First Steps

Well our little baby took his first two steps today so I guess he's now become a toddler. And how pleased he was with himself! Oh this third time round is going SO fast.

For a while now we have been having to use those eyes in the backs of heads that parents grow because he's a climber as can be seen in the other photos.

Spring Is On Its Way

We have had a gorgeous day today where the wind hasn't been biting in from the East and the frost is finally departing - it arrived the weekend after we got back from the UK so a full week of fairly chilly. I'm glad that it wasn't frosty when we were away though as it adds to the care regime for the hens and geese. Today was really spring like and the air around us was alive with the sound of chainsaws as the French have a last blast at tree felling/pollarding before the sap rises. We took our cue from them and lobbed down a few of ours - there were quite a few where obviously a seed had got into the base of an established tree and no-one had pulled out the sapling, so ending with two trees in the same place. So we thinned them. That's some firewood for the year after next at least. That was Ben and R at least.

B, S and I sorted out the solar tunnel and S loved getting absolutely filthy!!! The hens liked being in the warm soil too and made dust baths all over the place. We're in the process of putting a paving path up the middle. When we lived back in Scotland we didn't plant into the soil in the solar tunnel (it came over with us) as it was covered in landscaping fabric and was more of an extended propogating space. Here though we have doubled the size, dug up the soil, enriched it with home compost and I'm itching to get some salad bits in because they're a ridiculous price in the shops and don't keep. R has already got tomatoes and melons underway, and B is going for cucumbers and peppers. They check the propogator every day. We have however had a 'visitor' into the solar tunnel by cover of night and the photograph shows R and B in detective mode looking for clues - they reckon it's a rabbit as it's making tunnels all over the place. Grrr need to put a stop to that before the seeds go in the ground!

Well, I'd best get on with the tea as they'll all be in from the garden soon - these lighter nights are catching me out as it's light now until after 7pm.

Back From the UK

We are safely home without too much incident. The handbrake did seize up on the trailer delaying our day yesterday by 2 hours whilst we found someone with a sledge hammer to whack it. Brute force won the day!

We did have to make an emergency stop at the side of the M4 for Ben to be violently sick - poor soul, not nice to be sick anyway but having to travel and feel that bad must have been horrid. Yes we return with some UK germs but that's par for the course. I have a smelly head cold with sinisitus today that's making me feel as though I've had the left side of my face kicked but I went to bed as soon as we got home this morning (at 9.15am French time) and now feel much better. S and B went back to bed too but Ben and R (who are both now quite recovered) unloaded all the stuff. Bless them.

All our pets both furred and feathered are well and pleased to see us I think.

Four à Bois

Yesterday I went on a brilliant day course about using a traditional bread oven. The oven in the old priory where the course was held can cook 40 loaves in one go!

It also included bread making and was extremely interesting for me to see how many different grains can be used in making bread. Examples of the grains were there and I now feel quite confident that I could identify them if presented with a sample in the future.

The guy also explained the difference between the types of wheat crop and that only one had enough gluten to make good bread - blé dur, hard wheat or winter wheat. Then he went on to explain the numbering system on the bags of wheat flour, something that had been puzzling me since our arrival here. We then ground some of own flour and seived it out to our desired 'number', then made our own bread. Even this was a revelation for me as I have always added butter/oil and milk but neither were on our ingredients list, plus I have always kneaded my bread for ages with my knuckles. Yet this man (a master baker) said that it wasn't necessary, just to use the palms of our hands to 'press' it firmly but gently and only for 5 mins or so until it's springy. Superfast, uncomplicated bread and easy to incorporate into our daily lives.

Now I'm hoping that Ben will build us a bread oven this summer as it's also good for pizzas.

Snow

Yes, I know that the UK got lots of snow this year but we were very surprised to wake up this morning to see snow - and lots of it. This much fell overnight....

And the boys had a great time sledging, and S enjoyed watching them wrapped up warmly next to me in the sling.

Goose Eggs

Oh wow, one of our lovely geese has started laying. I knew that they only laid eggs in the Spring but I'd hardly call 4th January with snow on the ground 'Spring'. However, there it is. About twice the size of a hens egg. Apparently each goose can lay up to 80 eggs in this 'spring' period... and we have four geese... that's a LOT of egg eating to be done! I've heard say that goose eggs make the best cakes, turning sponges to a wonderful daffodil yellow colour. The boys are looking forward to finding out if that's true.

You can also see from the photo that our hens are still happily laying 4 or 5 eggs a day though we had been told to expect them to go off the lay for December/January. Good job I didn't pickle any for the winter store cupboard.

I'm glad that someone pointed me in the direction of all the myths surrounding eggs and high blood colesterol as we can now eat them with a free conscience having seen that the research does not point to any link between the two. I must look out the link to put in here in case you're interested in finding out more.

La Souris

Our 'loveable' French car has become known as La Souris as it squeaks like a mouse the whole time that you're driving it. Plus being a passenger is like being in a boat that's tossing on high seas until you go over cobbles/rough road and then you are reminded that you are indeed on terra firma and in danger of having your teeth shaken out. No it's not my favourite car to drive nor be driven in.

And as you can see, it has now endeared itself to the family by not starting on the chillier days. Thank goodness for the Bongolini and Tractor Tom.