A Flurry of Feasting

The first was with our friends from the Kiwanis. The evening started with a visit to a retired farmer who as a hobby decided to plant a wood and in this mixed wood he has planted the truffle oak. The tree has been inoculated with the truffle spores and you can tell if they have taken as there is a ring of bare earth around the tree. It was a lovely walk in the early evening sunshine and a really interesting insight into truffle growing. More about growing truffles here and about how you can even adopt a truffle tree here. We ended our visit with a stop at another of his hobbies - growing shitake mushrooms. In a patch of forest he has logs stacked up to house the mushrooms and apparently they grow in profusion. Someone asked him if he sold them to restaurants etc and he replied laconically that he put them in the freezer and gave them to family and neighbours - it's not all about money!

The bare earth shows the spores have taken and the ring will get bigger each year

He is training his dogs as truffle hunters and they gave us a demo

The shitake mushrooms grow on these log stacks 

The mushrooms tasted delicious

Our delightful, gentle and funny friend Jean Marc

Then off for aperos and the main feast. Jean Marc used to be the director of one of the local vineyards and as a bit of a gourmand he has kept alive an old tradition of eating the wild leeks , les baraganes, that grow amongst the vines. These days they are spoiled by pesticides but Jean Marc continues to encourage them amongst his own vines. They were gathered and cooked as part of a delicious meal.

Confréries are very active in France - brotherhoods business groups which were formed at the end of the Middle Ages as a manifestation of solidarity between equals. I suppose the Confrérie most people have heard of is the Masons. Here in the SW France at summer events you will often see members dressed in their grand robes and perhaps holding a ceremony to welcome a new member. At the Salon de Chocolat that we hold every year the Confrérie de Choclatiers invest a new member.

Jean Marc and Pierre felt that the gatherers and cookers of the baragan should have a confrérie and entertained us with a spoof ceremony, poking a little gentle fun at the ceremony of the confréries, to welcome three new members to their initial group of two. Their ceremonial robes consist of a black beret with the wild leeks attached and the new members received garlands of baragans interlaced with wild flowers. We look forward to next years ceremony and meal!

Jean Marc and Pierre the founder members

A new member  is welcomed into the group

The feasting continued with the annual Repas des Chasseurs - if you don't like meat give this one a miss! We have been regular attenders since we came here and enjoy the company and the food . It's a lot of meat and a lot of wine and a late evening so we needed a whole day to recover!

Our final feasting memory is the lovely lunch we had with friends and our daughter and her partner. The sun let us down but we were ten à table for a lovely meal cooked by Kevin with a bit of help from me and Ali -  a lovely atmosphere and a very happy easter Sunday.

A la prochaine.

Birthday, Bikes and Bargains

This spring's UK trip coincided with two big events - my granddaughter's 5th birthday and my son's Revolution event at the London velodrome. I was thrilled to be there for both occasions.

Birthday

The actual birthday was a school day but Bethany chose the venue for tea at a restaurant. Imagine the faces if the adults when she chose McDonalds! It was as gruesome as we imagined and will always be remembered for the ice cream fiasco - first three ordered had strange bits in them so were replaced by ordinary cones. Sadly B's ice cream dropped off the cone to the floor  after only one lick so Daddy had to get ice cream number 7! I was very jealous of the pink shoes - I had longed for similar shoes when I was young but it wasn't to be.

My Little Pony - just what she wanted
Dress up shoes and McDonalds
Birthday morning - presents and cards on the table
Charlie helped her open them
Her best friend came to have birthday tea with us
New pink wellies
Exploring her new craft box with Mummy

The birthday cake was a second appearance for Ball Gown Barbie at the special request of the birthday girl. My daughter -in-law has this cake well and truly mastered. I especially like the cake stored next to the wine in the fridge.

The creation of the Ball Gown Barbie  came and a very excited birthday girl

The birthday party itself was mostly run by the amazing Gilbert Giggles - the children had a great time and so did the adults (with a bit of help from that chilled wine!)

B enjoying the parachute games with her best friend - those are Gilbert Giggles' knickers on the TV not Granny's!

Statues

Time for tea

The finished cake

Bikes

I was so pleased to be able to attend the final of the Revolution series organised by my son which was held in the Lee Valley velodrome - the first event there since the Olympics.  We got to see the stars (check out Bethany and her cousins getting Laura Trott's autograph), eat great food (we were in the VIP enclosure after all), meet up with family and friends and see some amazing cycling.

B and Charlie dressed for the event in their Sky kit
 James in work mode
Getting Laura Trott's autograph
Telling the wife how it's going
The boss is needed
Sanding down between events
Old friends
Chris Hoy being interviewed
He may be the boss but he's our daddy first
The journey home with B being a bit squashed in the taxi

One of the things that impresses me most about the Revolution event is the support for young cyclists that it affords. Chris Hoy is the official sponsor for this innovative event.  Face partnership continue to run the London Nocturne in June and are preparing a new event in October called Park our ride for BMX cyclists and of course the Revolution series will be back in the autumn. You can check out all the events here

I am a very proud Mum!


Bargains

After all that excitement I was to spend a relaxing few days with my daughter and her wife. First I went up to White City to have coffee with her at The BBC where she is currently working.  I left my case with her and shopped till I dropped at the nearby Westfield complex. I needed the rest more than ever after all that.

The girls were running in Brighton on my departure day so were able to leave me at the airport - I'd had a lovely time.

Alison is running very day after work during Lent - a bit nippy this night check out the rosy knees

Ready for the Brighton run - thanks for a lovely visit girls.

A walk on the North side - no 1 in a series of walls.

Time to take a little look back at where we have come from, starting with the outside walls.

The North facing side of the road which is also the road side had a large open outbuilding which was one of the first things to be demolished - it had taken me ages to clear all the rubbish out first. Then we could see that this wall really was beyond saving.

A drunken lean

Putting it back together again

Just waiting for the shutters to be painted and the garden area made and it will be perfect.

Marching on into March

Animals

Schula has had the snip and consequently been confined by her plastic lampshade to stop her licking the wound. She's done her best to chew it off and we have to do constant running repairs with sticky tape. Today is her last day of confinement as hopefully it will come off tomorrow. She does find it very useful for digging up mud in the garden though.

Obviously I took this before she started to chew it.

She looks glum doesn't she?

Well chewed and muddy

In the house

New shade of red has gone up behind the fire and as you can see the fire is working again - we had a new chimney piping done by a local company - so that's three times we'll have paid for that bit of kit! Still not convinced that it is heating the water as it should so that little glitch still has to be sorted out.

Spending time with friends

My lovely friend Jane (who was a gite client looking for a home here when we first met) came for lunch and some sewing fun. Jane and I will see each other again at the weekend for the annual hunter's meal in their village - we were at one in another village last week so you can imagine we are consuming quite a bit of meat at the moment!

My lovely friend Jane makes her first ever cushion cover

Getting to grips with the machine

Trying out the end result on our bed

I have some funds in my Kiva account so as sewing has been high on the agenda recently I made a new loan to an Asian woman wanting to buy sewing supplies. I do like Kiva's way of supporting people to build their own businesses through loans and I feel proud when they manage to pay the loan back on time so that it can be rolled out to help someone else. You can find out more about these loans that change lives here.

Holidays

Since 2004 I have been a member of an online forum called Lay My Hat which is for people who have holiday rentals. I've made some real friends through this forum and have viewed some great properties. Kevin is finally going to retire at the end of October so we are hoping to start visiting some of these lovely places as holiday makers. We're starting with a long weekend in September in the Ariege at this lovely location - La P'tite Maison at Le Grillou

We'll get to sleep in this lovely bedroom

Outside

The sunshine has finally returned and with it the builders to do the external pointing. This old house is putting on its best frock!

All cleaned off and raked out

Getting there

First section complete

Top of the wall done

Our thoughts turn to outside projects and we snapped up some edging stones on promotion to neaten up the entrance and parking area. Still too wet to plant in the potager but I'm planning some more broad bean sowing in my paper pots over the weekend - the first ones are sprouting already. Hopefully when I get back from my UK trip the soil will have dried out and we'll be able to start the growing season in earnest.

Me time

Oh yes my next UK trip starts on Tuesday. I'll be there for my granddaughter's 5th birthday on Wednesday and the weekend of the 14/15th I will be attending the first event to be held in the London velodrome since the olympics.  I am so proud of my son who has organised it as part of the Revolution Series. It's being broadcast on BT sport and live streamed on You Tube if you didn't manage to get a ticket (there have been some more standard tickets released but you'll have to be quick and there should be VIP places left ). After all that excitement I'll look forward to some chilling chez ma fille.

Here's a shot from round 4

Hope the sunshine has found its way to your door too.

A bientôt.

While the cat's away

So while Kevin has been visiting the family in the UK I have been moving my projects along. Curtains for the salon are up -  not finished as need to hem and iron again but I need an extra pair of hands to help with the ironing as they are quite heavy.

I also started the colour in the fireplace -  not quite the right red yet bit you get the idea. Tomorrow the chimney is being redone by a French artisan so hopefully we'll have the fire back.

The dogs needed somewhere comfy to rest after they had played themselves out so I made new floor cushions. Schula doesn't seem to get the idea.

Kevin is home again now so off to our favourite restaurant to plan our next projects together.

A bientôt.

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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