Our French Life - Flip it and flop it

Hello dear Readers,

Pancake day is the day before lent in France it is called Mardi Gras  ( Fat Tuesday) I believe it was celebrated on 2nd February
I guess it was the last chance to eat fatty/sweet things before the fast, historically a fattened ox was paraded through the streets of Paris to give a reminder not to eat meat for 5/6 weeks or until Easter.
In England we call it Shrove Tuesday,  Shrove comes from the word Shrive, meaning to absolve, are you with me so far?
Well you might have guessed what we are having for dessert this evening, YEP, lovely scrummy pancakes, You might also have guessed that today (28th Feb) is pancake day in UK, I always make mine in advance ( if it's good enough for the french it is good enough for me) I then pop them in foil and re-heat in the oven, not the microwave as this will make them chewy.

The batter is made.

Here is my recipe which was my Dad's handed down from his French ancestry, and he made them so thin and delicate.

8 ozs plain flour

pinch of salt

1 pint of milk

2 eggs

butter to grease pan

Whisk all together and let stand for 30 minutes

This is how I butter the pan, picked up from a french friend

It is half a small potato with a fork stuck in it then dunked in the butter and butter gives you the little brown specks which gives the pancake the correct look.

Here it is in action

I use two pans. to do them quicker

The first two are in

8 lovely moist soft and fluffy delights

I like mine with Lemon juice and sugar and John likes his with maple syrup,

Over to you, how do you like yours.

Please leave a comment below and I will always answer you.

Windy or What

Hello dear Readers,

I woke in the middle of the night with a start, what was that I thought, you know how you suddenly wake up and wonder whether you actually heard a noise or if you had been dreaming  (I do a lot of that) so I lay there waiting for it to happen again and hoping it wasn't going to, bang, there it was again, John was well into a very deep sleep so I thought I had better get up and investigate, as I got downstairs I realised the wind was blowing a gale and the rain was coming down in buckets, this is not good news as our little house has a very shaky roof and when the wind is in a certain direction accompanied with very heavy rain then it can only mean one thing, we have leaks and sure enough there were leaks, we need a new roof but it isn't an option as it is too expensive,  but we live in hope and do the Euromillions every week, well someone has to win and why shouldn't it be us.

A Horseshoe for good luck

We have two rooves and the one that is leaking is just over the kitchen and dining room and the lovely new bedroom John created, I do hope it won't be ruined...

Until next time dear friends

Our French Life - Brighter days to come

Hello dear Readers,

It really feels as if spring is starting, everything is bursting out all over and it is so refreshing to see things coming to life, there are also new baby lambs dotted about in the fields, sadly I was driving and couldn't stop to take a photo of them, I am sure this time last year it was really cold, I would say even frosty so I hope this isn't going to be a faux ami.

Around the garden there are so many signs of new life, but due to being tied up with other things over the last few weeks and the fact that it is happening so early this year we haven't begun the great garden clean up to sweep the winter away, are we being a bit premature, I hope not.

The Daffodils are waiting to burst into a lovely display of much needed colour

Camellia also with their delicate pinkness are fit to burst

These beautiful crocus, my favourites, so tiny

Hundreds of buds on the lilac tree, my favourite perfume of the garden

I love this little border, it flowers despite being in the shade

It is so nice to see and it really lifts our very low spirits at the moment, I always think the garden looks so sad during the winter months but I guess it is a bit like me and hibernates, I noticed that a field not so far away has the dreaded mole hills, I do hope they march on by and leave my little green spot alone which is looking as if it is ready to be cut but is it too early yet, it is certainly growing at a rapid rate



This post is linked to my friends blog https://moisfrenchadventure.com

Until next time dear friends

Our Life in France, your help is needed

Hello dear Readers,

This blog is a cry for help as I am experiencing real problems with my blog, I really am a bit of a technophobe, my blog has been running perfectly ok since 2009 and now I am having problems with comments, it seems that only people who comment via Google + can be seen on my posts, therefore I am not getting comments from some of you and cant answer, I hate the fact that some of you dear people are commenting and thinking I am not answering, I have tried everything I can and it is not working, I am tempted to open up another blog with a different provider but hate the thought that I would lose everything from the original as it is like a diary to me, if any of you dear readers are able to offer any help please feel free to do so, it will be very much appreciated, please could I ask you to send any help to my email at
messageangels@gmail.com
I await any help I can get as the alternative would be to shut this blog down

Our French Life - Sad times

Hello dear Readers,

Our life in France has been an adventure and along the way we have met lots of people some have come and gone, my Mother would have called them fair weather friends, the sort that are always around while the going is good but as soon as it gets difficult they are nowhere to be found, and some stick around and become best friends forever, for the last eight weeks John and I have been supporting one of those forever friends, he was told a week before last Christmas that he had cancer, previous to this he had no symptoms, he felt unsteady on his feet and went to see his GP who thought he had experienced a stroke and sent him via taxi to hospital 45 minutes away to get a brain scan, he was diagnosed and offered treatment but it started spreading too quickly and and at 3am Monday morning he lost his fight, 8 weeks from diagnosis. R.I.P. John Fitter, a Father figure, good friend, great comedian, great company and such a great soul, we are devastated .

See Big John you made it to my blog, take care on your new adventure x

Our life in France - Little Betsy is broken.

Hello Dear Readers,

I could blog today about all the silly things that were challenges at the weekend but I don't want to burden you with my woe's,   Our little baby car is broken but hopefully we can fix her, she is a wonderful little Rover Cabriolet whose little engine purrs as we tootle along in the summer sunshine, roof down, the wind in our hair, sometimes we have a cd playing that we sing along to, old songs that we know the words to, maybe a little country and western we tap our feet to, we tootle off to places new and sometimes take a picnic, oh how I dream of those lovely hot sultry days of summer.
I always wear a large brimmed sun hat when we have the roof down and I once said to John, ''do you think people think I am a film star" and he said yes Lassie.
So I now need to concentrate on happy things. like this wonderful toad in the hole we had for tea, yumsy x

We bumped into a couple today when doing some shopping who have bought a house in the next village to us, I had picked up a small pocket torch and the man of the couple said " you can get that for a pound in England" I remember when we first came here to live full time we used to compare prices and feel appalled at how much things cost but I guess after 8 years we accept it now, so I answered but we are not in England we are in France and that is what it costs here. and yet another couple who voted to leave the EU, it beggers belief, I struggle to understand the logic.

Thanks for popping by and please leave a comment.

Our French Life - out of the gloom.

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Hello Dear Readers.

Well February is here and sorry I haven't been on here much but we have just about managed to get through January, life has been somewhat different since just before Christmas what with me having bladder infection one after the other, a dear friend finding out they have cancer and the disruption that something so life changing brings, then John has the flu or La Grippe as it is called here in France, such a fitting name I always think as it does grip you for sure, My birthday came and went without any celebration as I was of course playing nurse to John, we will of course do the celebration bit at a later date when John is better

It is all of the above that has made me think how really lucky I am to have my John and just how much I rely on him and how much he actually does for us both and friends too, even though he struggles to walk with arthritic knees, when he was staying in bed with the flu and it felt like I was alone it gave me a glimpse of what life would be like if I was left on my own or indeed if he was left on his own, I certainly now know that I must take some of the strain, it's a wake up call. The good thing is John will recover from his flu so in the grand scheme of things it's not so bad.
As for my bladder problems it seems I have a prolapsed bladder and will need surgery, not looking forward to that but glad it is in France and not the UK.

The very good news is that as I go out and down the garden path I can see that everything is starting to come back to life, all the daffodils, tulips and crocus are all up, little buds popping out from everywhere, after the really hard frosts we have experienced it is hard to believe these tender little souls have survived, it is like they are all waking up and stretching after a very long sleep.

Turned the Calender over for February, this is the one we get from the Pompier (firemen)

My Camelia in full bud

Tulips dafs and some weeds

Here is my tree peony, it was hidden in a hedge and we re planted it, lots of buds

Sadly I left this pot out and the frost has broken it.

So we are trying to remain positive and certainly looking forward to the better weather.

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