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
16th 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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