Just buggered!!

We are still here yet there seems so little time to sit and write at the moment...long, hot days and so all those essential jobs line up for attention..

I have been busy getting ready for another batch of chickens, today I bought 19 Light Sussex, point of lay...I have decided to focus on the pure breeds and pull away from the hybrids from now on. Seems more of a natural position and the pure breeds tend to last longer. I shall post a picture of them, 2000 year old breed developed by the Romans I think, some what appropriate being the Roman were living here (awhile ago now!)...

Starting to pick the fruits, strawberry, black&red currant, rasberries & gooseberries are almost there...have been spraying all the beds with seaweed tea and have turned the first compost heap in addition to applying biodynamic applications 502-507 in the heap. I have also bought enough BD500 to cover 10 hectares, doing this by hand (bucket and dust pan brush to be precise) will be a meditation in itself..

Gearing up in my mind to tackle the roof and bedrooms etc. (I think it usually takes me a couple of months before I am ready to pick up the hammer!)

Next guests arrive on Saturday, our first ones are here until Friday...they have been lovely to have, quiet, friendly and enjoying their holiday...thank you Caroline and Pam!

C&L are due to finish school this week until September 1st, sounds along way off! They are happy kids although the long nights tend to mean they don't get to sleep until late...I am sure they (we) will hardly get out of bed come winter...bbbrrrrrrr

Okay, I must sign off and lock up the chickens, the young ones will probably need putting on the roost, if I were to leave them I wonder if they would eventually!?

Soon

White gite

All the hard work has been done. The white gite is ready for its first guests...


The White Gite


The entrance and garden


The living


The kitchen


Master bedroom


One of the two twin bedrooms

Hay biologique

Yesterday a big tractor came to cut the hay. Over the next few days we are expecting nice sunny and windy weather. Contractors will come and shake it and rake it and bale it into 400kg(!) bales. No more romantic & sweaty bale stacking with the whole family; one guy in a shiny John Deere can do 12+ha all by himself.

Haymaking these days doesn't make you sweat or itchy anymore, but lucky me this time it doesn't take any organising or money or knowhow or storage either: Yves & Veronique, a lovely couple we know form the market are organising it and are taking the hay for their organic dairy cows. A man from Ecocert declared the pasture biological by looking at the diversity of the grasses... And I get to keep hay for the horses. Now we just have to clear some dry storage space in our very leaky sheds...

Well, just in time before the big cut some shots of the biodiversity :-) I've pulled out some ragworth and won't touch the hay from the top field with the digitalis. They do make a nice picture though.

Happy Birthday Charlie & Lola!

Charlie & Lola are 4 today! Their opa Karel and Granny Auriol have given them a trampoline! And there were many little presents and a new dress for Lola (She's very happy to work it a bit in front of the camera!). C&L brought sweets to school to share with the other kids, but they didn't sing happy birthday. Or joyeux anniversaire. Weird.

We haven't got a clue what's going on in school, but it must be quite effective. I guess before summer holidays start (in 3 weeks) Lola will be probably writing... Not sure in french or english...

On days like today I miss their oma Hannie very much.

On Sunday we had a little family outing to Concarneau, a beautiful little seaside town with a quai and a port and a bastion. We had lovely icecream, a picnic in the sun on the steps of a building and a ride on a caroussel. Silly mum forgot the camera!

We were all very tired when we came home.

Sian, Mabli and Auriol :-)

Last week Sian, Mabli and Auriol were staying here and it was great to have them. Charlie and Lola loved every minute of it: drawing, reading, hair platting, nail polishing, baking and going for drives...

In the mean time normal life continues: The white gite is coming together, the chickens are laying (sort of), the grass is growing. Most days it's summery and sometimes really hot, time to fill the bucket baths! The horses are huffing and puffing in their winter coat... It gets dark very late at night (11pm), so I get the chance to ride both horses quite a bit. Milo is doing very well in the arena. He has a new saddle, we've been cantering and we're almost ready for a first ride out on the road.

Rod and me are gathering more and more information about becoming certified organic. Rod has set the process in motion to become an auto-entrepreneur (self-employed) and applied for a license to sell stuff on the market. French bureaucracy is extensive but so far I haven't got the feeling it is suffocating. People have been very helpful so far and even rang me to ask if I need any help filling in very incomprehensible french forms. Oui merci!

A few more pictures...