To start
our 2017 blog may we offer you all our best wishes for a kind and prosperous New
Year. In October I decided to stop
blogging as I felt there was a lack of interest out there in Blogger Land but I
have missed my musings about our life here in Brevands, so I have decided that I will
start the New Year with a monthly round up of our goings on in the hope that you will join in and keep us up to date with your news and
adventures.
We finished
2016 with a gathering around the table with friends Jay, Helen and Roz. We turned the grandfather clock chimes on to
be sure we did not miss the moment in the middle of a fun and chatty evening. The chimes are normally turn off because the
old fella bongs away our lives by the hour and had to be silenced. Now and again is OK and it reminds us just how
precious every, donged, hour is.
Despite
a few sore heads we met up with an enthusiastic bunch of people on new year’s
day for a run out in military WW2 vehicles. Jay and Helen set up a field
kitchen and the table was loaded with everyone else’s festive leftovers, with champagne and mulled wine chocolates and
cake…what a treat.
Mike and I
are not military and go along as civilians …
I will say this lonely once … we go as free French in our 1936 Morris
called Monty and it feels great to be amongst people who are enthusiastic about
their vehicles and the history behind them.
With the
prospect of rallies and outings with our fag flying friends, we felt a need to lift our
standards. We bought a meter of
expensive sewn flag fabric so we can dress Monty up appropriately for this Free French role,
and very smart he will look……
Our next
outing was an evening of home entertainment with Shirley and Mark. A large crowd
gathered at their tiny chateaux and many of us took to the stage with a
resounding introduction in the style of the Good Old Days with words longer
than your arm and some not made up. Mike and I performed as Uke 2. Considering
we only started playing our ukuleles in October we did OK…. Mike has never
played an instrument to performance level, ever. We were very pleased and hope to get a few
more people involved to make a uke band during this year. In late summer we got
together with Jay and Helen to get a little folk come rock star ensemble
together and this evening was our first gig, in the chateaux. It was an evening
of rowdy laughter and stage fright nerves, but we were in the bosom of our
friends and a truly fabulous night was had by all.
This re-enacting
event in our lives at the moment has had mike looking for a French beret to
wear, but has not been able to find his size and style.. Until now. We saw a
man in Brico-depot wearing the beret of
all berets, so I accosted him to know
where he got it. As chance would have it the Hat Lady in Carentan Market gets
them to order and we were fist in the queue on Market day and I now have me a
fine looking French resistant gizza ready for action.
Mike and I
are concerned that some ailments we are nurturing recently could be due to the
damp and dust you get when you make your home in a farmhouse built 200 years
ago. We have decided to beat the allergy clinic to that conclusion and have
done a deep and boring clean of our living spaces. I had these old books down
for a thorough spruce and had a thoughtful moment remembering that I have used
them all my life. We asked a question as kids and my dad would say, look in the
Nelsons….. They are very special as they were published in the year that Titanic
sank and she is mentioned but the books were printed and on the shop shelves
before she was finished and left on her fateful journey in 1912. My Nelson books
have happily made it, and I am proud to note that the dictionary and the
encyclopaedia are the most worn books in the set ….thanks Dad
We had an
unexpected bell clang at the front gate, and as we never get passing traffic or
unexpected guests it was both exciting and worrying. A young lady bounded into our kitchen saying she
was here to conduct the French National Census.
I remembered doing the last one
with endless questions and when she suggested I might like to go on line I jumped at the opportunity go
at my own pace. I do quite a lot of
French stuff on line now and this census was wrapped up in 15 minutes
…..chuffed…. you bet ya !
If you
should mention to your French neighbour that it is cold, freezing, snowy or
windy his or her reply will always be…it is winter you know !!!. So here we are
in the middle of a long 2 weeks of frozen pond, frozen water butts and white
out lawns and nobody to complain with, we Brits love to weather moan, so we just dealt
with the cold spat and actually enjoyed some real winter moments of blue skies
and chilly breezes.
These
winter days are made all the more tolerable when you get mates to sit at your
table for a bit of lunch and a catch up. Elaine and Pat brought their new
little doggie Bob along for HOSS to make
friends with and as you can see the sun shone through despite the bitter chill. We also got a walk around the garden to get
the dogs to play …..But it was chilly.
"I wonder
what is in the
oven Bob ?”
“dunno
HOSS, but is smells OK!!”
Winter also
leaves Mike and me a little in need of
retail therapy and as there are no Vide Greniers at this time of year we tried
a Puce Musical hoping to find old sheet music and instruments, but no….just
boxes and boxes of vinyl LPs and 45’s. It was
however, a nice blast from the past moment, and we enjoyed it just for that. We
took a picnic and had a nice ride out in the winter sun to round off a lovely
day off site
Friends
Eric and Gill came through on their way to a house sit in the Charente. We
always look forward to their visits. It rained and was very grey for days. On
their last day with us we put ourselves
in the hay loft and put the ping pong table up. I have put ‘Table Tennis‘ on
the to do list and today Mike whopped me 3 games to 0 . we will get our practice in for when Eric and
gill come back in March and have a bit of a tournament with a pint of larger and a packet of crisps.
And to
finish I thought I might include a picture of the garden from the barn window
every month. It will remind us of the fabulous changes we are about to see. I
have already sewn my summer flower seeds on the hot bed in the potting shed. When the flower seedlings are ready to pot on
it will be time for the veg seeds to sew …..what a great prospect … and
although anyone living in Normandy will tell you the winters are long and grey,
we have so much to look forward to when the
days lengthen and we can get out to enjoy our summers here in Brevands.
