Nearly two months have sped by since my last blog post. So much seems to have happened - here's just a taste.
Next door’s kitten Vanille – I
call her Nilly – spends most of her day in my sitting room or at the cat
dishes. Every morning she is waiting
outside the door for me to let her in for breakfast and if I don’t notice her
immediately she climbs the wire mesh flyscreen and hangs high on it until I
open the door for her.
She is
irresistible. Once she’s breakfasted
then flakes out on the settee in the warmth of the woodburner and sleeps for a
couple of hours. She’s seems used to me
combing her now and I do it morning and night without her struggling - I think
she’s even enjoying it now. I put her
out in the evening to go back home but I don’t think she is allowed inside her
own house so I feel a bit mean especially now the nights are drawing in and
they’re getting colder. The garage is
open though so she can sleep under cover if not in comfort.
My Finnish Workaways, Katri and
Ilkke left before I went on holiday. They
were willing and hard workers and good company.
My housecarers arrived – Americans – Megan and Sean with a 13 month old
baby, Ana, who immediately held out her arms to me to be held. A lovely little girl with a permanent
smile. My neighbours, Christian and
Paulette met them as they were setting off for their usual afternoon walk and
in spite of the language difficulty on both sides they seemed to manage a conversation
of sorts.
Talking of babies, my friend,
Maggie, became a grandmother last month, with her daughter, Ashleigh giving
birth by caesarian to 3.6kg Noah on 21 September. Congratulations to everyone involved.
I visited Guingamp Hospital before
I went back to the UK and had an anal manual and probe examination, followed by
a scan. This resulted in good news
again. I am still clear of cancer. The scan covered up to my liver so pretty
extensive. My next appointment is in
March next year and I shouldn’t need colonoscopy again until 2019.
John Carter Martin, who
illustrated my dragon poem, came to stay for one night on his way up to Roscoff
returning to the UK. It was lovely to
see him again and we had a lovely meal out together. The following weekend, Lesley and Roy,
friends from Gloucestershire stayed for one night on their way down to their
holiday home in Charente Maritime. We
hadn’t seen each other for a couple of years so had loads of catching up to
do. I love having people here – part of
the reason I like having the Workawayers – all ages, all nationalities and from
every walk of life.
Packing for my holiday proved difficult. I like to travel with everything, including
the kitchen sink, and having a 20kg check-in bag allowance was extremely
difficult. Our villa, Casa Oasis in
Estoi, was beautiful with its outside and inside pools and views.
The villa was extremely well equipped and apart from
problems with the dishwasher and washing machine, necessitating an engineer’s
visit, everything was great. The weather
gave us a temperature of over 30°C every day and we had wall to wall
sunshine.
We had a couple of lunches out,
one with friends from Brittany who live in Portugal now, and dinner at a very
fancy restaurant one evening. The rest
of the time, Matthew cooked supper on the BBQ which was great. The pool was lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed
the whole holiday.
I brought back my next Workaway,
Marianne from South Africa, when I returned from Plymouth on the ferry. She leaves tomorrow to travel down to Lyon
where one of her sons lives, and I shall be sorry to lose her. She has worked well and been good company.
Matthew has booked to come over
for four days at Christmas which is lovely.
I hope the ferry doesn’t have trouble docking due to high winds which
has happened on two previous Christmas sailings he’s done.
My bees have been treated against
varroa and the treatment has been removed, insulation has been inserted into
each hive and hopefully they will be happy and warm for the winter months now. I
have sold lots of jars of honey and had repeat orders which is always
encouraging. While I was in England
before my holiday, I collected another full beesuit from BBWear in Cornwall
so that any Workaways who would like to help me next year, will have protection. The bees have been very lucky this year with
local farmers planting phacelia which is, as I write, still in full bloom,
providing a source of food which we don’t usually have around here. It is such a pretty flower too.
The polytunnel is full now of
salad in various stages. New seed sown
last week already coming through.
Hopefully it will all take me through the winter months as I just
harvest a couple of leaves from each plant, not removing the whole plant. Courgettes continue to produce as are the
chillis, sweet peppers, beetroot, carrots, parsley and sage.
I have a very large physalis plant taking
over a huge area – not sure when harvest will be on that.
Also a fig in a corner which is covered in
fruit but I’ve never grown one before so it’s a bit of an unknown beast. Outside I have parsnips, leeks, red cabbage
and more beetroot and carrots. The
rhubarb has finally given up and the old leaves have been cleared away.
My first Friday back home from
the UK saw me on a fungi foray – with the same host and expert who ran the
mushroom hunt last year. We were very
lucky and it was a good weather day so we had good foraging. The meal at lunchtime was very acceptable and
it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience again. My Workaway and I have also been out walking and foraging. Here are just three photos of the many we took.
There are so many berries everywhere and the birds have been having a feast everyday on my holly and honeysuckle plants, not to mention the grapes which still remain on my vine.
These berries remind me that winter is on it's way and that the clocks go back tonight so an extra hour in bed - that'll be good!
