Harvest

The garden hasn't had as much attention and work as we'd like, but still we managed to get some good crops of potato, courgette, beetroot, tomato and one or two big pumpkins. Cooking is not my favorite thing, but cooking with my own produce I really like!

August is a great month for picking endless amounts of blackberries in the hedgerows. A very mixed pleasure to stick your arms into the very prickely maze of branches and get double stung by the blackberries BFF the stinging nettle. My hunt for blackberries has led me to hidden and overgrown places on our property I hadn't been before. It's like a jungle out there! Everything is buzzing, flowering and so alive! It's lovely and wild :-)

We're surprised by the amount of raspberries we can pick, day after day after day. And the french love their confiture framboise! Yesterday the yellow plums started to ripen. Soon the purple plums and apples will be ready.

August is usually a wet month they say. Well indeed it is pouring down and chilly. To wet for Rod to finish the work on the barn (it's already looking great) but he is doing up an old Rayburn stove and he can spraypaint it today under cover.

For me time to sit behind the computer and get ready for next holiday season. I've made a new folder, you can download it here. Please download and forward to everybody you think needs a nice Brittany holiday?

6 months later...

Indeed, we left NZ 6 months ago (seems alot further away than that) to discover a new challenge. I having the fantasy of taking a year out to settle in !!!!! here I sit, Friday evening feeling somewhat battered, toothache (August is the month of holidays for most!), sore wrist awaiting treatment (ditto) and tweaking back! Thankfully a soothing Bath ale beside me care of Rom, many thanks...
As you can see we are slowly knocking the place into shape with the focus being sealed and warm for the winter. Another legacy of Rom is the complete rethink of the layout downstairs, great to think we can design our own space and in the process delete some current things that just do not work... Tomorrow we are off to look at a Rayburn stove that is on offer for 150 euros, we have been warned it is "a horrible chocolate brown" yet works well. This will allow us to run radiators off it and of course cook if we want. Rayburns are very much become the heart of a house so we are sure we can cope with the colour!?
Still picking plenty of Rasberries, Heleen is busy on the blackberries and so the jams are coming thick and fast...coffee is beginning to sell on the markets although people seemingly buy it ground...I reckon much education is needed for them to see how good their coffee can be. The average cup of coffee served in the cafes is, at best, poor, surprising considering the reputation France carries, maybe in the bigger cities but not here...
Days are shorter now and so it is time to stack the wood and harvest the fruits of the land. Alot of grain grown around here, not in the huge expanses we see in the US etc. but I do have a sense the farmers here are wanting to expand as lines of trees disappear along their hedgerows. That it would appear symbolises the conflict here, on the one hand farmers are keen to maximise their output by cranking the land and we (and others) want the regrowth of a balanced, sustainable harvest...
Talking of which I am getting closer to bringing in the bees so this time next year I will have honey on the market, I have a sense this will be both a challenging and satisfying experience...

I must go and lock my chickens up before mr fox takes his chance (and find the panadol)...

R

Under construction...

Apart from lots of nice visitors, looking after kids, chickens and horses, going to the market and webdesign, Rod is also doing some building projects. We already had the plan to add some windows at the back and move and raise the front door. (Not easy with 70cm thick stone walls!) Then Rom came with the suggestion of changing everything around... She's obviously watched 'Grand Designs!'...

So where the bathroom is now will eventually be the kitchen and vice versa. In stead of two staircases we'll end up with just one so we can utilise more floorspace upstairs where we'll have two bedrooms eventually (after we've replaced the roof!). Downstairs a large living/kitchen area and separately a lounge.

In the mean time also the barn is under construction. Rod's put the entrance of the barn on the more sheltered road side and built a wall to keep the weather out on the windy and rainy side. In the masterplan all will be plastered, and also a tackroom is pending...

Anyway, hopefully the bigger gaps will be closed before autumn.
Days are getting shorter!

Some more photos to give you an idea, or come over and have a look yourself one day...