how well we try to integrate or speak….. Funny old world.

Blog 9 / March

Our Spring break this year was full of wonderful gatherings with friends, good food and a lot of laughter.  Here we are a gang of happy ladies with our Host, Tony, at his Sunday picnic.  This gathering was billed as a picnic in the wood but as storm Katie thought she had been invited as well we shut the door on her and stayed in. If you were wondering where the chaps are they were in the other room… and not out with Kati

On Monday we were around the table at the Simply Chateaux headquarters being spoiled with a full blown roast dinner and extremely grown up desserts… what a treat. It must be noted that we were at dessert stage in this photo and the windows are still full of daylight, summer is well and truly on the way……

 

Not to put tradition on too much of a back burner Mike and I cracked on with decorating this spring holiday in the middle spare room. The carpet for this room has been rolled up and on the landing since November 2014. Now that the house windows are all painted and I no longer need this room as a painting room we have got to get this project done and dusted…….The problem is, Mike dislikes decorating with a passion and I am just no good at it.  Mike gave me a master class in painting doors and my frustration at my hopelessness was palpable, and although he was very patent  he knew if I walked off the job ( of which I was very capable of doing)  then he was going to have to step in or we would never finish……..

 

We have been introduced to a Jay and Helen recently who are interested in WW2 vehicles and activities and also own horses.  At one of our gatherings I mentioned that I needed some horse poo for my garden as I have been very lazy these past few years and the winter Brussels sprouts were not as great as I had hoped. The soil in my veggie beds is exhausted and I really need to fork in some poo  so when Jay looked kindly down at me and said of course we have well-rotted poo and you can have as much as you like, I was delighted …….

 

We made all the arrangements to meet up at their home and I was thrown into a flurry of great excitement as the pile of poo Jay showed me was veritable black gold. I was introduced to the horses and understood immediately how this poo pile had developed and when the vintage tractor came out to take the trailer across the muddy field I had a good feeling I had found my Zenith in gardeners’ perfection. Jay dropped two bucket loads into the trailer which equates to 8 wheel barrows and I need 2 barrows per bed. Am I becoming a gardening anorak? Yes, I am, but I also know I am going to need more black gold so a bit of supper and smooth talking will be in order to keep our friends on side ….. I know you read the blog Jay and Helen so thank you for your horse poo, invite in the post xx

 

 

I will not be able to get through a blog now without a drone picture of the garden so here it is, and that is the veggie patch where the manure is going. It will be so interesting to see how this view changes as the season moves on and now that we are on summertime clocks the season is well and truly under  way.

 

We had another family birthday as Toby, youngest grandson in Australia has turned 10….and here he is having his first driving lesson out in the outback on a camping holiday ….. It is so good to see them all getting on with their new lives…..driving forward, so to speak!!..

 

With Napoleon gone, and the gongs of the grandfather clock muted, mornings at Brevands have been far more stressless and quiet. It was therefore, a bit of a shocker when we were woken up by the sound of a noisy goose at near quarters.  Mike got up to look out of the window and there he was …… putting the fear of huge goose into my ducks and generally making himself at home. We got up and walked him out of the pond area and over the road into our neighbours drive. We guessed he had escaped and came from there, but I could not get a reply at the door so I closed the gate to keep him, chez lui.  I lost my male duck who flew off in the face of confrontation and left the girls to fend for themselves but we did pick him up in the field next door so he is safe and back at home. Later in the day I saw my neighbour and explained what had happened and she was very concerned that we had been inconvenienced. In the run of this short conversation she mentioned that she had told her husband that the goose was ‘chez les Anglais’ and it suddenly struck me that we had been pigeon holed and index shelved as ‘Les Anglais’.  It is the first time in 10 years of living in France that this has happened and I took a miniscule amount of offence as we neither of us regard ourselves as the English people ….. But… in reality we are, and always will be, regardless of how well we try to integrate or speak….. Funny old world.