The paint job

Before the paint job






After the paint job.

How the time flies, Rob painted two of the outside walls of the garage this last week, he started a second coat which can just be seen on the left hand side but has now run out of paint, but that means his painting arm has time to recover.

I have kept up with my walking - in to the village and back on Thursday to get a few things from the shops 5 miles (8.1km) there and back. And earlier in the week I set off up the road towards the village but kept on going and did the shortest circular walk 4.8 miles (7.8km) as the weather was so nice. I had left Rob painting the garage and wondering which hill I was walking up when I didn't return home! Still not up to participating in the moon walk next year luckily I didn't register for it.

Yesterday we had some very heavy rain with a few strong gusts of wind, it seems quieter today although still raining on and off.

Rob's main job for this visit was to install three velux style windows in the roof of the garage. There is a large space above the garage about 9 x 6 meters which Rob is intending to use as an artists studio. Saturday Rob and Richard work all day but installed the windows with relative ease. They bring in lots of light and also mean we can see out across the fields.

Richard and Rob satisfied with their hard days work!






View of garage windows from the garden - they look as though they have always been there.

The garden is looking good, there are still some vegetables to eat

and others which were ready to be harvested have been cleared such as butternut squash, marrows, courgettes, aubergines, peas and runner beans. The areas which are now free of plants and weeds have been covered with either black plastic or with the cardboard packaging from the new windows. Hopefully this will prevent the weeds from taking hold this winter.

The eating apples are beginning to fall - so I have been using these windfalls to make apple juice. Not sure what the variety they are but they make good eaters and good sharp yet sweet juice.

We had rain on our journey down here, and the ground is now damp. With the damp and the mild temperature we were hopeful that mushrooms might have started to poke their heads out of the ground, so we went out yesterday to our usual spot but we weren't very successful, we did find a few which we ate with our supper last night. We did find an interesting beast, just 5cm long which we have now identified as a fire salamander, however not before posting it on the Autumn Watch site for identification.

The fire salamander

The grapes have ripened well and they are good to eat if full of pips. After our last attempt at wine making we will just enjoy these grapes fresh and leave the wine making to the experts.

All around us pear picking is in full swing, these are the small round pears used to make poiré (perry) which is a speciality of the region. These pears have to be picked of the ground by hand while they are still fresh, unlike the apples for cider which can be gathered by machine and can already be beginning to rot for the cider. It is really hard work, and apparently they don't know yet how much they will get per kilo for the pears, but it has been a good year so there are plenty to gather.

London, Honey fungus and friends

Six of us got together last week for lunch. What's so unusual about that one might think but ten years ago we met for the first time when we embarked on our degree course organised by the WI. That first semester seems a long way off now, in fact it is hard to believe we spent so much time on our course, but we all survived the course and we all became good friends too. It is always good to get together as we are all very opinionated but generally we all think along the same lines so we don't fall out or argue. As usual the conversation was dominated by WI issues, but with interludes of family weddings, house moving and new kitchens....

We went to London this week primarily to visit the private view of an exhibition put on by one of our friends, but used the opportunity to explore Bloomsbury. We followed a planned walk, which took us down streets we hadn't yet discovered. Lots of beautiful squares and gardens - people were out picnicking at lunchtime - it was a lovely day dry and sunny and pleasantly warm. Just a few streets away from the main thoroughfares it is amazingly peaceful and quiet, hard to imagine you are in central London.

The photo shows a charging point for an electric car - the only one we noticed but I am sure there must be more around.

It continues to be very dry which means there are very few mushrooms around, we did find some honey fungus last weekend which was growing abundantly on some trees in a local wood, but they don't need rain to grow. We are still eating the tomatoes which are ripening well on the window sill. We have stored the pears in the fridge to prevent them ripening too fast but we have had plenty despite pruning the pear tree very hard last winter.

Drought

Despite the horrific weather reports from the UK, the east of England has not had rain for about the last ten weeks. The ground is hard and the grass has resembles dry straw. The local paper reported that the local sugar campaign had been delayed because the farmers were finding it difficult to harvest the sugar beat. Our region of France has also suffered from the lack of rain since the beginning of August and it proved very difficult to lift the potatoes as the ground resembled concrete, the main crop of potatoes was very poor I think due to lack of water - I suppose i should have watered them. However it is not a matter of life or death unlike areas of East Africa who are suffering a severe drought after several years of failed rainy seasons. I don't think any of this is particularly due to global warming but it does bring home the fact that no matter where we live we all need rain even if we moan about a wet summer.

We spent last Saturday at Great Yarmouth, it was good to see the resort so busy, there were families on the beach and enjoying the fun of the pier. The beach cafés were also doing a brisk trade. We haven't spent much time in Great Yarmouth before and I had forgotten how wide and clean the beaches are. Lots of space for everyone. Just off shore are 32 wind turbines, currently one of the largest offshore wind farms. They are really impressive and there is information centre on the sea front explaining how they were built and how much energy they produce. Unfortunately when we first arrived they were still as there was no wind, not something you usually encounter on the British coast. Later on the wind picked up a little and they were soon turning into the wind. There is something special about sitting on the bench over looking the north sea whilst enjoying 'good old' fish and chips.

A Girls Night Out

After much preparation finally the day had arrived. Debbie and I joined about 350 other women on Angel Hill. After a registering we all warmed up to music although we felt we were using too much energy which we would need later on. At 8p.m., by this time it was dark, off we set off complete with police escort. The route took us out on Northgate Street and then we followed roads leading around the edge of the town, through the various housing estates. As we passed ASDA supermarket, we were offered water and apples and some took advantage of the toilet facilities there. We continued on around the west of Bury until we came to the Hospital, this was about half way. We made a detour up to the Hospice where again water was on offer. They had supplied portaloos outside, but there were only two, which meant a long wait in line. We think we waited 20 mins, but when you consider there 350 women it could have been even longer. Then it was off for the final leg, we were on familiar walking territory as we had been out many times training in this area. Eventually four hours after starting out we arrived back at Angel Hill where there was hot chocolate and bacon rolls. It had stayed dry all evening and was not at all cold. I think we caught up all the news but there may be a few things we forgot to discuss, we may need to get out and do some more walking.

We were tired but really happy and pleased that we had completed our walk - I knew we could do it but on the day it did seem a little daunting.

This video was taken while waiting to register.

Milk, Cream and Butter; Melk, Room en Boter; Lait, Creme et Beurre

Milk Milk every where, yesterday we got together with our Dutch neighbours and armed with large quantities of fresh milk, our cream separator, their cream separator, and the guests staying in their holiday cottage. We inherited our cream separator with the house and it is in excellent condition. It was a wonderful opportunity to try it out. Having got it spinning at speed milk was poured into the large bowl and the tap opened - wow we were all covered in milk. Out came the other one to compare and we found that ours was missing a vital bolt which holds the conical disks in place.

Not to be deterred we assembled the other one and started again. Litres of milk were poured into the top bowl and milk gushed out of one spout and then amazingly cream started to pour slowly out of the other - a rich thick cream - it was working. All the men got involved with the spinning of the handle and the topping up with milk and the collecting of the skimmed milk. There were the usual jokes about how many men does it take to separate 35 litres of milk.... 3 men and 3 women. We had great fun despite us being covered in milk and the floor awash with it too.

This morning the fun continued when we assembled to churn the cream in to butter. We now know why farming families had so many children, as we all took a turn at swing the handle.

Two hours later - about two kilos of butter was ready - possibly the most expensive butter ever produced considering the man hours involved but never mind it was a good experience and we all learned a lot from it. Next time will be easier - we hope.

We also had a day on the coast this week. We went to the small village of St Jean le Thomas, situated on the bay of the Mont St Michel between Avranches and Granvilles. We collected some cockles as we walked on the beach then had a good lunch in the Hotel des Bains. One day we will remember to take our foraging gear with us - bucket and rake etc., anyway we improvised with a large handkerchief tied into a bag to hold the cockles and oysters we found. On the way home we stopped off on the off change of finding some family friends at their house. We spent a pleasant hour or so catching up on the news with Allan. We ate our cockles and oysters for supper along with a salad of garden delights.

The garden continues to feed us well. I started to harvest the carrots - and as well as being tasty they also have amusing shapes. As the summer comes to a close I am surprised by how much we have grown, broad beans, peas, carrots, beetroot, red onions, garlic, swiss chard, potatoes, courgettes, blueberries, radishes, rocket and lettuces. The aubergines are still growing bigger everyday, the butternut squash are starting to ripen. Another crop of peas is heading skywards and the late crop of runner beans are in full flower. The leeks continue to get bigger and there are second crops of beetroot and carrots. The jerusalem artichokes have grown well as usual and have been trimmed down a couple of times to keep them under control.

September arrives

Yesterday we enjoyed a warm sunny day - a good way to end August. While Rob walked around Bagnoles de l"Orne taking photos of the houses which were built in the late 19th century when the town became a spa resort.I walked through the wooded area there looking for bilberries. I found a few but I think it was just luck as the plants appeared to have been stripped of their fruits. At least there were plenty of healthy looking plants so next year I will get there earlier in the summer.

I have finally found some local history material in our local library. Alain Hairie, who family lived in Domfront has written a few small booklets about the second world war, in particular, how Jewish children were hidden and cared for by the local community and about the relgious community in Perrou - a nearby village- where the sisters ran an orphanage, old peoples home and cared for the sick. They also took in Jewish children and some of their mothers before the community was taken over by the Germans towards the end of the war and used it as a hospital to care for soldiers injured on the front. He has interviewed some of those who lived in the area and whose families were involved. He has also tracked down some of the children who were hidden. Of course the information they have given is very limited as all those interviewed were very young during the war and have limited memories of the events that happened around them. He has realised that he has undertaken this research rather late in the day and has missed the chance to interviiew those who were active both in the resistance and in the community.

One of his books covers some of the bombing of the area and reference is made to the 'flying fortresses' attempting to destroy the fuel depots which were hidden in the forests between Domfront and Bagnoles. Apparently there is still evidence of bomb caters to be seen in the woods, just like we have around us in Bury St Edmunds.  See the link for more information  http://www.ansa39-45.fr/independencedayenglish.htm

Last week we visited the village of La Gué Plat which was purpose built in the 1920's to house the mine workers of the iron ore mine which was opened there. There are still remnents of the mining activity to be seen, strangely set against the local forest landscape. We learned that iron ore mining has been taking place in the area for a very long time as there is a band of iron deposits which came to the surface in this village and the pits can still be seen where the ore was excavated.

We have since discoved that the Orne Valley south of Caen has been the most important source of iron ore in France and the reason that the canal was built from Caen to the see, to export the ore and import the coal needed for the furnesses.

The garden continues to feed us well, and I am now planning next years vegetable garden. The ground has become rock hard due to the lack of rain, but I continue to water the beans and the butternut squash and hope to get a good harvest from them. There is a severe drought in a large number of departments, including the department of the Mayenne which is just a couple of kilometers south of here. There have water restictions and the television news shows the land dry as dust and crops such as the maize and sunflowers wilting in the fields. We noticed this when we went down to the Loire Valley a couple of weeks ago. The maize fields here are lush and the crop at least 2.5m high. As a local farmer said last week, we can sometimes be glad that we are in Normandy and get as much rain as we do.