All bottled up

Where have the last few weeks gone?  The summer went on for ever here and our last visitors left the day before we went on our own holiday to Portugal, from which we returned yesterday.  We stayed in an apartment in a little fishing village called Vila Cha not far from Porto.  The weather was hot and sunny, even though there was a bit of a sea breeze.  Apart from going to the beach, walking to the local restaurants and sitting on the terrace we spent one day in the town of Porto and that was it!  Now its back to work!  First job - bottling up the wine that has just been delivered, along with our personalised labels.  It needs to settle for a while but as there is always a not quite full bottle at the end of the bin we will drink that tonight.  Just before we went away Mark started on a project to rebuild a ruin, who knows what it will end up as, perhaps another small gite or perhaps a gallery - we'll see and it depends on how the finances go!   A very quick trip to England for a family wedding in September also gave us the welcome opportunity to catch up with people we hadn't seen for a while.  Today it is overcast and a bit damp and even though its not cold its a real contrast and Mark is planning to clean the flues for the log burners in the next day or so.  Meanwhile there are still tomatoes, squash, apples and the last of the figs to deal with.  What figs there are left that is as the birds have had a feast whilst we have been away!  Pics of the ruins next time - I need to find out how to upload a folder for them. 

Hot air

At 6.30 this morning Mark spotted an air balloon in the distance - not that unusual as there is a flying centre at Chauvigny, about 15km from us.  They quite often go up in groups and are a lovely sight.  Today started very sunny and then clouded over, at which point the balloon started to lose height, not sure if there is a connection, maybe they just ran out of hot air ( no chance of that here ). I was still in bed at the time, having only had one cup of tea, but then Mark got all excited about said balloon going over the gite and getting lower and lower and I should come and have a look and bring the camera!  So being very obedient ( ha ha ) I rushed out in my pj's with the camera - by which time the balloon had landed in the field opposite our swimming pool.  Of course the batteries on the camera had gone flat again, so in I go to get the re-charged ones ( why don't they re-charge properly, we only bought new ones a few months ago ), holding my pj bottoms up with one hand as the elastic needs re-charging as well.  So here is a pic!  I think the guy pulling the piece of string thought it was a bit bizarre when I waved at him but he still waved back and luckily he was far enough away not to notice that I wasn't dressed!

Introducing Gorrie ,

Gorrie ( aka Le Gorrilla ) is the propreitor of the Cheval Blanc ( White Horse ) in our village - superhero of darts as you can see by the trophies.   Not so long ago the Cheval Blanc team " Les Malloises" reached the final in a national competition at La Rochelle. Now, when I say national - this is serious.  Literally thousands of teams from the whole of France. All in  local costume or carrying regional flags, and there's a lot at stake - not just the reputation of your village but a place for the winning team to play in an international tournament in Las Vegas!  So, no chance at all for Gorrie's team from the tiny population of 356 at St Pierre de Maille.  Until ... Gorrie the superhero is joined by a certain Mark Judson and .... off the team go to La Rochelle .. ( with a few others ) and there they are in this huge place with darts competitions going on hour after hour - I was expecting him back the next day but then the phone call came " we got through to the next round " and then the next day " we're in the quarter finals " and so on until they were through to the finals!!!  By this time the village was totally immersed in darts talk - especially Pascal - the propreitor of the 8 a 8 ( small supermarket open at all other times except 8 - 8 ), whose wife was away with the team.  Sadly ( though not for me, I couldn't imagine anything worse than a trip to Las Vegas for a darts competition - could have made a good raffle prize though - Guernsey WI perhaps !!) they were beaten in the final - next time perhaps! 

Hare today gone tomorrow

It was thundering and lightning and very very frightning, and I can't remember why we were outside, but anyway suddenly there was that feeling of being watched, a real beady eye moment.  Quick, quick, get the camera.  Run, run, got the camera.  Creep, creep very quietly whilst getting the camera going.  Oh no!  Flat batteries.  Run, run, change the batteries.  Creep, creep back again.  Is hare still there?  Yes. Phew. It's gone now, probably watching us from a luscious flower bed!.    

August 1st 2005, the day we arrived to live here at Chenevaux permanently.  The time has gone so quickly!  As you can see it hasn't all been hard work - lots of friends and family have been to visit, many more than once,  and we've had some great times, as well as working like mad to build up our gite business and Mark's art studio and classes.   Wonder what the next 6 years will bring?

Au secours! Help!

There's a nasty alligator in the pool!

Gummidge or Worzel?

Yesterday was our anniversary so we exchanged cards as usual - when I say as usual it is because we have now exchanged the same cards for 3 years!  The one Mark gives me has a wheel with different numbers on it so he just turns it round and the one I give him gets the number re-written inside.  It saves all that hassle of having to choose and makes us laugh!!  Anyway, after all of the excitement that caused, we decided to escape for the day to a small town called Montmorillon, about 20 miles away.  I just want to point out here that it is Mont mor ill on, not Mont mor illi on as so many English people here keep calling it!  Maybe they are getting confused with a rock band in the 80s called Marillion!  Anyway here is Mark having a rest on the bridge - he kept his cap on as he needs to go and see Uncle Roy to be de-Gummidged.  (This is our latest talking point, Mark keeps saying why not de-Worzled but that doesn't sound nearly as good to me).  We had a wander round and came across a new art gallery where the owner specialises in Raku.  She might be interested in doing a joint exhibition with Mark at some point, or perhaps stock some of his ceramics, we will see.  Having booked a table for lunch at 1 we wanted to make sure we were in good time so arrived at 12.45, after all the morning had been strenuous.  The specials of the day sounded fab so we didn't even look at the menu.  Ecrevisse (crayfish) in a filo nest with a cream and mustard sauce topped off with a piece of smoked salmon - yum.  Then we had a sudden memory of a meal a few years ago when Mark ordered ecrevisse.  A very large bib was fastened round his neck and some alarming utensils that looked as though they belonged to a dentist were placed on the table.  Then the waitress appeared with a huge copper saucepan, plus lid, which were ceremoniously set in front of him.  This waitress loved the theatre of taking the lids off all of the dishes, waiting for the attention of all involved and raising them high above her head - a bit like an unveiling.  Several diners were heard clapping during the evening! So, lid duly removed Mark looked inside with relish.  His expression then changed from anticipation to consternation as the antennae of these supposed delicacies appeared to be moving.  Neither of us could work out how to use the utensils either so most of this dish went back to the kitchen.  

Our luck was in though, this time the crayfish were orderd with full assurance that there were no antennae or shells to deal with!  The main course was delish too and we eventually staggered out feeling very well fed.  This photo was taken from the restaurant - maybe the man is catching crayfish?    

Posh pots

The latest kiln firing reached temperature (1250C) in record time (14 hrs!) after Mark replaced a couple of the elements.  Glaze firings are always more of a nail biter than first firings of either stoneware or earthenware as the glazes can be a bit temperamental.  If a glaze is prone to run it can dribble onto the kiln shelf and then it is permanently stuck to the shelf - so both the pot and the shelf may end up in the bin.   His latest trick is to put a slither of firebrick under the pot so that any dribbles land on these, then the firebrick can be flicked off, or ground off with an angle grinder and no harm done!  The kiln is a bit of monster in terms of capacity and consumption of electricity, so every pot counts!

Anyway since we've been in France getting a blue glaze right has been a trial.  Dribbling, crawling, inconsistent ... etc.  So when these ones emerged it was a big hurrah!  (The white glaze with the iridescent areas is called Irise, the blue is Bleu Royale and also has iridescent particles in it.)

Why Posh pots - because The Posh play in blue of course!   

Art for All!

For the past fortnight Mark has been giving art classes to two girls from Paris who were here on holiday with their "papa".  They had great fun doing both pottery and painting and on their last day they put on a mini exhibition!

 
 "Papa" didn't go home empty handed either as he bought this painting!

Introducing Anita

Not far from us there is a spa town called La Roche Posay ( or as one of our lovely guests called it La Posh Rosay! ), anyway this town is a national centre for the treatment of skin conditions, making use of the spa water, which you can also drink.  People from all round the country are sent for the "cure" and stay for three weeks or more.  Naturally at some point they want to get out and about to explore and one day this resulted in a lady called Anita arriving to have a look round Mark's studio.  We chatted to her and Mark did a demonstration on the wheel and she very kindly bought one of his stoneware bowls.  Away she went and we said "what a nice lady" and never expected to see her again.

The next day Anita rang - could she possibly come to the studio again to buy another bowl?  Of course, I said, never being one to turn people away!  So the day after that she came again and regaled us with all sorts of stories about her visits the day before, to restaurants - where she had talked about us, to tourist information centres where she had talked about us ........ oh yes and she very kindly brought us a jar of soup from her region of France ( remind me to tell you the "big" soup story - in fact there are two and might be three, who would have thought that soup would be so interesting! ).

In we go to the studio and Anita chose another bowl and then went to look at Mark's paintings - he does all sorts of things with optical illusions and lighting so another demonstration, after which Anita asks the price of a few of them.  And bought one!  After that introduction, please meet Anita posing with her painting and Mark.  Thank you Anita!

PS That wasn't the last time we saw Anita - a couple of days later she rang and asked if she could come to lunch and we said "yes, of course".  And since then she has sent us a selection of photos that she took here, including the one above.
For those of you interested in bespoke headwear, the creation Anita is wearing came from a local craft market.

Pots of gold

We haven't been able to get on-line for a few days as we've been out looking for the end of the rainbow. Anyway we found these lovely pots of gold and thought you would like to see them!

What's this wet stuff?

See the colour of the sky - grey - that's because its raining!! At last.  We put downpipes and water butts on the corners of the studio in April and since then we've had about two lots of rainfall and for the rest of the time they have remained empty.  The grass has gone brown and some of the leaves on the trees have turned red - and its only the beginning of July.  The two girls who are staying in the gite at the moment are in the studio having a pottery lesson with Mark so that's perfect timing!  We wouldn't mind if the rain continued all day but better not be greedy.  Yesterday a group of randonneurs came along to have a pottery demonstration and sample jam.  One little boy managed to get his hands on the clay as you can see!                   Puddles - hurrah!!

   

International plant rescue

Agapanthus knightyitus - discarded on a Guernsey compost heap before being rescued and brought to the international plant refuge at Chenevaux and now showing its appreciation for all of the attention and nurturing it has had since it arrived.

Some days aren't so sweet!

Plumbing isn't our thing - but its definitely our nightmare!  Luckily we discovered that we had a problem whilst we were in-between guests, although not for long, so reinforcements were called in, in the form of Roy, who is not only a plumber but also cuts Mark's hair.  In fact he used to have a chain of hairdressing salons in England and now he coiffs for most of the English people round here - not me though, I go to the village with my hair wet and have a chop now and again for the princley sum of 12 euros - Mark has to pay 15 but he does have the choice of a winter or summer cut and the benefit of Roy's wisdom.  Roy also plays golf, and his other half Jill looks after horses.  At the moment they can't get hold of any hay which is a bit of a worry.  Anyway the blockage has been unblocked and the hole will be filled in soon so when our next guests arrive tomorrow the air will be smelling of roses again.  Phew.

Birdies on the wing

The goldfinch fledglings have left their nest - we caught them just as they flew off.  You can see them perched on branches just to the side of the nest, looking a bit bemused.  Just as the photo was taken they flew off, at some alarming angles, skimming the ground and up and down, then they seemed to get the hang of it without any accidents.  Apparently the nest in the cafe is a pied wagtail, and way up on a metal beam in the open barn there is a pigeon nest - if you can call it that as its just a very loose pile of sticks.  They were in the same spot last year and the eggs fell out, splat.  Bean plants that were doing really well are disappearing - we planted 24 good sized plants and now there are 19!  Definately those pesky rabbits so I am going to put up a keep out sign. 

Chenevaux Golf Day

Many thanks to everybody who came along to take part in the Chenevaux Golf Tournament on Saturday 25th June.  It was great to see you all and everybody had a round despite the heat.  I think its safe to say that everybody enjoyed the food and wine too and if there had been a competition for the person who talked the most it would have been impossible to decide on a winner!   Mike, who won the lst tournament, kindly handed back the trophy to Mark for the presentation. Winner of the longest ball competition was Roy, and the overall winner was Dave.  Hurrah!

 

Goldfinches

This nest is tucked down between the branches of a conifer that is just in front of the open barn that we use for parking and storing wood.  The first photo was taken about 3 weeks ago and you can hardly see the chicks - there are actually 5.  The second photo was taken today and you can clearly see the colours on the feathers.  Either the chicks are getting too big for the nest or the parents have had enough as the nest( beautifullymade ) has been tipped over as if to encourage the chicks to start fledging.   In the winter we put out sunflower seed and mixed seed and get lots of goldfinches on the bird table as well as on the plants that have gone to seed.  The hoopoes have gone, hope they come back next year.  There's something going on in the cafe too, a very messy nest - will find out and let you know soon.

Porcelain pots - now with picture attached!

A while ago we met a man called Lionel.  He is a member of the Mayor's team, a local fireman and also works for an organisation called Imerys.  His actual workplace is at Tournon St Martin and he is involved in excavating Ball Clay whch is used in the production of tableware, sanitaryware and tiles.  Basically this is porcelain which has different things added to it according to the final result that is required. When we first moved here and had the pool put in we found a seam of red earthenware clay which Mark got really excited about and before he bought his kiln he found a local potter who did a test firing for him.  The result was OK, if not tremendous as clay has to be refined before it is really usable.  Anyway, one day, completely out of the blue Lionel turned up in his van and produced a huge bag of Tournon St Martin porcelain for him to try.  How kind, and Mark was over the moon especially as porcelain is usually the most expensive clay to buy and our nearest supplier of ceramics materials is in Limoges, a 120km round trip!  So in the photo you can see two dishes which Mark has made with the porcelain and on the paler of the two you might be able to pick out a brown area - this is where Mark has impressed our own Chenevaux clay into the porcelain body at the first firing stage to 1260C which is a higher temperature than normal for earthenware so it over-fires and this makes it gel to the porcelain resulting in a pleasing textural and tonal effect.  The tall vase is stoneware and was thrown in three sections before being joined and fired twice - its nothing to do with the porcelain but I thought the height of it looked good with the dishes.  I guess its about 60 cm high.
For those of you who are interested in finding out about Imerys and clay from Tournon St Martin here is a link to a pdf file on their web site,  you need page 8 of the document.  Find out more about clay

Free sweets

We've just had an afternoon snack from the sweet shop in the front garden - lovely Mirabelle plums.  They are gorgeous, quite small but very sweet.  I just stand under a branch and eat them until I get to the point when I think I had better stop!  Mark was mowing earlier and kept being bombarded as the breeze blew the fruit off the trees - and they were falling down his back and getting stuck on the mower seat and then they were getting all squashed under his bum!  We didn't eat those ones.  These trees self seed prolifically and we have transplanted several to fill in gaps.  Of course they are all fruiting at the same time, so for the next few days we will be scoffing them like lunatics and (with equal lunacy) collecting them in buckets to make jam.  I say with lunacy as there are still at least a couple of dozen jars left in the pantry from last year when I got really carried away and made about 70 pots!  Bit daft really but I will still do it as one year we had a late frost and didn't have any fruit at all, and you never know if there might be a sugar shortage at some point and jam making will have to stop!  Oh no, what will we put on our toast?

All a bit fishy

Bonjour Chenevaux Blogreaders!
Today it is the Fete de la Gartempe - which is the river that our village, St Pierre de Maille is on.  It is also Fete des Peres today so lots of activities to attract the men!  Of particular note, the selection of vintage tractors, the fishing competition and a beer tent.  There is also a display of model ships, a blacksmith making wrought metal work, goats (2), and Mark with his pots and an easel!  I must remember to get him a beret and stripey t-shirt to complete the look.

Cool and zingy

This is the first of what looks like a bumper crop of cucumbers.  Luckily these ones aren't sour and spiky like some outdoor varieties so we are actually going to be able to eat them!  I wasn't sure as the seeds were just ones that were reduced at the end of last summer and came along with all sorts of other things with the packets stapled together in the corner - zinnias, sweet peas, pumpkin, passion flower, you name it!  The passion flowers didn't germinate which is a shame - but there's not much about them that inspires passion anyway.  Zinnias are far more passionate with their zingy coloured flowers ranging from puce through to burnt orange.   I like that - zingy zinnias!  We have finally had some good rain, lots of it, just falling out of the sky in great big bucket loads.  So Mark has been emptying the water butts into a big tank that is next to the well.  We picked raspberries yesterday and there are loads so more jam to make and it will be yummy.  

Well it's harvest time now

 This is a busy time for our local farmers as they have just started harvesting the wheat - a full two weeks earlier than normal.  The weather has been really warm and dry for ages, and for the past three weeks or so there has been a ban on irrigating the crops and using hoses in the garden.  Here at Chenevaux we have a well which hasn't been in use for many years and the other day Michel, who farms the land around our property, came along with a water tester thingy.  Its basically a probe on a long wire and it makes a sound when it touches water.  Anyway, after about 50m it sounded, ( we expected this from previous investigations ) and then the wire kept feeding out .... and more.     and more until it came to the end of the reel at 100m!  So we now know that we have a well with at least 50m of water in it ... the question is how to get it out!  To be continued ........

Ready, Steady, Golf

For the past 4 years we have held the Chenevaux Boxing Day Golf Tournament.  Mostly the weather has been cold but with generous amounts of mulled wine on offer we managed to get everyone out playing.  Boxing Day 2010 proved to be one weather element too far, not only was it perishingly cold but we couldn't see the golf balls.  So we resorted to creating snowballs on sticks which Mark called a snow sculpture and I called time to go in and sit by the fire.  Hopefully the rescheduled date of June 25th will be warmer!  



Artist at work

 Working to Van Morrisson "Hymns to the Silence" in his studio - Mark is preparing for an exhibition at Angles sur l'Anglin, which is going to be on from 20th - 26th August.  He is going to be showing paintings and ceramics and possibly doing some pottery demonstrations.  The gallery space is called the Salle d'Arceau and its just behind the tourist office in a little cobbled street near to all of the cafes.   

Yaay - a wedding and shopping ....

Our lovely niece, who was our bridesmaid 21 years ago, is getting married in September to a cool chap so a trip over to England is in order for the wedding and hopefully (make that definately) some retail therapy too!  We have just booked flights having kept our eye on the fares for a few weeks until finding a bargain.  Love a good knees up!!

London .... Chenevaux ......



Somewhere in London

Many thanks to Mr & Mrs B Bong who sent this photo.  We were delighted to see that our idea for the name of a cafe is catching on and can't wait to find out if the trend is continuing in other cosmopolitan areas.  Photos below show the product in its authentic French style with state of the art catering facilities and extensive menu making this a must visit location!

The Cafe du Coin   

This was the original bread oven



Chenevaux courgettes

Every year Mark tells me not to plant so many courgettes.  They're not his favourite veg to say the least.  So only 3 for 2011, compared to 5 last year.  Its not so much the taste of them, more their behaviour, which may be particular to the ones we grow here at Chenevaux - have you had expereinces of badly behaved courgettes as well?  They really are sneaky, we go out in the morning and pick the ones that look ready and as soon as our backs are turned they send out some more.  Sometimes they grow so much in a day that they turn from lovely little things to great monsters.  One year we had so many that we put a whole load in the back of a van that belongs to a local cafe owner (she had already told us that she had too many of her own but we didn't want to take them home again) and asked the post lady to give them away free on her rounds,   Anyway as you can see, courgette time is here again!

Here come the hoopoes

Some new birds have made themselves at home in the garden behind the Farmhouse - they seem to be fond of our apple trees.  Not sure if they are rare or common here but it is the first itme we have seen them.  We also have a couple of mad jackdaws that keep flying into a little recessed window and make a real racket, usually very early in the morning.  Goldfinches have nested in the conifers in front of the open barn and Mark says there are 6 eggs in one of the nests.  Robins are building nests and seem to want to do it indoors as we keep finding piles of grass and moss on the floor.  And the fledglings of blue tits and great tits are quite big now but still a bit inclined to crash land.

Rabbit alert

I can't believe it, rabbits everywhere and they have dug a burrow right in the middle of the potatoes.  I even filled it in yesterday but they have excavated all of the soil out again.  Some of them are really small and they seem to be eating the thick leaved weeds, maybe they can't find enough food - there's certainly not a lot going on in our potager as a result of the really dry weahter we have had recently.