the last 3 weeks

It has taken me a while to blog again - hoped i would have great news to report that Beechwood had a new tenant. Not yet, although there is a family in the pipeline who have put down a deposit but won't sign until the sale of their house goes through in 3 weeks time. Nail biting stuff and we continue to live on a shoestring. Frustrating.
Anyway, we had 3 weeks in total in Normandy - unexpected and we are indebted to the Brysons for letting us stay in their cottage. We had the opportunity to really mix with the local way of life though - the farmer and his wife next door took us under their wings and had us over a few times for sociable things. A real test of my French which has probably never had a real test run as i have always bowed out whenever anyone with better French piped up. However in this family there is no-one with any better French so it has been mine or nothing. I have been amazed at what the grey cells can dredge up 17 years after school finished. I think i could say we actually conversed which i would never have thought possible - albeit with some hand signals, the occasional reference to a dictionary and much umming and erring. So big memories of 3 weeks:

1. first social visit to the farm for an aperitif and we arrive to watch a heifer struggling in labour, the farmer with his left hand totally immersed "up there", the wife dancing out of the way of cascading poo and holding a torturous looking metal winch which was dragging the calf out by the feet. Archie was near gagging in disgust, Mara was most concerned with everyone's welfare and Euan was just about underneath the cow with fascination. Calf was born, thought to be dead and tied upside down by its feet to a metal gate and kicked in the head a few times and had two buckets of water thrown over it. Still nothing (quelle surprise). Then it was given an adrenaline shot and heh presto - all was well. Sigh of relief from Mara, "can i touch it" from Euan and "yeuch, it's covered in snot" from Archie. Then we got down to the proper business of tasting home-made Pommeau (delicious) and white wine mixed with Creme de Cassis (seemed odd but tasted like juice and is truly deadly). We rolled home for lunch.
2. two visits to the hospital for Archie and his broken arm. Amazed how well the nurses spoke English, how grumpy the secretaries were (so like our GP's surgery at home), amazed at the similarities to the NHS (wait here, now wait there, now over there please...oops... wrong department and wrong paperwork, wait there instead). Cast is now off, arm still looks squint and swollen and doctor recommended an x-ray in 3 months - round about the time we will hit Sudan - great!
3. being the only customers in the nearest Aldi - every visit! (you know i love it!) 
4. the local Marche (markets) where we always bought bread and thereafter wandered, or would have wandered, but it seemed more like we dragged, the kids. Did buy local cured sausage and discovered in amongst such really tempting items like dried sausage with chestnuts, dried sausage with red wine horrors such as dried DONKEY sausage. eeh gads.
5. sleeping like logs due to the fantastic Normandy tradition of wooden shutters - the kids slept till 9am, sometimes 10am every day. We should start an importation business.
6. visiting the nearby town's crustacean festival - very interesting for the kids - live lobsters and crabs and such all crawling around and being picked over by avid consumers. Rather smelly however and the sight of the locals buying "une kilo" and sitting down at a trestle table with a bottle of vin and sooking and slurping their way through the shells, slime and bits was not for the faint hearted.
7. Mara being allowed to go by herself to the farm to collect the nightly fresh milk - so proud of herself. Still slightly threw me each night to be handed a litre of body temperature milk - seemed less off putting in the morning after being chilled. She went off this duty after 3 days of rain and then the walk to the cow shed turned into a poo slide...she then tried to convince Archie he might like the chore instead (she's not daft) which he only fell for once. 
8. Normandy seemed rather poor which was sad, so many many houses tumbling down - and real old gems of places with charm and character. I only got to the tip of the ice berg with the reasons why, but the architecture is beautiful and it was such a doleful sight to see ancient buildings going to ruin.
9. visiting and picnicing in beautiful spots like Abbey D'Hambye ( http://www.abbayes-normandes.com/Abbeys?cbbArc13=&ficCode=66&page=1) - from 1147, Ducey (from 1066 http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=&q=ducey+france&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=CUamTNDsBY-SjAeAjqnADA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDAQsAQwAw&biw=1024&bih=499) -  all history and awe-inspiring craftsmanship completely lost on kids of course.
10. my guilt over the falling apples - it nearly killed me. Orchard on our doorstep and all these apples becoming windfall. I made bucketfulls of pureed apples but only P and I would eat it. So got Caroline to email a chutney recipe and spent an afternoon doing that - felt rather sackcloth and sandals like in a cottage with no TV and no radio in the middle of nowhere and kids doing puzzles on the floor and the stove lit and me stirring at the stove. Till i realised i'd added 2 desert spoons of cayenne pepper instead of chilli powder...and someone's cast got swung into someone else's eye...and someone's 200 piece puzzle got stood on by the crying someone else with the sore eye....you get the picture.
11. home-schooling began. Phew, new respect (of which i might add, i had plenty already) for teachers. Was absolutely shattered after the first afternoon of it. Different reasons why, one child so blessedly conscientious, another so dammed intuitively smart but with attitude of a 15year old, the last who point blank refuses to come anywhere near the table to sit down because he's got grasshoppers or spiders or moths to catch. Ou est le vin blanc?

will let you know in another blog about where we are now - in the deepest south, having chased the sun. Will have photos too :)

Fxx

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