Gardeners world !!

August has seen the tomatoes begin to ripen, they are just delicious, cherry toms, pear toms and Pyros f1's, a great crop which means lots of tomato chutney, yum yum, Chris's favourite.

The corn is also ripening and the grapes are plumping up, however, the grape vine hasn't done as well as expected, but some you win , some you lose, we just keep trying !!

Giant Puffball Heaven !!

August has produced giant puffballs here in France bigger than we ever dreamed to find in England, and believe it or believe it not, the French do not eat them, that is until we cooked them and they tasted them, they thought they were great. The one in the photo weighed 8kg and lasted us a week, just delicious !!

Hirondelle

Yes, we are now too big for our nest but have to return each evening, during the day we take flight and practice for our ever nearing migration to Africa, we will miss 'La Petite Maison' and of course Chris, Joanne, Jess & Bonny.

Gardeners World !!

Our pumpkin patch has turned itself into a jungle, one of them is going to perhaps break records, Chris is feeding his secret recipe liquid feed made onsite here at 'La Petite Maison' it is massive already and who knows how big it will go.

Bonny has lost interest in it now, it is too big for her to pick, last year as some of you well know, she had the melons away thinking they were balls, we still laugh when we think of her sat at the door with the melon in her mouth, Chris just burst out laughing, even though it was the first melon he had ever managed to grow!

The first of the tomatoes are turning red, we will have a fantastic crop this year, just think of all that chutney, passata and ketchup, of course, not forgetting how delicious they are taken from plant to plate.

We picked blueberries this morning with Jacqui & Dave, 14 kgs between us, Joanne has been busy in the kitchen all day, the confiture stock is now quite impressive, as is our piccalilli store, we have also made chilli piccalilli, it is delicious.

Enjoy the photo's, visit La Petite Maison soon to have your own slice of the Good Life !!

Christmas Turkeys arrive !!

Chris spent yesterday building the new Turkey roost, today we bought Turkeys from the fair at Giat. They are two males and are only nine weeks old, they are happy in there new home, we haven't told them yet that Turkeys are for Christmas, not for life !! They will stay in the roost for a couple of days so that they know where they live, come Wednesday, they will go free range with the rest of the hens and of course, Henri, the coq.

Bee Corner !

It's true, 10kgs of Honey in our first year of bee keeping, we are overjoyed, it is just delicious, we have potted it today and visitors to La Petite Maison can now purchase honey from our own bees (of course, it is gratuit at breakfast time) Did you know that if you eat locally produced honey each day, you become immune to hayfever allergies caused by the pollens that are local?

St Avit de Tardes Mechoui !!

Saturday night saw us at the annual Mechoui! Lamb is roasted for eight hours over a fire pit dug into the ground, a marinade of spices is constantly dripped onto the lamb as it cooks, it is just so tender and delicious. We arrived at the Salle Polyvalente at 20.30 hrs, with Phillipe, Brigitte, Virginie, Fabien, Roland, Lydia, Caroline, Manu, Pascaline and lots of others, we drank Ricard for the first hour or so then the banquet began, we returned to La Petite Maison around two in the morning after finishing the evening drinking 'Eau de Vie' (water of life) with Dominique. We had a great night, the photos are of Joanne, Virginie and niece Caroline.

Hirondelles are flying !!

The Housemartins are now flying each day, they leave the nest at dawn and return an hour or so before dusk, it is so funny when they return in the evening, they are almost adult size and cannot all fit in the nest. They fly around the village, they visit Jacqueline and Gerards house and perch on the telephone lines. The goldfinches have also returned to the garden and have just hatched their second nest in the Mirabelle tree (small golden plumb), we will try to take some photo's

Housemartin Heaven !!

Look at us now, we feel great, we have lost our baby feathers and have found ourselves with the most beautiful colours on our feathers, Mum & Dad continue to feed us with lots of insects. Joanne & Chris come to see us every day and make sure we are ok. Our nest is a little cramped now we are growing, there are five of us you know ! We feel so safe with Uncle Chris & Aunty Jo looking out for us. Sweet Dreams !!

Clafoutis !!!!!

Well wouldn't you just love a slice of this, and it's not finished yet but Chris couldn't resist the early photo and the thought of a great big scoop of vanilla ice cream next to it. 20 more minutes in the oven and voila !! The confiture is cooling, nine jars in total, we are happy with the quantity and will go picking next week with Jacqui & Dave. Chris is just starting to bottle some Haricot Vert that Danny kindly gave us this afternoon. Bye for now !!

Blueberry fields forever!!

Phew ! time to relax , it's Wednesday and boy have we been busy, La Petite Maison has been full and our guests have had a great time, we are so pleased, it has been wonderful.

This morning saw us harvest our honey (miel), a little less than expected but 8 kgs all the same, it is now safely maturing before being potted. In the photo you can see Joanne decapping the frames before them being placed into the centrifuge, it's a great job, all that honey to lick from your fingers, yum yum !!

By 10.15 hrs we were in a field just outside Blessac picking beautiful Blueberrys (myrtille) for the first 5 minutes we just ate them, absolutely delicious, 4 kgs later we were on our way home, we laughed and laughed due to us both having completely blue tongues and fingers. Joanne is now busy making Blueberry jam and clafoutis (a type of batter full of the fruit of your choice) Chris is off to hunt for Chantrelles with Jess & Bonny, no rest for the wicked hey !!