Renovation project - Growing chicken dinners!

Renovation project - Growing chicken dinners!

Well we have been back for a while and it is time to start working. Well it will be soon, we are going to visit our friends with the animals.

One of the nicest things about visiting here is that there is always cake, Theresa makes the most amazing cakes and there is always plenty to go around, today it is sticky chocolate cornflake cakes, mmmmmm lovely.

We go to visit the baby chicks, they are growing twenty of them in the incubator and they are so sweet, they are at the little fluffy yellow stage. Theresa explains that they buy them at a day old and keep them in the incubator until they are big enough to go in the chicken coop. She also explains that they are all male and I ask why they have male ones as they won’t get any eggs and then this is when I realise they are growing twenty chicken dinners, yet another aspect of my Felicity Kendal and The Good life dream disappears out of the window! This is the realism of living the dream!

We pass a lovely hour and then head back to the house.

John starts a big cleanup operation and starts to make a list of what is still left to do.

The garden is really growing so I head out to do some work on the trees

We have a beautiful tree but it is currently being strangled by blackberry bushes. My job for the day is to cut the blackberries down, an easy task you may think, but no, this is our house and the blackberries have grown right though the tree. I spend the afternoon cutting, chopping and pulling. 

The weather is glorious and so I do it wearing a vest, great for the suntan, but it is only later that I realise this is a really bad idea, my arms are covered in scratches and I look a mess, so I spray myself in antiseptic, aarrrgggghhhhhh it is so painful, what a stupid idea, why would I inflict this much pain on myself????

I am so knackered that night I have a soak in the bath and try to ease my aching bones!

Top tip

1. If gardening in blackberry bushes, COVER UP!!!!!!!!!

Renovation project - France Today Magazine

Renovation project - France Today Magazine

I’m back and yes I know I said it was my birthday yesterday but on the blog I am a few days behind, so I am going back to where I left off (I was just being polite yesterday and letting people know why I would be offline for a couple of days)

We have fully recovered from our journey and our goodbyes, spent a day in and out of bed and dozing, so we check our letter box to see what bills are waiting for us and have a lovely surprise, there is a copy of France today Magazine waiting for us. I had forgotten how nice it was to actually receive something in the post that isn’t telling us how much money is about to come out of our bank account or what the latest special offer is in the local supermarket!

I open the wrapper with anticipation and excitement (yes I really am that easily pleased!). We used to have regular subscriptions when we lived in the UK, they helped us to plan our move and gave us an idea of what life would be like in France, but once here we haven’t really bothered, yes we look at interesting articles on the internet but they just aren’t the same as having the publication delivered to your door.

I spend the morning in bed reading the magazine, I had also forgotten how nice it was to do this, and it’s even nicer now we actually have a comfortable bed!

The magazine has so much information in it and actually brings back some happy memories, the Sun, Sea, Sand and Oyster feature makes me smile, I had forgotten all about Arcachon, yet the place holds some amazing memories, we stayed there a few years ago on our first trip to France, and this is where we had our favourite photograph taken, between the pine trees and the Atlantic.

We are planning a holiday in the next few weeks and had been planning on driving through France to get to Spain, but now we may spend a little longer in France.

We had discussed going to the champagne region for a break, but the feature titled a sparking tale, has made the decision for us, I really want to go on the laser guided train through the cellars, I also want to tell my daughter that I have actually been to the vineyards where they make Veuve Clicquot and take her a bottle back on our next visit.

There really are so many wonderful places to visit, but as this is now home we are looking further afield for holidays, the magazine has reminded us why moved here.

I have to put it down as we need to do a bit of work around the house, so my pleasant morning is swapped for an afternoon of cleaning; I think I may change my name to Cinderella!