I imagine this is typical Brittany weather, about 10 degrees, light around 9am and very wet! Infact, this reminds me of West Wales, all those camping holidays..driving there, putting up the tent, sitting there and packing up in the rain (that and camp coffee and smash..boy what fond memories!!)
The great news for 2011 is that Charlie and Lola have started in Collorec school and so far love it...the teacher does not shout and they seem to do more age appropriate activities and less of the rigid, 'in the lines' stuff...phew...a big relief for all around as the cabin fever was building fast.
Have found my old mate Simon and he is heading up here in a month or so, it will be great to see him as well as being perfect timing as I am aiming to rip the roof off then and who better to have here than the old roofer himself. No doubt there will be a few roof shouts along the way. I have stripped the old plaster board and rat shit filled insulation of the old roof so we shall get stuck in very soon...
Chickens are still laying around 40 eggs a day so the markets are still a must each week, bleak afairs in such weather yet the people do still venture out, especially in Carhaix where I could often sell many more if I had them.
I am ready for the bees having found a space far enough away from the chemical farming neighbours yet not too close to be hassled or hassling. I shall go over to Duncan's this week to pick them up and beginning the lessons! I often get asked if I have Honey on the market so I do think it will sell well, I don't know if will come under our organic certification (when we get it!)..it is never that clear here.
January is the month for cutting firewood for the next few winters, I have started already by coppicing various woods by the river and dropping a few trees that were on their way out. I reckon I shall be able to have at least two years worth by tidying up the hedgrows and thinning out some coppice clumps. There are some old oak trees overhanging the big barn and I need to trim the boughs that are damaging the roof, a helicopter would be handy but I think I shall use Simon instead!
Ah well, I shall sign off and make some biscuits for the kids in between batches of jam (Casis and Frambois) for the market tomorrow...
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Great to hear Lola and Charlie love their new school.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the bees - I have had a bit to do with them myself, especially last year when my mother-in-law set up her new hive. I went with her to help extract honey with one of our local bee keepers. That was quite an experience - scraping off the top layer of wax with an electric knife, spinning the extracter causing the honey to fly out onto the barrel walls and then opening the tap to release the honey into a strainer cloth over a bucket. It is delicious and beautiful, in all its many colours and tastes.
The bees themselves are fascinating insects up close. When we had to scoop them up and put them back in the hive after opening it they almost felt like a liquid, and they move in a way I never expected bees to.
Anyway, all the best - I hope you don't have the awful veroa over there.
-Heidi.