Our Easter Weekend

Posted by Rosie

In France, Good Friday is not a Bank Holiday and the Easter school holidays take place so many weeks after Christmas, regardless of when Easter falls. With Easter being fairly early this year it meant that the boys don't start their Easter break until this coming Friday evening (and for schools in other regions it is even later) ... so whilst people in the UK had a day off and were tucking into hot cross buns, here in Normandy we were at work and the boys were in lessons.  We did however take an Easter delivery, a new sheep and her lamb.

Mabel or Korma Katie?

They are yet to be named with some dispute between Simon and me as I mentioned yesterday.  He wants them called Korma Kate and Vindaloo Vinny and I like Mabel and Monty.  What do you think?

Saturday was also work as usual getting the gite ready to greet guests.  However by Sunday we were able to celebrate Easter and had a lovely late lunch with friends ... one of whom, I found out, learnt much of her pub trade in the pub I used to drink in when I lived in Gloucestershire!  The New Inn in Coln St Aldwyns in case you were interested.

Luckily in France Easter Monday is a Bank Holiday (Jour Férié) so with no school, I arranged an Easter Egg Hunt for the boys and the children in the gite.  I think they all look sufficiently pleased with their haul don't you?

Searching for Easter eggs

5 happy children at Eco-Gites of Lenault

After lunch we packed up the car and headed to the beach with the dogs ... as did vast numbers of other people it seemed and the beach was really quite busy.

Ouistreham Beach

It was certainly MUCH busier than two weeks ago when freezing temperatures kept all but the hardiest of folks away.  On that visit Harry didn't want to go in the water and his enthusiasm hadn't much improved by Monday.  The boys, in comparison, were keen and whilst we stayed wrapped up nice and warm they donned wetsuits and went in.  Harry didn't follow them, although I think he actually wanted to!

Some-one is not keen to go in ...

... but he does want to really!

We worked out though that it was the waves he didn't like and he quite happily follow Tom into some of the large pools left as the tide went out.

That's better - no waves.

For history lovers, this beach at Ouistreham, north of Caen in part of the D-Day Landing Beaches known as Sword Beach. On June 6th 1944 thousands of British troops landed on the beach to begin what would be the start of the end of World War II.  It's hard to believe, looking at the calm sea and yellow sand, what carnage took place here just over 70 years ago.

How was your Easter weekend.  Did you manage to get out and about or did you stay home and eat too much chocolate?

After the eclipse that wasn't to be ...

Posted by Rosie

Our eclipse was eclipsed by thick cloud and besides it getting a bit darker and rather cold there was really no way of knowing that a magnificent celestial happening was taking place right above our heads.  I had been lucky enough to see the total eclipse in 1999 but I did feel particularly gutted for the boys.  So a weekend of cheering up was needed.

First though, I needed to get to market to buy some veg seedlings. They don't make for very interesting photos but the flower displays, colourful vegetables and cakes do:

Fabulous flowers at Flers market

Multicoloured carrots at Flers market

French pâtisseries

On Sunday Tom had an athletics tournament at Caen. He got a lift there and we said we'd collect him after taking the dogs for a walk on the nearby beach at Ouistreham.  The weather was cold, to say the least, so a warm, filling brunch was needed to sustain us.  Just don't tell Tom he missed out on a fry-up!

A hearty brunch

To the beach.

We reckon this was Harry's first time by the sea and he was completely and utterly excited about the whole experience and may  not really have thought things through fully ...

Dashing to the large watery thing:

Yeah - this looks fun - I need to investigate

 Discovering the large watery thing is exceedingly cold and well .... WET!

Whoa - that is COLD!

Happy to hurtle along the edge with Saari and his canine friend, Pip:

Fun at Ouistreham beach in March

Guess who got wet trousers?

Did you manage to get fabulous views of the eclipse or did you have to have a fun weekend to make up for the "No Show".  Of perhaps you had both?  

A Sunny March Sunday

Posted by Rosie

Sometimes a day just sneaks up on you, all unexpected and you can do nothing but embrace it.
Sunday was just such a day.
Early March sunshine isn't normally this warm so we took advantage:

I got 2 loads of washing on the line:

We played a board game in the garden (Labyrinth, which I do recommend and it comes in various  levels for different age and abilities) whilst eating cakes and drinking tea.

I put the seed trays out in the sun the tomato seedlings loved the warmth.

We took ourselves, Harry, Saari and 2 visiting dogs for a lovely long walk ... without the need for coats!  In fact I was down to a T-shirt.

And it seems it wasn't just us who enjoyed this unseasonably warm weather - Ginger was one happy piglet catching a few rays.

How was your weekend?  Was it full of spring warmth or has that yet to reach you ... or perhaps you are from the other side of the world and watching for signs of Autumn?

Post Christmas Walk

Posted by Rosie

On Boxing Day we do like to get out for a nice long walk - this year however Boxing Day was drizzly and really rather horrible and not ideal for a decent walk.  Also, having spent Christmas Day in the gite we needed to get it ready for guests who were arriving on Saturday evening.  So this year we spent Boxing Day sorting and cleaning as well as playing Jungle Speed (Ben's new game) and delayed our walk until Saturday.  Good choice it turned out!

Boxing Day dawned cold, blue-skied and very windy - ideal conditions for a walk along the Normandy coast at Ouistreham, especially when you have 6 dogs to take along with you!  Do you reckon they were looking forward to the beach?

Six dogs waiting for a seaside walk

On the way there this cockerel cloud was espied but luckily the clouds that were bubbling up dumped their rain around rather than on us.  

Can you see the cockerel?

The wind continued to blow hard though which made for very choppy seas and perfect conditions for the braver souls than us who like to kite surf and windsurf:

Brave kite surfers

And a brave windsurfer

It was however a bit challenging for the birds although these dunlin did well against the strong wind.  The goose we saw later found going westwards much harder though!

Dunlin battling against the wind

On finishing our walk we returned to the car for much needed hot chocolate and cake.  Cobwebs were completely blown away and we had managed not to get wet.  After all the excesses of Christmas Day this had been the perfect antidote.

Did you mange to get out for a walk on or after Christmas? 

Ladybird, Sheep and Muddy Piglets

Posted by Rosie

The world's smallest ladybird, a scraggy sheep, muddy piglets and a new washing machine.  That's the story of our week-end here at Eco-Gites of Lenault.

FINALLY!!! Finally I have seen a ladybird this year!  Lots of friends have seen them and bloggers across both France and the UK  have reported sightings whilst I had seen none.  Until Saturday that was when, sat outside enjoying lunch in the sun, Tom and I saw a teeny tiny ladybird land on the table.  To be honest I was surprised we saw it as it was so small but we did, and it stayed around long enough for me to get this shot.  So, do you think I am right - is this the world's smallest ladybird?

 The world's smallest ladybird?

Maybe this ladybird had thought that, with the arrival of of some summer sun, it was warm enough to make an appearance.  I don't know but what the sun did however mean was that it was time to shear Betty Boo, our sheep.  Well shear may possibly not be quite the right word.  There are people around who shear sheep for a few euros each but only if you have enough to make it worth their while.  A lone sheep (with 2 lambs who don't need shearing) would cost us a fortune to get in some-one professional so it meant we had to do the job ourselves.  Sorry Betty Boo.  I am sure your wool will grow out fine come the Autumn and you could find yourself starting a new fashion - Shabby Sheep!!

Shabby Sheep - the new look for 2014

Just before shearing making a mess of Betty Boo's wool with a pair of kitchen scissors, we had been over to see Boris Johnson's babies.  Piglets that is!  Boris Johnson is our boar and a couple of months ago he had an amorous encounter with Porky, a  local sow. Friends were having 2 of the piglets and we went over at the weekend to collect them. When we arrived they were all dozing in the sun but after a quick tour of the other animals we found that every single piglet had decided it was too hot in the sun and all had dived into the mud.  Catching dry piglets is hard enough but catching muddy ones is even harder!

Nothing as happy as a pig in ....

We got there in the end and all I can say is that I am very pleased we took had taken possession of a new washing machine this weekend.  All very dirty, splattered with mud thanks to catching piglets in the mud or "shearing" sheep clothes will end up in the old one leaving gite bedding and non muddy clothes for the other.  Such is the joys of living on a smallholding! 

Why not pop over to Snowing Indoors and see what other people have been up to this weekend or at PODcast see what stories are behind the photos people have taken recently.  I hope it was all cleaner than here at Eco-Gites of Lenault!