The gardens are still in their winter state. Rod's already started digging, mulching, fertilising, trimming and clipping. First of all getting rid of that black plastic. In the background you can see our free range organic chickens.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Some photos of house & garden
Our new place is 17ha and has three little houses and two open barns. The house with the blue door is the farmhouse where the owners Karen and Pete are still living but where we are going to move in in two weeks or so. (Picture me sitting on this bench writing this blog, as this is where I can hook up with the wifi.) The stone house with the dogs at the front door is one of the two holiday gites where we are staying at the moment.
The gardens are still in their winter state. Rod's already started digging, mulching, fertilising, trimming and clipping. First of all getting rid of that black plastic. In the background you can see our free range organic chickens.
The gardens are still in their winter state. Rod's already started digging, mulching, fertilising, trimming and clipping. First of all getting rid of that black plastic. In the background you can see our free range organic chickens.
Feeling cold
Charlie and Lola have been feeling cold. Lucky Andrea's gran knits such great woollie jumpers! They've been asking: But WHY is it so cold? Where is my yellow house? Can you drop us of at Ruby and Celeste tomorrow? Where is Bob (the rooster)? But all in all they seem to be adjusting well. When they want something that isn't here C&L both already know the answer; It's In The Container!!!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
One week in...
As the eskimos have many words for snow I am guessing the Bretons have quite afew for rain! So water will not be an issue for us although I can see I shall need to install guttering if I want to catch some for the gardens etc.
One of the first things I notice is the complete absence of fencing, herds of cattle are held by a single strand of hot wire, as to how this works in a power cut (I guess we shall find out)… Lovely to see the hedgerows, banks of earth with alsorts of trees, shrubs, plants etc. Great habitat for the wildlife and a windbreak for each field not to mention the asethics, makes a pleasant change from endless lines of 8 wire…
Thursday Heleen set off to Paris in the old landrover we have inherited with the farm, (it's about 600km from here) to pick up Scooter, Marley, Thomas and Toby from the airport. I shall leave her to tell the tale but when she did not arrive by dark on Friday evening I guessed all was not well, unbeknown to me she was sitting on the side of the motorway in a dead landrover waiting for a tow truck, her journey home took about 10 hours…
However, the good news is that the dogs and cats are alive and well after their many hours in small boxes…Scooter and Marley have acres to race around and many new smells, suffice to say after days of confinement they are in heaven…
Yesterday I had the first insight into 'newcomer' status when I had a load of mulch delivered. Where Karen (the old owner) would have been charged 50 Euros I was charged 80! By all accounts this is partly due to the lack of beers I have bought the chap in the local bar… This and my embarrasing lack of French I suspect, although I am enrolled in a weekly class starting soon as I feels awfully ignorant not to be able to speak the language.
Just had another piece of luck, a chap from the UK is heading home and has sold us his car for an absolute bargain cars are very expensive here and so people often go to the UK and bring them back). So we are the prod owners f a Volvo V40..it is a bit flash for us but at 2000 pound I am very happy. This plus a lovely old Fendt tractor coming our way soon it does feel that thngs are falling into place…
On the whole the people we meet are really helpful, there are quite afew established expats here who seem pretty interesting and the locals in the shops, bank etc. have been great…
Got to get my head around the diferent plants, seasons etc. with spring on it's way I have lots of work ahead..digging old beds, taking up alot of black plastic and replacing with mulch…I will post some pictures of before and after. Already in the swing with the chickens, currently there are 40 that have free range of a portion of a field, laying around 20 eggs a day in this weather seems pretty good. They are fed organic grain and with the land spray free since 1993 they live the good life. I will look at having a separate section for breeding our own layers and if I can work the market (with me complete lack of French!) perhaps build up the flock…
As to what to do with the remaining 40 acres!! that is for us to find out… with no TV and wine at 2 Euro a bottle I feel we shall have many evenings to sit around and dream up sme ideas...
One of the first things I notice is the complete absence of fencing, herds of cattle are held by a single strand of hot wire, as to how this works in a power cut (I guess we shall find out)… Lovely to see the hedgerows, banks of earth with alsorts of trees, shrubs, plants etc. Great habitat for the wildlife and a windbreak for each field not to mention the asethics, makes a pleasant change from endless lines of 8 wire…
Thursday Heleen set off to Paris in the old landrover we have inherited with the farm, (it's about 600km from here) to pick up Scooter, Marley, Thomas and Toby from the airport. I shall leave her to tell the tale but when she did not arrive by dark on Friday evening I guessed all was not well, unbeknown to me she was sitting on the side of the motorway in a dead landrover waiting for a tow truck, her journey home took about 10 hours…
However, the good news is that the dogs and cats are alive and well after their many hours in small boxes…Scooter and Marley have acres to race around and many new smells, suffice to say after days of confinement they are in heaven…
Yesterday I had the first insight into 'newcomer' status when I had a load of mulch delivered. Where Karen (the old owner) would have been charged 50 Euros I was charged 80! By all accounts this is partly due to the lack of beers I have bought the chap in the local bar… This and my embarrasing lack of French I suspect, although I am enrolled in a weekly class starting soon as I feels awfully ignorant not to be able to speak the language.
Just had another piece of luck, a chap from the UK is heading home and has sold us his car for an absolute bargain cars are very expensive here and so people often go to the UK and bring them back). So we are the prod owners f a Volvo V40..it is a bit flash for us but at 2000 pound I am very happy. This plus a lovely old Fendt tractor coming our way soon it does feel that thngs are falling into place…
On the whole the people we meet are really helpful, there are quite afew established expats here who seem pretty interesting and the locals in the shops, bank etc. have been great…
Got to get my head around the diferent plants, seasons etc. with spring on it's way I have lots of work ahead..digging old beds, taking up alot of black plastic and replacing with mulch…I will post some pictures of before and after. Already in the swing with the chickens, currently there are 40 that have free range of a portion of a field, laying around 20 eggs a day in this weather seems pretty good. They are fed organic grain and with the land spray free since 1993 they live the good life. I will look at having a separate section for breeding our own layers and if I can work the market (with me complete lack of French!) perhaps build up the flock…
As to what to do with the remaining 40 acres!! that is for us to find out… with no TV and wine at 2 Euro a bottle I feel we shall have many evenings to sit around and dream up sme ideas...
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Emigration 2.0
There we go: From sunny, hot and dry Waitoki to wet, cold and grey Plouyé. Why oh why oh why have people been asking us. We're not really sure but it is an adventure!
We have arrived here a week ago and I must say I love the land. Our land! In the morning I wander around through our fields, over little countrylanes with hedgerows down to our very own river. There is a track that follows the river and even now in winter when the trees are bare it's a magical place. Trees, thick bouncy moss, vines, blackberries, streams.
I hear from the neighbour that on the other side of the river the tracks go on to endless horse riding tracks. I can't wait to explore!
In the mean time it is just really very cold and we are not used to it nor dressed for it properly. Spring is sometimes in the air in the afternoon when occasionally the sun comes out.
The current owners of the property, Karen and Pete, are still here in their own house. We are in one of the two gites (holiday cottages). These gites are clearly more suitable for summer holidays. Brrrr!
The trip here was boring and long but the kids were amazing. Anna dropped us of at the airport. It was hard to say goodbye to our last NZ friend...Kids were absolutely great in the plane, watching the same two movies about a 100 times...
We made a stopover in Singapore in a hotel at the airport with lovely beds and a swimmingpool. No need to leave the airport... 24 Hours later we had to wake up the kids for the second part of the trip.
Early in the morning of the 18th of February we arrived in Paris. A real big challenge to get from one end of the airport to the other with just two people carrying luguage of 4+ people plus two cold and tired kids. Some places we had to leave our trolleys behind and carry everything and everybody up the stairs, no escalator or elevator in sight. And the time was ticking for our last flight to Brest. Lola got wacked in the face by a suitcase while waiting for the bus... We had to much weight and our lovely appelstroop got confiscated by security. But we made it just in time for take of.
Our friend Anne came to pick us up, that was so good in stead of having to drive ourselves. Thanks heaps!
Wow, we are here. Pitch dark and pooring down. With little snippets of spring in the air.
We have arrived here a week ago and I must say I love the land. Our land! In the morning I wander around through our fields, over little countrylanes with hedgerows down to our very own river. There is a track that follows the river and even now in winter when the trees are bare it's a magical place. Trees, thick bouncy moss, vines, blackberries, streams.
I hear from the neighbour that on the other side of the river the tracks go on to endless horse riding tracks. I can't wait to explore!
In the mean time it is just really very cold and we are not used to it nor dressed for it properly. Spring is sometimes in the air in the afternoon when occasionally the sun comes out.
The current owners of the property, Karen and Pete, are still here in their own house. We are in one of the two gites (holiday cottages). These gites are clearly more suitable for summer holidays. Brrrr!
The trip here was boring and long but the kids were amazing. Anna dropped us of at the airport. It was hard to say goodbye to our last NZ friend...Kids were absolutely great in the plane, watching the same two movies about a 100 times...
We made a stopover in Singapore in a hotel at the airport with lovely beds and a swimmingpool. No need to leave the airport... 24 Hours later we had to wake up the kids for the second part of the trip.
Early in the morning of the 18th of February we arrived in Paris. A real big challenge to get from one end of the airport to the other with just two people carrying luguage of 4+ people plus two cold and tired kids. Some places we had to leave our trolleys behind and carry everything and everybody up the stairs, no escalator or elevator in sight. And the time was ticking for our last flight to Brest. Lola got wacked in the face by a suitcase while waiting for the bus... We had to much weight and our lovely appelstroop got confiscated by security. But we made it just in time for take of.
Our friend Anne came to pick us up, that was so good in stead of having to drive ourselves. Thanks heaps!
Wow, we are here. Pitch dark and pooring down. With little snippets of spring in the air.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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