it is the little things that count and matter

blog 35 / December

 

 

Feeding time here in Brevands is becoming a jolly time of day and Mike and I go out together to be at one with our pets to enjoy their company. Every day the male ducks fly out of the pond area in search of ’he who chucks food about’ and  Napoleon rushes down off the field to get in on the act. Yesterday Mike was in his workshop in the courtyard when the ducks came waddling around the house and went straight to his feet ….It made me chuckle because this is now a wonderful habit, I love, and we look forward to our little reminder that it is feed time.  We have never had the time nor the inclination to observe the difference between boy and girl ducks before, but now we know that girls don’t fly and send the boys to fetch ‘he who chucks food about’ , bit like real life really…..

 

I am quite a staunch, why kill a tree for Christmas person and this gold cone is just a pretty focal point in the room.   Christmas is not the same without kids believing in the stories you need them to believe in until they can decide who they are going to be in life. We are now just two and although we love this end of year sparkle event the religious content is lost on us. But it is very poignant that on the run-up to the big day we pass through the shortest day and by the 25^th we are watching to see if we can acknowledge the days getting longer, the days feeling warmer and the summer on the way.  We hung up the button art Christmas trees from the twins in Canada and I loved Georgie’s comment that the kids were amazed we had them in our house by our tree.  They still do not fully understand what happens when you take a parcel to the post office for Nona and Grandad in France, but fully understand when we see them on skype and sing happy 5^th birthday  to them ………..cute

 

It was Carols birthday on the 19^th and we went to her party and had a jolly good time. I was however in awe of both Carol and Trev because they have French neighbours who turn up to their parties, encourage the English to speak French and have a stab at a bit of English themselves.

 

 

 

 

 I was in heaven, able to battle with the banter and managed to be understood, but I now have a reputation of being Belgian and they thought it was funny to have an English lady with a Belgian accent but it made for good conversation and although I question my abilities to speak French well enough to live here without a conscience I don’t half do OK in the right conditions. What I really need to find is like minded French folk and that is the hardest issue to resolve between us.

 

You who read these blogs often will know that we love having big Lorries on the drive. After all the houses we have owned this is the house where big Lorries fit and we relish every visit. This one is the septic tank emptying man.  There is so much smoke and mirrors around septic tanks here in France at the moment. What is legal, what is not, when to empty and when not and we are now just going on a gut feeling that we needed a visit before year end.   In 2011 we called these people in because we did not understand how our system worked and having a clean out and starting up the conversation with the driver gave us all the info we needed to know that our system was working well and that all the elements were legal.

 

 

 

 

Since that last visit we have had a very expensive quote to install a new system but having had the conversation again this time we are quite happy that it all works well and we don’t need to make any changes…….It is however a very hand-on-hip 30 minutes watching the clear out process and wondering how on earth this man does this for a living and can still be pleasant and courteous at the same time.

 

 

I finally got around to getting my little shop open on Etsy. I called my shop Maisonmamie and  I will now work at getting it stocked up and networked but I am pleased the process is now in motion so that when I see something I want to sell I have a window for people to look through.   I have not had my sewing Wednesday all through December, what with our trip to the UK and recently fighting a time scale battle to get the upstairs windows done and dusted before we needed to make beds for our visitors.  But now we are at that time to reset habits and commit to new beginnings and my sewing day will be on the to-do list once again. 

 

In the grind of  drizzle and dull days it is nice to have shiny balls hanging from twigs that we grew and the wreath is made from our family tree that our children built every year of their lives at home with us…..it is the little things that count and matter

….merry Christmas….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guard dog….. I don’t think so……..

Blog 34 /  December

 

Well here we are, at the end of the 2014 calendar and we will no longer have our babies in Canada welcoming us to a new month. It has been fun, and we are making plans to go and see them in 2015 in their new home on Vancouver Island.  I am Ok for a calendar so far as the fireman have already made their visit to the front gate and sold us the 2015 Carentan calendar full of pictures of the crew, and there are 30 of them, with pictures of house fires and car crashes that have happened in the past year. A little macabre you might think but Mike and I have this feeling that if you don’t contribute and your name is not on the list then they may not come when you need them….totally not true I am sure, but nevertheless this has become a must do each year   and besides, they put the monthly tide table in as well so we know the state of the tide at any time in the week and for us ex sailors, it is a habit we’d like not to loose

I  had a busy morning in the week as my nesting instincts told me to make jam, cake and bread, so I did. I suspect we are in for a chilly winter. Our new ducks did a quick moult and fattened up in a week and the cat looks like she is ready for an arctic spat so with all these little messages from nature I guess I had a need to join in. I added a slug of whiskey to the marmalade ‘cause it’s winter, and very nice it is too.

 

 

Napoleon is doing well and Mike and I have made a mental note of where he is roosting so we can watch out for him if it should snow. He also did an aggressive moult and looked a bit beyond help and very un-napoleonic in style but we are pleased to see that he is back in polished and proud plumage and is just as vigorous with the morning wakeup call, but gladly with the late sunrise it is not as annoying or disturbing.

 

 




Whilst we were away on our UK road trip we set the ducks up with a monster sized feeder and Mike put a months’ worth of corn in hoping they would keep themselves from starving. Sarah and Peter were organised to pop in a couple of times to see to the cat and top up the feeders if required. When we got back I noticed that the ducks did not waddle up to say hello as was their habit before we left and I was a little disappointed.  I watched them for a couple of days and realised they had food on tap and did not need us any more so we took the feeder out, and we are back to the welcoming committee and I am much happier with that state of affairs, no point having pets if they don’t come over for a chat now and then.

 

 

 

 

 

The new Espace is working out well, Mike calls it my hearing aid as we are now conversing and discussing as we did before my hearing loss and all is well. Sadly for HOSS the whole back end of the car is carpeted. How posh, I hear you say, but when you are a dog it bodes trouble as it attracts a spare bag of hair with every visit and when your master is thrilled with his new car but not your hair loss a solution had to be found and for a few extra Euro we bought this fab Velcro studded plastic liner and everyone is totally delighted especially misis who does the dog hair clean up job.

 

On our way into Carentan we pass an abandoned manoir on the cross roads at Catz and many of our visitors have asked why such a lovely place can be left to fall into disrepair. For 7 years we have watched it fall further and further back to nature until a few weeks ago we noticed that there were people cutting down trees and clearing the site and are delighted that they have left a big tree on the front drive and another in the middle of the back garden. It all smacks of design and we hope that there is a couple with grand ideas of renovation and hopeful that this blot on the landscape will find its identity and be a home once again.

The chateaux in Brevands village had the same radicle attention some two years ago.  We had friends come over to us for supper this week who mentioned that they saw lights on in the actual chateaux which can only mean, that the owners are at last moved in, enjoying the life of a chateau owner in a little village in the country.

 

And finally Mike and I took HOSS for a run on the beach in Grandcamp Maisy but didn’t think to check the tides this one time and got it all wrong. There was no beach so we decided to run HOSS up and down the pier heads and got a real treat as the whole fishing fleet was on the move and we waved to at least 15 fishing boats on their way out for their days work. It was cold and we were buttoned up tightly but these guys were preparing their ropes and kit in bare hands with little like heavy coats and jumpers on. How is it that we all feel the cold or heat for that matter so differently?  Our children in Australia have it hot the ones in Canada have it cold and we whinge if it only looks chilly. 

 I am up at the crack of dawn today as the noise of a windy storm outside has upset our gallant guard dog who tried to climb the stairs to be near us, but at least we are warm and snug and he is just delighted to have the lights on and a bit of company as the shutters rattle and the wind whistles down the chimney …….Guard dog….. I don’t think so……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

……dog owners ! …who’d ‘ave em…woof woof.

Blog 32 / December

 

 

 

It is good to go away, but it is great to get home having had a fantastic few days in new environments and vistas.   We set off in the camper with HOSS for a quick road trip to the UK and decided to fit a bit of tourism in on the way to the tunnel in Calais. I searched for aire de campingcar,  on-line so we could spend the night somewhere on our way  and I came across aire de campingcar funiculaire Le Treport. With a location name like Funiculaire we just had to investigate and were not disappointed. This 1920 railway was built to take the rich and famous staying in the hotel on the cliff top down into town.   The grand Hotel was blown up by les Almands in 1942 but the funiculaire was simply abandoned until the 50s and was finally restored to modern transport in the 90s. It is totally free to use, you can take your dog with you, and if I lived in Treport I would use it everyday


As you come out of the tunnel with is the view you get, and I would never tire of it. I decided that I would move there and become a fisherman’s wife and mend nets, but Mike had other ideas  and going up and down the funiculaire was not on his list of must do’s for the rest of his life.

I have a huge interest in public art and this frieze tucked away in the oldest part of the town commemorating the site where houses were washed away in a storm got me jumping for my camera.  The picture of the funiculaire showed the grand Hotel on the cliff and the history and purpose is there as big as you like on a wall and I for one was grateful that someone had the skill, and want, to paint it for us all to enjoy

 

 

 

 Our channel tunnel train was at 1:22 in the morning and we went for a walk around the empty and middle of the night mode terminal only to discovered quite what we are capable of when tired and hungry and this picture is proof that we were not ourselves that night…..or perhaps in our 60^th year we are just finding out how much naughty we can get away with and have a laugh at the same time.  We were also the last to go through the boutique where we both read that litre bottles of Gin were only 21 Euro for 2 so we grabbed our booty and rushed to the till, but there we  realised our mistake. It actually read 21 euro each, 2 for 38 Euro and we just left the cashier holding our booty as we marched out having had a close shave with overpriced Gin……so called duty free …….

An overnight stop on Chris and Sam’s drive and our first tick in the box for things we just don’t find easily in France,……a Chinese takeaway …there is actually nothing like it in our bit of France and sharing it with our children is a real bonus. Sam and Chris have a new puppy and we were delighted to make his acquaintance and hope that Harry will make it to France one day to enjoy ….HOSS country

 

 

We visited friends John and Linda at the sea side and ticked the second box of things we don’t find easily in France and ate steak pie, it was fantastic.  We then drove up to Bracknell to party at Mim and Dicks with family from Belgium staying in the UK.   We did a face to face at the Bank which was pointless, boring and unsatisfactory  and then, a shopping spree list as long as your arm to make a start on.   In Bracknell we were amazed to see a building we watched being built, being dismantled.  You can see here the little Red Lion pub lost in the shadows of high rise modern office space. Mike and I reminisced about the pints of bitter and packets of crisps we had shared during our courting years in Bracknell and how imposing this little pub was at the bottom of the high street, that is now, lost in the planning officers  guide to how to make an old town new.

And there we were, witnessing the complete dismantling of what was the pride and gold award of Bracknell’s new look all those years ago ….and we remember that moment, but hope that the planning officers will think well and hard so that Bracknell can have her heart back and be a good community and not just a shopping experience for all, but the people who live there

 

 

 

 

 


It was soon time to break camp from Mim and Dick’s drive, and thank you both for your hospitality, best aire in Bracknell.  We then hit the, to -do list with a vengeance. We bought carpet so we can decorate our spare room and a ton of clothing because it is giveaway pricing compared to France. We arrived in the UK on Black Friday and took advantage and found that black ticket and black anything goes over the weekend allowed us to pick up a huge amount of bargains that we will not need to pay top euro for back home. HOSS sadly had to share his palatial camper space with a rolled up bit of carpet and was tolerant and a very good boy despite having to stop overnight in an aire on the motorway on the way home from Calais. When we arrived in Brevands he blew a huge sigh of relief

……dog owners ! …who’d ‘ave  em…woof woof.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but that is progress for you…….

blog 32 / November

There is no going back, we are here to stay, and we are French to the core, never to go back to the UK. This week we gave up the white van with net curtains for a smart Renault espace and that means we are French, French, French…  and, on top of all that, we actually bought it through le bon coin and got a good deal…..no car salesmen to take us to the cleaners this time.  Mike has been very frustrated these past few months because I am now totally deaf on my left side and unable to hear him talking to me in our bumpy jangling, rattling van and as we do all our best talking on the road it was starting to have an impact on our decision making. I have been able to turn a deaf ear to Mike’s ranting’s about the quality of roadmanship on our roads here but not hearing road rage in its most colourful sense is no compromise to not being able to pick up a conversation, so the van had to go. Much of the decision making for what to get next was down to HOSS and how he would manage getting in and out and the espace has a very low back door so we are all happy, HOSS can get in the back, I can hear what’s going on and Mike has a new toy to play with …….life is great

We took a walk around Carentan in the week and as we passed the 100 year old angel in the centre of town  naming all of those mort pour la France,  I noticed that our lady had a new wing.  Mike and I had the discussion years ago about when she may have lost her wing and came up with a great story about the band of brothers crashing through the town, taking it over and making a mess in 1944 and then thought nothing more of it and now we see without any pomp or circumstance in the year of the 100 anniversary of her purpose a new wing has appeared and I am delighted for her and all those who care enough to notice.

The weather is still good and we have been able to keep up with all those messy and ‘must do’ jobs to put the garden to bed for the winter. This week we lifted the dahlia garden and packed the tubers away to sleep and recoup until spring next year. We made a huge planting error and put too many Dahlias is this area as it was designed to be a rose garden with a smart box hedge around it but it became a mad and gorgeous bed of blooms, looking good, but totally in the wrong place so we have decided to lift them, label them, and be a lot more intelligent about where they go next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I was in the poly tunnel pottering when I heard a very weird sound that I could not identify and now that I have impaired hearing I was forced to go out into the garden to investigate only to find Mike with camera in hand investigating the same noise and we found our wood full of starlings having a party up in the tree tops, and then they were gone in a flurry off to the next venue but Mike did manage to catch them before they moved on and then all was quiet again

 Mike and I try to get out every day and when the weather holds we like to take HOSS for a walk somewhere. His favourite place is the beach and last week we pulled in to say hello to our good friends in St Marie Du Mont on the way back from Utah Beach make our outing even more special, but we also walk the old rail way lines that have been given over to walkers, bike riders and dogs.  We have a good choice of walks and I find I am able to get a bit of a wiggle on and get the heart pacing and Mike can walk without watching out for ankle turning obstacles, which has always impaired his walking outings ever since I have known him

We set off on the railway walk at a joining point away from town so it is less crowded and although we have past this house many times I just felt a need to show you this little railway holt that would have housed the family who watched the road and closed the gate when the train chuffed past.  I would buy this house and live in it if I ever had the chance, it is in the country but is only a 5 minute bike ride away from Carentan. We talked about how it would be to live on an old rail way line with all the history and ghostly middle of the night chuffing and hooting as the midnight mail train trundled past on its way to Lessey in our dreams. We imagined finding the platform and putting up signals and opening a little cream tea café  for the  people passing by , then we got real, noticed there was no one as far as the eye could see and got on with the walk  for the fresh air and exercise it was intended for.

 

 

And finally an update on the windows project or did I mean protest. This is not an easy job and these here were the worst of them all.  Mike renewed the putty whilst they were still hanging a couple of weeks ago and that has made the prep and paint process a lot easier and less stressful.   We need to get two coats of top coat on in the next two days and they can go back up. Mike is puttying in advance and I am cleaning so that when they get to the table it’s just sand, paint and sand and paint, and then, job done.  We bought a Karcher window cleaner and the house has more light and shiny reflections now as a gadget goes a long way to helping you perform the simplest of jobs which actually if you put your mind to it was just as easy before  the gadget, but that is progress for you…….