Good Luck Joiner family

15 blog April 2015

 

 

What a treat to find a bunch of blossom showing off on the side of a cherry tree busting to burst into a new branch. I went into the pond area to collect duck eggs and just wanted to share this with you.

 

 

Getting ready for summer is a fulltime spring occupation and we are here refilling the barley straw cage in the pond to encourage clean and healthy water.  We bought a huge round bale of straw in the autumn, delivered to the house for 25 Euro and it is giving the hens and Ducks first class bedding and is letting us keep the pond in good condition. Sadly though we will not use up this huge bale before it goes off but it is good whilst we have it. And then we can compost it down over next winter.

 

 

 

Every week we get out with our friends Graham and Ann and this week we packed our picnics and set off to St Fromond to take a look at an abandoned chateaux that has now been inhabited by a flock of nesting storks. It has become a real local tourist corner so we parked the car with a view, and out of the wind, got our deck chairs out and enjoyed the sun looking at a bit of local history munching on a sandwich

 

 

 

This fortified home was last lived in, in 1818 and was badly damaged in 1944 as the Germans left to go home.  As you stand and stare at such a fragile yet heroic site the storks fly overhead like flocks of pterodactyl and it is a very interesting and inspiring place to visit. I am sure we will go back to chateaux  Rivierre sometime soon.

 

 

 

 

A night out at les Perroquets with Trevor and Carol for a raclette supper made all the funnier and totally enjoyable as most of us had never done it before. Keeping track of all the instruction, do’s and don’ts when's and why's was a bit overwhelming until we got stuck in and the food and wine started to flow and the evening just ran away with itself. We were also thrilled and  spilled with a little bit of magic in the guise of Mr Mark Mystery Man performing a death defying card trick which had me breathless with amazement although it seemed all around the table had sussed out how it was done. I found it very funny and  amazing so I insisted Mr Mark Mystery Man do it over and over until I understood his slight of hand and only gullible me could fall for it, hook line and sinker…..

 

 

We moved the cider to make way for Monty the Morris and in the process gathered all the empty champagne bottles that in the past we have collected to bottle our home-made cider. We have decided that we no longer need to make cider and have enough stock to see us for a year or two. I have advertised my bottles on Le  Bon Coin, 200 bottles for 40 Euro, what a great deal,  but no takers, and I can see me having to give all these bottles away or have a champagne bottle shire and throw wooden balls at them for entertainment…….please someone, come and buy my bottles…….

 

 

Here we are posing in our kitchen in France with our flags flying because Georgina and Alan are now sworn in and officially Canadian citizens. 

 

      

 

 

My latest hobby is scrap book covers and I made this cover to celebrate the Canadian great occasion. Our friend Jill McNeilly gave us a card she had made in this style for our 35^th wedding anniversary. It was full of hearts, frills and bling and I needed a good reason to have a go myself as I have stock of bling and net curtains, bits of material and reels of ribbon and this art form is really starting push my buttons.  All the elements are sewn together and the fun is making it all feel right and make visual sense.  I am a bit clumsy at the moment and my sewing skills are being challenged but I hope to get good at this sewing hobby to enjoy the process. 

 The French and Canadian post did not let us down and our commemorative gift arrived in Canada the day before Georgina and Alan’s special  ceremony day in Vancouver.      

Good Luck Joiner family