Livingin22

Two days, two walks and two meals

2012-02-09T17:46:00.002+01:00

We all went on a one and a half hour walk yesterday afternoon along the woodland path which goes from the swimming pool in St Nicolas du Pélem to the Lanrivain/St Nicolas road. We didn't quite do the whole walk as it was getting very cold and we had to turn round and come back in time to put the ducks and hens away too.

The stream which runs through the mill here, is full at the moment and running really fast. It meanders from one side of the lane to the other rushing over the boulders in its bed.

Gareth and Charlie seemed determined to put Libby in the water, but even though she was carried away she escaped.

They've been doing lots of logging high up from the path and Gareth and Charlie walked up on the high path and then had to find a safe way down.

And then over the clapper bridge

Charlie played with bubbles which Libby was blowing - not a very clear photo, but I still like it.

We went to the Creperie in St Nicolas du Pélem in the evening and after his galette, Charlie went to sleep on the bench seat of the table next to us, with a fleecy blanket from the Land Rover.

Today there was a less biting wind, but it still seemed jolly cold out there. We decided to go for a walk around Corlay Lake, next to Corlay Castle.

A really grey day, but a lovely happy photo of Libby, Gareth and Charlie on a bridge across the lake.

Charlie and Gareth took a high path, like yesterday, and ran down the slope back to our level.

The reflections were lovely, but not as good as the ones I took here in the Autumn with the copper colours of the beech and oak trees.

Here's Corlay Castle which is alongside the lake and then the old wooden-bounded steps which lead up to the playground.

Lastly, the "children" playing on the seesaw, which I also joined them on for a few minutes - it's a long time since I've been on a seesaw.

After this, we went to the Pizzeria in St Nicolas du Pélem and had beer and pizzas for lunch. It was good to see Muriel and Ahmed again who manage it, as I hadn't been there for months and months. Charlie and I couldn't finish our pizzas so we packed the remainder into takeaway box and I had mine again later in the afternoon, warmed up under the grill.

Early start tomorrow as we're leaving at 8.30am to get to St Malo in time for the 11.30am ferry back to Plymouth. I'll be sorry to see them go - it's been a really lovely visit!

Three things I like:

1. Having my log pile by the wood burner piled high again thanks to Gareth and Charlie.

2. Going for a walk each day with the family.

3. Seeing the last of the laundry loads dried for their return to England.

Family and Cold Weather

2012-02-08T12:56:00.001+01:00

I can't believe how cold it's been over the last week or so. For several years I went away somewhere really warm during February and now I remember why. Sri Lanka and Tobago are definitely appealing to me at the moment. In fairness, it has not been as cold here as in other parts of France, but cold enough for me. As I write this it is lunchtime and still only 1.2 degrees Centigrade.

There was a tiny bit of snow the day before Libby, Gareth and Charlie arrived in France. Here it is settling on my wellie boot cleaners. Not much compared with what they've had in England and further south in Brittany and France proper.

I know this is a really fashionable look, but I have to try to keep the bitter wind out of my ears, and I wear my "too big now" red fleece, so I don't get my decent fleece mucky up at the field.

I have to wrap up really warmly to go and do the animals and really just want to stay in the warmth of the woodburner. This week, my five year old grandson, Charlie, is staying and he's been helping me with the ducks, hens, goats and rabbits every morning and evening.

In the morning we see the sun come up into the trees down the lane and in the evening he

loves looking in the nest boxes for eggs and bringing them down carefully in a small plastic bucket and we admire the sunsets, which have been brilliant in this frosty weather.

Here's Charlie doing "it rocks" while dressed up for the twice daily animal walk. I love the coloured fingers on his gloves.

Charlie liked the catkins on the hazel tree at the entrance to the field. The catkins are the male flowers on the hazel tree, pale yellow in colour and up to 5 cm long. They open in February, and are one of the first obvious signs of spring in the countryside. The female flowers are tiny red tufts, growing out of what look like swollen buds, and are visible on the same branches as the male catkins. The trees aren't self-pollinating though and need other trees in the same area to pollinate successfully and to produce hazel nuts in the Autumn. Although I see the nuts before they are ripe, by the time they are ready to be harvested they all seem to have been taken by wildlife around here.

For some reason, Libby has become even more camera shy than she has always been and it's almost impossible to get a photo of her - I have no idea why, as she is a lovely looking girl.

Yesterday I had a visit to the Nuclear Medicine department of the hospital at St Brieuc. This was for a scintigraphy to see whether I had a recurrence of last year's tumour on one of my parathyroid glands as my parathormone levels were more than twice the maximum normal range. Unusually, the hospital was really cold and nearly three hours later when the radio active material had worked its magic and I was in the scanner, without me asking, they put my fleece over me as they must have realised how cold it was.

In June 2011, I had one of the right parathyroid glands and its tumour removed. Unfortunately, the news wasn't good and I have a tumour on each of the left hand side parathyroid glands and possibly another tumour on the remaining right hand side parathyroid gland. This will mean another operation once I've seen the endocrinologist again and the new surgeon. My lovely surgeon from last year has retired unfortunately.

The cats have been ousted from their usual settee sleeping places while the family are staying. They all found a new place to sleep together yesterday evening.

Three things I like:

1. Seeing Libby and Gareth so happy.

2. Spending so much time with Charlie, who has grown in every way since last summer here.

3. Eating the Anzac biscuits Libby baked yesterday afternoon.

Changing Weather, Stuffed Mussels and a new Duck House

2012-01-29T22:10:00.000+01:00

I can't remember which day now, but perhaps Thursday, the temperature soared to a high of 15°C by lunchtime and there was wall to wall sunshine. It hasn't been the same since and I have now got into the habit of breaking the ice on the animal drinking water containers each morning.

The hailstones which fell at 5.00pm on Thursday afternoon were still there well into Friday and it was very cold out there.

Camelias are flowering everywhere now, in spite of the frost covered ground when I go up the lane to let the animals out in the morning.

Early one evening this week, as I drove to collect a Sky+ box to replace my faulty one, the sky was beginning to blacken and soon all the clouds were really dark and the rain started, and boy did it rain. Everywhere was sporting great big puddles. Thank goodness they cleared all the ditches round here last week which stops the roads flooding. When I lived in Cornwall sometimes the two lanes leading from Boswinger to the main road were completely flooded and impassable. At least that doesn't happen here.

I bought a Drizabone long riding coat secondhand from the expat forum this week. It was too far to drive so I paid for the postage to get it sent to me which was less than the diesel would have been.

This is going to keep me dry when I walk up the road to do the animals in the pouring rain. I just need a souwester or something similar for my head, as it doesn't have a hood.

This morning I drove with my worker to collect a play house which looks ideal for a duck house. We brought it back and installed it on the duck field next to their pond. The inside had fitted carpet and gripper rods. We removed them and put lino in on the floor before strewing it with straw. An attachment was added to fix the door back in the daytime and once it has been painted black it will look ok. It will certainly be good to have the ducks in their own house instead of mixed in with the hens.

The door's about 4ft high, luckily I am not a tall person. However, it will still be a struggle cleaning it out. I am hoping to be able to reach all corners with a long rake. Under the straw is lino, so I can pull that out, if necessary and give it a good wash outside the house.

We had so much trouble getting them into their new house tonight, I can't tell you how difficult it was. They all stood by the gate waiting to go into the hen area and then on to the barn and henhouse. In the end, as it was dark, we had to let them go into the barn and catch them one by one and carry them through to their new home. Hopefully that won't have to be done too many nights before they realise where they sleep and go in happily!

Three things I like:

1. Getting a delivery of English groceries today. However much I enjoy French things, somehow there are always things you miss when you aren't in your original country.

2. Finally getting a duck house after looking for something affordable and suitable for ages.

3. Enjoying stuffed mussels, a first for me, for supper yesterday and again for lunch today.

Loose cattle, Sunset and Flowers

2012-01-22T21:51:00.000+01:00

This afternoon I went walking along the lane and saw one of my neighbours in his garden raking up leaves. I mentioned to him that his two loose white cattle were in another neighbour's orchard again this morning and had visited the veggie bed with my newly sown onion seeds during the week and left huge footprints in the earth.

He said he hoped to sell them within eight days and didn't seem unduly worried about them being loose. However, when I walked up the lane to put the animals to bed this evening he was in the field looking at the footprints in the veggie bed and then drove off, presumably looking to see where they had got to now. I hope something happens as I don't want cattle trampling my veggie beds once things start growing. He did say I could put a rope across my wide field entrance to deter them, but that's really inconvenient when I'm driving in and anyway, why should I have to take precautions against his loose beasts? Moan over!

Five days ago the sunset was truly spectacular. I was on my way back from shopping and had to drive past the end of my lane to park with an open view. I just love these winter sunsets, the colours are so intense.

On Thursday, a good friend came for a chat in the afternoon and she brought me flowers. This is a photograph of one of the sprays in my vase.

I bought myself a begonia when I was coming back from lung specialist on Friday - what a red!

In a previous blog, I talked about a fire which had happened on Boxing Day night, and how badly damaged the house was. By chance yesterday, I passed by the house concerned. How lucky the owner was to be rescued by the pompiers, but what a terrible thing to happen in the early hours of the morning.

When I got home there was an email asking me to drinks with neighbours which was a nice surprise. There were just five of us and it was a good evening catching up with each other's news and for me learning some more about the area around my village.

The weather has been so mild this winter and the birds haven't stripped the berries of the holly in my garden or on this tree in the lane. I even have a rose in bud in the garden.

Petrol on the lane yesterday and moss on slates along the verge outside my immediate neighbour's abandoned house.

Here's a peek through my driveway window as I arrived back home after putting the animals safely away for the night.

I received my blood test results in the post last week and my parathormone levels are almost twice the maximum normal range and rising in spite of my calcium being within the normal range. This is worrying to both me and my doctor who I saw to discuss the results and who contacted my consultant endocrinologist to see if I could have an earlier appointment than the 21 February one I had with her. It seems that the most likely reason is that there is another tumour on one of the other remaining parathyroid glands. I had a tumour and gland removed in June last year. Almost more worrying is the bony growth which is evident on the right clavicle, directly under the original parathyroidectomy scar. Unfortunately, my previous surgeon has now retired so I shall have to have a different surgeon if surgery is necessary. The endocrinologist has brought forward my appointment to tomorrow, so I shall see her then and presumably then have to go for more tests. I'm trying to think good thoughts, but am rather worried.

Three things I like:

1. Beautiful winter sunsets.

2. Having a long and happy 'phone conversation with my daughter today.

3. Only two weeks before she, her lovely partner and my grandson arrive in Brittany.

Frost, my new Legbars and my afternoon walk

2012-01-16T19:15:00.003+01:00

The weather has certainly changed since I last blogged. We have now had three clear, frosty nights and the duck pond was lightly frozen over this morning. All the water containers had thick ice which had to be broken for the animals and poultry to drink.

Sun rising on the lane as I walked back home today at 09.15am - my feet were cold. My head was wrapped up in a fleece thing which can go over your head or round your neck - because my ears get so cold, I wear it over my head - it's not a fashion statement!

Here is the lane at 16.30pm when I walked back this afternoon.

My new trio of Cream Legbars are now settled in a run with an adjacent house. The cockerel couldn't fit into the integral house, so another one, with a larger pophole, had to be adapted and attached to the side of the run. He's very shy and I couldn't get near enough to eliminate the wire of the run without him hiding in his new house.

I'm hoping that when they come into lay the girls will provide me with either eggs to incubate or chicks - fingers crossed. These are two photographs I took on the way to Mur de Bretagne late Saturday morning on my journey to get the trio.

It was so lovely this afternoon that I walked down the lane towards the bridge, but stopped and turned round at the horses because Jean-Louis drove up and started chatting.

The horses are used for endurance races throughout France and they are very successful often being placed in the top three.

The first photo is back sunlit moss on a boulder along the lane and the second one is looking up a tree into the beautiful blue sky of this afternoon.

I am only 5ft 3ins tall, if I stretch my neck a little, but in the late afternoon my shadow takes up over 25ft of ground! It makes a change to want to see it in a photograph, usually I am having to move around so my shadow doesn't become part of it. While I was in the poultry area I snapped my lone Muscovy duck, who's rather lovely I think.

This is a snail with its casts in the flowerbed on the driveway which was cleared on Friday. Purrdy has found a worm and isn't sure what to do with it.

You'll need to click on the photo of Purrdy to see the worm!

It's cold again this evening. I've collected two eggs and locked all the animals away safely, although the rabbits gave me a run for my money this evening, not wanting to go inside at all - they only just missed being left out for the fox.

Three things I like:

1. Sitting in front of the woodburner with a bowl of black olives and radishes.

2. Looking at my new weather station monitor and noting that the temperature outside is 21 degrees centigrade less than it is inside!

3. Nodding off unexpectedly in the middle of a pre-recorded programme, so you just have to rewind and everything's ok again.

Veggie beds, Cow and Cockerels

2012-01-12T20:32:00.001+01:00

Yesterday morning my worker cleared and composted the two long veggie beds outside the barn. There were still loads of carrots and beets in there which will now be stored in the garage until I cook them.

The compost in the second bin in from the entrance to the field had lovely friable goodness in it and Andy forked that through the existing earth in the beds. I then sowed onion seeds in two and a half rows. They were old seed, so may not germinate, but fingers crossed. He then finished putting stones on the entrance through to the field to make life easier coming and going when it's muddy.

The runner bean bed was due for sorting out too. He had to dig out the earth and fork in the hen shed floor straw and hen manure into the trenches before filling the earth back on top. The runner beans this year should have a very good time with all this goodness at their roots.

The polytunnel looks so good now it's cleared and absolutely ready for sowing and planting. The animal feed sacks are being stored in there at the moment, but I can work round those.

I sowed seeds of lettuce and radish in the polytunnel, which worked according to the biodynamic cycle of planting with phases of the moon and stars, as today was a roots and shoots (leaves) day. Today is fruits and shoots, so I've sown yellow tomato and sweet pepper seeds in half trays. It's so lovely starting the new cycle of growing again.

When I drove down the lane later in the afternoon to the supermarket and doctor I saw this lovely cow in a neighbour's field - she looks just as if she has eye make up on!

I received some more seeds in the post today, so have to sit down and sort them all into he order that they will need sowing outside or in the polytunnel. I have found quite a lot of out of date seeds in the back of the cupboard in the garage, so will plant those too, and it will be a bonus if they germinate and give me some produce.

Lunch was homemade soup with home grown veggies - butternut squash, carrots, parsnips, onions, garlic and my own chicken stock. I added some pili pili to give it a bit of a spiced up taste - lovely!

Three eggs yesterday from my four laying hens and two more this evening - good news for the midwinter months. I am managing to eat eggs now, only when hard-boiled and with Hellman's mayo, but that's a start and should bring my protein levels up again. This evening I had them with lettuce, three large, shelled prawns, celeriac remoulade and one boiled potato sliced very thinly and deep fried in a very small milk pan - and it tasted good. It seems to be the only carbohydrate I can eat at the moment - can't get on with pasta, rice is not too bad, potatoes dauphinoise are out unless I take some lactase capsules before because of the lactose, although they are my favourite. Fried or roast are best for me, I only eat a one at a time anyway so the fattening aspect of the cooking doesn't really matter much. Things are definitely getting better though and my range of foods is increasing week by week.

Here are my two cockerels. The bantam is on the machine and the real cockerel on the ground. I hope they will be ok with a new cockerel coming this weekend. He is part of a trio of Cream Legbars, so I am hoping for blue eggs again.

Andy should be here again tomorrow sorting out the electric motor for the garage door. I am so short I can't push it up all the way manually so have invested in technology. While he's around I'll clear the beds around the terrace and the driveway and he will be able to barrow the weeds and spent plants up to the compost heaps.

Three things I like:

1.   Getting nice surprises in my postbox.
2.   Hearing that my blood pressure is now good enough to let me come off my medication.
3.   Getting a Skype call from my friends in Tobago this afternoon.

Sunday's Walk and this Evening's Sunset

2012-01-09T19:16:00.000+01:00

As I was clearing some leaves on the driveway I came across a primrose which had been flowering secretly. The marigolds there have flowered continuously since they bloomed in the summer. This unseasonably warm weather is having such a bizarre effect on plants.

I walked all the way down to the bridge at the end of the village after feeding the animals this morning. On the way I met my neighbour driving back from fetching a newspaper and a baguette from Lanrivain and three walkers who were walking from St Nicolas du Pelem, which via this end of the village must be 4-5 miles and it was only 9.20am.

The lane ends in a very sharp, steep hill and I walked off it into a friend's garden and took some photos of their lake before walking across a very small bridge which I'd never noticed before.

Coming from the end of their bridge back round to the road bridge there is a little abandoned house up on the bank. The road bridge goes over the mill stream which was full today and running fast.

There is a post with signs on which I photographed, but I have no idea what the measurements mean.

The sharp incline coming back was hard work. Even the Peugeot has trouble getting up and I certainly did. I zigzagged back and across the road to lessen the slope. In one of the fields on the left of the lane was a hunter shouting at his dogs. They must have been rabbitting as he was sending them into the undergrowth. As I walked round the corner of my field I heard him shoot, just the once, so I guess he got his lunch sorted. It's a national pastime here and there are chasseurs - hunters - with their dogs everywhere at the weekends and vans parked on all the corners in the lanes.

There was another fungi I haven't noticed before and the lovely yellow gorse everywhere, just like it is in Cornwall. In fact, I think of Brittany as French Cornwall.

Here Jean-Luc, a farmer from over the bridge, is just passing the entrance to my field with his tractor and bowser.

I hadn't seen him for about eighteen months and I've seen him twice in one week. He commented on my weight loss and said he'd heard that I'd been in hospital. The jungle drums work well round here.

A lot of timber has been cut down recently and is stacked at the roadside.

The large lumps discarded on the verges have metal tags attached to them, as in the second photo above, and I wonder why this is?

This morning Andy came with two tons of stone and made paths everywhere for me to walk on so that I don't slip on the mud. Here he is beginning to dump the stone and the birds are very interested in it - they can never resist inspecting anything new!

Tonight the sky was amazing during sunset and I drove out to get an open sky to take this, and many other, photographs.

Three things I like:

1.   Enjoying walking as I haven't done for years and years.
2.   Discovering a garden hand fork lost for months under the nasturtians.
3.   Being able to walk on the new paths my worker made this morning.

The Village during the last couple of days

2012-01-07T14:46:00.000+01:00

As usual recently, the weather has been either very wet indeed or lovely sunshine. The sunsets and the sunrises viewed from the garden and the lane have been lovely. Here are a few photographs of my trip up to put the animals to bed last night.

This is my absolute favourite photo of the year so far - birds, I think starlings, roosting in poplar trees. They all swoop in as dusk falls, and the swirls they make in the air are like a ballet.

The roof of my house with the moon and a welcoming window as I approach my driveway.

I have also taken photos of interesting things along the verges. The first fungi are at the end of my flower bank on the driveway and I love the look of them and their rusty colour. The celandine buds are almost opening now and are a lovely bright colour in amongst the autumn leaves which are thick along the roadsides.

We drove out yesterday in my worker's van to collect animal feed. In the usual shops it is nearly three times the price. This farmer mixes his own feed and we get it at a seriously cheaper rate per bag. I bought it initially for the ducks and hens, but the goats and rabbits love it too, so it's a brilliant buy. We store it in a corner of the polytunnel as the shed and the caravan are full of hay and straw.

These will last me about five-six months which is pretty good considering all the animals eat the feed. It is a mixture of wheat, peas, barley, corn and other thing I can't identify. I used to feed it to the hens and ducks when I lived in Cornwall and realised that the rabbits were eating it too. When I moved to St André the goats were in with the hens and I noticed they liked the feed too, so I thought well why not give it to all of them and it works really well only having to buy in one feed. They have hay too in the winter as do the rabbits. I also give the hens out of date milk, salad and veggies, and of course, all the animals have the stale bread from the SuperU bakers as well.

The ducks have finally allowed me to see them swimming in their new pond. They are loving it.

Here, one of the drakes is mating with a Khaki Campbell ducks, so there will be the possibility of ducklings later on when they have their own shelter. They only mate in water, and the drake practically drowns the female gripping the back neck feathers in their beak and, for a good deal of the act, pushing her head below the water while in flagrante delicto.

Here are some of the chickens. The first lot are the five Lavender Pekin bantam youngsters, who seem to be thriving. They are climbing over and pecking goodies out of the earth spoil heap which was a result of digging out the duck pond.

The five Light Sussex birds sneaking into a corner as I approached with the camera.

Then my bantam cockerel, not sure what type he is, and one of my large grey hens who have just spotted chickweed which they love. I'd just pulled it out of one of the raised veggie beds.

I then walked down the lane and was considering going as far as the little bridge at the end of the village. However, two of my neighbours cattle had escaped and although when I first spotted them they were in the old orchard, within moments of seeing me they were walking fast to the lane. I am not stupid and didn't fancy an encounter with them both, so I headed off back towards home and telephoned the farmer to let him know where his beasts were.

They were loose about six nights ago and my opposite neighbour's dogs barked all night as they knew there was something wandering around near their house. I hope they get them shut in their own field tonight so we can get some sleep!

Three things I like:

1. My lunch today - calves liver, roasted red peppers and homemade chips.

2. Seeing spring flower buds in the verges.

3. Watching the magpies flying down to eat the spare chips off the bird table.

The Village, Spring Growth and My Animals

2012-01-04T16:03:00.000+01:00

I had a dreadful night without much sleep but am still full of energy this morning. After I'd walked up to the field and looked after the animals, I walked down the lane, past the calvaire to a little opening I'd never noticed before. Today it was easier to see as logs have been cut and left there for collection. This is something you see all over Brittany, piles of logs, huge, huge piles sometimes, which the owners leave to season on the roadside without risk of anyone taking them.

My neighbours had told me that there was a little house down there where I could collect leaves for leafmould. It was very damp and the leaves underfoot had obviously been falling there for years and years and were deep.

You can see how damp it is by the amount of moss which is growing on the trees and how far up the trunks the moss comes.

Tucked away by a tiny house were primroses in flower and periwinkle, also a tiny oak seedling, one of many growing through the leaves. With the enormous quantity of acorns produced and fallen this year, I should imagine there will be thousands and thousands of new little oak seedlings this time next year.

There are catkins on the trees in the lane too, some golden and some red. I can't ever remember seeing red before, but when I look closely the golden ones have tinges of red so perhaps they change colour.

Here's a hazelnut on the same tree as the red catkins.

Here are photos of another neighbour's lake and a sheep on the few hundred metres back home.

Back up to my field and Betsy and Basil were cuddling together on top of the old pig shelter.

The ducks and hens are enjoying their extra area which I opened up to them yesterday.

When I got back home I gave the rabbits, Bert, Boris and Ruby, the dandelion and nasturtian leaves I had picked for them. There were actually yellow dandelion flowers in bud - it's only 4 January!

Three things I like:

1. The sunshine when I'm walking.

2. The woodburner when I get home.

3. Hot homemade soup for lunch.

Rain, Water Collection and Storage and the back Veggie Plots

2012-01-03T19:50:00.000+01:00

Very, very windy weather this morning and lots of rain. I walked up to the field to find Andy had just arrived, in spite of still suffering from the end of man 'flu', and the first thing we did was to clean out the hen house and put down fresh straw, also in the hen end of the barn and in the nesting boxes. We also gave the goats another bale of hale and took some back to the house for the rabbits too. Rain is seeping in from the concrete path into the nearest end of the barn and I think silicone may do the job of keeping it out. We decided to put the ducks in the field with the pond. This photo just shows the very shallow end where it slopes up to the grass.

It's the first time it's been full since it was built in April last year and the first time the ducks have been in. I didn't see them in it, of course, but there were loads of feathers in there, so they must have been in there diving, swimming and getting their feathers into shape. At lunchtime we went down and put the ducks back into the normal hen area so that it would be easier for me to get them inside at bedtime.

The rain was terrific this afternoon, so heavy that it was bouncing up again off the roof of the logshed, and by 4.00pm we'd had about a dozen very short powercuts, which meant the Sky box, and internet were reset each time, very frustrating!

The Christmas tree, which was outside on the terrace, waiting to be sawn up for the woodburner, has been rolling around all over the place and it absolutely soaked. From this angle it looks really small, but was just over two metres high, the biggest tree I've had in Brittany.

Even the logs which are under cover, are slightly damp when they come inside and have to be dried on top of the woodburner before using.

We also cleared the paths around the polytunnel and barn and emptied the bath, in the polytunnel, which was full of very smelly water after the tomato plants had collapsed into the water.

We refilled it with clean collected water from the barn roof which is stored in an IBC immediately outside the polytunnel.

Here are some of my water collection and storage solutions. I have the guttering on my small barn sloping to each end from the middle so that I can fill an IBC from each end. At the back end I have the first IBC connected to two others so altogether that is 4000 litres. I also have four baths, two dairy containers, three water butts and two very large round galvanised cattle drinkers.

I have just bought two more 1000 litre IBCs from an expat website here and will use one on the field and one for my garden plants when I am able to collect them.

Here is a photo of the veggie beds at the back of the polytunnel.

They are arranged like this as they were originally in another polytunnel which collapsed irretrievably in the snows of two winters ago. I had the paths concreted because I seem to find it easy to fall over any small lump in the ground so this seemed a good idea! The front middle bed has strawberry plants in it, the next bed back has woad. The back right beds have soft fruit and the far left bed has beetroot and some parsnips still happily in the ground.

Tomorrow the plot is for Andy to finish installing the electric door opener for the garage and then do the polytunnel and perhaps start on the outside veggie beds. I also want to clear the runner bean bed (not shown) and dig the proceeds from the henhouse clearing today into the runner bean trenches so they are well manured for good growing this summer.

We replaced some of the outside light bulbs which had blown, but didn't have enough, so I went shopping in late afternoon to get some and combined the journey with putting the birds to bed. I seem to buy bulbs endlessly. Every lamp takes a different type, bayonet or two types of screw and a different wattage - these needed large screw 60w. I couldn't get 60w here, they were either 75w or 55w so I chose the brighter ones.

The Land Rover doesn't like short journeys - they seem to kill the battery - so if I'm shopping I tend to go later in the day so I do six miles on the round trip and then leave the engine running while I do the birds and collect the eggs. I've bought a trickle charger for it, but it's been so mild that we haven't wired the vehicle up for the charger yet.

Right - I have to get ready now for my Physio, who is coming to do my back.

Three things I like:

1.   A good back massage.
2.   Finding Christmas sausage rolls in the freezer and cooking them for supper.
3.   Wishing my friends Sheila and Paul a happy holiday in Tobago - they arrive tomorrow.

The Village on New Year's Day

2012-01-01T18:54:00.000+01:00

Libby, Matthew and Gareth spoke to me on the 'phone at just after their midnight - one o'clock in the morning here - of 1 January 2012, to wish me a Happy New Year. They all sounded as if they were having a great party so a good start to the New Year. It was a mild night and I turned off the storage heater in my room which I had put on in the third week of December. During the day it had been 12°C on the SuperU display.

I weighed, although my usual day for weighing is Tuesday, because I wanted to know what I would begin the year at. I was 105kg/231.5lbs/16stone7½lbs, which means I have lost 38.1kg/84lbs/6 stone since my mini gastric bypass on 18 July, in nearly 24 weeks. I am a very happy bunny!

Woke up to a grey and drizzly day. I walked up the lane, next three photos, to the field to do the animals - without a fleece just in a short sleeved t-shirt and carrying my camera, accompanied by Bobby, one of my neighbour's dogs.

I fed and waterered the hens, ducks and goats. The bags of bread I bought just after Christmas are still very fresh - some of the price tags carry a date of 30 December. They all enjoy the spongy inside of the loaves and the outside crusts with a bit of bread attached go into a galvanised container filled with water to soften it up. Then I walked on up to the corner of my field and up the lane to my neighbour's abandoned orchard. There were apples all over the ground and on the roof of a shed too.

After that I walked back, stopping to take more photographs. Here is my own field and the field I rent from my neighbour and then different bits and pieces on the verges next to my field.

The gorse is such a wonderfully bright yellow lifting the grey day.

And finally back home again, the buildings on the left, to be greeted by Bobby again.

I don't often buy pre-packaged convenience food, but when I was shopping yesterday there were frozen prawn two-bite party bits and I succumbed. These are eleven of the twenty-one delicious morsels.

They were really lovely, just popped into a very hot oven with no extra oil, and made a super New Year's Eve supper with their piquant sweet and sour chilli dip. I wish supermarkets did these little nibbles all year round, as they are a good quick and tasty snack. I have another two boxes in my freezer - just in case!

The rain set in properly for the rest of the day and underfoot it is extremely soggy, but still mild.

Three things I like:

1. This afternoon's snooze in front of the woodburner.

2. Seeing my daughter admitting to her relationship with Gareth on Facebook.

3. Reading through old magazines so I can pass them on.

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T19:19:00.013+01:00

A grey and wet day for the this afternoon, last day and last blog of the year. Two of my friends celebrate their birthdays today, Tristan is 29 and Christian is 64. This afternoon, Paulette and Christian asked me to go for a walk with them from the mill at Coz Salou at the end of my village, on a very wet and muddy, heavily-leaved path through the countryside. To think that a few months ago I wouldn't and couldn't have considered the walk even in the sunshine and with the aid of a cane, and now I walk without a stick and in the drizzle! It was a good way to spend an hour and I do enjoy walking with them.

Christian took my camera to photograph a tree which has a very convoluted root system which has a stream running under it.

Buds on branches in the lane to the calvaire.

After the walk I went back to change my wet trousers, socks and shoes and then had a couple of cups of coffee with Paulette and Christian at their house. It was a lovely way to end 2011.

It's been a difficult year in some ways, but ultimately rewarding. Friends and family rallied round me when I needed them and I'm very grateful to them all. I have ended the year in much better health and probably with more years ahead of me that I would have had without my gastric bypass.

I have made just a few New Year's Resolutions:

To get organised so that I remember to succession sow salad veggies and have a continuous supply instead of a glut and a deficit.

To get fitter as I get slimmer and walk whenever I can.

To arrange my affairs - business and papers that is - I should be so lucky as to have the other sort!

To sort out my books and get rid of at least 200 of them.

To try to reduce my freezers to two and a half.

If I achieve a couple of these I shall be happy.

New Year's Eve

Twenty-eleven is used up and spent

The months, weeks and days who knows where they went

The minutes whizzed past, the time disappeared

This getting older is just as I feared.

They told me this happened, that time would fly

Between giving up work and the day that I die

Not enough seconds in each passing day

To write all the things I wanted to say.

I thought they were joking, that time would stand still

I'd be looking for things the hours to fill

But time zips on by with things left undone

The "to do" list gets longer while I'm having fun.

Fifty-two weeks more are coming next year

To live and plan for and enjoy being here

I expect they'll go quickly like all the rest

I'm hoping twenty-twelve may yet be the best.

Sandra E Chubb

31.12.11

Well - I wish everyone a very Happy New Year and many more of them!

Three things I like:

1. That the days will be getting longer and lighter as we go into 2012.

2. That I am here to see another New Year in, and most important

3. That I have good friends and my family.

Oyster shells, Disasters and Little Eggs

2011-12-30T20:51:00.000+01:00

More oyster shells have appeared, this time in the goat field. I spoke to my neighbour this afternoon, who lives on the North coast now, but who comes back to my village each weekend to sort out her son's house and garden. It's always good to catch up with her and her news. She cooked Christmas lunch for twelve people this year at her house. Luckily, as the weather was good no-one had trouble getting to her. She thinks it might be the next neighbours along who have been putting the oyster shells on the field, but I haven't seen them to ask them. The shells are brilliant as a source of calcium for the hens but need breaking up with a hammer into edible size bits, about half the size of a little finger nail or smaller.

While I was investigating the shells in the goat field and getting the birds to bed last night, I slipped in the mud again. I was absolutely covered in it and in spite of sitting on a "bag for life" in the Land Rover, had to wash the covers of the cushions which I use in the driver's seat.

The webbing has gone in the seat and without them I would be looking through the steering wheel. My worker has promised to repair both front seats when I have finished losing weight!

Just before the boys left, Judge brought a whole load of logs in for me, wearing my XXXL man's fleece to protect his clothes. He wasn't keen on me taking a photo of him in my outsize coat, hence the blurred photo!

The logs were all used up by this morning and I fetched just a few in from the trolley on the terrace as Flick was coming round to bring some in this afternoon. I was quite surprised when she arrived as I hadn't realised it was the afternoon already. Time seems to go so fast nowadays. Her husband has man 'flu' which is why he hasn't been round to help here this week. Hopefully, he'll be better for Monday morning.

Apparently there was a bad fire at Kerpin, near Lanrivain village at 01.00am on Boxing Day just after Christmas and very bad damage to the house. The upstairs was completely destroyed and the occupant was very lucky to be woken and rescued by the firemen. The photo is from Ouest-France.fr

Yesterday in the centre of Corlay, eight minutes from St André, a lorry driver lost control of his heavy goods vehicle and ran into a car. The driver of the car was injured and taken to hospital. Also yesterday a seventy-six year old man was killed driving out of St Nicolas du Pélem in the direction of Corlay when his car was struck by a pick-up. Not good things to happen ever, but especially at Christmas time. I'm so glad Matthew and Judge got home to Cornwall safely - it always worries me them driving in the dark in a foreign country.

Three eggs today again when I put the girls away tonight. I've also been getting really small eggs regularly over the last two weeks and think they must be from the Lavender Pekin mother hen. I think Charlie will like the tiny ones fried or poached when he comes to visit in February. Having so few laying hens at the moment I am really lucky that they are still laying so well. The boys took back all the eggs I had, except for the small ones, when they left on Tuesday.

Only one more day of 2011 left now. This year has gone so quickly and yet so many things seem to have happened in it.

Three things I like:

1. Finding another Christmas Card in my postbox this morning from someone I thought I'd lost touch with.

2. Having a quiet day with no pressure to do anything at all.

3. Getting all the Christmas guest bedlinen and towels washed and dried and put away.

Frost, Oysters and Mussels

2011-12-27T12:55:00.003+01:00

It's more like December today and very frosty this morning. I couldn't open the doors on the Land Rover, even after using the deicer, so couldn't go into town to collect bread for the animals. All the animal water containers had to have the ice broken and leaves and twigs everywhere were edged with silvery-white.

After I'd looked after the animals, I came out of the barn door, locking it as usual. I turned round to face the veggie bed opposite the door and there were oyster shells on the earth, as if someone had eaten their dinner up on my field.

Strangely, about 3-4 years ago, when I opened the shed door one morning there was a packet of Quaker Porage Oats inside, as if someone had eaten their breakfast there. Perhaps my field is a hot spot for a traveller who enjoys his food.

The grass around the calvaire, about 70 metres from my house, was really white, although now, at 11.30am the sun is out and it's a lovely day, so it's probably all melted away now as it's in such an open position.

The boys have yet to come in for breakfast. I have done their job and emptied the dishwasher and put everything away, but they still have to do the hoovering.

I asked them yesterday evening if they would do it in the morning, the carpet is looking dreadful. The bin needs emptying again and the empty bottles are stacking up. The Dysons all need their filters cleaning and Matthew usually does that when he's here, so hopefully he'll do that today too.

I've found the bottle of Muscadet which I want to use when I cook the mussels for lunch. I'm doing them marinière style, with chopped shallots, parsley, the Muscasdet white wine, seasoning and the mussels. I haven't had mussels since July, and if I find I can't eat them, I will at least be able to eat the sauce.

I haven't been to the shops, but have part-baked French bread to finish in the oven, which will mop up the sauce. It's not traditional, but I like to add a container of cream to the sauce after I've taken the mussels out with a slotted spoon. Then when it's heated through I pour the sauce over the mussels - I am drooling just writing about it. Here I am cooking them later for our very late lunch. (You can see that the stash of empty bottles has been taken out.)

The sun is streaming through the window and I have had to move my chair slightly so it isn't in my eyes - lovely, lovely day. Matthew had thought he was going home today, but when we looked at the ticket it is tomorrow and not until the 11.30pm boat, so that's good.

Lastly, two photographs of the sunset this evening. The first of Saturday's new moon from the terrace and the second, the sky from my barn back door.

Three things I like:

1. This lovely winter sunshine.

2. Poaching freshly laid eggs for breakfast.

3. Watching The Gruffalo.

Boxing Day

2011-12-26T19:45:00.001+01:00

Very late up this morning after a very late night/early morning to bed - the boys are a bad influence on me - my day is slipping like their day does I quickly set off for the field and Basil, my daddy goat, was standing in the only part of his field where he can see the entrance to the field, waiting for me. I took some photos of the young Lavender Pekins on their perch the other night as I was putting them all away, and this morning I took photos of various fungi.

I found a branch which had fallen and carried that home. It had fungi growing on the end.

Two visitors were here for Christmas Day. I had ordered them after a real one all but emptied my fish pond in the Autumn. They will go outside and act as deterrents for any pass heron once I have restocked the pond.

Just to show that healthy, non-calorie laden food was available over the festive period.

Although, to be fair, I think the only fruit used so far was put into the Christmas Cake this afaternoon, which Judge made from a Mary Berry Christmas Cake pack. It's just finished cooking and is doing its 30 minute rest in the tin before being turned out onto the cooling rack. It smells lovely.

I think Alfie was setting an example to the other two boys.

Obviously boys do not have the stamina of the female gender!

We had medium rare steaks, potatoes cooked three ways, butternut squash and a mixed salad for lunch. I had some trifle which I made earlier, but Matthew had left the extra thick double cream in his fridge in Cornwall, so I had to have French cream which isn't nearly as lovely. Mussels are on the menu for tomorrow lunch and I am defrosting a whole crab which, if all goes well, we'll have as a starter - I've never prepared a whole crab before so fingers crossed.

Three things I like:

1. Having the boys here.

2. Cooking for the boys.

3. Finding that the hens are still laying eggs - unseasonally warm temperatures?

Christmas stuff

2011-12-25T11:33:00.001+01:00

On Wednesday, after being assured by friends that it was not a dish you would only make once, I cooked Nigella’s Ham in Coca Cola.

I did this with great trepidation, as a large gammon joint is not cheap, and I really love my boiled bacon. I’m sorry to say that it is a dish I would only make once. I don’t feel it enhanced the gammon in any way. I didn’t finish it off with black treacle etc. as I am not looking for extra calories, but I did roast it in the oven for about 20 minutes to caramelize the fat, having removed the skin, as I often do. Definitely not for me, sorry I don’t agree with you – you know who you are!

Is anyone else having the problem with excessive quantities of mice being brought inside by their cats? I must be getting at least two a day, sometimes more, and they are usually running around the sitting room/kitchen for a good hour or so before one of the three cats, usually Purrdy, manages to despatch them. I come downstairs in the morning to find those little hard green bits from somewhere, not sure where, inside the mouse, lying on the floor, and all three cats lined up in front of the fridge freezer waiting for a little squeaky animal to emerge. I have learnt to wear slippers and not go bare-footed until I am sure where the remains lie. I am quite used to it, but I’m not sure that visitors will be as laid back about it. Daisy even brought one in while I was prepping the veggies this morning.

For those of you having turkey for Christmas, I thought you might like to see this photos from the blog vegplotting.blogspot.com It was from an American who was having turkey for Thanksgiving.

Well it's not a sunny bright day, but it is mild and so far it's dry here, which is always good for Christmas Day. All my veggies are prepared and only the sausages to wrap with bacon and the gravy to make when the time comes. I'm typing this with a glass of Buck's Fizz within hand's reach and I think it will be a good day! My son, Matthew, and his houseshare friend are here and I've spoken to my daughter, Libby and my grandson on the 'phone.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012 to you all!

Three things I like:

1. The anticipation of opening Christmas pressies.

2. The anticipation of others opening pressies you have given them.

3. Knowing everything's running smoothly for the big day.

Chair and stool, Presents and Roquefort

2011-12-22T21:00:00.000+01:00

This morning, when I got into the Land Rover to go and collect a chair and stool I was buying from someone on my local expat forum, I found that the sunroof windows, both of them, have been leaking rain into the vehicle. Not good. They did leak in 2006, when I bought it from my roofer, but we siliconed them up and everything’s been fine until now. After Christmas we’ll have to dig out the old stuff and renew it. I had to put a tartan rug on the floor so I didn’t spoil the chair and stool, so now that needs washing. Why does one job always lead to another?

I am pleased with the purchase. It looks almost identical, except for colour - yes it is green, not usually my preference but it seems to work - to my previous chair, but is much more comfortable and slightly higher which is a good thing.

I spent the morning going round the shops and hadn’t realized the time until, while I was browsing shelves at the back of a shop in Rostrenen, the lights went off. It was, of course, midday, when most shops close for two hours of lunch. The shop assistants hadn’t realized there was anyone still in the store. I shouted “Oh!” and one of them arrived and apologized, they then passed me through the checkout at double quick time, so they didn't miss any of their two hour lunch, and released me to the car park.

It was quite a successful morning and I have managed to acquire and wrap some more presents, thank goodness!

It’s drizzled with rain all day on and off and although I hate wet weather, it is so much better than icy, snowy weather for this Christmas travelling week.

Flick and Andy's daughter came round to wish me a Happy Christmas before they go off into France proper for their Christmas. I'd forgotten how children talk non-stop and she even managed to wake up Purrdy, who had been asleep, shattered with the whole festive preparations and social whirl she's been involved in.

While shopping I was looking for a cheese fix and found Roquefort which isn't made with cow's milk and so shouldn't have an effect on my lactose intolerance. For some reason the

label won't load and save round the right way - you get days like that don't you? Well I have eaten some of it on TUC biscuits, but it is very strong and, under previous conditions, I would have spread butter thickly under the cheese to mellow it a bit. However, of course, that would defeat the object of using sheep's cheese. I shall just have to have a very small amount now and then, and keep searching for something that I really enjoy meantime.

Three things I like:

1. My newish chair and stool.

2. The different Christmas choirs on BBC Breakfast each day at the programme end.

3. Having a long, long chat on the 'phone to an old friend this afternoon.

Chicken Pie, Kindle and Books

2011-12-20T21:13:00.002+01:00

I love it that I'm cooking again after five months of not wanting to eat or cook after my gastric bypass. Although I will not necessarily eat this, at least I am interested in food enough again to enjoy thinking about, preparing and cooking it. This evening I made the pie filling for one of the boys' meals over their Christmas stay. I think I will top one with mashed potato sprinkled with cheese and one with pastry.

In the pan are pre-fried bacon bits and chicken which I have cut into bite sized pieces, lightly cooked leeks, carrots, one grated garlic clove, a few chopped sprigs of parsley, salt and freshly ground black pepper. For the sauce, I cheat and use two sachets of chicken and leek soup powder which is mixed with a little of the water which the carrots and a little of the water which the leeks were cooked in. Before I was lactose intolerant I would have added cream as well. I divided the mixture into the two small casserole dishes and when cool put them in the fridge. I will take them out and freeze them tomorrow morning.

I have also arranged enough food for the cats over the festive season.

They will also enjoy bits of duck, chicken, gammon, sausages, prawns and salmon I expect, as those are the things I have planned for their humans.

Daisy is already waiting for her treats - it's a hard life being a cat in my house.

The Christmas cards are coming in slowly this year - only sixteen so far. I trimmed my list a year or so ago, as so many cards that I sent and received were from people with whom I had no other contact and it all seemed a bit pointless. I feel I have got my list right this year and I have decided to give presents to family only. It's difficult to get presents to friends back in England without spending a fortune on postage and I don't want to start doing presents over here. I think I prefer to give to friends for birthdays and keep Christmas a family affair.

The children have bought me a Kindle and I have already been downloading free books which sounded worth having. I am really looking forward to seeing it and have just ordered a blue leather case for it.

Books are really what I like, but I have so many, far too many the children think and they are not so subtly trying to wean me off the printed page. I shall never give up buying books, as I think there is something very special about having an actual book in my hands. I enjoy searching through shelves of secondhand paperbacks in charity shops and would never stop buying in them. Also some books, are designed to be looked at full size and in original form, such as recipe books, craft books where pictures are heavily relied upon. I may though, sort through all the shelves here and try to eliminate some of the older, tattier and less beguiling books with a view to passing them on.

Three things I like:

1. Guacamole with chilli bits.

2. The rabbit gate has been repaired by my worker - great!

3. I may soon have a working electric garage door - fingers crossed.

Christmas lights, sunrise, spicy red cabbage and Christmas berries

2011-12-19T20:40:00.002+01:00

I drove into St Nicolas du Pélem yesterday evening once I'd done the animals. I wanted to look at the Christmas lights and take some photographs. They were rubbish lights though, not nearly enough of them, so they looked mean, and while I was there it started to pour with rain again.

No frost last night, just more rain. This morning I was up again in time to catch the sky while it was still beautifully coloured. Unfortunately,once the sun was up we didn't see it again as it rained for the majority of the day.

My cleaner came to do the final clean before Christmas - rather early as my guests don't arrive until Saturday, but it's my day for cleaning so I have to live with that.

The rabbit run gate latch has broken. It was stuck together with the frost yesterday morning and is actually hanging out of its hole, which makes it very difficult to close or open the gate. I hate it when these little things go wrong. The bulb in the light over the stairs has gone over the weekend too and then the bulb in the light to my left in the sitting room died as well - I have loads of lights in here, but even one does make a difference.

I've made the spicy red cabbage for Christmas day lunch - I cooked it on the hob. It filled the house with the lovely Christmas spice smells of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. I make it early because it's so much nicer when it's reheated for the meal itself. The ingredients are red cabbage, apples (dessert or cooking), onions, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, cider vinegar, sugar, butter, salt and pepper.

Shred the cabbage finely, having removed the outside leaves and stalk first.

In a casserole or saucepan make a layer of shredded cabbage, sprinkled with salt and pepper, then a layer of sliced onions and apples with a shake of each of the spices and a little sugar. Continue with these layers until everything is used up. Pour over cider vinegar and add dots of butter on the top. Put the lid on casserole or saucepan and either cook long and really slowly on hob or put in the oven for a couple of hours. Every now and then give it a good stir. It freezes well and is even better when reheated.

It's cooked down quite a lot in the photo above - when I put the layers in it reached the top of the pan. I divided the cooled spicy red cabbage into three and put the thirds in ziptop bags and then into the freezer. The first time I ate this was at a friend's house for a 5 November bonfire party. It tastes wonderful with really good pork sausages or a roast pork dinner - try it.

A pair of blackbirds have been landing on my holly bush frequently today and I have a feeling they will not leave many berries once they start eating. At the moment there are lots this year - it's been a real picture.

Some of the trees around here are covered balls of mistletoe mainly, but not only, on apple trees. Some of the trees are really tall and I'm not sure what they are, but mistletoe certainly thrives on them in huge clusters. This photograph was taken last year when there were floods after the snow melted - it is not a lake, it is a field!

Three things I like:

1. The smell of Christmas spices in the house.

2. I've found the Christmas stockings which I hang over the fireplace.

3. Reading a funny comment from my daughter's boyfriend on Facebook.

Storm repairs, roast chicken, cottages and logs

2011-12-18T14:38:00.002+01:00

The wind dropped yesterday and there were even spells of sunshine between the very hard rain showers. My worker came round first thing and put back the two blue logshed doors which had blown off and put some swivel pieces of wood at the top of each door to see it that did the job. He also did a temporary fix on the double gates, though they will have to be taken off and the hinges sorted properly sometime soon as they have bent out of shape.

Daisy spent the day inside, I don't think she went out at all. In this photo she was on my laptop table enjoying the fire, but it wasn't long before she was chilling out on the settee in another of her peculiar positions.

While she relaxed I made my usual soup. I also roasted beetroot at the same time as the veggies for the soup were in the oven. People keep saying that roasting beetroot gives them a better flavour, but to me there seemed to be little difference, if any, from when I simmer them on the hob. There were lots of peelings and leaves for the compost bins up on the field. I always roast the veggies in olive oil now and my local supermarket sells one I like.

The rabbits enjoyed the beetroot tops but the rest should rot down nicely and be ready for topping up the veggie beds in the Spring. The rabbit grassed area is absolutely drenched. The ground must be so wet that there is nowhere for the new rain to soak into. The rabbits seem to sit out whether the sun or the rain is on them, they don't seem to care one way or the other, unlike the cats who really don't like the rain at all.

Last night I decided, as frost was forecast, to turn on the storage heater in my bedroom. It was well-timed as the temperature had certainly dropped during the night. This thermometer was on the ice covered glass table on the terrace showing a low of -4°C - brrr!

The quagmire on the field was easier to walk across this morning as it was frozen, as were the animal water containers. I took up the veggie peelings and leaves for the compost also the pan full of ash from the woodburner which I spread on the top of the current compost bin. The wood ash is supposed to be good for the compost too as it's a natural source of potassium and other trace elements, and it can be applied directly to the soil.

It's going to be a lovely day today. I took this photo coming back down the lane from the field which shows the junction in the village. At the calvaire, the stone cross, I turn right down the lane to my home.

When I got back home, the sitting room was lovely and warm, both from the woodburner and from the kitchen oven in which I had put a chicken and a couple of potatoes to cook when I first came downstairs. I start it off upside down and then turn it about twenty minutes before the end of roasting to let the breast side take on a golden brown crispy skin the same as the underside. I then strip the crispy skin off - any fat has cooked away - and eat it while it's still almost to hot to handle, also on my plate was one of the baked potatoes seasoned and with a large piece of butter melted onto the cut sides. I then wrap the skinned, piping hot, roasted chicken in foil so it stays beautifully moist. I shall fridge it when it's cool and the meat will be used for a chicken, leek and carrot pie. The carcass would normally be made into stock for the vegetable soup I make each week, but this stock will be frozen and used for Christmas Day lunch gravy/sauce.

This week my local supermarket, SuperU, had two bunches of radishes in a bag for €1 which was half price or better, so, as I eat half a bunch every day, I bought two lots and I am dipping them in salt and then eating them as I write. I love a bargain, and you don't see many over here, compared with the UK, where they are always marking prices down to silly amounts at the end of the day. I cut the stalks and leaves off each bunch and the rabbits really enjoy those. Then I top and tail the radishes and store them in a bowl of iced water in the fridge, which ensures that they are really crisp to eat, drying them in a clean tea towel when I want to indulge.

It's really sunny outside this afternoon and I took a few photographs in the garden. These show my cottages from two directions:

The first door at this end of the cottages is where you enter for the utility and gym. There's also a storage area upstairs. A vine grows along the south-facing wall in the summer months.

In the second photograph the first door is a one-bedroomed cottage and the middle door leads into the house my daughter and grandson use when they are here, which has two bedrooms.

So I don't have to worrry about getting logs in from the huge logstack when the pile by my woodburner disappears, I have a covered log trolley on the terrace, so I can collect from there.

The logs are all bought in, but the kindling which I use to start the fire, is still wood we saved from when the houses all had new roofs, separating it out from the old slates. Even after five years of fires, there is still loads of it left and it's lovely and dry, perfect for starting my fire each morning.

Three things I like:

1. Crispy chicken skin.

2. Getting 'phone calls from two of my children, one after the other.

3. Downloading the first books onto my Christmas present Kindle. I haven't been given it yet, but have been able to download some books while it is still in England.

Tempête Joachim

2011-12-16T21:44:00.002+01:00

Wow - what a windy night! There was a roaring noise outside all the time as if a plane were overhead, but not going anywhere. Certainly the worst winds I have known while I've lived here.

This cartoon of wind in Brittany was on Facebook and I've stolen it for my blog.

In the morning two of the logshed door were off again, one was in the fishpond, and the large double gates to the garden had blown through the wrong way and were stuck on the driveway. I didn't have the strength to move them enough to close the garden off from the neighbour's dogs. On the field I was glad to see the polytunnel still standing and only a dog kennel, which I use as a hen house for new hens, had come apart and blown across the parking area. The rain which fell doesn't seem to have anywhere to soak into and is lying on the ground meaning that wellies are "de rigeur". This evening the temperature has plumetted to freezing according to the car display. As usual, I am lovely and warm in front of the woodburner.

This weather is all due to Tempête Joachim which has caused chaos all over the west and north of France, with 400,000 homes without power, and many trees have been felled. Brittany Ferries couldn't berth their ferry, Amorique, at St Malo and had to divert to Roscoff, not very convenient for people meeting them. This photo is from leparisien.com.

Another ferry, the Pont Aven I think, had to take shelter on the north coast of Brittany delaying it's journey back to Portsmouth. A friend about 15 minutes drive away wrote on Facebook that the la snow had started with her, so it may just be a matter of time before it arrives in St André.

A tanker has gone aground on the plage d'Erdeven in the Morbihan and their is an oil slick coming from the vessel. This photos is from sciencesetavenir.fr.

My worker will be here tomorrow morning to sort out the garden gates and the logshed and hopefully there won't be any further damage tonight. Certainly the wind is much weaker than last night, when it was hard to sleep with all the creaking and banging going on.

The tempest came about as cold, dry Arctic air from the north came against warm, humid Tropical air from the south, some way off the west coast of Ireland. Yesterday afternoon I had an email from my house insurers to warn me to put away garden furniture and large flower containers.

While I was talking to one friend in England another came on Skype to see if I was ok with the awful weather - it's good to know that people think about me! 500,000 people lost power, including Sally and Richard who were here on Monday. They were reconnected this afternoon.

Three things I like:

1. Knowing I have enough logs to last me for the next few years.

2. Finding no irretrievable damage after the storm.

3. Collecting three eggs from my girls, in spite of the bad weather.

Rainbow and Fungi

2011-12-14T23:18:00.002+01:00

The morning began badly with me remembering my stairlift had broken down yesterday. It is stuck at the top of the stairs - the worst position with the least room for me to squeeze past. Andy tried to sort it out, but wasn't able to get it working. I was reduced to 'phoning Stannah in Paris. They are sending an engineer tomorrow. So a quick service, but so it should be, at €300 for the visit and a service, excluding any spare parts! I just hope he doesn't turn up when the Writers' Group are here for their Christmas lunch, as I can't rearrange that at this short notice and I don't have a 'phone number for the service engineer.

Purrdy - I'm sure it was she - knocked three of the Christmas tree decorations off during the night. She's spent the last few hours sleeping alongside Daisy on the windowsill under one of the Christmas wreaths.

I went shopping and coming back home down my lane this rainbow looked as if it ended in my garden, but there was no pot of gold.

Later I drove to the other side of the village where I found on the verge more fungi. I took photographs and posted them on Self-sufficientish.com to try and confirm my identification of them. I looked in the River Cottage Handbook No.1 Mushrooms, and they appeared to be very similar, if not identical photos to mine here.

These fungi were between 8"-9"/20-23cm across and I have noted exactly where they are growing. If I ever find someone here who can, without any doubt, see these and confirm my identification of Lepista sordida, a type of Wood Blewit, then I shall have a feast next year! Fungi though, are not the sort of produce that you can afford to make a mistake with, so I need an expert eye to put my mind at rest.

Although the Pharmacies here are supposed to be able to tell you, I understand that some of them are not really trained in identification; they just consult a chart!

Here is the book cover and the photo from the River Cottage book.

This is one of the many derelict buildings here in Brittany. It is a cottage opposite what was the old station for Lanrivain and the window and door covers were put on recently, I presume to keep people away from the danger of falling masonry. The roof collapsed in about two years ago. It is owned by one of the farmers in the next village and is on my route back from the Post Office. Further down the lane by my fungi find is this enormous pile of tree trunks. The buyers won't have trouble keeping warm next winter when all these have been seasoned and cut to length.

Lastly, another Christmas photo, this time of the sitting room window wreath.

Three things I like:

1. Buying the Christmas food treats and trying not to eat them before the guests arrive.

2. The fact the the Christmas tree lights worked first time.

3. Getting newsy letters in the Christmas cards arriving each day.

Christmas Tree and Some Decorations

2011-12-13T18:14:00.012+01:00

Today, with Flick's help, we put up and decorated the Nordmann Fir Christmas tree, which Sally and Richard kindly brought over for me yesterday. Overnight it stood in a bucket of water in the garage to give it a good drink before it came into my very warm room. Hopefully, as in previous years, this uptake of water should stop it dropping it's needles too quickly.

Bits and bobs around the room

and the two wreaths on the window handles.

Just some of the things around my room, but not a many as usual as my daughter isn't here, and she likes to go mad with decorations - I'm just slightly more subtle!

Three things I like:

1. Reading my Christmas cards and the enclosed letters.

2. Remembering the decorations as they come out of the box.

3. Receiving an invitation in the post for a Pre Christmas Soirée.

Manipulating Photographs, Soaps and Getting Wet

2011-12-11T21:30:00.001+01:00

I was told about a brilliant program today for playing with photographs and have used it for the photo below. I just need someone now to say "You ain't no oil painting"!

I just love it. I did a module at Stroud Art College for a year in the 80s which was called Image Derivation. It involved manipulating photographs while developing in the dark room. We used to vote at the beginning of the year on which modules, two per year, the class would do for the end of year assessment exam. I voted against doing this course, but was outvoted. In the end, I really enjoyed it and you couldn't keep me out of the darkroom. I did all sorts of stuff, but it was years ago and therefore not digital so I can't post any of it here. I hope I'd be more open-minded now I'm older and wiser.

Today I was up in time to see the sunrise - it doesn't seem to happen very often. It was worth it and these two photographs were taken just a few minutes apart.

No manipulation necessary on these skies behind my oak tree - ain't nature wonderful?

I've had a lazy day today filled with listening to watching omnibus episodes of soaps. This morning while I cooked lunch I listened to The Archers, "an everyday story of country folk", which I usually do, if I haven't listened to odd podcasts during the week, this programme I really like. The Archers had it's 60th anniversary programme this year - so it's a tradition now. For those who don't know:

"The Archers had been launched in 1950 as a propaganda tool for the postwar Ministry of Agriculture. Rationing was still in place, farmers needed encouragement to increase production, and a radio programme extolling the virtues of the countryside and educating its folk as to best practice was seen as a good way to speed things along." from the telegraph.co.uk."

Then this afternoon I watched the Eastenders omnibus. I got fed up with watching this rubbish every night so watch it on a Sunday all at once and fast forward through the most boring bits. I am multi-tasking though, being a woman, and sort out photos, reply to emails, eat, drink and play with the cats, while the omnibus chugs along in the background.

Tonight I've had a conversation with an old boyfriend of my oldest son. I haven't spoken with him for ages and it was lovely - all the years just melted away. My oldest son has, about two months ago, given up smoking - I'm so proud of him, and it seem that his old boyfriend is going to do the same. He is runner and does half marathons and marathons and I can't believe he does it being a smoker. I wish him all the best in quitting - I know isn't easy. I gave up as soon as I knew I was pregnant with my first son and didn't have a problem at all, even though I had been smoking up to 60 a day. I'm so glad I stopped.

I walked up to the field this morning and this evening, at this rate it won't be worth mentioning as it will have become the norm, but tonight while I was in the barn feeding the goats, it started bucketing down and by the time I'd walked back home I was absolutely soaked. I need one of those Drizabone coats and hats I think. I have sorted out some cut off wellies, but went out in my Crocs, so my feet were soaked through too.

Three things I like:

1.   Hearing from someone I didn't think I'd hear from again - you know who you are!
2.   Crunching crackling from the pork joint I cooked for lunch.
3.   Laughing on Skype with, my good friend, June and meeting her sister too.

My 100th post and one I wish I didn't feel the need to make

2011-12-10T00:03:00.000+01:00

Today, 10 December, is my middle child’s birthday. I haven’t seen him for several years. It has been a difficult relationship for many years, but the last few years have left me not being able to see him at all. It’s as if I’m dead to him. He hasn’t seen or spoken to his father for the last thirteen years either, so I know he is capable of never being with me again. It makes me so sad because I love him so much.

One of my friends tragically lost her son, of a similar age to mine, this Autumn. I had always felt we had something in common with our sons, and now her boy is dead. Not seeing my son is, almost, as if he’s died. He wants no contact with me and it’s very hard to bear. There seems to be nothing I can do and it breaks my heart. There are times when I cannot stop crying, days when all I want to do is hold him close and tell him I love him. It is twenty-six years since I gave birth to him at five minutes past nine in the morning. I would give anything to have him back in my life.

Cheese, Heinz Tomato Soup, Basil the Goat and Veggie Garden Produce

2011-12-09T16:58:00.000+01:00

I was in my local supermarket last week looking at goats’ cheeses when a much younger woman asked me, in French, what she could buy which was like Brie. She then asked if camembert would do. I replied that it was certainly a soft cheese like brie but was much stronger in taste and smell. I asked her if she was French as it seemed a strange question for a French person to ask. Yes, she replied, she was French – she must have known from my first sentence that I was not French. I looked further along the chilled gondola and saw brie – two different sorts – President and SuperU’s own brand. I pointed them out to her and she took the President, smiled and walked to the checkout. Bizarre.

I am really missing cheese. I have religiously stayed away from milk, cream and cheese since the Saturday before last. On Tuesday night, I added some Heinz Tomato Soup to half a bowl of homemade soup, only to read the label after I’d eaten it and found in the ingredient list, dried skimmed milk, milk proteins and cream.

Bu..er, bu..er, bu..er! And, I am still really missing cheese. There are some schools of thought which say that you can eat cheese and possibly yoghurt in small quantities as they are thicker and even lactose intolerant people can sometimes get away with it. As I'd inadvertently eaten the lactose in the soup, I indulged in three thin strips of cheddar from a block in the fridge. I might as well have problems for something I really enjoyed. Although I hoped I wouldn't have too many problems on Wednesday as I was going to Yves Le Foll hospital in St Brieuc to see my bypass consultant.

Other things I always bring back from England when I visit are:

I usually add the Oxo chicken stock to soups, if I haven't just roasted a chicken, and have to have Colman's English mustard with my Christmas boiled bacon joint. Bisto is what I like to use with the meat juices when I do a roast. I'm sure I should only want "jus" as I am in France, but I like a good gravy with Original Bisto powder. I've never used granules or flavours like onion. I like to have a slice of bread in my gravy after I've finished my roast, because my gravy is so delicious!

Last night my physio came and gave my neck and shoulder a good going over. I haven't got too many problems at the moment, thank goodness, but my prescription, has to be used up before it expires, so I am indulging myself with a visit a week from her until they are finished. We were looking and feeling the collar bone on the right front of my neck at the end of the parathyroidectomy scar. The bone seems unusually prominent and I'm wondering if I should be worrying, I might mention it to my GP when I see her again.

This morning my worker and I were up on the field. Andy was wheelbarrowing earth and stones, which we dug out of the parking in the summer, to cover the muddy exit/entrance from the barn at the goat end. We have now put the hens and ducks in the goat field because of the quagmire in their own area. When I go down in the evening to put the birds away, Basil and Betsy, the goats are always in the hen end of the barn. This means they have to crawl through a very small pophole in the dividing gate, but they do manage it. Here's Basil on his way through as I was leaving the barn.

Andy was clearing out the hen overnight shed and putting the wheelbarrow contents in the compost bins - should be some good stuff in them next year to spread on the veggie beds and in the polytunnel.

I'd gone up to the field to collect some more veggies. The butternut squash were harvested and are being stored in the polytunnel, so I only have to collect them, but the parsnips, carrots and beetroot are still in the ground. I suppose I should dig them out before the frost and snow freeze the ground. I made a soup when I got back to the house with chicken stock from the chicken I roasted yesterday, the butternut squash, garlic, onions, carrots and parsnips - I had some about ten minutes ago and it was lovely and there's enough for about a week with a bowl or two a day.

When I came out of the barn, I turned round and amazingly my rhubarb plants are all shooting and there are even some new leaves.

Three things I like:

1. Watching Basil, who has a very large girth, squeezing through the bird pophole.

2. Being interested in cooking again.

3. Realising how much more energy I have now I've lost 79 pounds in twenty weeks.

Parsnips and Purrdy

2011-12-06T15:14:00.000+01:00

Parnsnips are one of the veggies I buy frequently in the supermarket here. When I first came to live here in 2006, it seemed very difficult to find them. I remember, not then knowing the French for parsnip, now I know it's "panais", that I described them as being like a long whitish yellow carrot to the checkout girl. I use them almost every week in soups and roasted on for Sunday lunch and love their sweet taste.

I found this article with photograph today in the telegraph.co.uk online site, written by Stephen Clarke:

"France

, has steadfastly ignored the parsnip, despite its succulence, a sort of sweet potato tenderness with an almost citrus tang. It is one of those vegetables, like turnips and swede, that the French classify as animal fodder. This ignorance is largely due, like so much else in the French consciousness, to wartime trauma. During World War Two, food shortages forced many people to eat things they would otherwise have turned their sophisticated noses up at, like turnips, swedes and parsnips. So after the war, they rejected them as a bad memory.

However, things are finally changing in France. Maybe it has something to do with the dire economic situation, but over the past few months, the French have at last begun coming to terms with the idea that the human intestine can digest parsnips even in peacetime. And it’s all thanks to the Brits. This year, we have managed to flood their supermarkets with packets of parsnip crisps, and their popularity in fried form is the only explanation I can find for the raw parsnip’s sudden appearance in my local market. I am talking about ordinary market fruit and veg stalls in a fairly poor part of the north of Paris, not organic health-food fairs down in the Latin Quarter. The parsnip really has arrived, albeit in a minor way — they still fetch three times the price of potatoes, and are only on two stalls out of about thirty."

Today turned out to be mostly sunny but interspersed with short, hard showers of rain. I took this photo of the evening sky from the end of the garden while I was putting the rabbits to bed. Let's hope the old adage of "Red sky at night, Shepherds' delight" bodes well for tomorrow.

On Mondays, because my cleaner usually comes, the plot is to pop downstairs and clear the ashes out of the bottom of the woodburner and clean the glass and light the fire, before going back upstairs and having my shower. I love my woodburner!

I did this today, then had a 'phone call saying that my worker wouldn't be in and so his wife, my cleaner, won't be in either. I had to drive straight up to the field to do the animals, which I did in my pyjamas, and never got upstairs again to shower and change. It's not often I have a pyjama day - well not often enough!

In fact, my cleaner did pop in just to stack some more logs to keep me going until Wednesday. So I had a lovely, lazy day in the warm reading other people's blogs and following up things they mentioned. Sometimes it was difficult to concentrate as Purrdy was lying behind my laptop and occasionally attacking the screen.

She is so gorgeous and with the sun shining through the window behind her the halo effect on head fur and whiskers is really good.

I forgot to post this last night. It poured with rain again here all night, but as a result it is much milder here than further south where they had a clear night and frost. It is a lovely sunny morning and I've had to move my chair so the sun isn't shining in my eyes.

Purrdy has been chilling out on the back of the sofa again. I love the way she just flops.

Sunshine and showers again today after another rainy night. I have to find a way of getting the hens and ducks into a different field as the mud was lethal there again last night and this morning.   Perhaps I can sort something out when my worker comes tomorrow before I go to see the gastric bypass consultant in the afternoon. I'm hoping we'll come home with an electric garage door opener so that I can start putting the Peugeot in the garage. At the moment, when I go out each morning the inside of the windscreen is really wet and needs a very good wipe before I can drive safely up to the field or to the shops.

Three things I like:

1.   Bacon and egg for breakfast this morning - first time since my op twenty weeks ago.
2.   Buying two used 1000 litre water containers on the net, one for my garden and one to add to those collecting water on the field.
3.   Finding my spare camera battery - at last!

Aubergines, Wet Weather and Cats

2011-12-03T23:19:00.002+01:00

I woke just after 06.00am, watched the news until about 08.00am and then must have fallen back to sleep and I didn't wake up until 09.50am. I bypassed the shower and just flung some clothes on and shot up to the field to let the animals out. As I pulled into the parking I could see the hens and ducks already enjoying their freedom and my worker had let them out whilst he was there putting shingle in the hen area to make it easier for me to walk in and out without falling. When I went back into the sitting room, I realised that he had also topped up my log pile by the woodburner. Obviously anyone can come and go in my house while I'm asleep without me waking!

Very wet last night and all today - I was in the best place reading and watching television by the woodburner. There was water everywhere underfoot, especially the driveway, and

dripping off the plants, including my holly on the terrace.

The cats kept coming in wet and needing to be towelled down, leaving their footprints on the laptop keyboard and my little table.

When I went out tonight to put the hens and ducks to bed I collected three hens eggs, one duck egg and three eggplants, or aubergines, as we call them on this side of the pond.

These are some of the small aubergines from my plant in the polytunnel. Some of them are really big. I emailed a delicatessen I used to go to years and years ago in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire and they kindly sent me the recipe that I used to enjoy when I bought cooked aubergines from them:

Split the aubergines in half longways, brush with olive oil and bake till flesh is soft.

Cool and scoop the flesh out, chop roughly and mix with ingredients you like such as tomatoes, cashews, onion, garlic, cumin etc.

Sauté in a shallow pan.

Season to taste and pile back into the skins.

Sprinkle with fresh bread crumbs, heat and serve.

Here are two photos of plants in my kitchen:

A poinsettia above and this lovely heather. I always buy heathers in the Autumn and have them inside for a while before planting them out in the Spring.

Three things I like:

1. Ice cold orange juice.

2. After Eight mints.

3. Reading an English newspaper - a rare occasion here in France.

Rain and Mud at Animal Bedtime and Sunny Days

2011-12-02T18:52:00.001+01:00

Well, yesterday evening, after a day of almost solid rain, I practically had to swim across my hen/duck field to get the buxxers in for the night. I can't remember it ever looking so wet. One end was just puddle after puddle with nowhere to walk inbetween them. I was drenched - feet and head, absolutely drenched. I have a friend, not so far away, in Sens de Bretagne who is wanting rain to fill her lake or her fish will die.

The field was so muddy today that this evening I skidded and landed on my marginally slimmer bum. Apart from being covered in it, I have great trouble getting up when there's nothing to hold onto - it would have made a good film clip to send to those television programmes which rely on other people's idiotic behaviour.

I was seriously covered in mud and had to sit myself on a supermarket carrier bag to drive back to the house. I have a pile of old rubble at the entrance to the field and have asked my worker to come over tomorrow and spread it on the quagmire that is the hen area. We'll have to allow them into another grassy field too because it can't be much fun for the birds either and we're hardly into winter yet.

My postbox needs a good clean off - with the spider's web across the door it makes it look as if no-one loves me enough to send me a letter. The moss is in the wall next to the postbox.

As I walk out of my drive, there's an oak tree which looks beautiful against the lovely sunny sky of this afternoon.

I turned into the abandoned garden when I keep my Land Rover and took a photograph of these seed pods against the bluest sky. They look like sycamore seeds, but I'm not sure that they are.

This is one of the marigold flowers along the driveway, all splashed with dirt from the torrential rain yesterday.

I was fiddling around with my camera when I came back inside and found that I could take black and white photos - I must read the manual!

When I was at Stroud Art College, I did a complete black and white module one year and loved it, especially manipulating the prints in the darkroom. This was before digital cameras were around and everything cost so much, you really had to try to get a decent photograph without wasting too much film. I can believe how few photographs I used to take then compared with now. Sometimes, outside the course itself, I'd have a film in the camera for eighteen months before developing it - the printed photographs were a real surprise!

Three things I like:

1. Finally getting a Christmas present for someone special.

2. Speaking to an archivist on the 'phone who bent over backwards to help me.

3. Finding out that I'm still using last year's logs and haven't started my new delivery yet.

Frosty morning and Fish

2011-11-30T16:45:00.003+01:00

This morning, when I looked out of the bedroom window before I came downstairs, I could see the frost on the log shed roof. The car windows and wing mirrors were all iced up so I made, for me, a very unusual decision. I came into the house and fetched my camera and walked - yes walked - up to the field. Only 200 metres, but on an uphill slope and I never walk to the field. It's all part of my feeling stronger and more able to walk because of my weight loss - and it's a good feeling!

The animals were all surprised to hear the barn door open as they hadn't heard a car arrive. I gave them a bit more food than usual - well it is getting colder and I am a bit of a softie really.

The beetroot leaves had frost around them and a nettle which has grown in the parsnip bed.

It was a slight effort going up to the field, but nothing too daunting and I will definitely walk more often than not now I know that I can. Coming back down, strangely, is not necessarily easier, as it seems to hurt my hips more. Nevertheless, I got home and opposite my driveway was this was a drop of melted frost water dangling on a twig of my neighbour's peach tree. I couldn't believe how difficult it was to get this glistening drip into my camera; and even now it is slightly out of focus.

When I went supermarket shopping later, the frost had long since melted and the electronic temperature board at SuperU changed from 10 to 11 degrees centigrade as I left the car park in the last-day-of-November sunshine.

I bought some prawns which I shall eat in a light tempura batter dipped in sweet chilli sauce and mayonnaise. I can only manage 6 for one meal, and even those I have to spread out with 5-10 minutes between prawns, 3, 4, 5 and 6. The fish counter looked lovely and I took photos of two sections:

I've never cooked squid at home. I sometimes buy a mixed bag of fishy things to stir fry or battered squid rings from the freezer section, but have never been brave enough to buy the fresh article and prepare it myself.

I still had my camera in my pocket when I arrived back from SuperU and photographed a nasturtian which is continuing to bloom, in spite of the frost, in my driveway, lying on fallen oak leaves.

I am having so many problems eating since my mini gastric bypass and soup has become one of my absolute stalwarts for getting something nutritious into me each day. This soup is made from homemade chicken stock blended with olive oil roasted onions, parsnips and carrots, salt and pepper, which is then passed through a sieve, a bit more chicken stock added to achieve the not too thick texture I like, and heated with a sprinkle of pili pili. I've already had two bowls since I got back home. It may not look particularly appealing but believe me, it tastes scrummy.

This is a photograph of Purrdy, taken yesterday, completely relaxed and just going off to sleep on the top of the settee. Please excuse the washing in the background - I don't know what I'd do without my ceiling dryer at this time of year.

This is the sun backlit wisteria on the corner of the gym, a room I almost never use. It's gets used when my daughter is here visiting and one of my friends comes round to keep her company on the machines.

And the last photo is of the chickens and ducks going in and settling down into their safe night time accommodation this evening.

Three things I like:

1. Homemade soup.

2. The sound of my dishwasher purring away.

3. The sky turning pink in the fading rays of the sun. Didn't happen tonight though.

My Lane and the Fungi on the Verges

2011-11-27T12:11:00.006+01:00

Another lovely sunshine day today. Fourteen degrees celsius when I was at the supermarket. As I drove back home I decided to park in the animal field entrance and wander along the lane taking photos of fungi and anything else interesting. I couldn't believe how many different types they were.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what they are. I'd never trust myself to identify anything sufficiently well to eat it. Here, in France, you can take your fungi treasures to the Pharmacy and they will identify them for you and tell you which are definitely not safe, safe or good to eat.

This is the view through the gateway across the road from the corner of my field. Luckily the big black cloud was not coming my way.

Back to the fungi again - I am just amazed at the huge selection out there.

These are mixed in with acorns and their cups.

This one's lying amongst sweet chestnut casings.

It seems a funny time of year to see dandelion seedheads, but there were several in the grassy verges.

These apples are a very small snapshot of the huge quantity lying in the orchard next to my animal field. It is very overgrown in there and no-one harvests the apples so, sadly, they just fall to the floor and rot.

This last photo is of a group of fungi just inside the entrance to my field, by the compost bins. They're quite large, the ivy leaves act as a comparison.

This morning it's drizzly and grey, although certainly not cold. Not the sort of weather to be out and about in, but I am having to go out to a meeting this afternoon. I hope it's worthwhile.

Three things I like:

1. Not waking up too early.

2. Finding something I've been looking for at last.

3. Smiling.

Writers' Group, New Chicks and my Flowering Delphinium

2011-11-24T11:10:00.000+01:00

New blood at the Writers' Group this week and another man to join our sole male. Always good to have someone else doing constructive criticism and even better when they write well themselves. I love having the meetings here as it means I don't have to leave the comfort of my own home. I always prefer to have guests rather than be one. We usually sit around the kitchen table, but today everyone gravitated towards the woodburner - we had to open the doors to the garden as it was pretty hot - it is a lovely fire.

Andy had stacked enough wood for several days around the hearth - it looks like almost a whole tree! The writers took away some books I had cleared off my shelves and also left me bereft of duck and hen eggs except for the one I put down too hard in the ceramic egg holder yesterday evening making a dint in the shell. Not sure why but the blogger photo upload has turned this photograph around.

There were just two eggs from the hens this evening when I put them to bed. Apart from the Lavender Pekin Mummy Hen I only have four laying hens. They all laid yesterday but only two eggs in the nesting boxes tonight. I have arranged to go and collect six, hopefully female, 12 week baby hens tomorrow afternoon. They should start to lay at the beginning of February. Usually I get youngsters in March or April but then, of course, they don't lay until June or July, so hopefully these will turn out to be hens and not cockerels and will be good layers next year. I still can't seem to eat eggs. When I go to bowls on Tuesday people always buy the eggs I have, but I know my son and his friend will eat them at Christmas and they'll be taking them back to England too, as buying free range eggs is really expensive.

I wrote the above on Monday and the next bit on Wednesday this week.

Yesterday morning when I came back from feeding the rabbits I noticed that my delphinium shoot had opened its flowers. It was 23 November! This is certainly a record in my garden. What a colour! The sun was shining brightly when I woke up which made a pleasant change from the last two dark, grey and misty days.

I collected a larger than usual large sack of stale bread, for the birds and goats, from the baker at SuperU this morning. It was so heavy that when I got to the car I couldn't lift it even a centimetre off the bottom of the shopping trolley. The car park was unusally empty and I had to wait about five minutes before a car drove in and a strong looking man got out. I walked towards him saying "Bonjour" and after explaining my predicament he turned into a knight in shining armour and with one hand scooped the bag from the trolley and into my front seat - brilliant! When I got back to the field I managed to drag it out of the car - it didn't involve lifting just pulling - and I left it outside the barn for Andy to put inside when he puts the old birds and six new chicks away tonight.

The new chicks are very tame and easy to pick up. They're a cross between a male Light Sussex and a female ISA Brown hybrid. The Light Sussex lay up to 260 eggs a year and the ISA Browns 300 eggs a year, so if they survive to point of lay we should have some good production in 2012. I took some photos of the chicks, but one was always pecking away somewhere else.

They're really sweet at the moment and didn't go outside, but stayed in the barn all day. The other birds were all outside enjoying the sunshine.

Here's my bantam cockerel perching on the wooden stand in the hen area sunning himself.

Now it's Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving Day for my American readers!

We had our first frost here in my village this morning. The water on the animal drinkers was frozen and I had to use deicer to clear my windscreen before I could drive up the lane to the field. I knew it was going to be cold out there as it was chilly walking between the bathroom and bedroom this morning. The sun is out now though and the temperature is rising a bit.

Time to post this before another day slips away.

Three things I like:

1. Coming back inside to the warmth of the woodburner.

2. My newest cat, Purrdy climbing onto my lap and snuggling down to sleep.

3. Hearing from friends I haven't heard from for a while.

Sunday Afternoon Walk

2011-11-21T09:27:00.004+01:00

Yesterday at 1.40pm, I changed from my pyjamas and grabbed a camera and a bottle of water before driving to meet Christian and Paulette at the bridge a little further down the lane from my field. They were wearing jackets and suggested I bring mine, but I knew I’d be fine it was so warm. They thought it was probably 17°C and the sunshine was so warm and bright.

We walked along the old railway track, now a lane, towards the old station building at Lanrivain. When we got to the junction at the station something really weird happened. There was a man coming towards us who had a big rucksack and a strangely shaped case which seemed as if it might hold an instrument. We said "bonjour" and then I asked him what the instrument was. He unpacked it and played the strings with a large feather.

I said he reminded me of a chap who wrote a book about going round the world staying with people who offered him a bed for the night and playing music.

I bought the book a few years ago here in Brittany. I said the author was called Monsieur Allo. He looked up and said "I am Samuel Allo!" Bizarre thing coincidence, isn't it?

It was a lovely walk. They didn’t keep to their usual pace but accommodated me. I found it the perfect speed. As we were nearing the end a red squirrel ran across the track in front of us. I’ve only seen three red squirrels in my life and they’ve all been in Brittany. I was so pleased that I took my camera as I was able to take a photograph of Samuel Allo and Christian took a photo of me with Paulette.

I didn’t find it difficult, just a perfect distance and so much nicer to walk with someone than alone. Here is a photo of them as we walked back to my parked car.

They are only walking without me because I had stopped to take the photo – they didn’t abandon me.

When I got into the car, I had a drink of water from the bottle I had filled when leaving the house, and then drove over the bridge and up the lane to my field. I sat for a few minutes watching the hens and ducks enjoying the sunshine and took some photos before collecting the eggs and driving the 200 metres back home, where I sat and ate a bowl of radishes while dipping them lightly in salt – very nice.

At sunset, I drove to the field again to put away my birds and give the goats their usual two large scoops of food – they get so excited when they see me, or is it because the food bins are being opened? I decided to drive on up to the top main road and see if I could get a good sunset photograph. I was bit too late, but it enabled me to look at the distance we walked with the car odometer and it turned out to be two kilometers/one and a quarter miles. OK – we’re not talking marathons here, but for a non-walker who has done nothing at all since my operation on 18 July, I feel very pleased with myself, or as the French say, “je m’envoie des fleurs” (I send myself some flowers). One of my friends ran 10 kilometres today at Shirley Park in England, in 55 minutes and 27 seconds – but I’m still proud of me!

I drove back to the house, and about 400 metres from my land, a deer crossed the road in front of me and ran, hell for leather, diagonally across the grass before doing a huge leap over the boundary fence into the next field. Then I came back to my woodburner and settled down in front of the television for the evening with a bowl of homemade pumpkin and parsnip soup which was really lovely. What a great day it turned out to be.

Three things I like:

1.   Seeing my third red squirrel.
2.   Walking with friends.
3.   Being alive and well.

Pills, Abandoned Property and Letting My Cottages

2011-11-20T16:17:00.000+01:00

As I took my tablets yesterday morning, I realised what a wonderful thing my pill dispenser is. I bought it from Lidl back in the summer and it's so useful. It was designed to have a separate tray for each day, divided into four.

I only take pills in the morning so don't need the four sections. So this means when I get my prescription filled at the Pharmacy once a month, I can come straight home and put four weeks' worth of medication in the pill dispenser. Before I bought it, I had to open four or five packets of pills every morning to get my daily dose, now I only have to fiddle like this once every twenty-eight days - brilliant. The only problem is that when going into hospital all medication has to be presented on the ward complete with packaging. I have overcome this by having "saved" a duplicate set of medication still in it's packaging, which I swop for newly acquired packets about every six months so that it does not go out of date.

My immediate neighbour, English, hasn't been back to his house since September two years ago. The front of the house, where a shutter has fallen off it's hinges, would by now have been covered by brambles and weeds, but for the neighbours on the other side who, hating the untidyness of it all, strim the frontage fairly regularly. The back of the house however, is not strimmed except for the driveway which enables me to park my Land Rover there.

You can no longer reach the house to deliver post or anything else. Last year the electricity board arrived and borrowed my ladder to reach the point where they disconnect the electricity supply from the house. The ridge tiles fell off the roof last year and could have killed anyone passing at the time. Heavens knows what it's like inside now if the snow or rain have got in.

I am thinking seriously about letting out my gites/cottages next year for self-catering holidays. I shan't charge exorbitant prices, it's not about that. The idea is to make some money but also to share my lovely environment with others. The inside photo is of part of the sitting room of the larger cottage.

Outside the middle cottage we have two horseshoes catching luck for the guests!

It's such a lovely peaceful location for walking, bird watching etc. and near enough to Lac de Guerledan with all it's watersports, beaches, bars and restaurants and large towns if that's what people want. If anyone reading this is interested in further details then you are most welcome to contact me.

My Breton neighbour, Paulette has just called round for me to go walking with her and her husband, Christian. They think is about seventeen degree centigrade out there today, it's so sunny and beautiful. They are trying to get me fit! It's 1.40pm and I need to change out of my pyjamas and drive to meet them at the beginning of the flat walk.

Well it was a brilliant walk - I'll write about it tomorrow. Meanwhile a photo of a few of my birds taken on the way back home.

Three things I like:

1.   So much sunshine at this time of the year.
2.   Scuffing my feet through the fallen autumn leaves.
3.   Sitting in the poultry area watching the hens and ducks.

Cats and Knitting

2011-11-19T21:31:00.000+01:00

When I arrived at the supermarket checkout on Thursday afternoon, I wasn’t really listening and when the cashier said something about a bag, I said no I didn’t need one. The boy behind me said he’d have it if I didn’t want it, so I asked her what she had said. Apparently, as I’d spent more than €50 I was eligible for a surprise bag from the Information Desk. It contained a carton of vegetable soup, six bags of roasted chicken flavoured crisps and a cellophaned sponge cake. Ah well – I expect the children will eat them. The bag however, being a stiff paper carrier, has been taken over by Purrdy.

It reminded me of an incident in 1969, when I was living in London and had a new kitten called Sampsa. The kitten was first called Sampson and then we found out it was a girl, hence the odd name. I came back from work one afternoon to find that Sampsa was trying to walk with the string-handled paper carrier, from the previous night’s Chinese takeaway, attached to her. She had obviously climbed into the bag and on climbing out had got one of the string handles around her neck and had not been able to get it off.

Sampsa used up most of her nine lives in the first few months of her life. Another day I came home and couldn’t find her at all. It was an hour or so later when I went up to the bathroom and found her straddling the lavatory pan trying not to be in the water. Heavens knows how long she had been there.

I sat down on Thursday morning to read 40 pages of Crossing Qalandiya, the book club choice for Monday's discussion afternoon. It was a short, 160 page, book of letters between an Israeli Jewish mother and a Palestinian Arab mother, who had met once at a conference in Geneva.

I had decided to read 40 pages a day to get it read by Monday as I was running out of time, but in fact, read the whole thing in the morning. It held my attention, with me wanting to know how things panned out and I would recommend it.

I made pumpkin soup using exactly the same method as for butternut squash. I was going to add carrot, but completely forgot - senior moment! I used just about a third of the pumpkin and will use the rest for more soups.

It may not look very attractive in the roasting pan, but believe me once it was liquidised, passed through a sieve and had cream and pili pili added, it tasted lovely and luckily will last a couple more days.

I started my second sock yesterday but when I took the first one out I realised I had made a mistake in the first one and will have to undo it - buxxer, buxxer, buxxer. I had forgotten how much cats like moving knitting needles and wool snaking about!

Today I knitted the second sock almost to the top and have put it away now to chill out in bed with recorded television programmes.

I'll finish with a photo of Daisy lying in a way all of the cats do at some time or other, with body twisted so the head and front paws are one way and the back paws and lower body the other.

Very strange position; you wouldn't think it was very comfortable would you?

Three things I like:

1.   Being so involved in knitting my sock today, that the hours whizzed by.
2.   Hearing from my physio that she can come round and do my back this week.
3.   That for once, I've managed to finished my book well before Book Club afternoon.

My Village and The Sunset Last Night

2011-11-16T12:33:00.002+01:00

I carried on walking round the village in the afternoon after spending a very pleasant hour or so with my Breton neighbours catching up with recent news in front of their new woodburner - a very pretty grey/blue colour and giving out good heat. In the last couple of years they planted young pyracantha plants round their boundary and the thickly clustered berries on them are absolutely gorgeous.

The next neighbour along keeps goats and sheep. Here is one of his goats tethered on a patch of grass between two barns. He's an impessive creature with his long horns and makes my little goats look like cuddly toys.

Going further along the lane, the same man has Breton sheep which rarely get shorn and look very taggy as a result. I used to have this type of sheep, Ouessants,in my first and second years here. They are very sweet to keep as pets.

The field round his lake and the grassed area outside his drive has lots of fungi. I don't know enough about them to know if they are edible, but they are certainly interesting. There are several different types, but I think this is a parasol of some sort.

A pile of leaves just waiting for a wind to blow.

It was a brilliant sunset last night and I spent about three quarters of a hour, on and off, taking photographs from the end of my garden. I'm not sure though what happened to "red sky at night, shepherds' delight", as it's overcast and raining here this morning.

My worker is clearing out the garage, which seems to get things dumped there all the time, making it impossible to get any distance into it. I always seem to want something which is the other side of the space, necessitating negotiating bikes, apple crushers, cat baskets, hay bags etc. etc. and rubbish sacks waiting to be taken to the déchetterie. Here is a very dark view of one part. Hopefully, before the end of the week the aim of the exercise can be achieved, to park my Peugeot in there during the winter weather.

Three things I like:

1. Hearing the rain on the landing window when I am warm by the woodburner.
2. Realising that the sanding in the garage has finally stopped and it is peaceful again.
3. Visiting my favourite Breton neighbours - we are the same age and have the same sense of humour.

Power cuts and a walk round my village

2011-11-15T14:40:00.000+01:00

When I lived in Cornwall, we used to have frequent mini moment power cuts. For me, the worst ones were at night. They took out my alarm clock and running a Bed and Breakfast I needed to be up early to get ready for breakfasts. We also had longer cuts, which necessitated camping gas lamps being hung in the two halls so family and guests could find their way when the electric lights were not working. I always worried about having candles in the guest bedrooms as you can’t control how other people are with safety.

I remember calling the fire brigade to ask for a fire safety check on the property. A lovely fireman came out and checked out my house and confirmed that everything was fine but that I hadn’t needed a check as I took no more than six guests at a time. To me, that was completely mad as I can’t see the difference between two people being in residence or eight if the building is not fire safe. We had potentially five family members in the house, not to mention the friends that my teenage children spontaneously brought back, and who I didn’t know about until I found them sleeping on the settees in the sitting room when I went up to do breakfast.

Well, on Sunday night there was a mini moment cut here in Brittany, which means that my Sky box cuts out and I have to wait a couple of minutes for it to reset, such a nuisance if I’m recording a programme. It’s just like being back in Cornwall. We have lots of such power outages here, sometimes five or six in a day or even within a couple of hours. I can never understand what causes these extremely short cuts in power. I can understand a long cut of several hours, when something has clearly gone wrong with a cable and it takes a while to repair, but short and very frequent outages are beyond my comprehension. Obviously in summer power cuts are not such a pain because it is light later, but for the winter I now have candles everywhere around the house, with an adjacent box of matches, for such occasions. Although it’s annoying to lose the television, the laptop keeps going for a while on it’s fully charged batteries and I quite enjoy the candlelight.

I wandered out with my camera for half an hour this morning, just round the village. The butterflies are really enjoying the warmth of these mid November days. Here are two Red Admirals, which were on my vine this morning, just basking in the sunshine.

The second butterfly really is not at her best with her very frayed-at-the-edges wings.

Gorse is already flowering and looks lovely in the sunshine.

My neighbour's horses were nuzzling around in the fallen Autumn leaves. I accidentally touched the single electrified wire bordering their area as I was blundering about with the camera up to my eyes. Luckily for me, the electricity was not on. It was a good job that the horses didn't know that.

I always think I have a very, very good stock of logs for the woodburner, but just look at these piles! I think that the Bretons compete to have the largest store, it's more interesting here to have a huge log store than an expensive car or a seriously smart house. I think they're probably right.

Three things I like:

1. The way that clicking my tongue makes the horses walk over for a stroke even though I'd forgotten the apples.

2. Digital cameras and the special memory card (which my oldest son gave me) in my camera which downloads my photos automatically when I switch on the camera near my laptop.

3. Looking at Purrdy's tummy and finding that, at last, her sterilisation scar has healed.

Pumpkin, socks and cats

2011-11-14T21:38:00.001+01:00

My third and fourth batches of butternut squash soup have been eaten. I have this wonderful pumpkin, the only one this year that grew on my veggie patch, and I think that the next soup will be made with this.

I shall do it in much the same way as the butternut soup, as I did last year when I managed to get more pumpkins to grow than just one! I might even add carrots as I have a large bag, which I bought for the rabbits, but I'm sure they won't mind me stealing a few.

It was another sunny day today and I love the light as it comes through the east window and brightens the inside windowsill.

I had an urge to start knitting again and went on the hunt for a started project - socks - which I had abandoned. I am a virgin sock knitter. I finally found the bag with pattern in the studio but when I opened it up I felt I had made an error, so the first thing I had to do was unravel. I hate unravelling and admitting to mistakes!

Well, I sat and read the pattern and am now racing - well comparatively - down the foot section to the toe. I'd forgotten how awkward it is to knit with four needles. One always seems to be poking into my wrist or palm, but I'm determined not to give up this time. I have been reading loads of other people's blogs and so many seem to knit their own socks in the most incredible patterns. I shall be very pleased if they fit me and even if I only use them in the house - it's a long and complicated task. I can't knit in the summer months, my hands get too hot. It's definitely a winter job for me.

Alfie and Purrdy have found the warmest spot in the house, where the heat rises up the stairs.

Alfie is on stair six and Purrdy on stair seven. When Alfie and I lived in Cornwall, we had a spiral staircase from the sitting room to a Minstrels bedroom and Alfie always slept on stair seven as our woodburner used to heat the room beautifully there too. I can't find a

photograph with him on the spiral staircase although I'm sure I must have one somewhere as he seemed to be there always.

Apart from knitting, another winter thing I do is to go through all the magazines I have bought during the year and try to make several piles to pass on. I didn't do this last year and have a large pine box full of magazines, plus three piles on the sitting room floor and these sitting on another pine box.

In my ideal world I would never have to discard any reading matter. I am an inveterate hoarder and find it very difficult to get rid of anything I think I might have reason to look at in the future.

Three things I like:

1.   Slipping in between newly laundered sheets.
2.   Knowing I still have several packets of cheddar cheese in the refrigerator.
3.   Reaching into the nesting box and bringing out newly laid eggs.

Remembrance Sunday and Apple Compôte

2011-11-13T15:00:00.000+01:00

I watched on television, the service at the Cenotaph this morning, I am reminded that I am always moved to tears. It looked cold but bright and sunny. In 1976, I was living in London and my then husband and I attended the service. It was a bitterly cold day, but not wet, and we were well wrapped up. It was extraordinary to be there and to experience first hand the two minute silence with so many others. It is amazing how hundreds and hundreds of people can be silent together. The service is long for the Queen and especially for Prince Philip, now he is 90, to be standing throughout. I love the BBC's handing of it all, the little interviews with proud, bereaved parents and with the surviving victims of war. If only we could have world peace.

My Breton neighbours brought round a paper carrier bag of apples from their own trees. This morning I sat and peeled and cored some while listening to The Archers, my Sunday morning habit, and then popped them into a pan with some sugar, a soupçon of water, three whole cloves and a little ground cinnamon.

This is going into the fridge, but I may freeze it if I decide to make some more tomorrow. It should be good with the Christmas boiled collar bacon or gammon joint. I find I can’t sit very long and work with my hands above the table, as in peeling apples, it really seems to make my back hurt between my shoulder blades. I am particularly aware of this at Christmas time when there seems to be so much preparation of food. By Christmas lunch I can barely sit up straight!

There are still butterflies flying around outside. Whenever I see them I don’t have the camera and then when I fetch it they have all flown off. It just shows how mild it still is, and it’s a lovely sunny day today too. I can hear the hounds of La Chasse, the hunt, baying a few fields away. I do hope the cats don't go out while they're around, the hunters tend to shoot anything that moves.

I telephoned my worker to see how he and his daughter were after the wasp stings and they are both fine. It could all have been so different. They seem to have been very lucky considering how many stings they had.

I have checked out the large wasplike pest from yesterday and it turns out to be a hornet. I took another photograph this morning as it seems to have taken up residence around the vine.

It was a full moon last Thursday and even last night there was so much light coming through the windows – I don’t have blinds or curtains by choice – that I could get up in the night without putting on the lights. I love being able to see the stars on less moonlit nights, which is why I don’t have window coverings. I think visitors must think it’s odd, but I had none at my last house in Cornwall except for other people’s bedrooms. My oldest son used to put a painting, just the same size as the window, in front of the window of my spare room, when he was staying here, to block out the light, he likes to have a really dark bedroom for sleeping. It’s still in the room for visiting friends if they want to use it. I find dressing windows here in France difficult particularly as windows open inwards and not outwards as in

England

, so it’s good not to have to think about it.

Three things I like:

1. The smell of the apple compôte cooking with cinnamon and cloves.

2. Alfie, my black and white cat, sleeping in a pool of sunlight on the rug.

3. Yesterday evening's prawn tempura dipped in Hellman's mayonnaise - mmm!

Wasps and other pests

2011-11-12T14:56:00.001+01:00

What a dreadful morning yesterday! At about 10.00am my worker went up to the field with his little girl. There was no school as it was Armistice Day, a public holiday here in France. He was putting a length of fencing across the part where the hole was allowing the birds through. He walked round to another part of the veggie plot and disturbed some wasps. The first I knew was when he arrived at the door saying he and his daughter had been stung. He is apparently very allergic and has had severe reactions in the past. He probably should carry an Epipen, but doesn’t.

He said they had both been stung and were going home to find something to put on the stings. I offered to help but he said they’d be fine. I worried until I telephoned about 90 minutes later. He had taken Piriton, an antihistamine, and was alright. He had three stings on his neck and one in the middle of his chest. His little girl had been given something by her Mum for the fourteenstings she had on her legs, ear and back. What a dreadful morning for them. We spoke again at the end of the afternoon and no-one was affected seriously thank goodness.

On the talkallergy.com site it says this:

"If you believe you or a family member might be allergic or is developing an allergy, it is advisable to seek the advice of an allergist. Allergic reactions to bee and wasp stings can develop anywhere on the body. The could result in non-life-threatening reactions, such as hives, swelling, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and headaches. But, life-threatening reactions, such as shock, dizziness, unconsciousness, difficulty in breathing, and swelling in the throat, require immediate medical care. Symptoms can begin immediately following the sting or up to 30 minutes later and might last for hours. This reaction is often referred to as anaphylaxis.

An anaphylactic shock needs to be treated immediately, usually with the use of an adrenaline pen injected into the body. People who know they are allergic to stings should carry an adrenaline pen whenever they think they might come into contact with stinging insects. Adrenaline pens are only available on prescription from a doctor."

It has been a very prolific season here for wasps. There are also loads of them, flies, bees and something like a very large wasp, on the bunches of grapes which I never picked from the vine because of my eating problems.

I can't believe how big this wasplike thing is. I was quite frightened getting so close to take the photo. I think I’ll have to cut the grapes carefully into a bucket and let the hens have them to get the wasps away from the entrance to the utility area. Normally, I would have been eating at least two bunches grapes a day and they wouldn't be wasting, rotting on the vine.

My nasturtians are covered in caterpillars. They are the caterpillars of the Cabbage White butterfly and there are loads of them. I am inundated with wildlife I don't want at the moment.

My log piles, in the part of my garden which my grandson calls the "secret garden" because it's accessed by a door, are covered for winter and are already going down fairly rapidly. I am always extravagant with firewood but it is my only heating, so that's my excuse.

This afternoon while shopping, I met three people I haven't seen for ages. One of them walked over to me later in the car park while I was unloading my shopping and said she hadn't recognised me as I had lost a lot of weight hadn't I? I explained about the mini gastric bypass and proudly added - yes, five stone. Always good when someone remarks on being able to see a difference! I also met a friend who invited me to drinks etc. on Christmas Eve eve. As my Christmas guests don't arrive until Christmas Eve itself it will be lovely to start the Christmas celebrations earlier.

Three things I like:

1. Receiving a genuine compliment.

2. My homemade butternut squash soup.

3. Writing the last Christmas Card - very early I know - but they're done!