Springing into Spring

Usually around now I am sowing broad bean seeds. We love broad beans and i grow a lot and freeze them and we use them in lots of ways throughout the year. The best time to plant here is in October as the beans are ready to harvest in May and they avoid black fly attack. It was just too wet to prepare the soil in October so I decided to wait for the next opportunity in February. Well here we are and the ground is still too wet to prepare but if I want broad beans I have to get them started. So I am trying a little experiment.


While catching up with Mr Selfridge on the internet this morning I made newspaper pots.

First I cut pages from the Sud Ouest  in half then folded them in half again longways and rolled them round a jam jar leaving some overhanging at the bottom. I fasten the edge together with a bit of tape.

Then turn the jar on its end so that the overlapping bits of paper are on top then turn them in like a parcel and secure with a bit of tape.

Ease the cylinder of the jar and there's your pot. I made a log basket full and it was time to go outside.

I filled all the pots with compost and put in a crate and then sowed the broad beans, watered them in and put in a sheltered spot. Fingers crossed they will germinate then I can transplant them when the ground in the veg plot is ready and the newspaper will just decompose and the potting compost will enrich the soil a bit.

It was lovely sitting potting up with the warm sun on my back - hopefully it won't be too long before the potager is in full production again

A bientôt.

Beating the Blues

Well things have picked up again in the Wilson household. We took ourselves in hand and decided that we were going to beat those winter blues.

First we went out to lunch at one of our favourite restaurants and did bit of a SWOT analysis on our life.  We decided that we were letting other people affect our mood and that they weren't important enough to let them do that. We also decided that we were being lazy about our projects and using the wet, winter weather as an excuse to be idle so we had a look at what projects would move us forward. We also agreed we were missing some of the people who mean the most to us. Just having set some plans in place while we were enjoying time together with good food and wine was enough to lift our spirits.            

Projects

We started work on a couple of projects. First one to fence the back terrace. It has drop of about 2 metres down to the back parking. Just recently Kevin came in to the salon and said ' Don't want to worry you but I've just had a fall'. He had slipped going out of the back door and right off the end of the terrace. Luckily he hasn't forgotten his rugby training and managed to curl himself into a ball - still he had cuts on his hands, his heads and some mighty bruising. Scary. So we went to buy the fencing and work has commenced ( and stopped as K has gone to the Uk to visit the family)

We also recommenced work on my kitchen dresser. We have finished the bottom half and it's in the kitchen but the top half still has to be stripped and painted - very therapeutic. Pictures were hung in the kitchen and bedroom and that made such a difference to the feel of the rooms.

I've got into the sewing projects and have finished the curtains and soft furnishings for the bedroom. I'm trying to pluck up courage to cut the material for the salon curtains but it's a but daunting as I have masses of cloth and don't want to make a mistake. So today for a little warm up I made a couple of small runners for the dining room table - I like to see the wood so didn't want a big cloth on but we do need to protect the table a bit now we use it so much more.

Pictures up and sewing finished 

Tablecloth for two

Just getting moving again has done us both such a lot of good and got those blues on the run!

People

We are still having problems with the wood burner in the sitting room and haven't been able to light it even though the piping has been redone - it just doesn't draw and the fitter insists it's fine (even though he hasn't been to check it). Meanwhile in the kitchen the Esse wood burning stove is going like a good 'un. Easy to light, no smoke and cooks a treat. Stays in all night and a doddle to relight in the morning. The chimney was fitted by a local french artisan and we are very pleased with it.

It's lovely cooking on the Esse

So we have decided to cut our losses with firm one as it is just too time consuming and stressful and get the local guy to redo the chimney for the salon fire. He has explained to us why the current one isn't working and what he will do to make sure it does. He is also going to look at the whole heating system to iron out some little anomalies (in the main it works well). Just having made this decision took a weight off our shoulders.

The underfloor heating is perfect for Schula after a long,wet walk

We are still dealing with issues arising from the sale of our last house which after two years is a bit tedious - but we agreed it is just that - a niggle we have to deal with but not important enough to affect us if we don't let it.

Of course the best way to beat the blues is to spend time with the people who do make you happy so the last part of our planning session was about organising trips to the UK to see people we love. Kevin is there now visiting our offspring and I will be doing the same in March. I am very excited to be there for my granddaughter's 5th birthday and for the Revolution event at the London velodrome organised by my son - the first event there since the olympics. Then in May we are going together on a little road trip around the UK visiting friends and family  - the people who never bring on the blues!

We had a surprise visit from our friend who used to live here and her daughter Sarah who we looked after when she was a baby - it was good to see them and to remember good times we had shared in this house. It must have been a bitter sweet for Janine to revisit the home she shared with her late husband but she was excited about the changes we had made and we hope they will come to visit us again. Here is Sarah with the magnolia that was planted when she was born.

As tall as her tree

There are celandines in the garden and despite the continuous rain the days are longer and there is a whiff of spring in the air - so we are turning our backs on the winter blues and looking forward to sunny times.

Lovely sunrise seen from the kitchen

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Happy New Year

I know I'm a little late with my greeting but its been a shaky start to 2014 for us. We had a lovely Christmas, our first here at Kebourg, and brought the New Year in with  good friends.

January didn't get off  to the best of  starts. We had been having problems with the wood burner so decided to have the chimney swept and the 'ramoneur' found that the flexible pipe had become unattached from the rigid part which comes down into the room. Seems it happened when the builders put the  cover on the chimney. So that was us without a fire for a while. Good news was that the underfloor heating kept us warm but we lacked the ambiance.

The month was wet - rain, rain and more rain. Taking the dogs out became a chore and not a pleasure and work on replacing the chimney and fitting the chimney for the wood burning cooker in the kitchen couldn't go ahead. We are still waiting for the outside walls to be pointed but rain has stopped play there too. January was a very busy teaching month for Kevin and with the bad weather conditions he spent a lot of nights in an hotel in Bordeaux by the business school so we were apart. I had more examinations on my shoulder which proves to be frozen shoulder and not tendonitis so now I am on a series of injections.  Like so many here and in the Uk we had the winter blues.

Thus ends the tale of woe.

Sunset reflected in the pond

There's lots to be thankful for. We aren't flooded, hungry or seriously ill, we love our new home and Spring is around the corner. The dogs are doing great - Schula is enormous and still a bundle of energy but getting a tiny bit more sensible each day - she is a great companion. We are working on little finishings to the house and we now have curtains in the bedroom

Back from a very wet walk

We have planned visits to the UK - Kevin first in February and then me in March. I am going to be there for my granddaughters 5th birthday and also for my sons cycling event, Revolution 5, which will be the first event in the London velodrome since the Olympics. Then in May we are having a trip together doing a toad trip around the UK visiting family and friends - ex gite guests who will be hosting us thus time.

Today the sun is shining and we had a lovely walk with the dogs and now we are going to lunch with friends - that will help us shake off those winter blues!

We hope your 2014 has had a merrier start than our and we wish you good luck, good health and a little less rain!

Let Bygones be Bygones

Yesterday I attended a village funeral. I've written before by how moving I find these ceremonies in this small community. This was the grandmother of one of the first families to welcome us here. She had lived a long life, dying at 94, and had never left this village working with her husband and later her daughter and grandson to make their living from the land. A hard life but a rewarding one. 

 Last weekend we had our annual money raising event for the Telethon (like the UK's Children in Need). A youngster in this village had benefitted from Telethon funds which paid for a super duper wheelchair and that is why we fundraise with such enthusiasm. Sadly he died a few years ago at the age of 15 but our support for the Telethon remains in his memory. 

We also had our annual event for the youngest and the oldest residents of the village. There is a Christmas craft workshop for the children and then songs and stories from the Club des Ainés around the Christmas tree. Father Christmas didn't forget to call with gifts for children and for the over 70s and then drinks and chocolates to end the afternoon. 

A Christmas story

 I also spent two days last week helping the Banque Alimentaire (Food Bank). During the last weekend in November shoppers at supermarkets across France are asked to donate dry goods to the Food bank. I spent one day at a local supermarket helping with the collection of the gifts and one day at the base in Marmande helping sort all the donations for storage. It is very sad that more and more people are relying on food banks to help them eke out their small incomes and the gap between the haves and have nots keeps widening. 

 All of these events made me stop and reflect on how lucky I am. I live in a lovely house. I am warm and well fed. I have healthy children and grandchildren. I have a loving husband and caring friends and I have enough money to live comfortably. The weather has been very cold but gloriously sunny recently and driving around on my everyday business and walking the dogs has been a delight - the countryside here is really lovely and the sunlight on the frosty fields gave it an added wintry charm. How can I not feel thankful that I live in such a gorgeous spot and in such a friendly village? This is why it's where we hope to end our days. 

This was, of course, the week when the world bid farewell to Nelson Mandela. For me it was his ability to forgive that set him apart from the rest. While many are imprisoned or persecuted for their political or religious views, people struggle with physical and mental handicaps and to live on limited incomes we should all be grateful for what we have and should do our best to live in peace with each other. So to anyone I have hurt or offended at any time I ask pardon and to those that have hurt or offended me I will try to let bygones be bygones. 

 'I have been saying throughout, let bygones be bygones. Let what has happened pass,as something unfortunate but which we must forget'  Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison.

Home is where the heart is

Since I last caught up with you we have been enjoying living in Kebourg and making it truly chez nous. We finally have all our clothes out of storage and in our new wardrobes and dressing area and we are slowly adding pictures and the little bits and pieces that make a house a home. Curtain material is bought although I haven't actually started making them yet.

 I am enjoying my office / work room though and at the moment it is my Christmas card factory. We are as warm as toast and really glad we invested in all round insulation.

Outside all the landscaping is finished and grass pushing through and we have two car parks and so no more mud ! Shrubs and trees are ready for planting and we are are enjoying making plans for developing the garden in the spring. We have a few finishing jobs but we don't want to be painting etc until the new year and we're using the winter to get everywhere organised and to truly settle in. The outside of the house still isn't pointed but that will be done in the spring too and then we will say our final au revoir to the workmen.

We love living here - we were happy in our first french house at Peyrenegre but it was always a workplace too and never felt like a forever home.  Here we like:

• the better views outside (and no pylon)
• the better views from inside, I can watch the sunset from my office and have views from every room - I especially like a  small original window in the salon that frames the view like a picture frame
• the free water from our natural spring,
• being in the village with people we love popping in,
• that it is such an easily maintained property
• having no upstairs
• being so warm with great heating and insulation
• the bigger, higher roofed terrace with closed ends to keep off the wind and to store our winter wood and house a summer kitchen
• the pool just for us and close to the house

This is a house designed to fit the way we live in France and suits us down to the ground - it really is home sweet home. I'll be getting the decorations down soon and finding a place for each of them to set the scene for our first Kebourg Christmas. The dogs seem happy here too!

Thanks to all of you for your help and encouragement during the renovations. We hope to have many happy years here and to continue to share this lovely place with friends and family.

The first Kebourg birthday

Feeling slimmer

Just had to share how high I am feeling today. Last night was a big dinner at Kevin's local Kiwanis club and I enjoyed getting dressed up for the occasion. I had on the dress that I wore for my daughter's wedding last November but as I am 15 kilos lighter now it looked so much better. I was glowing with all the compliments about the weight loss, the shorter hair and generally how good I looked. As I have been feeling a bit like Cinderella doing nothing but painting it really cheered me up.

Then

Now

Friendship

A great summer of friendship ended with the visit last weekend of our French friends from the Mayenne. I have known them for 30 years now and have shared many happy times with them and so it was lovely to have them here at Kebourg.  We had a lovely trip out to the Latour Marliac lily gardens at Temple sur Lot which were the inspiration for Monet's work. The sun shone and we had lunch in the restaurant there looking out over the beautiful lake- a lovely end to our summer of friends.

The beginning of October means a few days in the mountains for us as we have friends who own a house in Genos in the Haute Pyrenees. Usually we are very lucky with the weather but this year we had one good walking day and one rainy games and reading day. As usual we ate very well and everyone made a contribution to the table and the wine cellar. A forage in the woods and eggs from our hens made a delicious final day lunch of omelette de cêpes.

The Wednesday walk

Checking out the mushroom haul

Scrabble in French - a challenge for me!

Chilled and happy - waiting for the aperos

From quiet homes and first beginning, out to the undiscovered ends, there's nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love of friends.

Hilaire Belloc

Finally our friend Annie demonstrates how she got a cêpe from the other side of a fence.