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.