blog 3 January
Disney has
come to Brevands and our ancient lavery in the centre of the village has been
adorned with a period dress mannequin to demonstrate how things were done. Our
only concern was that historically this lady of her day is wearing marigolds
and I am pretty sure that 100 years ago rubber gloves were not available to the
paysenne of Brevands to protect their
precious little hands. Still, good effort, and although our Madame de La Lavery
was only on display for the duration of the Christmas decorations I think she is
a stake in the ground for us other Brevands Ladies to fashion ourselves on
Our lavery
is rare in that it has a fire built into the surrounding wall with it’s own
little chimney to heat the water for a whiter than white wash and whilst the Marie has giving us
a glimpse of life in past Brevands and how the lavery might have been, I think the
crocks by the mock fire just about finished this museum piece off nicely and if
nothing else it certainly made Mike and I chuckle as we drove past on our way
to the Boulanger.
Beryl, the
yellow peril is not well and a vibrating steering wheel after a contra temps
with a curb when we were in the UK in September, we thought it was time to have it looked at so
up on the ramp she went only to discover
that her near side front wheel is buckled and needs replacing. It was then time
to go to the customer services desk to start the, oh so predictable intake of breath, shruggy
shoulders and friendly banter that you
know is going to cost you a Grand at best…..OK it was only a quote for 600 Euro
if they can match the wheel and the grand if we need 4 new wheels and
tyres, it just sends Mike in a tizzy as he is helpless to banter back but I keep telling him that even
the French don’t duck and dive with each other, this is the price, or go somewhere else…..please sir…
With all
the rain and filling up of our water meadows we were excited to see that the
Brevands gardener is back on form and has started his chore of digging out
ditches in the most straight and perfectly executed manner. The mud trenched
out is neatly layered on the side of the ditch and the whole event is a delight
to see. Mike and I have often remarked at what sort of person you must be to be
happy to dig trenches for miles and miles at the coldest time of the year all
alone up to your knees in mud. A
perfectionist and artist in his own right and then you wonder what he does in
his spare time…….although he waves as we drive by not once have we felt qualified or worthy
of a stop and chat as he is a league on his own. I did once collar him at one of our social
events and was far too gushy about his fab trenches because that is just what
he does for a living and he shrugged me off as an eccentric Anglaise.
Every day I
try to do one big job in the garden. We are 2 years behind so it has to be a
methodical and committed approach. So I
put on my best garden coat my gloves and set off with croppers, choppers and
lots of energy to get the buddleia back in control and as I go I see plants
that need pruning, tuning and plain old pulling out. The worst bit of this operation
is the clearing up and at a certain point before the dew falls or the clouds cover over the blue sky
you have to make the decision to load up the cuttings into the trolley and dump
them on the rough compost heap. This day I did 5 trips to the end of the garden
where we dump our left overs and by the time I had finished I felt like I had
put in 5 hours flat out in the gym and
completed all of my 10000 steps for that day…..
And finally
a nice little story. In 2000 Mike and I packed up our family home of 17 years
and moved into a smart marina house in Port Solent. It was contemporary and modern and
everything that our family home was not so as we packed I asked Mike’s Mum to
look after this tea set that was a wedding present as I didn’t think these
oldie worldly crocks had a place in my modern and upmarket new life. 14 year
later when we were going through a few things when Mum died I found this box
and blow me, it turns out that she kept her word and did keep it for me. A few
years back our girls were doing a car boot and their nanny had given them a few
things to sell and they mentioned an old tea set and I thought she may have
forgotten this was mine and let it go, so I let it go, and thought no more
about it but now it fits in our home and I am ready to invite a friend to have
afternoon tea with my afternoon tea, tea set…..
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