HOSS can come too, so we are out, en famille.

Blog 26 September

We had a bit of a time team moment last week during the digging of Swanny’s grave when Mike dug up a really old coin. He put it in his pocket whilst he buried the swan and came in later to investigate what we had found 2 feet down on the banks of our pond.   It was not hard to pin the coin down as we had the date and the inscription and it turns out we have a 1792 Louis 16^th 2 sols bronze coin, in bad condition and worth all of 10 euro. For us however, it implies that there was a man with money in his pocket walking around our pond at that time and as our home is on the house register dated 1750 it all made sense and gave the dating of our home some street cred.  We won’t be selling our booty and will keep it as our party piece at dinner parties, so all you who dine with us, please promise to look surprised and amazed every time it comes out again and again….and again

I have started the apple juice process and as a small exercise in yield I laid out the elements for your interest. So, one basket of apples through the juicer leaves one bowl of dry apple pulp and 7 litres of pure apple juice, I freeze these bottles and we have juice right through the winter. It makes good use of the apples as we have stopped making cider so this makes me feel wholesome and productive again. And juice is better for you than cider…..!!! ….Isn’t it ?

 

 

 

 

The gas tanker called unexpectedly, presuming I had a grands worth of Euros stashed away for said delivery but I pat myself on the back as I had just organised a transfer of funds and Mike looked at me with concern to make sure I knew what I was doing loading a thousand euros of gas in the tank, but this year I predicted the situation and all was well. Whilst I was on a winter role I called the wood man and he delivered two trailer loads, depriving us of a tractor delivery as his brother was using it, but hey ho, a wood delivery is just that, and we have to manhandle it whichever way is turns up, I just like big tractor deliveries.  When I called to make my wood order the nice Dominique asked if I might need more wood during the winter, but as we burned less last year and still have a good stock  I confirmed one cord  this year  would be OK and he then said that he was giving his regular  customers first dibs on his wood so if I didn’t need the 2 cords I ordered last year he could offer the spare to a new client and for that I felt valued and considered, who said customer service is up the wall in France…..oh yes, that was me, so I take it back.  Before he left I mentioned that we were looking for a bail of barley straw to put in the pond and he popped back to the farm in the next village and brought us back a huge round bail delivered in place for 25 Euro… delighted,   ...…..I was jumping for joy as Mike has been searching for a supplier on Bon Coin and it seems that the only farmers who advertise their bails for sale to the likes of Mike and I live miles away, so mission accomplished on all counts.

 

 

 

Our sailing friends Flick and Cliff were on their way back to the UK from a summer out on their boat so we packed up our camper and met them in St Vaast for the night.  Mike and I set up camp in the air de camping car in the centre of the town. We all met up and had a fabulous Moule frites just like the olden days when we would sail in from Portsmouth, grab a local dish then sail off home again. We had not spent this much time   together for many years and it was good to catch up and re-establish the bond of many hours at sea together with Port Solent Yacht club. We met for coffee the next morning and then hugs later we wished them safe journey and good sailing until the next time

I promised myself that we would go out more this year and take in a bit of the local history, so we set off with Graham and Ann to the Chateaux Colombiere not too far from Bayeux.  We were met at the door by a young man who then proceeded to take us, and a group of French locals on a tour of this wonderful monument, and, to our delight, translated his presentation into English for our pleasure.  The history of this once defensive castle was dripping in English intervention with lords and English Kings owning it and losing it since the days of William the conqueror.  One of the French ladies found it charming that the guide was translating for us and talked about the French and British alliances and I wondered why we ever gave it back to them but it was not the place to start such a debate, and just enjoyed the history and historic implications of our two nations visiting an age old chateaux in La Manche.

 

So with a fun picnic and a guided tour we had a jolly afternoon out. On the way down the drive an old chap came up to me and asked if we had found our visit interesting and I asked if he was the owner and to my delight, he was. I shook his hand and said we were so interested in the English part of the history of his beautiful home and we chatted about the land around and I for one was a tad star struck and felt I had just met royalty. This house has been in the same family since the 1700’s and for the French that really nearly is royalty, but I did not find my  manners enough to curtsy ….an we both just wished each other bonne journey, and that is good enough for me.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally…..I am happy when I am camping, we are so enjoying our time away, even for one night,  it is great, and HOSS can come too, so we are out, en famille.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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quite good fun and very satisfying

What a sad day that was, Mike came into my sewing room and said, bad news, swanny is dead.  I cannot express in words  how upset and bereft we  felt at that moment, that, after 26 years of just  being there, grumpy and beautiful  in one  descriptive line, and now he is gone.   I went to get a bag to wrap him up and move him on but Mike had decided that this pet deserved a full burial and not the back to nature hedge chuck we give to our hens. We walked around Swanny’s beloved pond area and chose the spot and Mike started to dig, and dig, and dig.  Swanny had been a little off colour these past few months and did not go into his most grumpy phase and we were able to get into the pond area all this year as he was not aggressive and I took this picture of him earlier in the year standing next to him …so he had lost his mojo this year and finally decided his time was up.

 

Mike was concerned that the water was contaminated as we have had an oily film on the water and Swanny was struggling keeping clean, we were just getting ready for a water change from the top well but he died before we could implement that project. Since then Mike has been airating the water by pumping it around and we are not using the bottom well. Our neighbour across the road has a dodgy cess pit situation that he has been given 3 years to put right 4 years ago and we are concerned that the grey water from his bathroom is getting into the well water that feeds our pond…….or are we just looking for a scape goat whilst we grieve the loss of our pond pet. ??  You can see the grave on the other side of the pond, we put my swan vase on top so the passers-by who stop to look at swanny will know why he is nowhere to be seen

 

 

When we viewed this house in 2007,  Mike was impressed  by the owners  grandfather clock at the front door and has always fancied having one for himself and knew exactly where it should go. We have had a pine open shelved cupboard there since we moved in and one of Mikes little gripes in life has been the gradual development of this bit of furniture into a general dumping ground, looking homely, but unsightly and chaotic. So, in with the big dinging clock in the kitchen by the front door and the dumping ground is in the lobby where it looks at home and in the right place.  It has taken a few days to stop jumping on the hour and on the half hour but  we are not disturbed at night anymore  and in the quiet of the kitchen there is a gentle tic tock,  tic tock that reminds you that there is not a moment to waist and time is racing off without us …..not pressure then

 

 

Once again we have been reminded that we live way out in the country as we were confronted by Monsieur Roulette’s sheep in the road on our way out of Bucaille. They stood their ground and were not to approached or worried.  Mike tried to creep around them but they took flight and started to run in the wrong direction so he drove herded them into a chemin out of harm’s way and then we drove around to M Roulette’s to let him know his sheep were stampeding off into the marshes……cute though.

 

 

 

 

We are now coming to the end of the tomatoes, and I for one are not that sad. What a crop this year, I have filled the freezer with passata and now I am making soup and bottling it up as I am running short of freezer space. I cleared a space today for the apple juice and that starts tomorrow, we collected a barrow full of wind falls and I will juice them down, filter out the froth and freeze the juice in mineral water bottle so we have apple juice all winter.

 

 

The pumpkins are doing OK but Mike is overwhelmed with the growth and utter takingoverness of this crop.  We only need one big fruit for the competition we have committed to but we are going to have to change the rules at the last minute and say it is about quantity, not individual size, otherwise we don’t stand a chance of winning, and then, I have 10 pumpkins to deal with. I watched Mike cut back the overspill growth and it occurred to me that instead of backing research into cosmetics and shampoo  why can’t some bright spark find a way to put some nutrition into pumpkins and feed the world……..

 

 

And finally our virgina creeper that was given to Mike by Sarah and Peter as a birthday prezy 4 years ago has decided it likes where it is and is now in true form and rushing off to take on the fence as well as the 1000 litre water butt.  I hoped it might just disguise the white blot on the landscape water butt, I never imagined I would lose it completely, but that is gardening for you and actually it is quite good fun and very satisfying

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

so that we can get away and enjoy…….xx

blog 24 August 2014

 

 

 

Before we set off on our Belgian road trip last week we popped into St Mere Eglise to wish Carol and Trevor Good luck in their new venture, selling vintage clothing to the world war two re-enactors of this world. I was delighted to see other friends there in their 40’s outfits swelling the crowds and giving the whole day a real sense of purpose and fun.  I am so envious that Trevor and Carol have found an outlet for their hobby and we hope they have a profitable and successful business

 

 

Then against all the odds, with dodgy  weather and  Mike  recovering from a nasty  tummy bug we finally set off and got to Ypres late on Monday in the pouring rain.  We camped on a site walking distance from the town centre which made visiting the Mennen Gate easy and worthwhile.   The whole of Ypres was rebuilt between 1918 and 1965 and although it is a strange concept to rebuild exactly as was, these old buildings are still crisp and as new as the day they were conceived hundreds of years ago

 

 

 

On the walls of the Mennen gate  are the names of 55 thousand  solders missing in action and as we walked around the endless tablets of engraved stone,  I read out as many  names as I could so their names, would be in my voice and heard again

At 8:00 every evening since 1928 buglers have played the last post to honour of the dead in the 1st world war.  I was however, not prepared for this touching and thought provoking ceremony.  We stayed an extra night just so I could go a second time and was amazed that every night is different, there were hundreds of people there and on the first night a small choir of male voices sang in this, oh, so, acoustically perfect arched building.  6 buglers played the last post and it sent a deeply profound shiver through the crowd. The second night, a lone bag piper played whilst wreathes were laid. At the end of the second evening’s ceremony we were honoured to participate in the recognition of 60 years’ service of one of the burglars  in the team who attend this ceremony every night.  What a commitment, what a fantastic event and so unexpected

We did a day of sightseeing and visited the Tyn cot ceremony and hill 60 all in the area around Ypres, It  is possible to spend days just walking the paths of the great war but we had lots of other things to do.  Belgium is a country of two halves and as a half Belgian I was very bewildered by the utter difference in language and culture and it was so very obvious at the dividing line how things changed.  In the North Aldi supermarket would not take our French or English bank cards, they would not take a euro cheque and we had to get cash to pay for our shopping, bit like being in Spain or Greece but harder because we were starting to feel at home and I thought I had arrived  when I was given a tube of mayonnaise with my crock monsieur lunch and the choice of mayo in the shops was stunning,  I stroked the jars I said to Mike….I really am home. But we struggled with the town names and thanked our lucky stars that our GPS speaks Flemish and headed south into Walloon French speaking territory to visit our dear family friends who have been in my life all my life.

 

 

 

Hedwige and Ivan have been part of the family scene for ever and we were welcomed and treated to an exquisite lunch, but sadly not enough time to fully catch up so we will be back, it is not so far and we spent a few moments  eyeing up where we could park the camper and stay over ….watch this space we make a habit of camping on peoples drives.

 

 

 

Our next mission was to understand the battle of Waterloo. My great uncle was a celebrated expert in the life and times of Napoleon and the Waterloo event has been in my head since I was five yet never really explained . Mike had an interest as well so we paid the full tourist price to visit the Wellington museum  in Waterloo, the visitor centre at the Butt du Lion memorial and then over to Napoleon’s headquarters.  All this for one day of battle and thousands of lost lives in 1815.

 

There is a fantastic 360 degree painting of the day’s events and the building was erected to accommodate it in the 1820’s. The building and painting have now been painstakingly restored. I just love this art that is effectively the BBC of the day, giving news and opinion of this epic event. The site is now priming up for the 200 year anniversary next year, we might  just  go back in June next year to see what they do. And if you were wondering…Yes, we did climb the hill to the top to look over the battle field and it is high and we both realised just how unfit we are






We then made our way to Welhain 30 kilometres from Brussels to meet up with my cousin Dominque and her husband Michel. We shared  a wonderful evening of good food and cine films. They have family film of me at the age of 3 and 5 and I saw my Mum and Dad and m brothers and sisters as I remember them in my mind but to see the reality in old cine film was extraordinary and a lot of fun

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took one snap shot of the old cine screen and when I looked back at it there was a picture of my Mum 55 Years ago how very touching and amazing is that .

 

 

Another night on another drive with all mod cons and more importantly renewing family ties. Dominque and I share the same great grandmother  on my Mum’s side  and we have fond memories and real history between us, so this really was a good reunion and we look forward to our next time together.

Our camper broke down in some tiny town somewhere in France on our way back and had to, for the first time, call for assistance, it is a good job that we kept the paperwork together and current and I made the call, gave the very polite young man our number plate and he said, oui Madame Baker where are you and what is the problem.  A big tow truck  driver called to say he was on his way and he got us going in two seconds flat diagnosing a broken battery  so we drove straight to Norauto on the outskirts of this little town and after a cooool 160 Euro, we had a new battery fitted and although it took half a day from beginning to end we were back on the road.  I forgot to mention that we stopped in town to buy chips for lunch and for that I am very ashamed, but extremely pleased to say that despite the deviation on diet we were able to test the road assistance system and by George it works

 

 

Mike was very patient with me this holiday because it was all about me and as we made our way to le Havre to cross the River Seine, I asked Mike if he could stop at the Air de Baye de Seine so that I could walk the Pond de Normandy, and he did stop, and we did walk ourselves to the top of the arch and walked back down again

 

Both our knees were still complaining from the waterloo experience but we did it and that is another tick dealt with.

 

 

 

 

We could not do all this history and family and not stop off at Renville to make a salute to Mike’s Uncle Bill’s grave, killed on 23^rd July 1944 . We took HOSS in with us and asked him to sit and he lay down and just looked so wonderful and knowing, such a good dog xx  

 

Our last night out, and we were gone 8, was on the hill at Arromanche looking over the mulberry harbours. For 6 euro you get to stop the night and watch the sun go down on a bit of history that truly change the look of Europe. When we arrived at 4:00 I asked the ticket man if we could camp the night as we have done before but he said this is not a camp site Madame, I said that we had stayed here before overnight and he explained that times had changed, but if we wanted to park for the night we could sleep there and we would need to leave before 10 in the morning …..is that not camping ? Mike and I chatted over this discussion I had just had and we have now decided that you do not ask to camp, you ask to park overnight….subtle, but mind blowingly obvious if you are French …

We walked along the hill taking in the views and forever the mariner, Mike is here retying HOSS’s bit of rope which he proudly holds in his mouth thinking he is the mariners bees knees, but actually we give him the rope to discourage his barking, especially when we walk in the evenings and in the morning, so Mike keeps his monkey’s fist knot and his coiling rope skills alive, and  we then get a quiet HOSSy walk.

 

 

 

So finally the holiday is over we did 1355 kilometres and saw great things and lovely people, but most of all we enjoyed the freedom of the camper spending free nights in the many Air de Camping Car and the little low cost sites where the welcome is always friendly and sincere.  We had a really good time and have to say a huge thank you to our friends who feed the animals and watch the house so that we can get away and enjoy…….xx