Gites...hellos n goodbyes...

Before our summer guests arrived we heard a variety of cautionary tales from (former) gites owners...stories of drunk guests, loud, difficult & many flavours in between so you can imagine our slight wariness heading toward our first summer. However, I am very glad to report that to date we have had/met some lovely people, today having to say goodbye to Sonya, Brett and Raul after their week here. Very heartening to meet good people in a world that the media tells us is so grim! It is a nice thought to have that some people will come again another year and thus continue the connection and watch the progress!

Have many ideas for improvements over the winter with the idea of developing a holiday home that really is a lovely experience....

In the meantime I am busy rebuilding one of the barns so it is dry and warm for the winter complete with tack room for Heleen and all the trimmings. Sadly my wrist seems to have packed up with classic symptoms of carpel nerve pressure and of course we have no cover yet! If you have had this you will know the worse part of the thing is that it is far worse at night and so my sleeping is very poor right now. So, I shall go and see a doctor next week to ascertain how much it will cost...bummer.

Yet to get anywhere near building my hives, stone raised beds or the second half of the house but if I can get a new wrist things will begin to happen. I notice the days are getting shorter (already!) so always a good reminder to keep chopping wood and mend roofs...

The French is slowly coming along, I notice how less at sea I feel at the market and be able to respond...I shy away from phone calls and use Reverso alot for emails! However, if I keep plugging away this time next year I am sure I will be fluent(ish)!!

Went to a local bar last Saturday morning to watch the All Blacks convincingly beat the Boks...watching the ABs reminds me just how much I identify my self as being a part of NZ, much more so than watching Wales (just don't tell Tony for Godsake!!) I shall be back there on Saturday to watch them play Australia.

An interesting side issue of watching games at this time is having coffee rather than beer, little in that other than the quality of the coffee here is poor (to s*@t)...seemingly the French are content to drink this? So I have began to build toward a quiet revolution in introducing fresh coffee...selling well at the small markets we do, sadly needing to be ground as there seemed to be a lack of grinders (the next step I think will be equipment)...so I shall let you know how that goes.

Chickens are firing on all cylinders since introducing the organic feed, at €600 a tonne it is far from cheap yet the girls are laying around 45 per day and even the old girls are looking great (could be the introduction of George the rooster too!)... seems like we may have many little rabbits soon as the two 'girls' we acquired last month seemed to be doing some strange things to each other for sisters...bugger.

Pigs yet to arrive as we have decided on the mini (or is it micro) version and the people are down South at the moment. All are well under the Kervelen banner although Heleen and Charlie seem to suffer a certain type of hay fever...feels abit daunting having a tackle the French medical system as I have a sense it will be an expensive business (with no guarantee it will solve the issue-that having far scarier implications)...shall leave this open for Heleen to say some words...

Here we go: Today Milo and me have cantered through the fields for the first time. He has breaks and steering now. He is such a good boy!

Summer in Finistere

Summer is great this year. Hot, blue skies, warm still evenings with pink & purple sunsets at half past ten.

Our lovely first guests Pam and Caroline were very lucky with the weather; only one morning rain, in general too hot for walking! They thoroughly enjoyed their holiday and they were an absolute pleasure to have. We even went out together to a fest noz in Locmaria. Very nice to hang out with the locals and join in a game of egg throwing/catching...

In the mean time some new animals arrived: 19 lovely white sussex girls that have joined the laying team. And two rabbits: Coco and Tatti. We'ved let them out of their cages, it was too sad. Now they are hopping around in the backyard with young rooster Johnny and some old hens. Cats and dogs know they are pets and the bunnies are now just relaxing on the lawn, coming and going as they please.

Soon we'll get some piggies too. Not sure we'll go for a couple of mini pigs (the only grow till they are 15 kg!) or a small black pregnant pig. Also thinking about some small sheep...

What more? Kids are on holiday. We've discovered the lake by Drennec that is a great place for them to go for a swim. Marley can go there too. After NZ it's nice to be able to take your dog to places.

I'm trimming hooves, helping people with their horses, riding almost every evening. The only horrible thing here in summer are the flies. The horses are in their stable all day!

Rod's picking fruit, making jams, extending the berry gardens, ordering chicken food and roasting coffee. His french is improving but I don't think he's noticing it....

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...