Saturday, 26th July 2014

Hello all

Well it has been an interesting week, Pat has been away for the week at an intensive French course and I’ve been here by myself.  He arrived back last night – yah – however, he has been speaking French to me ever since!!!!!

So what did I get up to while Pat was away – not much really as he had the car.  My first job last week was to make some green tomato chutney with all the tomatoes that I saved from my blight infected plants (2.5 kilos worth).  It is ok, a bit vinegary for my taste, but it is meant to be left for 2 weeks before it is eaten. So next week I will taste it again. I also made myself some olive bread (in the bread maker) and it turned out really well.

I still got to my French class on Tuesday by riding my bike.  It is only a 35 minute ride, but my handle bars decided that they didn’t want to stay still.  I’ll get Pat to look at that now that he is home.  We have decided that we will ride every week as long as the weather is nice.

I also got a couple of Studio Ghibli films to watch while Pat was away, one which I had never seen.  It was really nice just to sit in front of the TV and watch a film by myself (along with some chocolate and a glass of wine).  I also had time to do some reading – three books this week which I really enjoyed.

I’ve also finally finished painting the kitchen cupboards – yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  It looks very good and one of our neighbours popped by (who had been into the kitchen when the previous owners were here) and his comment was along the lines of, “wow it’s so much brighter in here”.  So I’m glad it is noticeable that the room is much lighter, I’m really pleased with how the kitchen looks, now onto the rest of the house.

I also got out into the garden this week and ripped out the kiwi vine.  The previous owners told us that last year it only produced 2 fruit and this year it only had 1 (despite a large number of flowers).  So it has gone.  I’m still planning the garden so not 100% sure what I will do with the space but I’ve got a few ideas.  The veggie patch is coming along and my corn plants are doing very well, it will be interesting to see how many corn cobs we get. The blueberry bush has been incredibly productive this year, so many blueberries that I’ve started to freeze some of them.

I also got a chance to talk to our neighbour who owns the chestnut grove.  I had been told that his grandfather had originally built our house, but what I found out was much more interesting.  It transpires that our house was the original farmhouse for our neighbour’s farm.  His grandmother had sold it in the 1980’s but until then it had been in the family from when they first came to the area in the 1860’s!!!!!!  His wasn’t able to give me an exact date but felt it would have been built in the 1860’s or 1870’s.  I also found out that our house was the first house in the hamlet to have a telephone and everyone use to come and use it.  It is fascinating to find these things out.  Now before you all think that my French has improved dramatically, unfortunately it has not.  The neighbour next door (whose family use to own the house) is very fluent in English.  The other neighbour who came by and commented on the kitchen is actually English – and in the process of renovating a house in the hamlet.  He and his wife don’t live here permanently at the moment. But it is nice to slowly get to know people in the hamlet.

All in all it has been a good week, but I am very glad to have Pat back home.

My loaf of olive bread

Kiwi Plant gone…

My project for this week – Dressing table

My project for this week – Dressing Table Mirror