Bonnes fetes... 2013...

It stopped raining today! So we headed to the edge of our world, Carmeret to be more precise...here we walked around the Alignments of Lagatjar, through the ruins of St-Pol-Roux's Manoir and onto the beautiful beach of Anse de Pen Hat...Sian, C&L and I had a great day and well worth bookmarking for visitors... Sian has been here for Noel, as ever, providing endless enjoyment and entertainment for C&L, she will be sorely missed by us all! Packed her off on the train today.... :(
Not wanting to be too British but I need to mention the weather...wet and windy for slightly longer than I can remember. I have been quietly hoping that the sheer volume and duration must mean we shall have an equal period of calm, dry, sunny days...? some sort of karmic justice.
We have been quietly busy over the last month or so, Heleen chipping away on her hoof journey, through both powder and the cyberworld...
I scored some beautiful Granite sets, hand carved around 1840's...and free!! So I have put them in front of the door, I enjoy them every time I walk over them....
Building up the energies to begin the final assault on the house, downstairs bathroom (old kitchen) and floor of the lounge...all will be finished after these....yeah right!
A certain James and Cathy arrived in December as our visiting wwoofers...sadly for them it rained for much of the time but we did manage to cut up all the wood for next winter and clear a good portion of a track, both of which we are very grateful for...
I think we shall look at wwoofing again in the spring as now is the time to plan rather than do...

So, 2013 about to begin, I hope it is a more settled one than 2012....we can tick the Euro meltdown, Mayan armageddon, Mick Romney, reformation of the Spice girls etc....the only way is up, baby...

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2013....R,H,C&L xxxx

Flattened!

Teaching Sirocco to cross the ditch!! He was so keen on the second time that he followed me a split second later and right on top...oww!! I shot past a tree as 900kg of flying flesh and bone hit me in the back...amazingly, just a sore leg and some bramble thorns to pull out...The obvious lesson for me being that I need to make sure he understands the concept of wait! So, I have survived my first knock with Mr S...but he is very sweet, keen to learn and no malice. I am still doing the ground work with him, Heleen is being very patient as I attempt to get to grips with how to be a 'friendly leader'...

New stables

Not quite finished but here we are Mr S and I in the new stables...need to build Heleen a tack room (other side of that wall you can see) and wire it up for light and sounds but it is looking quite tidy already!!

Summer 2012...

Long time no blog indeed....it has been a very busy summer here at Kervelen, many visitors keeping us both busy and entertained and all in all a satisfying time had by all.

The infamous Brittany weather seemed set to make it a damp experience and indeed made June and part of July just that...then someone flicked a switch and we went from grey 16C to sunny 28C overnight!! Suffice to say it felt like 40C after so long in the mist, the plants suddenly started growing, the bees got busy and we headed to the beach for our first swim in the sea...bar from a few off days that is how it stayed for the remaining weeks, certainly enough for it to feel as if we have had a summer.
Sadly the early gloom put pay to any blackberries this year, although my raspberries are still going strong (and HUGE)...

First year in the polytunnel has been a mixed affair, the tomatoes got blight so look alittle worse for wear, the melons are still ripening so not sure if they will actually make it, the capsicums did well as did the courgettes.. and hot chillies!! The two shining stars were the basil and the cucumbers...both prolific. So, we shall take what we have learnt into next year and hopefully have some better results. The watering of a polytunnel is a real pain in the arse (especially when it is raining alot just outside!) so for next year I shall rig up a self watering system from the rain tanks...

Still on the building business! Have now moved on to the big barn having finished the back garden patio, roof etc. It is nice to have a covered outside area (sort of Kiwi style-open walls with a roof) creates another space for a table and we have already had a couple of lovely evenings out there...very nice..

The big news at the moment is the arrival of Sirocco...being a 6 year old Norman Cob X Percheron, he is a big lad, saved from the works at some stage and ending up here via the internet (how most things happen for us it would seem). The idea is for he and I to work together and hopefully over time just share a life... Heleen is on hand to start us off and at times it would be difficult to guess who is leading who but I have a really good feeling about him and the idea of developing something with him. It would be great if I could use him to pull logs out of the woods etc. as he is built like a tank and must weigh in around a tonne. I am trying to think of another name for him as Sirocco is a bit long winded but it is proving to be tricky...he reminds me a bit of Frank Bruno!

I shall post some photos of the summer, school started again this week with Lola very happy to be back but Charlie, having spent a lot of the time just in his undies found it not so great! So it must be time for me to return to school too and this year I am determined to make some progress on the language front!!

Well, that's it for now, I must head for bed so I can wake up in time for the kids school run....

Nature filling an empty hive....thank you universe...

Fantastic to watch, as if they are sucked in...

Sian and Karina baking a chocolate cake with those two chocolate lickers!!

Life on the rock....

Watching Sian cart wheeling...

Charlie throwing rocks...

Spring bluebells..

Granny and two six year olds...

Our visiting Sailor Guy....

On the Camper boat Lorient 2012....

Those two frenchies...mais qui...

The next generation of grinders...

Waitangi day....

A walk with the team in the woods....

Mum and little one healthy and happy...

Looking a little bare!! Still cold enough at night to keep everything reluctant...

Feijoas in Brittany! Well I hope there will be, shall find out probably next year...

Just about finished kitchen (at last)..currently working on the white gite before tackling the new bathroom in here...

Frustrating this week, seemed to have pulled something in my calf so now hobbling around plus the rain has arrived and now does not want to stop :(...

Spring foal

On Saturday a foal was born from one of the mares of our friend Lisa. Mother and baby are doing great. Such a beautiful little thing!

Adventures...

Lola and Charlie have discovered a great new that is called going on adventures. They pack their backpacks with some food & drink, a blanket, notepad, and a map they've made themselves and then go wandering around on our land. They have a picnic at the river and have a wonderful time. After a while we go looking for them, but before we find them they've already found their way home again. You gotta let them go...

UFO lands in Plouyé

UFO lands in Plouyé



Aliens have a lovely view over the village



Winter, but not too cold to do some landscaping for the mousies with fairy moss....

Christmas dinner in the new kitchen

Wow, it's been a while... The days are getting longer and we still haven't even posted our christmas pictures! In the mean time winter hasn't really arrived (two days frost so far). The kids were worried that christmas would be cancelled without any snow!

Thierry, Linda, Lucia, Xavier, Pascale, Lisa and Jerome, came for christmas dinner in our new kitchen. We had loads of lovely food and two of our amazing meat chickens. This is really the best and most pleasant way to practice our french.

More recent news? The kids had lovely presents (Thank you everybody!!) and now Charlie is bigtime into lego. Rod's had surgery on his carpel tunnel and is recovering fast & well. He'll get his other wrist fixed as well because the french health system is such a nice experience :-) Milo's had his stifle locked (again) but seems to be getting a bit better. We might be getting some wwoooffers in the springtime, hoping we get some more work done in the gardens.

Anything else I need to blog about? No news is good news, I guess!