Christmas Greetings

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Autumn at Chenevaux

Nature has been working its magic and providing us with its own intricate seasonal decorations.  One morning we went outside to find all of the trees and shrubs wrapped in fine silvery thread decorated with shiny dew drops.  With an autumn mist hiding us from outside view it was like a stage set out of a magical dreamworld.  The colours in the trees have been lovely this year too with lots of acid yellow brightening up the ever shorter days.

 Never mind, in just 3 weeks we will be over the worst and heading back to summer again.  The buds are already forming on the trees and where we had to cut the roses right down along the back of the Farmhouse to render the wall ( a job we had put off from last year knowing it would be nasty, and messy, which proved to be the case as the weather was awful so it dragged on over about 4 weeks for 8 days of actual work ) there are small shoots breaking out of the stems.  The wall looks great now too, and by next spring the grass will have sorted itself out again with a little tlc.

Chipping the old render off - Mark up a ladder again!

6 tonnes of sand in the garden

First covering of new lime render being applied - my poor garden!

Speaking of roses, our order from David Austin arrived a couple of days ago.  This consisted of 3 William Morris climbers, 3 Grace and 3 Benjamin Britten shrubs, to be followed soon by a climber called Crepuscule, which hopefully will be more attractive than the name suggests.  When I sent off the order Mark suggested that we had enough roses "maybe about 30" but on a quick count it must be more like 60 now, there's always space for more.  They love the clay soil here and tolerate the hot summers and cold winters.  After all the rain we have had in the last couple of months they should get off to a good start.

A few weeks ago a friend gave us a small carrier bag full of ceps, or porcini, which grow wild around here.  To dry them we removed the gills and then left them on a rack over the log burner for about 3 days until they were completely shrivelled.  The bag full is now an envelope full and I am looking forward to using them in a hearty winter meal before too long.  The added bonus is that every time I open the kitchen cupboard a glorious waft of earthy sweetness meets my nostrils!  The shelves are also full to bursting with jams and chutneys as we had a bumper crop of figs at the end of the summer.  Just as well as the apples were a disaster and the late plums were non-existent.  We did however have our first, small, crop of Bramleys, which went very well with some blackberries in a crumble.  Add to all of this the Christmas cake and pudding ( thanks to my Mother ), sausages, cheddar cheese and other goodies we brought back from a recent visit to Guernsey and we are well stocked up for the winter.
Christmas is coming - the supermarkets are stuffed with more chocolate than you could ever imagine and in the next few days Santa will be seen climbing up virtually every chimney stack in the village.  Wonder what he will bring us this year!

September at Chenevaux

September sunset

Looking from our front door out over the field opposite a few days ago - a stunning sunset.

After a very busy summer with both the gite and the farmhouse full for the whole of the holiday period and the gite still occupied until the end of September we are now catching up on gardening and other jobs that it has simply been to hot and dry to even contemplate.  The grass is looking really parched and everything needs a lot of water, despite the downpour a couple of days ago.  A few weeks ago our tractor mower gave up after 7 years of hard labour so after some investigation and discussion we decided to buy a new one but all it has had to do so far is cut the tops off the weeds!

Mark and his Machine

Since we have been here we have been trying to find a ( not too expensive ) way of getting our well up and running.  The motor works but the pump is too old to be repaired and as the water is just over 50m down it needs something with a bit of oomph.  Anyway a couple of weeks ago we were invited to coffee with some friends, who had some friends of theirs staying with them from Fiji, where they keep bees and produce honey - anyway it turns out that the husband is also a geologist and finds water sources there.  So the conversation turned to wells and later the same day they came over to have a look at ours.  He was most impressed!  and has given us some advice on what we need to buy. We have looked on line and think we may have found something suitable - so if all goes well ( ha ha ) before too long we may have lots of water for the garden.  What a luxury!

The village band drumming up business

Having decided to do the village brocante we had a really good clear out.  Its one thing having plenty of storage space in all of our barns etc but the problem is that we put stuff away and forget about it and before too long they're full of all sorts of things that we know we will never use again.  Mark actually took a car load of rubbish to the recycling centre and then two carloads down to the village for our stall.  Aiming to get rid of it rather than make a fortune nearly everything was priced at a couple of euros and still people wanted to haggle!  Great fun if hard work. Now we can now go along to the last few brocantes of the summer with a clear conscience, though we are much more selective about the things we buy these days!

Jam and crash helmets at the St Savin brocante early September

I'm not quite sure if this person is prone to hitting their head whilst making jam and is therefore on a health and safety mission to get us to wear crash helmets in the kitchen?  

Time for an apero on the square after brocanting

After a hard morning looking at other peoples' wares the only thing to do is to have a sit down and enjoy an aperitif , the blue sky and the September sun before heading home for lunch!

August at Chenevaux

One of Mark's paintings for the exhibition

Mark is spending all of his time in the studio finishing off paintings for his exhibition that starts on Saturday (11th August, more details at www.markjudsonart.blogspot.com ) at the little chapel in our village.   He emerges for meals and then retreats again.  Mind you he has got a TV in there and every time I go in there's either the Olympics on or cricket!  We can't believe how well Team GB are doing, and as for Andy Murray winning a gold medal in the tennis singles, wow!  Let's hope he can come back to Wimbledon next year and win that too.

White peach

Despite the late frost in April we have a few peaches on the tree at the front of the house and they are just about ripe.  We have been picking them for the past couple of days - lovely and juicy and very tasty.  These are the white ones whereas the ones in the back garden are yellow ( the flesh that is ) and although they are nice these are better.   The figs are growing as well and in a month or so we should have a bumper crop.  More jam and chutney making on the horizon!  The second variety of plums are just about ripe too though these are eaters rather than jammers!

Sunflowers as far as you can see

The sunflower field opposite the house has been awash with colour for weeks now, though the heads are starting to droop as the seeds develop.  They won't be harvested until the plants have gone black, at which point they look rather dismal.  After harvest there will be lots of flower heads left on the field so we go and collect up a load to feed the birds with over the winter.  Mind you we don't want to think about winter yet!

Next Wednesday 15th is the annual brocante at our village - St Pierre de Maille, and we are having a stall this year.  Its usually really busy and will be great fun, if exhausting!  I must restrain myself from buying books as at the last count we had 165 on the shelves in the house waiting to be read - perhaps we can get rid of some of the other 100 or so in the gite, or start a library!

Summer - blue skies and sunflowers

The beginning of July and everything is looking lovely under the gorgeous blue summer sky. The sunflower field opposite the house is just starting to show pools of yellow in amongst the green leaves and in a few days will be a vast expanse of colour as far as the eye can see. 

Sunflowers just starting to appear

The hollyhocks spring up where they choose, normally in the gravel paths and up against the walls.  This year the range of colours is fab - everything from pale yellow to a really dark mauve - and the bees are having a great time!

Outside the back door

Shades of pink.

A very deep pink, with a very dusty bee inside!

We planted 3 Alexander roses in January in the back garden of the Farmhouse and the scarlet flowers are fantastic in the sun, they seem to give the other more muted colours a lift.  They're in part of the veg patch because last year we had so many rabbits all of our greens got eaten before we had a look in.  The same thing is happening this year and most mornings we see two baby rabbits and two larger ones hopping around in bunny paradise - so next year we are going to fence off a smaller area for greens and hope that does the trick.  The toms ( you can see the canes in the pic below ) are doing well though and we should be picking them in the next few days.

Alexander roses in the Farmhouse garden

A couple of weeks ago we were down to our last pot of jam and were in danger of having to buy some.  Luckily the raspberries, redcurrants, black currants and cherries ripened just in time and stocks have been replenished.  The mirabelle plums are just about ripe too and we've already been collecting windfalls - so more jam making is imminent.  The plums are quite small, juicy and very sweet - lovely!  By the end of the summer our store cupboard will be full of jams which we serve to guests at breakfast and sometimes they take a couple of jars home.  It always gets used up by the following summer even though I seem to make more each year!

Mirabelle plums outside the studio

In between lawn mowing, pool cleaning and other essential summer jobs Mark is busy in the studio preparing for an exhibition at the little Chapelle in the village of St Pierre de Maille.  It is taking place from 11th August for 7 days and he will be opening from 2-6 every day.  More to follow on this!




  

Party time at Chenevaux!

Lunch at Josette's

The Caribbean Beach Bar

Birthdays, yaay, party time!  What shall we do to celebrate?  The vote ( and as it was Mark's birthday he had the deciding vote ) was for lunch at Josette's - actually called the Cafe de la Place, but known locally by the owner's name.  She's quite a character but most importantly cooks the most divine entrecote and chips!  The cafe is at Angles sur l'Anglin, which is a beautiful, quaint, village a couple of miles from us.  You could probably call Josette the Cafe Queen.  Every day at lunchtime and during the busy seasons she is found standing in the doorway of her cafe.  At the first sign of any hungry or thirsty punters she ushers you to the green tables and chairs - her side of the square ( actually its a triangle but you know what I mean ) so that she gets the lions share of the business.  The red chairs and tables belong to another cafe and they don't seem to have come up with a successful counter plan yet!  Anyway the main thing is her food is great.  So, lunch duly consumed we went home for siesta.  

The Guinness apron was a birthday present too!

                                                                              Mark must have known that more plans were afoot as he was told that he could spend as long as he wanted to sleeping off his lunch!  I think the birthday shirt may have given the game away rather as well, especially as Mr Bong was wearing a similar one all day.  Anyway he disappeared for hours ( expect there was some cricket on the TV ).  In the meantime Mr & Mrs Bong vanished into our cafe, aka the old bakery with scrubbing brushes, sticky tape, glasses etc until it was time for the grand opening of the Caribbean Beach Bar! Rum and Bob Marley music, we were transported back to the cricket tour in Barbados!  

Our new friend P A Rot

We invited the gite guests round for a couple of drinks too and there was a real party atmosphere!  Later we had yummy Caribbean food (Mr Bong had brought his Levi Roots cookery book which Mark had also spotted !) followed by red and green jelly, made by Mrs Bong, topped with crushed pineapple as we didn't have any yellow. My nearly only contribution to the festivities was the cake, which was actually made by my Mother but as my cake making is not the best and hers is,  this was a very good thing.  I also found some candles that are a bit like sparklers, and a cake frill. This nearly turned out to be a disaster as while we were talking the candles burnt down and the cake frill caught fire!  Luckily Mark managed to blow it and the candles out with an almighty puff!! Now I think about it did we actually remember to sing happy birthday?

Iris time at Chenevaux

Its nearly time for the Chelsea Flower Show and most years there are irises in the show gardens.  With the cool weather that we have had recently, here and in the UK, I imagine that the growers have had an easier time keeping the flowers back for the show.  Ours have been flowering for a few weeks now as we have several varieties that give a display for up to about six weeks.  We're really lucky as most of them were already here when we bought Chenevaux, they were just either hidden or overgrown, so i've been dividing them and moving them around ever since and now they are everywhere!  This year we've noticed a couple of what look like new varieties - we're not entirely sure though!

The wisteria in the photo below is called "Lipstick" - I couldn't resist buying it with a name like that!  Planted about 4 yeas ago now it covers the whole of the wall along the side of the old bakery ( also called the Cafe du Coin ), and this year the flowers have been amazing. Not really a lipstick colour though!

Wisteria "Lipstick"

The faded underwear look

This iris is one of the very few that we have bought.  Every year on August 15th there is a festival day in our village of St Pierre de Maille - cycling races, parades, the brass band playing and a brocante/vide grenier along all of the village streets.  Vide grenier literally means to empty your attic and some of the things that are put out for sale look as though they have been in an attic for far too long!  Still, one man's rubbish is another's treasure!  There is a huge hustle and bustle first thing in the morning when everybody is setting up their stalls and lots of money changes hands, after battering down the prices of course!  We had a stall a couple of years ago and people were picking things out of the boxes as Mark was carrying them to our stall!  My objective is to sell as much as possible so that it doesn't come home again and spend another year in a shed.  So when it gets a bit quiet maybe an impromtu fashion show might take place, or I will send Mark off with a box of bits to try and tempt one of the customers trying to enjoy a quiet coffee at Gorries!  Last time he sold a video to a chap who didn't have a video recorder!  ( The wife brought it back !! )  Anyway - back to the iris - which I bought from a lady who always has boxes of them, it had a nice sounding name ( lost ) but I was a bit disappointed when it first flowered as the general effect looked a bit murky - the faded underwear look - however this year it seems more attractive somehow.

 We've been having a bit of a mare with deer in the grounds recently, there's a family living nearby, probably in one of our copses and we've been finding lots of nibbled and rubbed branches, rather oddly they seem to have taken a liking to conifers for some reason.  Lots of the young trees and shrubs are protected with chicken wire but we've had to use every last piece to try and protect everything.  We've also got a resident hare, rabbits, and some pheasants.  One of the males is very vocal and has adopted our garden as his territory - we know its the same one as it has several of its tail feathers missing - we call him "broken tail"!  After the recent rain our pond has actually got some water in it and the frogs have been taking advantage - the noise is tremendous!!  In previous years the tadpoles haven't survived as the pond has dried out too soon and although we don't want bad weather the occasional shower to keep it wet would be good.

As well as the irises we have a bumper selection of nettles so weeding is the activity of the week, as well as getting the veg patch in order.  The toms are ready to plant out and everything is suddenly growing faster than we can keep up with. Friends of ours who are far more organised came over last week and looked in horror at our potager " oh Caroline you've got a bit of work to do there,( ho ho,) we're already eating our own salads " etc, wish I was so diligent but gardening in the rain isn't my idea of fun especially when we've been up too late watching Britain's Got Talent!  How cute is that dog?

This may be a new one

Really fresh with blue veining in the white

Well lets see what horticultural innovations Chelsea brings, and then there's Wimbledon on the horizon and Mark's golf day on 13th June  Yaay we love summer.

Cricket in France?

This article was published in the Mail while we were in England recently and caught Mark's attention - read on for further developments bearing in mind that the two things that would make his life more than perfect are cricket and bitter! 

Owzat? Quintessentially English cricket bounces back at school... but only in France
By PETER ALLEN
PUBLISHED in the Mail: 23:36 GMT, 10 March 2012 
  
It is the quintessential English game, yet cricket has suffered a slow decline – today less than one-in-ten schoolchildren play the sport.  But now it is to enjoy an unexpected revival – in France.
Cricket is being introduced into the national curriculum for French primary schools, and enthusiasts hope the move will lead to cricket becoming a part of French culture. ‘We have far more open spaces here, so beautiful pitches will not be a problem and the French are certainly clever enough to understand the  complicated rules,’ says Gilles Lefevre, an English teacher from Bordeaux, who learnt to love the game on holidays to the UK.


Cricket is being introduced into the national curriculum in France and enthusiasts hope the move will lead to cricket becoming a part of French culture  ‘Culturally, cricket is all about the English but there is no reason at all why this game should not become a favourite here.’
Even French cricket terms are being introduced – including ‘fin de serie’ for over, ‘batteur’ for batsman and ‘lanceur’ for bowler  Leg before wicket is ‘jambe devant guichet’. However, French enthusiasts are struggling to pronounce ‘Owzat!’ – for which they have yet to find a Gallic alternative.
They can even argue they have a historic claim to the sport as French archives refer to the game of ‘criquet’ being played as early as 1478.


At present, the France national side must travel to Holland to use a grass wicket while schools play in gyms and on playgrounds with soft balls. But France Cricket, which monitors the game’s development across the country, is confident all that can change. The new schools scheme will mean that children between six and 11 will be taught the basics of the game, learning everything about batting, bowling and fielding. Only a handful of schools have so far enjoyed the sport as part of a pilot project around France, but the numbers will multiply over the coming months and years. A France Cricket spokesman said: ‘This is an enormous breakthrough for French cricket.

Getting ready for a century!

So, a couple of weeks ago the group of ladies who come for pottery classes every week were chatting away and one of them mentioned that her husband had heard that there was a local cricket team being set up. We had known for a while that there was a team at Saumur, but that's a fair trek for practices etc.  Telephone number supplied Mark rang the contact and found that a team is being set up with the use of a practise ground in Poitiers for this season and then a new ground is going to be developed at the hippodrome at La Roche Posay which is only about 10km from us - and not only a ground but a National ground!   A meeting on the bridge at Montmorrillon with the local organiser ( i'm the small man with curly hair/i'm the big man with less hair than I had conversation - the bridge is only about 100m wide, how many others would be standing there doing nothing at mid-day! ) confirmed the facts and now Sunday is the first practise day and cricket teas may not be a thing of the past any more!
Better go and find the kit!!

My Posh Day!

My Posh Day: Allez les bleus! It’s great to be back

By Mark Judson
Published in the Peterborough Evening Telegraph on Monday 12 March 2012 15:45

Mark Judson from France watches Peterborough United beat Blackpool 3-1 at London Road on 10th March 2012:

Current form: I’m 53, and a former schoolteacher now running a holiday let business near Poitiers in France.

I have supported Posh for 47 years. My first match was on March 15, 1965 versus Shrewsbury Town.

I remember my father passing me over the turnstiles at the Glebe Road terraces and us forcing our way down to the wall where I stood on an old milk crate which allowed me to witness Derek Dougan score one and Peter Deakin notch a hat-trick in Posh’s 4-1 win. I was hooked.

I try to arrange my annual return trip to blighty to coincide with two Posh home games (Millwall and Blackpool on this trip).

I avidly follow the rest on Posh Player with Edwin and the great Bob Burrows. Is there a more enthusiastic Posh fan than Bob? He really brings the games to life.

Pre-match: I picked up my niece Stacey Moore from Walton and we decided to find a proper English pub close to the ground. We chose the Coalheavers and were not disappointed.

They had fantastic English ale called ‘Nero’ and who should show up but my old friend Derek Lopez from the Norman Cross Gallery (I used to be director of art at the Perse School, Cambridge, where I ran an art gallery too and we used to compare notes) and his daughter the ‘Princess’ Melissa and some friends.

It was great to catch up on recent Posh news and performances and we both agreed that the Millwall game was one to forget. We wondered which Posh team would turn up today?

Stacey and I arrived at the London Road terraces at about 2.30pm and viewed a perfect pitch in front of us. I was eagerly anticipating a feast of flowing football from both sides but with a modicum of trepidation after the Millwall debacle.

Could we overcome a team that was in the Premiership last season and was sitting pretty in fifth place in the league?

I noticed Brisley was in for his debut and how he resembled Ryan Bennett. Hope he plays like him I thought.

From the pre-match warm- ups the Posh players seemed relaxed and in good spirit.

Half-time report: Wow what a performance! Posh outplayed Blackpool from start to finish in an amazing first half.

The midfield that looked so weak against Millwall was controlling the game and Lee Tomlin made all the difference. Brisley was having a blinder.

At half-time we tried the steak pies, which were okay - unlike the London Road loos which are surely on the list of ‘to do’s’ for next season.

Atmosphere: It took a while for the London Road fans to get going, maybe that drum is needed after all! But when that third goal went in there was collective relief and a massive return of confidence. The Posh were back!

Full-time report: What a game! Three vital points, three goals and a great performance.

Whatever Darren Ferguson did to the team after Tuesday needs bottling.

I shall complete the 1200 mile round trip convinced we can stay up. On Tuesday I was not so sure.

George Boyd was back on form, Lee Tomlin was on fire but my man-of-the-match would go to young Shaun Brisley for an amazing debut.

It was great to be back home, to see friends and family again and to cheer the mighty Posh on to victory!

Just nine more points lads, allez les bleus and UTP!

Match report: Posh 3, Blackpool 1 - The tale of the unexpected

OVERALL MATCH RATING: 9 OUR FANS: 8 THEIR FANS: 6

Winter got colder and colder

The snow has been on the ground for nearly two weeks now and it has been so cold (-18 one night ) that it has turned to little ice flakes which shimmer and sparkle in the sun.  Very pretty but hopeless for snowballs as it just turns to powder.  So we played with the icicles instead!

We have been feeding the birds three times a day and putting out water too.  The blue tits, great tits, robins, goldfinches, nuthatches and occasionally the woodpecker all come flocking to the bird table as soon as the sunflower seed is put out.  If Mark is late they congregate in the lime tree and the plum trees by the side of the studio and wait to be fed and then as soon as the seed is on the table they are there!   The other day a pheasant came along too and pecked a few seeds from the snow around the table before being shooed away.  We still have a couple of baskets of apples left, which are starting to get soft and wrinkly, so we have been putting these out on the ground for the blackbirds, which have also demolished some squash, resulting in spectacularly orange droppings all around the front garden! On our walks around our grounds we have spotted feathers in the snow which are probably where the sparrowhawk has made a kill.  Goodness knows what has happened underground in all of the mouse holes and tunnels but I am hoping for the best, or worst, depending on your viewpoint.

In the greenhouse things are looking a bit bleak.  Despite wrapping the geraniums and other tender plants in fleece, old sacks, bubblewrap, carpet and anything else to hand the -18C that we had a few nights ago has left them all limp and soggy.  No doubt there will be a few casualties outdoors too so i'll be doing lots of cuttings and divisions of the things that have survived.

The thing that has been lovely though is the amount of sunshine we have been having, as you can see - lovely blue sky!

Hope all of you reading this have been keeping warm!

There are a few more photos of icicles and snow in the photostream on our blog page at www.chenevaux.blogspot.com

Winter arrives at Chenevaux

The new (not quite finished) pergola in the farmhouse back garden.

The last day of January and the winter is about to begin!  Yesterday morning started off reasonably mild but as the day went on it got progressively colder until it started snowing late afternoon and then we woke this morning to lovely clear blue skies and brilliant white snow everywhere.
The mimosa, which leads a precarious life, has grown like topsy over the past few months.  It has little tiny flower buds on it in amongst the feathery leaves which have all been swathed in a lightweight tarpaulin and tied up with string in the hope that this gives enough protection against the forthcoming frosts.  The forecast is for -11 later in the week!
To explain about the mimosa's precarious life - the previous owner was given some seeds by her daughter who lived in Morocco.  She planted the seeds on the front wall of the gite, which faces south - makes good sense initially.  I don't know how many seeds there were but the one that germinated and grew into a tree was right up against the wall and in front of a window, so when we were renovating the gite it had to be moved.  By chance we were having the swimming pool excavated so a digger was available and with one big scoop a new hole was dug, and with another the whole rootball was dug out.  Job done!  Only thing is that the tree is now in a more exposed place and if we have a cold winter, which is often the case, it suffers terribly.  To the point that a couple of years ago it was so badly frost damaged that we cut it down to the ground completely thinking that it was dead.  But then, a good few months later it started sprouting out of the ground so we decided to give it another chance.  By last winter it was the size of a shrub so we covered it in fleece for the winter, which was successful.  This winter it is at least 4m high and 3m diameter so the piece of fleece is far too small and the tarpaulin seemed the best thing.  We will see what happens and keep our fingers crossed.  I did manage to get some seeds to germinate about 4 years ago now and have one small tree left in my greenhouse just in case.
This isn't the only example of plants regrowing here - when a gingko had its main stem chewed off by a deer I thought the whole thing would die, but that too sent up a new stem.  So now, if something looks dead, we leave it in the ground for a year or so to make entirely sure!
The snow today had really settled on the branches of trees and shrubs so we had to go round and give them a shake to get it off. Some young sliver birch trees were bent over to the ground but soon sprang back.  Then we had to rescue the fruit cage.

A heavy load on the fruit cage netting.

As you can see the snow is really weighing down the netting even though we put wires under it for extra support.  It was only last week that we cut back some of the branches on the conifer but the ones still overhanging the cage were so heavy with snow that a couple had snapped.  Using a walking stick and a broom we gently banged the netting from underneath and got ourselves well and truly wet, but gradually the snow fell through the holes.  Then we tackled the tree, by the time we finished the snow that had been melting was starting to freeze again and there were icicles hanging from the branches,

Pergola in progress.

We have gradually been accumulating old oak beams under our open barn - a lot from the ruin that we have been working on recently.  So a pergola seemed to be a great way of using some of them!  Roses do really well here as we have clay soil and the local farmer kindly brings us muck from either the cows or sheep.  David Austin roses are far and away the most successful, and having ordered some which were delivered earlier in the month this will be the perfect home for them.  There is still another line of horizontal beams to go in and some finishing off to do then I can get planting! Weather permitting that is.