Warm and wet....

Greetings on another Monday morning, last day of May and the land is being quietly watered by that soft, gentle air that lies somewhere between mist and rain..

C&L just dropped off to school inspite of them having coughing and snotting...they wanted to go!? We notice all kinds of little things emerging from their time there. A French word here and there, holding their pens just right, drawings etc. all clearly evidence much goes on in that 3 hours four times a week.. and the fact they wanted to go this morning says it all, very nice...

Sian, Mabli and Auriol are here for the week, lovely to see them and generally catch up with their lives etc. We had a lovely day yesterday, we drove to Trez-Bellec-Plage which is half way along the Crozon peninsular. Huge (empty) sandy beach with rocks etc. at either end with a little shack cafe where we had moule marnier, lovely. I collected a sack of seaweed to make a brew for the garden and shall certainly return on a sunny day for a swim.

Still having car troubles!! Just pulling into Brest airport to meet Sian and co last Friday when I felt the car pulling to the curbing. I assumed I had a puncture, pulled over to find the front brake unit on fire and the disc glowing red!! After putting it out the car refused to move so I walked to the airport, met Sian and Mabs, found that Auriol's flight was delayed by 4 hours(they like striking here) so returned to the car and took the brake unit apart. A local garage sent out two mechanics who could not offer a great deal of help other than moral support (they did not charge me either bless em). We did get home eventually with minimum braking and choosing fast roads with few corners/stops. So new seals & pads are on their way from the UK...

We had a visit from a chap from Eco Cert last week to look at out pasture to see if he can certify the crop as organic. We are letting a local organic farmer to take the hay this year and so he needs to know it is certified. The Eco Cert chap instantly gave the pasture a tick of approval based on the variety of plant etc. therefore the good news from this being we can get cracking on certification and splash biologique across our product. In France you cannot claim to be organic (biologique) without certification (current). Classically, the previous owners were riding a very short wave but I think we should be certified by next year...

Okay, time to play memory with Charlie before a grocery run to Huelgoat... I think we are beginning to see it will take some time and patience to do all we want here (not to mention money!) yet I feel it will be a good investment in the long run...perhaps the trick is not to look up too far!

Shall get Heleen to put some pictures on as they say much more than afew paragraphs...