Ducks, chestnuts and veggies

On Monday last week I took my New Zealanders up to Dinard Airport for them to collect the hire car in which they were going to drive down to the Dordogne.  Although it was dull when we set off, the return journey was in sunshine so much more pleasant.  In fact so many of the days recently have had super sunshine and it's still really warm here, 22°C in the shade this afternoon while I sat outside reading.  

Tuesday and Thursday Bowls last week – always good to get back to after a break and on Tuesday my physio came and sorted me out in the evening.  At Bowls I was handed a note which had been left for me.  It was from the daughter of friends who I probably haven't seen since she was about eleven years old.  Two of the bowlers had been on the P&O Ferry coming back from the UK while I was in Cornwall, and had been talking to the Receptionist on the boat and mentioned Brittany.  My friend's daughter, the Receptionist, Fiona, then said that she knew someone in Brittany called Sandra Chubb!  I imagine she was very surprised when the bowlers said that they saw me every week at Bowls.  It's a small world.

I did without a vehicle on Wednesday as it was having a panel resprayed after a friend’s 4x4 reversed into it a couple of weeks ago. 

It never fails to surprise me that a bodyshop can clean just the one panel they’re going to spray and not touch the rest of a muddy vehicle.  You’d think they’d do it all out of courtesy wouldn’t you?

Friday morning was taken up by fetching animal feed.  A friend and I share the trip each time alternating vehicles and trailers each time.  It’s always good to see lots of feed in the barn and know that I don’t have to worry about running out for a month or so.  I just had time to get back, shower and change before driving to Jac and Ken’s for lunch and met another friend there too.  Chicken Kiev, cheeses and then bread and butter pudding  - a lovely menu and lots of good conversation for most of the afternoon. 

My new chickens have sorted themselves out and are now putting themselves to bed so that I just have to shut the doors to the houses.  I am getting various numbers of eggs – some days just one hen and one duck egg and other days eight hen eggs, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it but the lay will diminish as the days get shorter.   I have had to rehome my two drakes who were subjecting my Muscovies to frequent and aggressive threesomes.  The ducks had taken to hiding in the barn in a corner inaccessible to the drakes and something had to be done.  This afternoon I took them to their new home.

The goats are proving troublesome with their constant need for greener grass.  They keep going through to the adjoining field and have just finished destroying the latest fence panel which was designed to keep them out.  Here they are in said field with what is left of the fence panel.

Every few days I've been digging in the runs to give my hens and ducks new earth to root about in and they have been enjoying the worms which are uncovered.  

My printer has decided to give up.  This morning my brilliant neighbour printed a form I needed to complete and send to Cornwall.  Heavens knows what’s wrong with it – I hate technology when it doesn’t work.  Another neighbour came past the field while I was fetching eggs.  She’d collected a full bag of sweet chestnuts along the lane and then added some of my salad leaves and chillis to her haul.  She asked me whether they were very hot chillis, but I don’t really know as I haven’t eaten fresh chillis before these, so have nothing to compare them with.   My next door neighbour's grandchildren brought me a bag of their sweet chestnuts yesterday some of which I roasted in the fire during the evening - lovely!   I have one tree on my field which produces good size chestnuts too.

The change of hour meant that waking to the light at 0800hrs and doing the animals instead of waiting thirty minutes more for their day to begin.  I know it’s contraversial going back to normal time on the last weekend of October, but I like losing summer time.  I now put the animals to bed at about 1800hrs, come back for supper and don't have to go out again.  

The hunt was out in force again this Sunday sounding horns and with hounds baying loudly all around.  My cats stayed in and even the rabbits didn’t come out of their house - the hunt stayed out of the garden.

I’ve had a good weekend.  I was shattered this week and decided I’d go nowhere during Saturday and Sunday.  I gardened and put in 50 mixed narcissus and daffodil bulbs in the narrow bed along the house.  I wanted to put in tulips, aliums, crocus and grape hyacinths but couldn’t remember where I’d put them – the senior moments come thick and fast nowadays.  I finally uncovered the box they were in late this afternoon, so they’ll not get done today.  I cleared some of the accumulated stuff in the kitchen and had a general sort out.  I listened to The Archers omnibus while I ate my oxtail and carrot stew which I’d cooked in the slow cooker – it was lovely.   I resisted loading up the woodburner so that I could roast chestnuts over the glowing embers – these were lovely too. 

I did loads of gardening this week, cleared the raised beds and then planted onions and garlic.  I also weeded round the strawberries and leeks and picked spinach for supper.

The  pumpkins and squashes are now hardening off in the polytunnel and Claude, wrongly, thinks there are mice lurking behind them.

This butterfly, a red admiral, is one of many in the polytunnel this week.
















This was the first year for my artichokes so I didn't eat the few that were produced, allowing the plants to get bigger and stronger for next year.  I love the flowers which develop.

I catalogued the books I’d brought back from Cornwall, so that everything was up to date and put them in front of shelves already stacked with books in the gym.  I still have lots of duplicates to pass on and I did take some to a Mingle I went to last month.

The acer in the garden is beautiful now.  It came with me from Cornwall where it wasn't thriving at all, but clearly enjoys Brittany - just like I do.

Three things I like:

1.   The incredibly hot and sunny days we've had throughout October.  
2.   Chatting on the 'phone with the family.   
3.   Having a lovely back massage from my Physio. 

Blue fields, sweet chestnuts and Bon Repos

Another beautiful day Sunday, much warmer than it should be for the last half of October.   The NZ house/pet sitters and I had decided to go to Bon Repos market so that they could see a little more of Brittany before they left the next day. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

The strange objects on the fish counter (at the front of this photograph) are swim bladders from gurnard fish.  The fishmonger put the head on the counter to see if I could recognise it as, until I looked it up, I hadn't known that grondin was gunard. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends were sitting having coffee outside the restaurant opposite the stalls and we joined them for a while, chatting in the sunshine before walking around the market and then the Abbey.   In this photo, other friends from bowls were there too having a drink in the sunshine.

 

 

We then drove through the forest of Quenecan to my favourite bakery at Mur de Bretagne where we bought things for lunch.  There was nothing savoury so we had to buy cakes - life is difficult sometimes.  We drove on to Lac de Guerledan and sat looking out over the lake enjoying the gorgeous weather - cake by the lake - could have been worse!

 

On the way back we went to Canihuel, the other side of the lake from Le Pelinec restaurant where the Kiwis had seen a blue crop field and wondered what it could be.  We took photos of the flowers which were beautiful. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had collected sweet chestnuts there on their bike ride and we amassed a huge quantity to bring home from just one large tree which had dropped hundreds of large nuts along the verge and in the field.  These were very good roasted later in the evening.









 

 

This morning we all set off for Dinard airport and I left Wendy, Patrick and Chris there to continue their journey down to the Dordogne before returning to England for a couple of months and then back to New Zealand.  It was lovely meeting them and I do hope we don't lose touch.

 

I was back in the early afternoon for Jac and Ken coming over with loads of hay for the animals and a good catch up back at home.

 

Three things I like:

 

1.   Spending lovely days out with friends.

2.   Getting the washing dry on the line in the late October sunshine.

3.   Being home again.

Back to England and Kerien Horsefair

Well, I finally managed to get back home to Brittany after a trip to England which was equally difficult and great.  I spent three nights with friends, Sheila and Paul in Cornwall, then three nights back in Gloucestershire for the first time for years and then back to Cornwall to stay with   The difficult part involved many hours over two different days waiting in garages for things to be done to the Land Rover, still not fixed properly but just enough to get me back.  I am now waiting for a part from England which was on a ten to fourteen day delivery period.  The great bits were having all the family together for the first time in a while, staying with Sheila and Paul, and seeing more family and friends in Gloucestershire after so many years while staying with friends, Lesley and Roy.  I then returned to stay with Oli and Emma for a couple of days.  My younger grandchild, Mia, is now walking and a delight and it was lovely to spend time with my older grandchild, Charlie, who seems so grown up nowadays at seven and a half.  Here we all are together at a Charlestown restaurant - photo taken on a friend's 'phone in dim lighting. 

 

 

I drove straight from the restaurant to Plymouth and managed to miss the boat I should have been on. I returned to St Austell to sleep back at a family house for the night.  The following day I managed to get on the afternoon boat and drove back to Plymouth, this time managing to get there in time and actually board.  The crossings both ways were rough.  Luckily I don’t seem to be affected by the rolling motion except when trying to walk a straight line on the way to the shop or my cabin. 

When I arrived back in St André at 11.15pm I did over an hour of unloading and unpacking.  During the early hours of the morning, when I couldn’t sleep, I came down and put the washing in the machine and later hung it up on the kitchen ceiling airer where it continued to dry in the heat from the woodburner.  I love my woodburner.  The moment the cats know that it is lit they come into the house and bask in the warmth, usually on the table I have in front of my chair with the laptop on it or in the fabric covered boxes on the floor next to the hearth.  Saturday morning was taken up with unloading the rest of the Land Rover and trying to find homes for all the stuff I'd brought back.

If the company in England was good, the weather was dreadful while I was there – rain, rain and more rain, oh and mist too.  I did manage to take one good sunset while I was there and an atmospheric view from Sheila and Paul's house too.

I don’t think my New Zealand housesitters had anything much better here.  So - we were lucky on Saturday afternoon that it was dry and sunny for the Horsefair at Kerien.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My housesitters, Wendy and Patrick and I really enjoyed it.  Lots of horses, mules, donkeys, goats, hens, pheasants, quail etc.  I succumbed to four little chickens and we each shared carrying the box that they were in.

 

Many clothes and food stalls, horse shoeing, a brass and wind band and so many people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On arriving home we put the new arrivals in a separate unused house and run and added a Frizzle cockerel who has been lonely since his partner was taken by the fox.  I hope they all get on in their new home and don’t fight too much while settling in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started this book on the ferry going over to England and finished it on the journey back. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was brilliant and unfortunately the only book written by the author, Mary Ann Shaffer, now dead.  Due to her ill health it was finished by Annie Barrows.  The book has the unlikely title of “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” and the story takes place in the first nine months of 1946, after the end of the German occupation of Guernsey during the second world war. 

It’s both a funny and poignant book and I heartily recommend it to any and everyone.  One of those books that you want to finish but hate it when you don't have it to read anymore.  I am now part way through a very simple and gentle book "An Otter on the Aga" written by Rex Harper. 

Three things I like:

1.   Being back home again and seeing all the animals had been well cared for in my absence by my lovely house/pet sitters.

2.   Having beautiful weather with real heat in the sunshine for the whole of the weekend.

3.   The lovely pea and ham soup I had for supper, made with the gammon from Heligan Farmers' Shop which I cooked yesterday. 

A day out with my house/pet sitters

As I was going back to England for a few days in October I decided to advertise for house/pet sitters again.  I had a very nice German couple back in April and used the same company again.  This time my sitters were from New Zealand.  We talked on the telephone and exchanged lots of emails before they finally arrived at Dinard Airport a couple of days before my trip back.  They came with their eighteen year old son and the day before I left Brittany we drove to collect some hens and carried on to Locronan, a medieval town which I had visited earlier this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One place I didn't go to on my last visit was the chocolate shop.  I rectified that on this second trip.  The perfume of chocolate was overwhelming as I entered the back room of the shop - absolutely delicious! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The town itself is so photogenic it's hard to know when to stop taking photographs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left Locronan and went on to the coast stopping at a long sandy beach where kite surfers were preparing to get on the water. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of the kite surfers were doing high jumps above the surface of the water and speeding along at incredible speeds in the wind.  A beautiful weather day for them and for us watching.

 

 

 

This is one of the bridges over the river in Chateaulin - a lovely looking town.

 

 

It was a lovely day out and was a great getting to know time for Wendy, Patrick, Chris and me.  I felt absolutely confident that there would be nothing to worry about when I left the animals in their care. 

 

Three things I like:

 

1.   The huge skies at the coast.

2.   The wonderful smell of chocolate.

3.   The wonderful taste of chocolate.