March at Chenevaux

Mark's exhibition at the Old School, Whittlesford, just outside Cambridge, is only a few days away so he is working all hours in his studio to finish off the ceramics and paintings for the show.  I'm sure that lots of you reading this have already heard about it via Mark's blog at www.markjudsonart.blogspot.com but for those of you who are either reading from afar, visiting this blog for the first time or maybe have forgotten (!) ..... he is exhibiting a selection of his abstract acrylics and some ceramic pieces alongside watercolours by Vandy Massey and hand-made wooden boxes by Denise Shearing.  The exhibition is only on for a couple of days, Sat 9th and Sun 10th March, from 10am - 5pm,  so if you are in the Cambridge/Whittlesford area please do come along.  Full details are at www.markjudsonart.blogspot.com and we will post more photos afterwards.

Mark uses different materials to create texture

Work in progress, based on rock formations

In the meantime here at St Pierre de Maille, the annual early spring event called "Fete des Laboureurers" took place on Sat 3rd March.  Its a celebration of the end of the winter and the first time that everybody gets together after the short winter days. We have been several times over the years and as we all know the weather at the beginning of March is totally unpredictable.  We have experienced torrential rain, snow, really warm sun - and this year dismal freezing cold that made everybody hurry along to the Salle des Fetes rather more quickly than usual.

Showing how truffles grow under oak trees

The batterie de fanfare and  two very patient cart horses

Rose all round

The day starts with a Mass, followed by a procession of tractors accompanied by the local Batterie de Fanfare.  They all proceed round the village, stop at the Maison de Retraite, salute the war memorial and then back to Gorrie's cafe where an aperitif is offered to everyone in the village.  Then off we trot to lunch, which takes hours and incorporates an extremely lengthly tombola draw and some traditional French songs.  By the time we get home (a pied) the day is almost gone!  Those with more stamina are invited to a free Ball, which continues until past midnight, but we are far too lightweight for that these days.

One of the first signs of spring every year is the arrival of the cranes, or grue as they are called in French.  We are on the edge of the Brenne National Park - a huge area of lakes and flatlands where birds and wildlife are protected.  Its a great place for bird watching.  The cranes stop for a few days en route from their winter habitat in Spain, to Scandinavia, where they spend the summer.  Flying in flocks of up to a hundred or so, the noise is the first thing we notice, way before the birds come into sight.  As they fly over it is tremendous, especially as there are often up to a dozen flocks that pass overhead in the course of two or three days.

The Gite and back of the Farmhouse on a cold and frosty morning

February at Chenevaux

There are a few signs of Spring appearing in the garden. Clumps of snowdrops, crocus, hazel catkins and these beautiful hellebores.  The daphne ( which has recovered from last winter's freeze ) is nearly in flower and the blue tits have started to investigate the nesting boxes in the roof of the bird table.   After all of the rain this winter the ground is absolutely sodden and it looks as though it will be a few weeks before it is dry enough to do anything much apart from some pruning and tidying up on any sunny days that come along - which will be very welcome.  We are starting to think about the potager, which was rather less productive last year as the weather was so dry and then the rabbits ate everything except the courgettes and the tomatoes.  At the moment a bit of dry would be a bonus but that still leaves the rabbits so we are going to invest in some chicken wire or similar fencing around about half of the veggie area to keep the pesky things out.  Another job to add to the list!  

A few of the jars of marmalade

A couple of weeks ago we went to Chauvigny market for our annual supply of marmalade oranges.  It was the coldest, wettest and most miserable day of the winter so far and many of the stallholders hadn't turned up.  After clearing out one trader we found another one and took half of his stock too.  Seville oranges are almost impossible to get here, so we get a variety called Amere, which are thinner skinned, but still make marvellous marmalade.  7 kilos of oranges, 8 grapefruit, a bag of lemons, 20 kilos of sugar, hours of chopping and boiling later we have a marmalade mountain.  86 jars to be precise, and not a single empty jar left anywhere. Luckily I have a network of people who kindly keep jars for me and donate them via my parents so when it comes to the next round of jam making supplies should be replenished.

Mark has been working hard in his studio, potting, firing, glazing and painting.  He has several exhibitions lined up this year, at Whittlesford in March, then here at Chenevaux for a national open studios week-end in April, a one day event in St Savin in June and then a solo exhibition at Angles sur l'Anglin for the last week in  August.  You can find out about these at www.markjudsonart.blogspot.com  His weekly painting and pottery workshops have been very well attended as well and everybody has a great time chatting as well as creating.

Some of the pottery ladies and Mark

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!