dinner!

I am wearing - jeans, a T-shirt and zipped top that really do not match and my comfy but rather threadbare slippers.

I am creating - nothing at the moment but I have lots of plans and ideas.

I am going - to cook the boy's dinner in just a minute.

I am reading - L'étranger by Albert Camus (In French she says smugly)

I am hearing - the boys playing a board-game.

Around the house - there are loads of things that need to go in the loft but can't until I have first sorted the loft so Simon can then get on converting it into our new spare bedroom.

One of my favourite things is - the wood burner - it heats the whole house, I can cook on it, it heats the washing up water, dries our clothes and breathes life into our house.

Here is "picture for thought" that I am sharing - Ben and Tom with their good friend from the UK. Is it just me or do you think they are plotting something?

Eco-Gites is on Facebook

Posted by Rosie

Click on the link below to go to our page. It is set up as a business page so you don't need to be on Facebook to view it - but if you are, you can add comments and "like us".

Eco-Gites of Lénault

Promote your Page too

Problems with comments

Posted by Rosie

We seem to be having a few problems with comments at the moment. We used to have a "Recent comments" gadget on the sidebar but that decided to stop working a week or so ago. It stopped showing any comments so we reloaded it, after which it just showed a white box. A very nice white box but totally devoid of any recent comments.

Now with Simon's last post we have no "Add your comment" thingy below the post. I am waiting to see if it appears on this one or not.

We did wonder if the problem was just with us and others could see the comments. Perhaps someone could enlighten us. We love receiving comments and like them down the sidebar in case someone posts a comment on an older post. Maybe it is a blogger-wide glitch?

All in all though, it's rather baffling and faintly annoying.

ETA - I have the "Comments" thingy below this post but it is still not there on Simon's last post. How very odd. I'm going to re-load the Recent Comments on the sidebar and see what happens. Watch this space ....... or rather the space on the side bar where it should be!

Help Exchange

Posted by Rosie

We have signed up today to be a HelpExchange Host. As taken from their webpage, Help Exchange (HelpX), is an "online listing of host organic farms, non-organic farms, farmstays, homestays, ranches, lodges, B&Bs, backpackers hostels and even sailing boats who invite volunteer helpers to stay with them short-term in exchange for food and accommodation."

There are several reasons why we have decided to do this. First and foremost it will give us (well Simon really) some much needed help around the place and notably in the gite. It will also give us the chance to meet people from all over the world, exchange cultural views and both give and receive experience and advice.

If you want to find our host information we are Host number 6198.

New Blog Found

Today we discovered that our proposed gite has started it's very own blog.

So click this link

The Day in the Life of a Gite.

Please do have a look for an alternative view point.

We've been Tagged

Posted by Rosie

....Twice!! Firstly a while back by The Cottage Smallholder.

The rules of this Tag are:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

As Eco-Gites is written by both Simon and me I have changed the 6 things slightly. Below are 6 facts about the two of us but I have not said which fact belongs to which person. Post a comment or email us which facts belong to whom and I'll send a random winner a small, as yet, unchosen gift from France. Entries by Nov 30th please.

1. One of us was brought up in the Cotswolds, the other in Chistlehurst.
2. We both have land based qualifications. But who has Agriculture and Environmental Science and who has Practical Habitat Management?
3. One of us has blue eyes, the other hazel.
4. One of us has travelled far more than the other but only only one of us has been to Norway and only one has been to Portugal.
5. One of us gets sea-sick, the other of course doesn't.
6. Given a bit of spare time who would pick up a sudoku and who a french crossword?

And the second tag was a Tree of Happiness from Joanna's Food Blog:

Similar rules but this time you have to list six things that make you happy:

Well these are mine (which blogger is insisting on double spacing for some reason):

1. Seeing the first vegetable seedlings emerging from the spring soil

2. Ponds - I could sit and watch them and all they life they support for hours

3. Friends - an email, letter, phone-call or visit from friends near and far

4. A home cooked meal of home-produced food

5. The ever changing seasons

6. Skiing - OK - so it took until I was 40 to have a go but I'm hooked.

Now for the blogs. I love reading those in the blog roll so I have picked 3 at random from there and 3 others I pop into less frequently but still enjoy:

http://logcabininmichigan.blogspot.com/

http://colouritgreen.wordpress.com/

http://fiddlestickscrew.blogspot.com/

http://alifelesssimple.wordpress.com/

http://compostbins.blogspot.com/

http://greentwinsmummyasimplelife.blogspot.com/

Don't feel you have to participate if you don't want.Thanks to Cottage Smallholder and Joanna who did though!!

Fruit and Foraging

I think Simon and I will be dreaming fruit tonight - we've had a mega-fruit planting session this week-end and hope over the coming years to be fairly self sufficent in fruit. We now have an orchard of 14 trees - apples, pears, plums, a medlar and cherries plus a soft fruit area with white, black and red currants, gooseberries, raspberries, jostaberries, worcesterberries, tayberrries and loganberries. That should make up for the fact that we had to clear most of the brambles out of the hedges when laying them, so we might be a bit short on home-grown blackberries this year. At least there are plenty in the local hedgerows and we are still eating those that I froze in the autumn. For nuts we have a cobnut and a walnut although the latter is yet to be planted as there is a slight discussion in the Hill household as to it's location! We also plan to have kiwi's, figs, grapes, apricots and peaches but as these need sunny south facing walls or trellis they will have to wait until we have done more work on the houses/garden.


With the fruit and veg gardens still in their infancy (and we had snow today so that won't speeed things along) I'm busy foraging along the local paths for foodie items. Nettles are favourite with nettle soup being very welcome in this cold spell. I have been given a recipe for "bubble and sting" using nettles instead of cabbage which I might have a go at soon and I've also made leek and wild garlic risotto which was delicious. Simon had made nettle soup last year and I have always picked blackberries but I am now getting a lot more adventurous, thanks in part through advice and recipes on two of my favourite websides - Downsizer (www.downsizer.net) and Selfsufficientish (http://www.selfsufficientish.com/). And with French pharmacists able to identify the edible from the inedible fungi I hope to branch out even more over the coming months.

Not So Green

Had a few emails about the blog and people seem to be enjoying it, so thank you for the comments. It helps when writing it.

Not a very green day today. I had promised the boys if they reached a certain standard skiing I would take them to Ouga Ouga again (see post 06/02/08). They both earnt their treat so this afternoon we drove to Caen, about half a hour away. Parked up and headed to the entrance. Wallet? Wallet? Um. 'Rosie have you got your purse because I haven't got my wallet?' Well after a slight domestic we headed home. Tom and Ben were very good about it, especially Ben who had really been looking forward to this trip. Anyway we made it home and realised we had time to get back to Caen. Two happy boys had a great afternoon at the soft play area. And we did 100 miles instead of 50 - not so green.

The Eco-Gites Blog

We have decided to create a blog as a diary/update of our new life and venture in France. Why? Well, as we are sure you are aware, we have failed miserably in doing updates on the website or by email. Hopefully this will keep you up to date with our project and give us a diary of our life in Calvados

We are not committing ourselves to a daily blog but will make regular updates and also look back at what we have done in the past six months. We will add photos, with luck showing before and after works, maybe video, useful links and a look at things and events in the area we have chosen to set up Eco-Gites.

If you have any comments or ideas to help us with our project please do let as know. Also if you feel we should add something to our blog or maybe you wish to see how a project is developing and we have not given you an update please again let us know and we will try to oblige.