Making Hay while the sun shines…

Proof that hay really is made when the sun is shining - on our walk this morning, I took a few photos of the fields surrounding us – some with freshly cut hay ready to be baled and some with piles of hay bales awaiting collection – photos below!

Yesterday was the long awaited lunch with the neighbours – we welcomed them with a glass of Pimms which they’d never had before and seemed to quite enjoy and then served Roast Chicken with chestnut stuffing, roast potatoes, green beans with almonds, and a mix of veg (carrots, turnips, fennel & onion) that had been roasting alongside the chicken all topped off with home made giblet gravy – it went well although I do think it was an experiment we probably won’t repeat – a one off novelty meal perhaps!!  We finished the meal with cherry crumble and custard (crème anglaise!) – they seemed amused to pour the custard over the crumble and again seemed to quite enjoy it but it was definitely more of a novelty that I think they’re glad they’ve experienced but probably feel no pressing urge to repeat any time soon – perhaps I’m overly sensitive but that’s the impression I got!

But the novelty of the actual food aside, it was a lovely day and true to their ever generous natures, they showed up with 3 flowering potted plants, another 5 heads of lettuce, a 5 lb bag of potatoes dug up from their garden, a bottle of wine, a selection of artisan teas (les anglais love their tea!) and a chunk of ‘brebis’ (a local cheese made from sheep’s milk).  All this was in addition to one of our guests arriving on our doorstep on Saturday armed with a bucket of horse manure and 5 pumpkin plants he’d dug up from his garden and wanted to offer us to put into our garden – he’s 84 and yet wouldn’t go until he’d helped us dig the holes (being certain that they were planted nowhere near the courgettes or cucumbers which wouldn’t be a good idea for all sorts of cross pollination problems that we got a little lost on in French!), filled them with horse manure and then planted the baby pumpkins – these are apparently the traditional large orange type so we look forward to enjoying those later in the year.  Maybe we can introduce them to pumpkin carving for Halloween!  Anyway, spurred on by all the growing activity around us, we’ve also invested in some lovely flowers to make the place more inviting and try and be more French (they really do make an effort with flowers in their gardens, vegetable patches, window sills – it all does look very lovely especially at this time of year) and I was out snapping again yesterday – photos below of some of our flowering efforts.

Tony and I still have a fear of the telephone (so much harder to understand and be understood when you’re not talking in person), and we’ve noticed the increase in sales cold calls that happen always at lunchtime or in the evening – very annoying usually however, having had quite an interesting conversation with one of these people the other day, I’ve taken to answering them (much to Tony’s dismay – he can’t stand the intrusion regardless of the language it’s in!) as a way of practicing my French – so much easier to practice my French (i.e. make a fool of myself) on someone I’m not trying to make friends with, or impress and will likely never meet and who I can always hang up on without feeling any remorse if need be!

My next post will likely be less about farming and French life and more about all things Spanish – to celebrate my 40^th, Tony and I are heading to Barcelona (although reading that the French railways are entering their 6^th day of strikes isn’t the news I want to hear as we’ve got train tickets to get to Spain – ‘on verra’ (we will see..)….) to meet Emma & Greg and Oona & Mark – the first time the 3 sisters will have been together in nearly 3 years and the first time ever that the 6 of us will have been together so lots of cause for celebration – in addition, John & Miriam are also getting married on my birthday (in California) so even more cause for celebration – I see a few glasses being raised on the weekend!  Sadly we won’t be at their wedding but will be wishing them both a long life filled with love and laughter as Emma, Greg, Oona, Mark, Tony and I intend our celebratory weekend to be.