Life in France

A not every day story of normal people trying to live their dream in France starting at the beginning and ending?

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Tumbling Disaster

The weather has taken a turn for the worse the last two weeks. It has been awful. Heavy rain and gale force winds have wreaked havoc in the garden and in the woods. With 42mm of rain falling in one day it seems that everything was being drowned. The winds reached a howling 80km/ph which brought down trees in the woods and absolutely felled the beans in the garden. Disaster as they were just starting to produce some usable weights of beans. Not only did they tumble over despite being help up by boy scout type guy ropes but it ripped the plants out of the ground. They fell onto the peppers which are now completely destroyed and the wind also broke off some really nice raspberry canes that were loaded with flowers and fruit.
It is enough to make you cry, we have managed to save some of the tomatoes but are not sure if they will produce any more fruit, the beans are beyond hope of salvation i think. Somehow though the courgettes survived, tough little blighters that they are. I suppose this is what happens when you live up in the mountains. On the plus front luscious was able to pick up nearly 20kg of plums which had been blown of the trees so we are now in full scale production of plum jam, plum crumble, plum wine, plum scnapps and finally plum brandy...can't let them go to waste now can we?
On the house front, the plastering is all done in the second bedroom and i am now starting to make the shelving from reclaimed chestnut floorboards so once they are done and fixed i just have to clean up the floor and wax it to within an inch of my life make the doors and hey presto another room finished and awaiting guests to appreciate it.
So.. off to check the walnut wine which should just about be ready for bottling and then to start cutting the shelving....cheers Posted by Picasa

Thursday, August 10, 2006

No more cherries

The last few days the weather has definately changed. The temerature is now around 30° during the day and at night it has fallen to 15°. Positively cold, we have even had to shut the window at night and put a throw on the bed!
With the colder weather has also come strong winds and electrical storms. Isn't it amazing what spetacular shows nature can put on? Unfortunately one of the cherry trees won't agree with you as it has been snapped like a matchstick by the strong winds. It is a great shame because it produced some absolutely scrumptious, juicy cherries that were just wonderful to eat straight from the tree. Alas, it is no more. Just a forlorn stump remains, what a shame. Perhaps next spring we will plant a couple of new cherry trees so that in three years or so we will have cherries again.
The house continues to develop and the good news is that i can get up off my knees for a while as the lounge/dining area tiling is now completely finished. That is 49sq. metres all done...yeehah off to open a bottle of homemade wine to celebrate. I now only have another 38sq. metres to finish in the kitchen and entrance hall and the downstairs tiling is complete.. only another 38sq. metres oh my aching knees..... Posted by Picasa