Lockdown diaries, two weeks and counting

Shopping for leeks and onions on my bike

Day fourteen, Thursday 12^th November 2020

Shopping local

Today’s local shop by bike was one of two parts, moules from the Ile de Ré delivered fresh to the village and vegetables from Espoir Nature, an association based in one of our local hamlets. All we needed today were some onions and leeks, but one look at the produce on offer, and I’m sure we will buy more next time. 

Fresh vegetables from Espoir Nature

Their prices are comparable to the supermarkets and they have just started a weekly basket scheme where they have teamed up with other local producers. For 12.90€ they offer two options. The first is to select six items for your basket from a list that includes vegetables, herbs, fruits, eggs and cheese. The second option is for a recipe basket, where you get all the veggie ingredients and the recipe for a particular dish, and you just need to add the meat. Adrian couldn’t resist trying a jar of a locally produced pate as a treat this week, but next week I think I will be adding a local goat cheese to the order for my treat. If you are local, you can find more information on their website here.

Mixed basket

Recipe basket

 

The last three chickens enjoying the orchard in April

Au revoir to the last chicken

I have a bit of sad news. Yesterday we lost the last of the chickens to old age and although we do still have one old goose and one ancient duck, this is the first time in almost fifteen years that there hasn’t been at least one chicken roaming in our orchard. Keeping birds came about rather by accident when a male Muscovy duck took up residence in the orchard. We named him Yum Yum and bought him a hareem of six white females who he happily bonded with and they spent many happy years together. We sadly lost him at a great old age, to a broken heart, just days after the last of his white ladies died. 

 

Adrian had been reluctant at first to add chickens, but once we’d got used to having ducks, they seemed the obvious next step. Over the years many birds have come and gone, some naturally, some we lost to predators and some we were brave enough to serve at our table. This phase didn’t last long, but as meat eaters who were becoming increasingly concerned about where our meat was coming from, it felt right at the time. 

 

The chickens especially have always been great fun to sit and watch as they scratched and pecked around, with their heads down and bottoms in the air as they diligently searched the ground for any morsal. A quick call in the evenings and they would come running to me, and in the early days before we fenced off the potager, they would happily spend all day with me when I was out there weeding. Cherry picking was another of their favourite occupations, not just content to clear the windfalls, they would flap up to the lower branches and pick the tastiest of fruits from the tree, leaving their faces and combs stained an alarming deep purple. 

 

These last few years we have let their numbers dwindle naturally. As we went into the first lockdown in March, we still had three chickens, the duck and the goose, and although I will miss their antics and their eggs, it feels right not to replace them. Our lives have changed, and we have realised the more animals you have to look after, the more difficult it is to get away on the bikes.

Lockdown diaries, day six, into the garden

The last harvest from the summer potager

Day six, Wednesday 4^th November 2020 

Into the garden

It might not have been the first frost this autumn, as we often get light ground frosts in September, but last night was certainly a clear, cold night and the ground was crispy with frost this morning. This prompted me to get out and do the last harvest from the summer potager, filling my basket with the baby squash that won’t now get the chance to grow and ripen, and the last of the chilis that will be just as nice green as the vibrant red I’ve picked all summer. I also picked up about a kilo of small windfall apples, despite believing the apple-picking to have finished. I think these might have been considered too small to bother with when there were still rich pickings, but now the tree is bare, I scavenged in desperation for every last one. We still have the Jerusalem artichokes to dig up over winter, and I’ve stored a crate of butternut squash, but the weeds have taken over and the potager already has that abandoned, scruffy look of winter neglect.

 

It is a sad sight to see, but my freezers, that I cleared out and organised back in March at the beginning of confinement, are still nicely ordered with a place for everything and everything in its place. More importantly, they are full to bursting with this summer’s homegrown fruits and vegetables, as well as homemade pork bone broth stock and packs of leftover meals that will become soup starters for winter lunches. I couldn’t be in a better place to head into winter.

 

Despite the cold this morning, the sun was shining from first thing, so the washing was hanging out not long after breakfast. Sitting in the warmth of the lounge with my morning coffee, watching the steam rising from the clothesline outside the window brought a smug smile to my face and made the cold, tingling of my fingers from hanging it out worth the pain. 

 

Raking the fig leaves

As the sun warmed the garden, I raked the fig leaves, as they are mostly all down, and started on the first of the Gingko leaves, although I am hoping for a bit more colour on the tree from them before they fall. I contemplated mowing the grass, but it was still damp after lunch, so to mark the changing of the seasons I moved the table that sits in the shade all summer, down to a sunny spot close to the house. Even on cold days, over winter it is important for us to sit outside for coffee or lunch, whenever the sun is out.

Lockdown loop within 1 km from home

 

To celebrate the end of the course Adrian was running, we devised a bike ride for this afternoon. Using all the roads in the village and heading out and back along the entry roads, we managed thirteen kilometres, all within an hour and keeping to a one-kilometre radius of home. It was great to be out in the fresh air but cycling into the wind from the east wasn’t much fun.

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day fifty-one

A cartful of courgettes

Day fifty-one, 6^th May 2020

Project potager 

Today was a good day, spent in the garden. The wind that had plagued me yesterday was replaced with a calm, warm day, with clear blue skies and a temperature that reached 24º, perfect weather for planting out my vegetable seedlings.

While Adrian raked over the plot and dug out the holes, I counted up how many plants I had, then worked out who would be planted, and where. The idea had been to pass on any extras we couldn’t fit in to local friends, but sadly (for them), there was space for 62 and I only had 59 (assorted courgette, butternut squash, white patisson, pumpkin and pink grapefruit squash). I think this means I can go shopping for more, yippee. 

We are still a few days away from the feast days of the Ice Saints, St Mamert on 11^th, St Pancrace on 12^th and St Servais on 13^th May, who legend says often bring with them the last nightly frosts of spring. The cautious among our French neighbours will always wait for these dates to pass before planting out anything tender. However, our next door neighbour has already planted out his tomatoes and he’s never got it wrong yet, and I’ve been watching from over the garden wall, for fifteen summers now. Our thirty-one tomato seedlings are still a bit small, so we will wait a week or so before they go out.

My champette of courgettes, squash and pumpkins

I followed behind Adrian and his shovel, and gently nestled each precious plant into its own specially prepared hole, full of our homemade organic compost. Once they had been watered in and had their photos taken for the family album, the only thing left to do was to wish them a happy growing season and hope they bear lots of fruits. They will get another water tonight and lots of love and attention from me over the coming weeks and I’ll be sure to let you know when I pick the first courgette.

Bye bye pool

Project pool

The next big project in the garden is to take down our above ground pool that has been on the terrace since the spring of 2006. The liner perished last year, and we have come to the sad decision that we really don’t use it enough anymore to replace it. With Ed in Poitiers and Adrian working away a lot, I don’t use it when I am home alone, so its only use is as somewhere cool and refreshing to dip into after a spot of gardening or at the end of a bike ride. A hot-tub would work just as well.

Ed in the pool

We had great fun with it when Ed was little but gone are the days spent watching him jump from the steps, splash, shriek, climb out and repeat, until he turned all wrinkly. 

A new home for the pots

Today we moved the pots from around the edge, creating a pretty area by the banana and Adrian set about cleaning the structure before we take it down and advertise it for sale. Everything else is in good working order, with a brand-new summer cover and quality sand filtering pump. All that will be needed is a new liner and someone will have a pool that should last them another fifteen years.

The monster of Niort

May memory

On this day last year, the car had a service in Niort, our closest main town that is also home to our departmental council. With the bikes onboard, we left the car in the safe hands of the garage and set off on a pootle around the town centre, where we stopped to treat ourselves to a coffee and a croissant. Here I am with one of the four bronze snake/dragon monsters that mark the gateway to the town centre.  Local legend describes an enormous amphibious snake-like monster that appeared from the Sèvre Niortais river, killed by a local soldier who stabbed it in the throat. Sadly, by removing his helmet too soon, the beast poisoned and killed him with its last breath. The ones found around town today are thankfully harmless, although if you walked into them or tripped over them, I bet they could still do some damage. 

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day thirty-three

Courgette seedlings, one month old

Day thirty-three, 18^th April 2020

Staying alive

It was one month ago today when Ed and I sowed our courgette, butternut squash, pumpkin and pattisson seeds and they are looking great. They have certainly benefited from the extra time we have with life in lockdown as they have been well and truly pampered, from warming the soil in the sun before sowing, to using the radiators to give a gentle boost of heat to encourage germination. Then the new seedlings got their daily dose of sunshine in the garden but were tucked up warm and cosy indoors at night, with just enough, but not too much, watering. They are growing so well in their own pots that we are now keeping them in the shade during the day, just so they don’t get too big before it’s safe to plant them outside in the potager once the frost risk has passed. I can almost taste that first courgette.

Yesterday a friend in the village left me a gift of some sourdough starter, alive and bubbling in a jam jar. She had had the patience that I didn’t and had followed local baker Keith, from Jambon de Printemps’s six-day video guide (see here) to create her own starter. The fact that it’s alive and I now have to regularly do things with it, so as not to kill it; you have no idea how terrified I am of it! There are days when I wonder how I manage to keep a husband, a son, a twelve-year-old dog, an odd assortment of ancient chickens, a duck and a goose alive, in addition to the homemade natural yoghurt that I keep going by using a few teaspoons to start a new batch off every four or five days. 

It was time to be brave. I took a deep breath, opened the jar and split the starter. 20g was fed, watered and left to grow and the remainder is now (hopefully) a tasty pizza dough proving in a bowl for dinner tonight. I’ll let you know how successful it was tomorrow.

18th April 2016 cycling in La Sarthe

April holiday memory 

18^th April 2016 and we had just set off on our first ever cycle tour, in the Sarthe department, near Le Mans. Our 74km day started following the river Sarthe, passing a Benedictine Abbey, pretty medieval villages and a bluebell wood, before visiting the Faïence museum in Malicorne. Leaving behind the river Sarthe, we found the river Loir in La Fléche, where we enjoyed a sunny beer before following an old railway line, now La Vallée du Loir cycle path, to Le Lude. Ever the gentleman, Adrian was not only head navigator and route planner, he was also carrying pretty much all of our luggage. If you look closely in the picture above you will see he thought of everything, including a cycle specific wine bottle carrier, and wine.

Stay indoors, stay safe.

Lockdown library

My reading selection today is the fun and inspiring cycle travel memoirs from Australian author Steven Herrick. Over the years, Steven and his wife Cathie have cycled a number of epic rides in France, as well as many long-distance routes that have crossed Europe. If armchair travel is your thing, you’ll love them, if you can’t wait to get back out and travel for real, these will prove great planning tools for your next adventure.

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day twenty-three

Potted on seedlings

Time in the garden

Today was a garden day, with morning coffee after yoga taken on the bistro table in a sunny spot by the house, followed shortly after by lunch of homemade soup and flat breads out in the sun. It was peaceful, warm and relaxing.

Then there was work to be done as the seedlings had grown too big for the tubs I sowed them in. Forty courgette, pumpkin and butternut squash seedlings now have their own little pot and their next move will be out into the potager in about a month, frost depending. There are about another twenty squash that are still a little too small, but with around sixty plants, I have high hopes for a great harvest this year. We also potted on about thirty tiny tomato seedlings, but I let Adrian handle these as they just seem so delicate in comparison the thick stemmed, large leafed brutes of the courgette family.

New growth on the fig tree

The sunloungers and kindles then required our attention and sitting in the garden reading, and taking time to admire the blossoms and new growth, we could feel the heat of the sun like on a summer day.

Adrian and Ed then mowed in the orchard and potager, again, and I’m sure the grass out there has never looked so well kept so early on in the season.

Dinner this evening will be a pork risotto, using up the last of the supply of fresh vegetables, and if I’m quick, I’m hoping we can eat it in the garden too.

Lockdown library

Today’s reading selection is for Laura Brigg’s latest A Train from Penzance to Paris that released today. You can read my review here.

Diary of Covid-19 confinement, day eight

An isolated dog walk

Welcome to the club, UK

I started this daily update as we found ourselves in an unusual situation. China seemed so far away and although Italy and Spain were a few days ahead of us here in France, for most of the English-speaking world it was difficult to comprehend what living in lockdown meant. 

Writing about our daily life here is giving me something to do, as well as a record to look back on in years to come, but also as with any form of journaling, it is a way of focusing my thoughts and helping me come to terms with the changes that have been rapidly imposed on our lives. With the UK being the latest country to impose lockdown, how quickly the unusual has become normality for so many of us. 

 

Official rules regarding going out to exercise in France:
No more than one hour, once a day
No further than 1km from home
Individual activities only
Walking with those you are in confinement with
Walking your pets

I think we were all a little guilty to begin with of creating our own understanding of the rules, especially as things are changing so fast our minds are taking a while to catch up with what is happening. I envisaged using my bike a few times a week to pop into Chef-Boutonne, 7kms from here, to do a bit of essential shopping or pick up a prescription for a neighbour, and at the same time enjoy being out in the fresh air. 

It doesn’t work like that. Staying safe means staying in. 

I have done one essential shop in the last week, but alone and by car, and although we could do with some more fresh fruit and vegetables soon, I am no longer in any rush to leave the safety of home. The sooner everyone stops trying to find a way around the rules and stays in, and away from others, the better, for everyone.

I am once more counting my blessings that we have outdoor space where we can enjoy fresh air and where there is always something that needs doing. I am also thankful that Ed is old enough to understand the situation and can occupy himself without my constant supervision. My day to day life is easy, I am lucky; single parents, at home with little ones and no garden, must be feeling overwhelmed and very isolated. One positive that does seem to have come from this bizarre situation is the online resources that are available. From free exercise sessions to museum tours, choirs, concerts and courses, there is something out there for everyone to try something new. Ed is working on his music theory, Adrian is improving his French, his mum has signed up for a history of royal fashion course and I’m on the verge of diving into an online writing course, when I can find the time.

The first courgette seedling

Light at the end of the tunnel

On day two of our lockdown, Ed and I started seed sowing for this year’s potager crops and this morning, a mere six days later, the first little courgette seedling poked its head above the soil. This is all the proof I needed that life will go on and the fact that I am one step closer to having a courgette harvest this summer, put a huge smile on my face.

I also had a message from a friend who I haven’t seen in person for over fifteen years. She said she used yesterday’s blog as reading practice with her nine-year-old. It is messages like that, that keep me going. 

Thank you to everyone who has commented, liked and shared these posts. 

Stay indoors and stay safe.

Perfect September weather

September sunrise

This morning was a perfect September morning. A misty, cold start, it was still dark when we left the village on the school run, but once the fog lifted we were treated to clear open skies, with the wind turbines silhouetted against the orange sunrise. It was still and calm, so the steam from the power station cooling towers, 88km (55 miles) away on the River Vienne, sat dark like a bruise, the only imperfection on an otherwise perfect sky. Weather wise, it was day full of promise.

This is our fourteenth September in France and over the years we have come to recognise that foggy starts will produce warm, blue-sky days. However, never in our fourteen years have we had to wait until 18^th September for a day like today. It has been a summer of water restrictions and doom concerning the drought conditions, but looking back it hasn’t been a good summer in terms of heat and sunshine. We did have an official heatwave in June, but it seems that peak of heat so early on was all we were going to get and since then it’s been unsettled. We even had rain on four of our six days on our cycling tour and not once did we feel too hot or fatigued from high temperatures.

September garden produce

The garden, however, has loved it. It has been a real bumper year for crops, fruit in particular and despite the dull, damp days of August, we suffered no blight on the tomatoes. My kitchen this afternoon is littered with grapes, peaches, pears, apples, quince, figs, squash, tomatoes, peppers and aubergines, all freshly picked. The only thing I have been disappointed with is the courgettes, but then there is never enough of those in my opinion.

Fruit is being served with every meal and I’ve even surprised myself with the quantity of pears and peaches I can put away daily with no unpleasant side effects. Dinner this evening was roasted vegetables, quince, figs and chickpeas in Moroccan spice and tomorrow I’ll be busy roasting and preserving more of the same. I feel a week of chutney, jam and jelly making coming over me, with hopefully some warm sunny afternoons to walk the dog and tend to the garden. September weather, please be kind to us for a little while longer, we have missed you.

Signs of summer in France

The first Hollyhocks in bloom

May is the month of publicholidays in France, with seemingly more days off than at work, which I think leads us nicely into summer and long summer holidays. Now June has arrived I can feel a real change in the season as the signs of summer begin to appear all around me.

The first of our hollyhocks have opened this week marking the start of a riot of tall, show-offy blooms that will cheer our garden all the way through to autumn. By encouraging them to scatter their seeds, they pop up wherever they feel in our courtyard lawn in whatever colour they choose and I just love them.

Cherries and cherry cake

The cherries are ripe, and so begins our first orchard harvest of summer. My days this week have been spent picking, washing, oven drying and freezing, baking and not forgetting eating cherries. My fingers and most of the kitchen are sticky and stained with cherry juice, but my winter breakfasts will be adorned with the dark red jewels of dried cherries; the fruits of my labour and the taste of early summer enjoyed all year.

Squash ready to plant out in potager

The hard work in spring; weeding, rotivating and digging in the potager (vegetable garden) has been worth it and our summer produce is now finally planted out; six aubergines, six peppers, forty-seven assorted tomatoes and fifty-seven squash (pumpkin, melon, patisson, butternut, winter squash and my favourite, courgette) have joined the twenty beans that have looked rather lonely these last few weeks. I know we are late to planting out (as usual) but better late than never. I’m already looking forward to the harvesting that will follow soon; let our summer evening routine of watering now begin.

The first moules of summer

The moules (mussels) lady returned to our village market this week selling the first of this year’s moules. They will now be our weekly treat until October, served with homemade chips and walnut bread, eaten on the terrace with a glass of chilled white wine; a true taste of summer in France.

Tour de Rêves September 2017

The elderflowers in the hedgerows are out and smell fantastic. There is nothing quite like a warm evening bike ride accompanied by their sweet perfume to put a smile on my face. Although I have to admit it has been tricky to squeeze cycling into our busy days spent gardening, harvesting and cherry processing, but I can’t forget I have a challenge to prepare for. Cycling over 400km in six consecutive days, where some days will be over 70km in distance and others will be on quite hilly terrain can’t be pushed too far to the back of my mind, September will be here all too soon. 

If you would like to read more about our Tour de Rêves charity bike ride just click here, thank you.

Probably the scariest sign of summer is that Ed will finish school next week. There will still be revision sessions and exams to keep him busy for a few weeks, but I can’t quite believe how quickly this school year has zoomed by.

I'd love to know what things always remind you of summer and I hope that you have fond memories of summers spent in France, wherever in the world you live.

This post has been linked to Lou Messugo’s All About France link up. Click here for more posts All About France.

Here are some summer reading suggestions, set in France, just for you.

Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring, hazelnut catkins

We are en vacances, or on holiday, as today is day one of Ed’s two-week school holiday, les vacances d’hiver, or the winter holidays. However, as we are the last of the zones in France to break up, it is no surprise that there is more than a hint of spring in the air and I couldn’t be happier. Ed, who spent last week away on a school trip to London, is home, and although I enjoyed my lie-in this morning as there was no school run to do, my diary seems to be filling up with taxi requests for cinema, pizza and laser quest outings.

The sun has been generous for February, enabling me to open the windows and hang my washing out to dry, although sadly today wasn’t quite as nice as last week. I’m sure the warm, sunny air has given me extra energy as I felt the need to spring-clean my bedroom and even had a good sort out of my bookcases.

Signs of Spring, first goose egg of the year

The hazelnut trees are dripping in catkins, the first violets have flowered in our lawn, and the bees are busy visiting them. The cranes have flown overhead; making their way from North Africa to Eastern Europe and Brucie our goose has laid her first egg. With so many signs, I can’t help but get excited that winter is almost behind us once again and summer isn’t too far away.

Signs of Spring, the last of the winter squash has been roasted

All around the village for the last three or four days the chugging sound of rotivators ploughing vegetable gardens has been heard, and those (not me) who are organised have sown their peas, shallots and onions. I know it’s time to start thinking about sowing my summer vegetable seeds, not least because I’ve just roasted the last squash that I harvested in autumn and stored carefully for use over winter.

Signs of Spring, baby goats

Oh, and my friend who has a goat farm, had lots of baby goats born over the weekend, so I couldn't help but share these very newly born Spring babies and their Mums.

Signs of Spring, twin baby goats

I hope your weather is good, wherever in the world you are. This post has been linked to Paulita’s Dreaming About France blog link up. Click here to read more.