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.

 

 

 

 

Ruins, the hunt and beautiful weather

The temperature has definitely taken a dive this week.  This morning there was frost on the grass when I went up, later than usual due to the Japanese Grand Prix, to do the animals.  3°C registered on my thermometer and my neighbour, driving to the boulangerie, stopped on the lane to tell me that her car was showing 2.5°C.   However, the sun is strong today and at 1345hrs it has reached 16°C - there's no breeze today and it feels lovely out there.  Here's the horsechestnut in my lane against the bluest sky.

 

The conkers are all over the lane and  are being popped open by the passing vehicles.

 

This week I've collected lots and put them on the stairs to ward off spiders.  My friend, June, has done this for years and I've recently read about it on the internet too, so thought I'd try it.

 

The cats immediately move in front of the woodburner when it's alight - here they are washing each other before settling down for a sleep in the warm.

 

 

On Tuesday I walked with a friend in Bois de Beaucours and this time reached the Rocher de Guingamp.  Incredibly huge rocks - the largest two leaning against each other in the form of an arch.

The length of the gap between the two main rocks is about 14 metres - just to give some idea of the scale.

 

Sorry about the dirty lens giving marks on the finished photos.

As we walked back down to the lake and along the bank we noticed these ruins a little way into the trees. 

 

This was a previous manoir and I was astounded to see the detail in the stonework and only to find it on my fourth visit to the woods.

 

Opposite the ruined manoir there is a basic building which is apparently used by hunters.  It is simply furnished with a table and benches and has a working fireplace with a pile of large logs ready for burning.  It would make a pleasant venue for an evening meal with friends but I'm not sure that would be allowed.

 

 

From the old to the new.  Echoing the projection at the other end of the house, my neighbour's extension is, below, complete except for the outside paving.

 

 

Here it is, complete and it's lovely, both outside and inside.  The proportions are good and the light is wonderful.

 

 

Last Sunday morning I was astounded to have a deer run through my garden followed by the hounds from the hunt.  The hunters were still a couple of fields away and not in control of their animals.  The law here is that the hunt cannot be within 150 metres  of a residence and here they were in my rabbit run and garden.  First I feared for the rabbits.  One hounds got left in their area and was finding it difficult to get out.  Gradually during the day the three rabbits all reappeared, having found sanctuary in the burrows they have dug at the back by the boundary wall. Then I worried about the cats.  Purrdy was in the house so I knew she was alright.  After about four hours, Claude came home but Gracie was nowhere to be seen.  I went to bed worrying about her and she was not home by morning.  I searched the hamlet calling for her but with no joy.  It was finally, in the late evening, that she flew through the cat door and jumped onto my lap.  She ate a sachet of treat food and then another one.  Thank heavens everyone was safe.  Not so the poor deer. 

 

As the hounds left my garden they entered my neighbour's and on the far boundary they caught and killed the deer. 

 

 

Two of my neighbours, both farmers, asked me to go into the Mairie to complain.  I did this on Monday morning, explaining first that I have no problem with the hunt, just not in my garden.  The mayor is the chap who organises the hunt from St Nicolas du Pélem.  He is a pleasant man and said that there had been no hunt arranged for that weekend and it must have been people coming into the area from outside, so nothing they could do.

 

On to pleasanter things.  I am harvesting various produce every day now and will be sorry to leave it all behind during my visit to the UK this month.

 

 

I visited the Vallée de Saintes, nr Carnoet, last weekend and took photos, in the sunshine, of all of the huge statues.  I was asked by a French photographer to do a small interview on video for the internet and my French, normally ok, failed me totally, so that will be interesting to see!  I'll post photos of the statues when I have a bad weather photography week later in the year.

 

Three things I like:

 

1.   Finding a small goat kid on the lane and after a cuddle, finding where he lived and taking him home.

2.   Having my French neighbours in for dinner one evening with no culinary disasters.

3.   The wonderful sunshine we've had all week and being able to sunbathe with a book in October.

 

 

 

 

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