Cockerels, kitten, produce and visitors

A week on from my last post and my hand is healing well. It’s now been thirteen days of a nurse coming in daily to change the dressings – a service second to none.  The hole is filling up really quickly and hopefully I’ll soon be able to be without a dressing.

Good news and bad news.  First the good news, it’s pouring with rain here today which is great for filling up the water containers on the field which are extremely low.  I haven’t mains on the field and all water has to be collected from the barn roof and diverted into IBCs for the animals and the veggies.  Second the bad news, I was supposed to be playing golf with friends this afternoon so obviously that will not now be happening.  I say playing golf – I have only tried once before – so I really mean walking with a stick in my hand making an attempt to get a small white orb into a position roughly in the right direction.  I have however, actually bought a set of club this week – in a mad moment – so ought to get out there and practise my swing.  We have reorganised the session for next Sunday, weather permitting.

I also collected a large amount of gash wood for cutting and storing in the kindling shed.  One of the tasks on the To Do List for my Workaways.

Tomorrow my next Workaways arrive to help me for ten days  This time a Finnish couple, Katri and Illka.  Years ago in England I had a Finnish boy, Seppo, living in my house for a year and he and his family were lovely.  They brought me cloudberry liqueur which was delicious. 

A friend, John, who has illustrated my poems in the past, came to stay last night on his way back to the UK.  We had a great time chatting in the garden sunshine and then a lovely meal at Le Pelinec in Canihuel.  He left at an ungodly hour this morning to catch the Roscoff ferry – not the best weather day for a smooth crossing unfortunately. 

On Saturday next, friends from the UK are spending the night while passing through on their way to their holiday home in Charente Maritime.  I didn’t see them last year so a lot to catch up on.  We met years ago on a Rape Counselling Training Course in Gloucestershire and have been friends ever since. 

This week, a neighbour, Jean-Luc, came over and helped me with despatching four cockerels who had been incubated in my kitchen earlier this year.  Here is a photo of the one who will carry on with my hens - he has been chosen entirely on looks and is a handsome boy.  

I have been lucky with the ratio of hens to cockerels but still had too many cockerels to let them all live.  He favoured slitting their throats and we had to hold them over a bin, bleeding out, while their wings had to be held tight to stop them flapping.  I suggested just pulling their necks but it didn’t find favour with him, so we continued with his method which I found quite difficult to accept.  However, the dreadful deeds were done and Jean-Luc then took them away to pluck and eviscerate.  On Friday, I placed sliced onions, carrots, thyme and homemade chicken stock into a large pan with a prepared cockerel on top, smothered in butter and seasoning and rashers of streaky bacon.  The oven turned to 160°C and he was cooked for about five hours.  There is, of course, very little meat on the breast of a cockerel, but the legs are good, dark, tasty meat and the veggies and stock were lovely.  Always very difficult killing an animal I’ve looked after, but, of course, I know it has to happen and they’ve had a good life.  The next animals to go will be my barren ewe, Lisa, and Martha’s this year’s ram lamb, Raoul.  Raoul is a very friendly lamb and I will be very sorry to see him go.  I know though that they’ve been well-treated and loved while they’ve been on the field.

I've been collecting seeds during the fine weather and am waiting for the sunflowers in my neighbours garden to be ready -  they have been brilliant flowers this year.  

Several friends seem to have been born in September and I’ve just dropped off a pressie and card to someone who puts away the poultry for me if I’m not here – a friend indeed.  On Friday another friend had a surprise birthday party for her birthday this week.  It was good, with lots of lovely food and wine brought by the guests and live music laid on by the hosts.  Good too, to catch up with people I hadn’t seen for a while.  One chap is someone I met on a Fungi Foray last year and he’s apparently going again to the one I’m booked on in October.  He’s also a beekeeper, and always good to meet another beekeeper.  Last night as we were checking out of the restaurant I noticed some business cards on the side, one of those was for a French beekeeper, so I have that in my bee book now, in case I go his way and could pop in for a look at his set up. 

The produce from the field continues to fill up the kitchen.  I have to get down to bottling sauces and using my new dehydrator which hasn’t been tested yet.  



















The grapes too are definitely going to be fully swollen and sweet in the next couple of weeks – there are so many of them again – I guess more juice which will be frozen as in previous years.

A strange creature, dead, at the entrance to my field.  Not sure what killed it or why it was left there.  Possibly a pine or stone martin - keen on hens, so perhaps a good thing that it is not alive and on my field.

Onto happier things, my neighbour's have been away on holiday for a week and their new kitten, Vanille, has made herself at home in my house.  She is very sweet indeed and I haven't minded at all.

Three things I like:

1.  The way my honey is flying off the shelves.  I had thought I wouldn't find enough customers, now I wonder if I will have enough honey!
2.   Having friend staying, even for a short time, and catching up with all the news.
3.   Knowing I'm welcoming more Workaways here tomo

August ending - honey and eggs, wounded hand and crops

Another few weeks have rushed past, I really don’t know where the time goes to. 

I had a new Workaway, Lucas, an American, for just a week, as he was on his way to help with renovating a Norwegian lighthouse.  We managed to get lots more items knocked off the To Do List, but somehow it never gets much shorter as more things are always being added.   My next Workaways are a Finnish couple, arriving on 4 September.

A friend, Lorna and I had a stall at the AIKB Kermesse last weekend.  Lorna was selling beautiful candles made from beeswax and I had taken my jars of honey, eggs and some courgettes.  It was a good weather day and it was well attended.   Lots of the candles were bought and I sold all the courgettes and eggs and 45 jars of honey so it was a great success.  I also bought several bits and pieces myself, books – of course, egg containers, a china hen, etc. etc.   I loved the jigsaw facepaint on this child - Lorna and I discussed whether we should get face painted as bees ..   we didn't!

The lesson at my glass class at La Verrerie in Caurel this month was casting glass, so we made clay moulds and then poured in plaster to get to the next stage.  I collected the previous items I had made one of which was plain glass dish with a bee in relief – quite pleased with it.  Hard to photograph though ...

The veggies and fruit are coming on well on the field.  Finally the tomatoes are ripening, lettuces, chillis, radishes, aubergines and courgettes are doing well in the polytunnel.  The runner beans are great, also sweet peppers and the sweetcorn is nearly ready.  I have red cabbage, broccoli, leeks, carrots, beetroot and parsnips coming along which should be ready in late Autumn.  

Only one butternut squash plant seems to have survived so I’ll be a bit down on them for the winter.  The rhubarb is going mad and I have made lots of rhubarb cordial with ginger - diluted with fizzy white wine is it lovely.  The hens are laying well again after a bit of a blip and as you can see, I now have quail eggs too.  The artichokes I have left for the flowers which the bees like so much.  Lots of lovely curly kale this year too.

I have bought a dehydrator and plan on drying surplus tomatoes and other things, maybe bought in bananas as I love those dried. 

The bees have been treated against varroa and when the strips come out of the hives it will be time to feed them for the winter and put insulation into the hives to keep them warm.  I am hoping to move the hives to a slightly different position once the winter is here and they are not flying around. 

The swimming pool was set up a few weeks ago but has not been used by me yet this year.  Unfortunately, while we were putting in fence posts the very heavy, rusty and dirty fence post driver was brought down onto the side of my hand.  

A chunk was taken out, too much to be able to stitch so after visiting Casualty in Guingamp, having a tetanus jab and antibiotics, the nurse has been coming to see me every day to dress the wound.  It is getting better quickly and hopefully I will be able to get my hand wet in the pool at some point in the not too distant future.

I also had a very itchy bee sting though thankfully the swelling was controlled by cortisone and antihistamines.

A young English couple holidaying in France came over last night to check out whether they would like to Workaway here next year.  They pitched their tent on the log shed triangle grass for the night before leaving for the port this morning and it looks as if I might have my first Workaways for 2018.

This morning I have a friend coming to do the sheep’s feet and to worm them.  The new ewes are very excitable and I think it may be a long morning.

Three things I like:

1.   The success of my honey sales – even the nurse doing my dressings this morning bought      four jars.

2.  Seeing previous guests returning to the cottages – a bit like having friends visit.

3.   Getting all the bedlinen and towels from seven guests washed and dried in one good          weather day.

Workaways, summer honey harvest and the garden

It's true, time definitely passes faster as it runs out.  The last three weeks have zipped by and I can't believe we're almost half way through August now.

The two Workaway lads, Lewis and Yaems, proved to be great.  I was sorry to have to take them to the station this morning for onward travel to their next host. 

They cleared nettles, shovelled three trailer loads of manure, collected 800kgs of animal feed, cleaned gites, weeded, cleaned vehicles, sorted out the gym, cleaned out all the animal buildings, sorted the storage caravan and made numerous trips to the tip, cleaned and filled the swimming pool, etc. etc. Yaems also cooked several meals and made great flapjacks.  He had a little disaster with a giant brownie - it wasn't edible - he asked if he should throw it.  I replied "yes, but not at anything which matters!" Luckily they were here for the first part of the summer honey harvest and turned the extractor handle which is seriously hard work on a manual extractor.  They worked well and were really good company. 

With friends, Claire and Debby, we removed 16 half frames from two hives and extracted just over 25kg of beautiful golden honey into 250g jars and about 1kg from the cappings for kitchen use.

There are still two hives to harvest when we get a suitable weather day and the girls are free to help again.   A friend, Lorna, has asked me to share a stand with her at a fete this month so I shall be selling my Rainbow Cottages honey there.

The beautiful rose, Princess Alexandra of Kent, which Colin and Val gave me for my 70th birthday is blooming beautifully.

Other flowers in the garden

Achillea, perovskia, rudbeckia, leek flowers, I think, and monarda.

My previous Workaway, Jonny, planting trees and laurel in the hen field.  Hopefully they will give the hens, ducks and geese some extra shade when they're established.

Here is a favourite view on the top lane

The raised beds behind the polytunnel are doing well and from there and the polytunnel I've already had courgettes, tomatoes, cucumbers, runner beans, broad beans, peas, strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb, onions, potatoes and herbs - more courgettes than I know what to do with!

Lastly, a photo of me with my son, Matthew, taken in Cornwall in July,  which I really like. 

Three things I like:

1.   Flapjacks made by Yaems with raspberries and chocolate.

2.   My new quail just settling into a run in the garden.

3.   Finalising our holiday in Portugal.

June and July flowers, produce and goodbyes

It's been a hectic few weeks and I don't seem to have had time to write although I have managed photographs, so here we go.  

Firstly two lots of sad news.  My son and friends usually come over to stay in June and this year they were coming with Brett's parents, Val and Colin.  Colin had been undergoing chemo and was not well enough to travel so the trip didn't happen this time.  Very sadly Colin died on 22 June and I returned last week for his funeral.  The wake was at the Carlyon Bay Hotel where he had worked and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon so we were able to sit outside. The photos are of the venue, me with my son, Matthew, the flowers for Colin and lastly Matthew with friend, Phillipa.  By some horrible twist of fate our friend Phillipa's father, Chris, also died on the same morning as Colin. 

June always seems to be a busy month in the garden as everything starts to grow and need dealing with.  The elderflowers were on good form and I made twelve litres of cordial.  I used to make elderflower champagne but had so many bottles explode that I now make cordial and top it up with sparkling wine.  This year's cordial tastes divine ...

The garden flowers in my own and my neighbour's garden have been beautiful - this lavatera in Paulette's garden is the most heavenly colour.

Poppies in my veggie patch

Butterflies on the chive flowers - the bees love them too.

Lots of these last ones in the polytunnel every day.

This is a yellowhammer in my field - not taken by me - what a colour!

These four ducks needed a home so they came to me - my Indian Runner on the right of the photo took them in hand and showed them the pond straightaway.

The strawberries have finished now pretty much, but they have been good. The raspberries too have been a lovely taste every morning while I stand and watch the sheep feeding.   I haven't managed to get any peas down to the kitchen - I've eaten them all on the field - so sweet!

A very Breton way of announcing a happy forthcoming event.

The shearer came to deal with my two newly arrived animals, Rachel and Rebekah.  They were a real challenge to catch and I was surprised and grateful that he didn't give up. How lovely they looked when they were sheared.  I gave the wool to a friend here who had last year's wool too.  When she collected it she brought me wool spun from Ricardo's fleece for knitting socks - a lovely surprise!

I have a Workaway at the moment who is getting to grips with sorting out the overgrown veggie patch and painting furniture.  Tonight I collect two English lads who are going to help me for three weeks so hopefully we'll get lots of things crossed off the To Do List.

Three things I like:

1.   Catching up with everyone in Cornwall last week.
2.   Being back home again and getting everything back into order in the garden.
3.   Looking forward to harvesting the summer honey probably next week.