Chris celebrated his 46th Birthday here at La Petite Maison last Wednesday, Jacqueline and Gerard cooked dinner at Chez Dormois the Tuesday before, Chris liked just one candle on his cake, wonder why?
After Winter passes it is with delight that we watch the garden burst into colour, snowdrops, daffodils and primroses are now in full bloom here at La Petite Maison, the grass has started to grow, all are sure signs that Spring is well and truly here, officially the 20th March this year. Today brings warm winds from the South, Chris and Joanne have composted the vegetable plots and are sorting through the seeds that Joanne carefully handpicked and dried last year, the first to be planted will be early carrots followed by Spunta potatoes, the leeks that have been dormant through the Winter months have already started to push and the fruit trees have started to bud, let's hope we don't get another spell of hard frosts like last year which saw an end to a good apple harvest when the flowers dropped before the bees had chance to polynate them.
Saturday the Glorious 12th, no, not Grouse, here in France the 12th March finds the river fishing season open. Everybody gets excited about the first trout of the season, Chris included, Joanne wasn't dissapointed when an afternoons fishing produced 5 lovely Brook trout.
Well, sorry folks, we were amazed when we realised that we hadn't posted any new posts since December, how time flies when you are having fun. The hunting season has all but finished, just Sunday morning fox hunts until the end of March, Chris had a great season with 2 Pheasants, 2 Pigeon, 2 Sanglier (wild boar) and 8 Deer. The freezers are full and Joanne has been busy preserving the game in jars, an excellent way to seal in all those delicious flavours. Chris has been busy working in the forest, it's that time of year when the trees are felled before the sap rises, cut and split and then piled to dry in the glorious summer sunshine, Chris calls it the countryside Gymnasium. 
Jess & Bonny thought Christmas had come early when Joanne opened the door on Wednesday, they were delighted to find a foot of snow ! Whilst Chris cleared the pathways around La Petite Maison, Jess & Bonny played contently, catching snow off the shovel, afterwards, we walked through the forest marvelling at the wonders of the winter wonderland that was 'Chassain Cheval'.
