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SuomiI know, I know … what can I say - with over five months since the last Post we can only plead a combination of the weather and prolonged Barn renovation work and we did not want to subject loyal readers to 'PostMoan'!
So, this is going to be a longer than usual Post and we'll divide it into Chapters so you can skip the more boring bits easily. And where to start? Let's be really traditional and go with the weather:
Whither Weather?
The three months since our last Post at the close of March were the wettest on record, with increasing warmth and early June saw a very high humidity - well over 90%, when the usual figure is in the 60%'s. Mid-May saw a very wet garden, with the pond right up to its edges, the vegetable garden looking more like a large paddling pool and, the grass growing up to two centimetres in twenty-four hours:
So, this is going to be a longer than usual Post and we'll divide it into Chapters so you can skip the more boring bits easily. And where to start? Let's be really traditional and go with the weather:
Whither Weather?
The three months since our last Post at the close of March were the wettest on record, with increasing warmth and early June saw a very high humidity - well over 90%, when the usual figure is in the 60%'s. Mid-May saw a very wet garden, with the pond right up to its edges, the vegetable garden looking more like a large paddling pool and, the grass growing up to two centimetres in twenty-four hours:
It was of course the time for the ride-on mower to break down, and the garden machinery shop was so busy that they said it would be a month before it could be fixed …. so, over later May and early June three acres of grass was done with the small mower, pushing it through inches of water in places like some sort of new and very weird aquatic sport. Just in case you're interested, to mow all the grass with a 48cms-wide mower requires around 12 kilometres of walking. We gave up on planting the main vegetable beds and focussed on sorting out the raised beds and constructed one more of those, making it twice the size of the others.
Around mid-June, as the wet weather was coming to an end, we were really surprised to find that our strawberry plants in the main vegetable garden were covered in fruit - just well-timed for the visit from Australia of Noella's brother Howard and sister-in-law Bon …. so, their visit, some strawberries and a few trips out to the stunning countryside just 30 minutes away, cheered things up considerably!
From the third week in June the weather suddenly changed, getting much hotter (doubling the temperature some days from what it had been the previous week) and so starting to burn off at least some of the humidity. While the grass continued growing as if trying to outperform Borneo, we nevertheless had the benefit of the most beautiful display of roses and other flowers - within a matter of a week the garden was awash not just from residue of the rain but now with colour: so while trundling up and down on the motorised bath-chair with fitted scythes, we could admire these glorious blooms - who needs gin with such a tonic (well, we did actually ….):
During June we had been very worried that the BruelFest Fete was scheduled for Saturday June 30th, and that it was more complicated this year as there was to be a lunch for around three dozen people from the hamlet, in celebration of Andre and Marguerite's 65th Wedding Anniversary, followed by the fete, with music and dancing, pizzas and spit-roasts etc etc …. so, not a day for more rain. So, what happened …?
Sunny BruelFest - 'phew, what a scorcher!
It turned out that the weather on the 30th was so hot that we had to make a last-minute decision to have the Anniversary lunch inside because under canvas would prove too much for older folk. So, where to have it? Well, fortunately there was a newly-converted barn which could just about take thirty-six people or so. In fact our barn conversion was still not completed, but completed enough to do the job. A very good time was had by all, with an excellent lunch and a pyrotechnic gateau to close it:
The lunch ended at about 3.00pm, so it was a rapid change to get outside to fire up the pizza oven and the grills, to get the pizza dough mixed and the toppings ready, set-up the beer and wine bars and make sure the tables and awnings were all in place. The musicians, La Talvera, were due to arrive at 4.00pm, when the fete was 'officially open'. We had no idea how many people might come - previous years it has been around 70 and 80. La Talvera arrived and started playing:
- and then people started drifting in from around 6.00pm and by 7.00pm we had over a hundred people. So, it was a swift acceleration in pizza production - great this year, over 50 pizzas were produced; and the 'Le Bruel team' brought salads, bread, grilled sausages, cakes and fruit …. and later there was the spit-roast pig. It went on until well after midnight, with La Talvera playing throughout, leading people in traditional Occitanie dancing around the hamlet's green and into 'Nichoir's forecourt. The general view was that it was definitively 'the best one ever', with over 120 people attending overall. It seemed incredible that only a few weeks before everything was waterlogged and very squelchy!
Since the BruelFest, it has been 'all change' with the weather and we have had one of the hottest July and August periods since we arrived. But the particular feature has been the lack of rain - so, from being inundated for over two months we now (at time of writing this) have had virtually no rain … just the very occasional light shower. We'll return to this in a moment, and to how this year's weather has affected wildlife in the garden. But, before that … you know you want to …. it's 'Barn Time'!
Barn Progess
Well, in our last Post we said that we hoped to be completed by the end of May - hmm, it has taken us a further three months! The main factor in this has been the complexity of the plumbing - and right up to the point when everything else was completed, we were still having to solve problems. But on the positive side, the further time has enabled us to do some detailed work with which we're very pleased. In particular we have done some woodwork features that have worked really well. Instead of buying in 'finished wood' for shelving and surfaces we sourced some old chestnut flooring boards from a barn (we think around two hundred years old) and, taking the measurements of the surfaces that we wanted to cover, did some preliminary cutting, shaping and sanding:
- and then worked to the more precise measurements required by the various surfaces we wanted to cover - such as the long half-wall dividing the bedroom area from the sitting room, the 'breakfast bar' in the kitchenette area, and the surfaces in the bathroom, bedroom and dressing room areas. Where possible we tried to take the wood from a single piece, but some runs were too long and we had to make a join - and we did this by using traditional 'biscuit joints', which have worked well. Here's a 'picture library' of some of the bits and pieces:
Then it has been a process of painting final coats, treating the wood surfaces, and starting to furnish the rooms …. this included the bed, which (as you may recall from the last Post) was to be integrated into the stone cattle trough - requiring re-making the bed's legs and some fine-tuning of the stone cutting to enable the bed to be finally fitted into the trough (sounds attractive, doesn't it - just lying in bed and then this hay bale falls on your head ..?!). But overall we're very pleased with what we've achieved and we have put some photos of the new area at the close of this Post.
Visitors and Guests
We have been quite busy with visitors and guests this Summer and early Autumn, with folks from Holland and Germany for the first time, and also from Belgium, the United States and the UK. And also we have had a number of families with younger children, which has been great and has certainly kept us on our toes!
Visitors and Guests
We have been quite busy with visitors and guests this Summer and early Autumn, with folks from Holland and Germany for the first time, and also from Belgium, the United States and the UK. And also we have had a number of families with younger children, which has been great and has certainly kept us on our toes!
In early September we had our first guests staying in the new room - a family, with two dogs, and they seemed to find it very comfortable (we did an interview with the dogs, and they were pretty complimentary). Over the next two months we have family and friends booked in, so by the end of the year we should get a good idea how well it all works and if there are any final 'tweaks' we need to do.
Now, what about our favourite topic … wildlife in the garden (and no, that's not the item about the Belgian Nudist Motorcycle Club).
Garden Wildlife
As we've said, this year we have had what seems some very extraordinary weather and so one might suppose that there would be some unusual happenings regarding wildlife. Well, some general observations first: our couple of Little Owls have been much in evidence, until the last month or so - their behaviour has become quite routine, coming to the south of the garden in the early evening and perching on fence posts and on the children's swing and then swooping down and walking up and down looking for insects - and doing this for up to two hours. Although we have been quite close to them, say 30 metres, it has been difficult to get any good photographs, but here are a couple - the first one the owl is on the top, left-hand end of the swing, and then in the second photo he/she is on the ground 'this side' of the swing:
Now, what about our favourite topic … wildlife in the garden (and no, that's not the item about the Belgian Nudist Motorcycle Club).
Garden Wildlife
As we've said, this year we have had what seems some very extraordinary weather and so one might suppose that there would be some unusual happenings regarding wildlife. Well, some general observations first: our couple of Little Owls have been much in evidence, until the last month or so - their behaviour has become quite routine, coming to the south of the garden in the early evening and perching on fence posts and on the children's swing and then swooping down and walking up and down looking for insects - and doing this for up to two hours. Although we have been quite close to them, say 30 metres, it has been difficult to get any good photographs, but here are a couple - the first one the owl is on the top, left-hand end of the swing, and then in the second photo he/she is on the ground 'this side' of the swing:
The bird population generally in the garden seems to have grown this year - not in terms of variety of species so much as just quantity of birds … perhaps encouraged over the Summer by there being consistent sources of water, with the pond and the well, and plentiful food, as the mixture of early wet and humid conditions followed by plenty of sun has meant that there have been great crops of flowers seeds, berries, soft fruit (including a terrific amount of figs). Also, some early harvesting has brought a lot of birds of prey - so we have been constantly hearing the mewing of buzzards high in the sky as they circle above the fields' stubble :
On the ground the number of baby lizards has been particularly noticeable, much to the interest of our cat, Snufkin - who, despite his advancing years (he's seventeen now) still has an eye for an unwary lizard and, indeed, for grasshoppers and crickets (and there have been a lot of particularly large crickets). The apparently resident population of marbled newts have held their ground this year and they remain attracted by the swimming pool, so we find one or two each week in the skimmers and have to take care to remove them and pop them back in the pond (which they probably find very annoying, being always taken back to 'square one'):
In mid-summer we thought that there were far fewer bats than usual, but latterly there has been suddenly many more - back to what we are used to on Summer evenings; so perhaps the very wet Spring weather delayed their appearance. No new types that we can identify, just the usual Pipistrelles and Bechsteins - but very good to see them nonetheless, whizzing just over one's head if one walks around the garden and 9.00 or 10.00 o'clock in the evening.
So, overall despite the curious weather of the past six months we have not noticed negative effects on our usual garden wildlife. If the current drought continues we might find that there is less food available for wildlife to store for the Winter - and then it will depend on what sort of Winter we have and we may have to look to providing some food for the bird population if there are very cold conditions.
Developments
Looking to the later Autumn and Winter there are three particular developments we're looking forward to … and not unconnected:
Internet connection
The first is a complete change in the level of our Internet facilities. Currently our Broadband (not quite sure 'Broadband' is quite the right term …) is supplied by Orange and we are lucky if we manage 1.5Mb - so doing anything like this website and Blog is really a slow task. But three months ago we were told that our electricity provider, SERC, who already provide some Internet and telephony services, had won a significant project from national Government to provide fibre-optic connections to the rural communes they serve. SERC is an unusual outfit - it was developed as a collective/cooperative in the 1920's to provide electricity to the farmers in the north of the Tarn Department and has developed from there and in the last decade has gone into providing Internet and telephone services, using its above-ground electricity network. The Macron Government has taken action to activate a long-term, but until now very slowly executed, policy to improve Internet services throughout rural France and has invited applications from rural communes - and SERC have been very quick off the mark, helped by the fact that they already operate a suitable infrastructure. Anyway, we have been told (and papers have been delivered and signed) that by mid-Autumn we will be getting 100Mbs of fibre-optic Internet connection to the house (not just to the hamlet)! Our very good neighbour, Jean-Pierre, is vice-president of SERC, so we have been well briefed on how things are going and it really does look like we will have the connection in before the end of the year. This will transform how we're able to work on our website and on other ways in which we communicate online. Hoorah!
Chambres D'Hotes
The next development for us this Autumn is the way in which we market and manage our Chambres D'Hotes. The new barn development gives us a space (we think we might call it 'the Garden Studio') of some 90 sq. metres, providing a sitting room, with corner kitchen, bedroom and large shower room, all of which has been designed to support use by people with mobility difficulties. So, it is a facility that can function as a gîte rather than a B&B room - so this adds variety to our overall offer, as we now have a double room ('Vue Aubrac'), the apartment ('Vue Lacapelle) and the Garden Studio. We reckon that from next year we will focus on the Garden Studio, for couples and couples with young children; and offer this on a gîte basis, for stays of two nights or more. The other rooms would be provided on a B&B basis, for couples and couples with children of a more mixed age range. However, rather than the Garden Studio being provided on a traditional gîte basis (that is, no meals provided), we would offer some meals - for example, supper on the first evening/breakfast on first morning (giving time for people to then shop for their own food); occasional suppers if people would like that; and we would provide a 'welcome box' of basic supplies. We are also considering developing what meals we do provide and how we provide them, with a greater accent on environmentally-friendly produce, and more vegetarian offers, with recipes that reflect a wider range of cooking and 'slow-cooking', including Italian and other Mediterranean food cultures.
'Cinema Nichoir'
For some time now (I think we may have mentioned this in a previous Post) we've been thinking about starting a 'film club'. Discussion started at one of the 'WinterFetes', chatting about how quiet the months from November to March were and how nice it was when the people from the hamlet and wider commune got together - but it might be good to do something other than eat cake and drink wine. We knew that quite a few people seemed to really like films and when we suggested that we could get together perhaps once a month over the Winter, show a film and perhaps have something to eat, the response was surprisingly positive. So, we came up with the idea of having a film show, with a film from a different country each time, followed by something to eat. Digital technology would enable us to always provide French subtitles. We would try to find films that were not current and 'mainstream' (what's the point, there are good cinemas around here for that), but a little bit different and genuinely reflective of the country within which they were made. We could fit about two dozen people comfortably in the new barn area. We would provide something to eat, but keep it really straightforward and at the moment we're thinking of some soup (particular to the country from which the film came from), some bread and a glass of wine. And we would simply ask for a contribution at each film-show. If we go ahead, we will 'launch' it at the next 'WinterFest' in January 2019 and just see what the reaction is! Worth a try and seems a bit different!!
So, overall despite the curious weather of the past six months we have not noticed negative effects on our usual garden wildlife. If the current drought continues we might find that there is less food available for wildlife to store for the Winter - and then it will depend on what sort of Winter we have and we may have to look to providing some food for the bird population if there are very cold conditions.
Developments
Looking to the later Autumn and Winter there are three particular developments we're looking forward to … and not unconnected:
Internet connection
The first is a complete change in the level of our Internet facilities. Currently our Broadband (not quite sure 'Broadband' is quite the right term …) is supplied by Orange and we are lucky if we manage 1.5Mb - so doing anything like this website and Blog is really a slow task. But three months ago we were told that our electricity provider, SERC, who already provide some Internet and telephony services, had won a significant project from national Government to provide fibre-optic connections to the rural communes they serve. SERC is an unusual outfit - it was developed as a collective/cooperative in the 1920's to provide electricity to the farmers in the north of the Tarn Department and has developed from there and in the last decade has gone into providing Internet and telephone services, using its above-ground electricity network. The Macron Government has taken action to activate a long-term, but until now very slowly executed, policy to improve Internet services throughout rural France and has invited applications from rural communes - and SERC have been very quick off the mark, helped by the fact that they already operate a suitable infrastructure. Anyway, we have been told (and papers have been delivered and signed) that by mid-Autumn we will be getting 100Mbs of fibre-optic Internet connection to the house (not just to the hamlet)! Our very good neighbour, Jean-Pierre, is vice-president of SERC, so we have been well briefed on how things are going and it really does look like we will have the connection in before the end of the year. This will transform how we're able to work on our website and on other ways in which we communicate online. Hoorah!
Chambres D'Hotes
The next development for us this Autumn is the way in which we market and manage our Chambres D'Hotes. The new barn development gives us a space (we think we might call it 'the Garden Studio') of some 90 sq. metres, providing a sitting room, with corner kitchen, bedroom and large shower room, all of which has been designed to support use by people with mobility difficulties. So, it is a facility that can function as a gîte rather than a B&B room - so this adds variety to our overall offer, as we now have a double room ('Vue Aubrac'), the apartment ('Vue Lacapelle) and the Garden Studio. We reckon that from next year we will focus on the Garden Studio, for couples and couples with young children; and offer this on a gîte basis, for stays of two nights or more. The other rooms would be provided on a B&B basis, for couples and couples with children of a more mixed age range. However, rather than the Garden Studio being provided on a traditional gîte basis (that is, no meals provided), we would offer some meals - for example, supper on the first evening/breakfast on first morning (giving time for people to then shop for their own food); occasional suppers if people would like that; and we would provide a 'welcome box' of basic supplies. We are also considering developing what meals we do provide and how we provide them, with a greater accent on environmentally-friendly produce, and more vegetarian offers, with recipes that reflect a wider range of cooking and 'slow-cooking', including Italian and other Mediterranean food cultures.
'Cinema Nichoir'
For some time now (I think we may have mentioned this in a previous Post) we've been thinking about starting a 'film club'. Discussion started at one of the 'WinterFetes', chatting about how quiet the months from November to March were and how nice it was when the people from the hamlet and wider commune got together - but it might be good to do something other than eat cake and drink wine. We knew that quite a few people seemed to really like films and when we suggested that we could get together perhaps once a month over the Winter, show a film and perhaps have something to eat, the response was surprisingly positive. So, we came up with the idea of having a film show, with a film from a different country each time, followed by something to eat. Digital technology would enable us to always provide French subtitles. We would try to find films that were not current and 'mainstream' (what's the point, there are good cinemas around here for that), but a little bit different and genuinely reflective of the country within which they were made. We could fit about two dozen people comfortably in the new barn area. We would provide something to eat, but keep it really straightforward and at the moment we're thinking of some soup (particular to the country from which the film came from), some bread and a glass of wine. And we would simply ask for a contribution at each film-show. If we go ahead, we will 'launch' it at the next 'WinterFest' in January 2019 and just see what the reaction is! Worth a try and seems a bit different!!
Yup, BREXIT …. we cannot let this Post go without saying at least something. As we have been working on the barn, doing the garden and vegetables, welcoming and chatting to guests and visitors, the realties (hmm, not sure that's the right word) of the BREXIT negotiations and prospects have been stomping around. Being over here does provide a particular perspective, as we bump into people of different nationalities and experience and hear their views. The common strand across the comments we've received, as the sorry situation has evolved is people's incredulity that there is a 'blind consensus' that a referendum is some sort of 'be all and end all' of democracy. It is a profound irony that the Conservative's right wing and 'BREXITEERS' have forgotten that it was Margaret Thatcher (in March 1975) who described referendum as “a device of dictators and demagogues”, quoting Clement Attlee who noticed that Hitler, Mussolini and Napoleon III used referendum to legitimise decisions they had made. Of course, there are practical issues that concern us here - the exchange rate, the position on health cover, the ease of travel arrangements etc etc. But what has really got to us is the desperately awful quality of the political debate, the self-obsession of the politicians, and the traducing of the essence of British constitutional value which those politicians purport to speak and act for. If you are reading this and want to at least try to get the brakes applied please have a look at the Peoples Vote information and do something.
But now, something positive …. some photos of our new, renovated space:
A bientôt et bon courage!
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