It’s been a busy couple of weeks outside here in St André while the weather’s been so dry and sunny. 

My neighbours offered me the orchard next to the field that they rent to me for my sheep.  I accepted instantly and having spent an exorbitant amount of money on post and fencing, the roadside boundary is 130 metres, photo below on right.  I found a great chap, Roy, to do the deed. 

Last Monday Roy had the help of my current Workaway, Damien and by Tuesday lunchtime the sheep were able to wander around safely amongst the trees and fairly long grass.  It may be that we have to strim the grass a bit to make it accessible to the sheep. 

We have collected 400kg of animal feed and stored it in the feed shed, two trailer loads of well rotted horse manure from my friends, Jac and Ken, and 500kg of small stones ready for shovelling onto the inevitable winter mud. 

The polytunnel has been completed sorted out, with the remains of overwintered veggies finally given to the hens, ducks and geese and more veggies planted to take their place.  I now have tomatoes, aubergines, sweet peppers, chilli peppers, coriander, strawberries, a fig, lettuces of various types, cucumber, courgettes and poppies all growing well.  

Here is one group of the sowings of broad beans and then shallots with some of the residents - Martha, Raoul and Lenny and some of the girls ...

Outside in the raised beds there are courgettes, sweetcorn, runner beans, tomatoes, beetroot, peas, broad beans, garlic, shallots, potatoes, rhubarb and fruit bushes all doing their thing, so hopefully there’ll be some good crops this year.   I have even planted some tomatoes amongst the garden flowers this year to increase our produce possibilities.  The vine is growing well with miniscule bunches of grapes showing all along the cottages.

When the work is done for the day, I am thoroughly enjoying my new swing seat.  It’s the only time of year I manage to read books and I am getting through them now while gaining a tan.  So far I’ve read the first three of these and have just started the fourth ...

The Writers' Group has turned into a lunch experience.  We met at our usual venue nowadays, Le St Antoine in Plemet and this was my lunch of country terrine, confit of duck and panna cotta.  As usual it was lovely.  We were also brought a mackerel paté extra to start with and a raspberry sponge bun with our coffees.

The annual Silfiac Plant and Craft Fair took place a couple of Sundays back and somehow I found my boot had accumulated quite a few plants before I took my leave.  Luckily I had parked close to the entrance so was able to drop each purchase into the car before setting off round the stalls again.

Honey bees are in very short supply around here.  I haven't seen any in the gardens around about, just bumble bees.  Heavens knows what will happen to the crops this year ...  Friends, Jane and Alan are bringing me three swarms, hopefully, this week to start building up my hives again but I am not as optimistic as I would like to be about their future here

My beautiful kitten, Nilly, seems to have disappeared.  She has been hunted for everywhere with no sign of her.  I feel very sad as she was a lovely cat and I miss her.

Three things I like:

1.  These wonderful long sunny days we have had during May - just perfect ...
2.  My Workaways, helping me with so much here in the house, garden and field.
3.  My four new bantam hens which were given to me by my neighbour, François

Flowers in my garden and the lane this month:

May in St André - so good to have some lovely weather

I haven’t done my blog for ages and thought I would start again today.  Just for a bit of background, though I’m not going to go back and write about the last two months, I fell in the garden henhouse on Sunday and think I’ve probably cracked some ribs and damaged soft tissue. 

Today my ribs are slightly less painful than yesterday and it was easier to get out of bed and get dressed this morning. 

The animals were fed and watered and the hens let out of the barn, I watered the polytunnel and optimistically left open the doors in case it got too hot in there.   

A week or so ago, when I left the house there was a beautiful moth on the flyscreen - apparently a Tau Emporer.

Down the lane there are bait hives out in the hope of catching swarms, so I went to check them.  A neighbour was in his garden and I asked if he could possibly strim my field entrance when he had time.  He suggested Sunday afternoon, I am hoping to go to the Silfiac Plant and Craft Show in the morning.  As I turned to go he told me that someone had given him two bantam hens which he didn’t want and if I did, then he’d bring them over with a bag of stale bread from the Retirement Home – brilliant!

Breakfast was streaky bacon, veal kidneys, fried bread and gravy from the roast with a black, sweet coffee, before I went outside to finish cleaning off bee hive frames removed out of the dead hives at the weekend.  It was hard work as using my right arm to scrape isn’t easy with the ribs.

I stored the cleared frames – twenty-two of them in the garage and went back up to the field to empty another hive.  I stacked the ten honey laden frames in a large lidded plastic box and then found I couldn’t lift it.  There must be so much honey on the frames as they were far too heavy.  Once I’d found another smaller box I transferred four frames to that and could just about manage to get the boxes into a wheelbarrow and then unload into the car boot to bring to the garage.  I cleaned off the hive I’d just emptied but was too shattered to consider taking the honey off the frames today.  Also, I need to buy some litre sized plastic containers in which to store the honey so I don’t use up all the jars in which I sell honey from Rainbow Cottages.  I must also add to the list, wire to repair the frames and foundation wax for when I manage to get to a Point Vert with an Apiculture section.  The only stores I know of are at Loudéac, Carhaix and Guingamp and I am not planning a trip near any of these in the next couple of days.

Back to the kitchen to make some soups.  I cooked up celeriac followed by pea and ham and they have just cooled enough to put into the freezer.  As I was finishing the pea and ham a neighbour from the far side of the village arrived to ask if I had any vacancies in the gites as he might have a judge for the Corlay Hippodrome races over the weekend who had nowhere to stay. 

No chance of sunbathing with a book today as it is very overcast and no sunshine.  It felt almost chilly inside and I’ve lit the woodburner and am catching up on recorded TV programmes for an hour or so. 

My American Workaways left on Tuesday.  Marge made a set of cushions for the new swing seat and Nilly enjoys the comfort in the sunshine.

The Workaway family coming last Wednesday had a change of plan.  I may though have found a young man to arrive sometime next week, arriving by bicycle so no firm date yet.  I have lots of work, as usual, especially as my immediate neighbours have offered me the orchard next to the field I already rent from them as more grazing for the sheep and the hens and the land will all have to be fenced.

I went to check some hives I have seen previously in the woods to see if they were thriving.  They had been removed for the winter but I drove slightly further on and found this lovely stone bridge over the river Blavet.

Three things I like:

1.   All the blossom on the trees in the village.
2.   Seeing the seedlings in the polytunnel doing well.
3.   Finding I have a broody hen in the barn sitting on eggs.