Yesterday was the spring brocante at Angles sur l'Anglin just up the road and everybody was out and about enjoying the sunshine and finding bargains. We came home with a masonry trowel, a cutting board and a plant stand that I simply couldn't live without!
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| Brocanting at Angles sur l'anglin. |
The cafes and restaurants have put out their tables and chairs as the forecast for the this week is up in the 20's. A couple of the eateries have changed hands, one is now offering traditional French cuisine using local suppliers for the ingredients which we will try before too long. These oysters come from the Ile d'Oleron on the west coast and are really wonderful and so fresh.
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| Oysters from Ile d'Oleron |
Another change, this one in St Pierre, is that the local shop has changed its name! As anybody who has been to stay at Chenevaux will know, the name Huit a Huit was a long time source of humour as it was never actually open from 8 til 8 at all. f you haven't been to stay at Chenevaux yet, think about the opposite of "Open all Hours" and you are close to the reality! anyway, its now called Proxi - but I think the original name will stick for a long time to come.
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| New signage on the village shop |
We have had some lovely sunny days recently and Mark has been busy cleaning the pool so its sparkling! Peach, nectarine and plum blossom are all out and the cherry blossom is just starting to appear. Cowslips, violas and grape hyacinths are poking through the grass and lots of the spring flowering shrubs are in bloom. A flowering currant was looking really pretty until a hare scraped at it and pulled a load of branches and flowers off, and we had to put netting round a group of phormium plants as we noticed that wild boar had been snouting round them to get at the roots. Its all very well this countryside lark but sometimes .....!
The birds make up for it though as they are singing away from dawn to dusk and the other day I opened the kitchen window and heard a cuckoo, followed by a pheasant. Bird boxes are occupied and a woodpecker is a regular visitor to our bird table where it feasts on fat balls. I had to take the photo through a closed window so its not the best.
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| Our greedy woodpecker |
This pair of Poitou donkeys lives on the way to la Roche Posay. They are a breed that originate from our area - the Poitou. It is one of the largest breeds of donkey and was selected for its size so that it could be used as a working animal on farms. The coat is meant to look long and shaggy! There aren't many of them left now as they aren't needed on farms any more and I believe they have been classed as a rare breed.
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| Poitou donkeys |
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| Happy Easter! |
