Long time no post....

Slacking on the blogging front indeed...here we are in May, warm, sunny days and a millions miles away from the cold, wet winter we seemed to endure for 6 months.. Various family have been and gone, Le Coty have left for the South and the kids seem to be on an endless holiday! I keep plugging away at the building works yet the to do list never seems to get an shorter... Our latest addition is Nina the goat, 'gifted' by Xav before he left..Nina walks with Scooter and I each morning, no lead required but has to be tethered once back as she would eat all the nicest bits in the gardens... Late start on the growing front this year, even with a polytunnel little wanted to germinate until the end of April, hopefully we shall have a better summer than last year... Anyway, here are a few photos... Lola and Charlie trying out the new pantry, Sam roped into using his climbing skills to paint the barn roof and the birthday group...

Bonnes fetes... 2013...

It stopped raining today! So we headed to the edge of our world, Carmeret to be more precise...here we walked around the Alignments of Lagatjar, through the ruins of St-Pol-Roux's Manoir and onto the beautiful beach of Anse de Pen Hat...Sian, C&L and I had a great day and well worth bookmarking for visitors... Sian has been here for Noel, as ever, providing endless enjoyment and entertainment for C&L, she will be sorely missed by us all! Packed her off on the train today.... :(
Not wanting to be too British but I need to mention the weather...wet and windy for slightly longer than I can remember. I have been quietly hoping that the sheer volume and duration must mean we shall have an equal period of calm, dry, sunny days...? some sort of karmic justice.
We have been quietly busy over the last month or so, Heleen chipping away on her hoof journey, through both powder and the cyberworld...
I scored some beautiful Granite sets, hand carved around 1840's...and free!! So I have put them in front of the door, I enjoy them every time I walk over them....
Building up the energies to begin the final assault on the house, downstairs bathroom (old kitchen) and floor of the lounge...all will be finished after these....yeah right!
A certain James and Cathy arrived in December as our visiting wwoofers...sadly for them it rained for much of the time but we did manage to cut up all the wood for next winter and clear a good portion of a track, both of which we are very grateful for...
I think we shall look at wwoofing again in the spring as now is the time to plan rather than do...

So, 2013 about to begin, I hope it is a more settled one than 2012....we can tick the Euro meltdown, Mayan armageddon, Mick Romney, reformation of the Spice girls etc....the only way is up, baby...

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2013....R,H,C&L xxxx

Flattened!

Teaching Sirocco to cross the ditch!! He was so keen on the second time that he followed me a split second later and right on top...oww!! I shot past a tree as 900kg of flying flesh and bone hit me in the back...amazingly, just a sore leg and some bramble thorns to pull out...The obvious lesson for me being that I need to make sure he understands the concept of wait! So, I have survived my first knock with Mr S...but he is very sweet, keen to learn and no malice. I am still doing the ground work with him, Heleen is being very patient as I attempt to get to grips with how to be a 'friendly leader'...

New stables

Not quite finished but here we are Mr S and I in the new stables...need to build Heleen a tack room (other side of that wall you can see) and wire it up for light and sounds but it is looking quite tidy already!!

Summer 2012...

Long time no blog indeed....it has been a very busy summer here at Kervelen, many visitors keeping us both busy and entertained and all in all a satisfying time had by all.

The infamous Brittany weather seemed set to make it a damp experience and indeed made June and part of July just that...then someone flicked a switch and we went from grey 16C to sunny 28C overnight!! Suffice to say it felt like 40C after so long in the mist, the plants suddenly started growing, the bees got busy and we headed to the beach for our first swim in the sea...bar from a few off days that is how it stayed for the remaining weeks, certainly enough for it to feel as if we have had a summer.
Sadly the early gloom put pay to any blackberries this year, although my raspberries are still going strong (and HUGE)...

First year in the polytunnel has been a mixed affair, the tomatoes got blight so look alittle worse for wear, the melons are still ripening so not sure if they will actually make it, the capsicums did well as did the courgettes.. and hot chillies!! The two shining stars were the basil and the cucumbers...both prolific. So, we shall take what we have learnt into next year and hopefully have some better results. The watering of a polytunnel is a real pain in the arse (especially when it is raining alot just outside!) so for next year I shall rig up a self watering system from the rain tanks...

Still on the building business! Have now moved on to the big barn having finished the back garden patio, roof etc. It is nice to have a covered outside area (sort of Kiwi style-open walls with a roof) creates another space for a table and we have already had a couple of lovely evenings out there...very nice..

The big news at the moment is the arrival of Sirocco...being a 6 year old Norman Cob X Percheron, he is a big lad, saved from the works at some stage and ending up here via the internet (how most things happen for us it would seem). The idea is for he and I to work together and hopefully over time just share a life... Heleen is on hand to start us off and at times it would be difficult to guess who is leading who but I have a really good feeling about him and the idea of developing something with him. It would be great if I could use him to pull logs out of the woods etc. as he is built like a tank and must weigh in around a tonne. I am trying to think of another name for him as Sirocco is a bit long winded but it is proving to be tricky...he reminds me a bit of Frank Bruno!

I shall post some photos of the summer, school started again this week with Lola very happy to be back but Charlie, having spent a lot of the time just in his undies found it not so great! So it must be time for me to return to school too and this year I am determined to make some progress on the language front!!

Well, that's it for now, I must head for bed so I can wake up in time for the kids school run....

Nature filling an empty hive....thank you universe...

Fantastic to watch, as if they are sucked in...

Sian and Karina baking a chocolate cake with those two chocolate lickers!!

Life on the rock....

Watching Sian cart wheeling...

Charlie throwing rocks...