We, the Housemartins (Hirondelles) are doing just fine, Chris & Joanne have made sure we are all safe and look out for us every day, we are growing up now and it won't be long before we leave our home and emigrate to Africa for the Winter. We must tell you all that it is just fantastic here at 'La Petite Maison' and
Well, we have just about recovered from a hectic weekend, we celebrated Fabiens 21st birthday on Saturday night in style with a great bbq that went on well into the early hours. Brigitte, Phillipe, Virginie & Fabien did us proud with a fantastic assortment of fine French country cuisine, the speciality of course being bbq'd wild boar that had been marinated for two days in a secret marinade, delish !! After the main course we played petanque under floodlights, Phillipe had arrived earlier in the day with his tractor and turned part of the garden into a boules pitch, just great !! After midnight we returned to the new house and ate fantastic desserts of apricot tartes, strawberry tartes, pear tartes and so on. We finally hit the sack at 02.00 hrs, the morning arrived too soon, off again after walking Jess & Bonny and seeing to the rest of the managerie. We ate lunch in Aubusson with Phil, Brigitte, Virginie, Fabien and lots of their familly before heading off to Blessac for an outside wrestling tournament 'Catch' in France, a right old comedy, Ha Ha !! Joanne & Chris left just before the tag wrestling, visited the vide grenier and then returned to La Petite Maison just before 18.00 hrs, ahhhhh, peace !!
Joanne dressed for the occasion of cooking an Indian lunch for our friends Jacqueline and Gerard, it was the first time that they have eaten Indian cuisine. Joanne made poppadums with homemade mango chutney and red onions from the garden, then homemade onion baji followed by chicken curry with pilau rice and of course French Fries !! Oh yes, homemade chips !! This was followed by prune crumble made with last years preserved prunes from the tree in the garden, it is already laden with this years crop which will be harvested September ish.
An early morning walk with Jess & Bonny was made much more enjoyable when Chris found his first Girolles of the year, they are more commonly known as Chantrelles in the UK, inevitably, his walk then became a forage, it doesn't take much ha ha !! They are difficult to find and are highly treasured, they can be found on the markets for as much as £15 a kilo, a couple of ceps added to the find, we will make an omlette tomorrow for lunch with all of our own ingredients. Eggs, girolles, parsley, onions and garlic, can't wait !
A morning inspection of the hive and Chris is happy, the bees continue to cap the honey combs, this makes the difference between first and second class honey, honey extracted that has not been capped is not as good as honey that has, you can see the white area on the frame, this has been capped with wax.
