Our French Life - January has gone

Feb 3rd 2016

Well January has left us already along with my birthday but I had a wonderful day thanks a million to my dearest Hubby and some very special friends (Pauline, John and Brenda), we went to an all you can eat Chinese buffet restaurant, then a little teeny bit of retail therapy followed by coffee and cake at our other dear friends (Sue & John) many thanks for making my day so special all of you..

But what a very mild winter we have had all told (just one or two frosts) lets just hope that mother nature hasn't been pushed to her limits and recoils with the winter later, now as I look out of my window into a very slightly untidy garden (I am sadly a fair weather gardener) I can see all the signs of spring, daffodils prancing in the wind on a superbly sunny day with a chorus of very yellow crocus dotted about to complete the symphony, not to forget the two oh so lonely snowdrops, bulbs of which were given by a friend who assures me that next year they will be more in their numbers as long as I don't dig them up by mistake...The birds have eaten us out of house and home this winter and are ever hungry, so much so that if there is nothing on the table they will send a couple of their bravest to our windowsill to attract our attention, i sometimes wonder, are they the same birds that alight for food every day or perhaps different ones that are passing through, I would like to think that just maybe they are the same ones all the time but we will never know.

Daffodils

Two snowdrops in among the weeds

Crocus as a grand finale

So here is February, normally a very cold month but I am already thinking about getting out into the garden and I have this overwhelming desire to sow seeds albeit indoors, I am a container gardener now as we have patio'd (not sure if this is a real word) over the veg garden but I still like to grow such produce as tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries and anything else that can be grown in a tub, oh yes and the chillies must have them, not sure if I should preserve them in oil or freeze them...how do you do yours my dear readers.

This summer we are going to put the Jacuzzi/hot tub in the gazebo next to the house and have our sitting area on the bottom patio, not sure if it will work but nothing ventured nothing gained, as we are very open and have direct neighbours both sides I am also going to try to grow shrubs and small trees in containers to try to make a screen, as much as I love our neighbours we do sometimes like a bit of privacy, and of course we need some sun shade but it is an area that is open to a cross wind so whatever we have there will have to have concrete shoes... I will take a before and after photo..

I have to move now as I am in John's way, he is putting steels up on our living room wall in readiness for the plasterboard, our walls are wattle and daub and nothing can be hung on them and it insulates the room too..speak soon dear readers and please leave a comment as I do so love to hear from you all.

Our French life - Winter has arrived at last

The winter and welcome guests

We are expecting guests, our dear friend Fernando who spends most of his time in America ( he is married to an American lady but is waiting for his full residency ) and his sister Chus who lives in Spain, 

After his long haul flight to Spain Fer (as we call him) set out by car with Chus on route to our house for a couple of days R&R with us, and this means partaking of a few bottles of the old vin rouge and the obligatory meal out, if you live in our part of France you will know that most restaurants are closed in the evening and only open fully for lunch but, we have a local hostelry that caters for lorry drivers and therefore while providing them with an evening meal is open for the likes of us too, needless to say the portions are good too in fact it is a veritable feast, that said, I must stress that just because they provide for drivers nothing is lost in the quality or presentation, the starter was as big as a main and a good feast was had by all..

        John with his apple tart

Fer with his profiteroles 

That was Wednesday and by Friday morning they were gone on their way to visit family in UK but not without us all having great chats and catch ups and so much laughing we feel like we have broken ribs..

After such lovely spring like weather the temperature has plummeted to below freezing and Le Meteo tells us that we are expecting snow during the early hours, I do not like the cold but I do get very excited about snow and could sit in the window all day watching it, something I used to do as a small child, and always loved getting my wellies on and being the first to make footprints on a freshly snowed upon field or if there were little animal tracks I would follow them in the hopes I would see the perpetrator, can you tell I lived in the country?

As I sit toasting my toes by our wood burner waiting with bated breath for the snow, I have a tinge of sadness for our dear friends who lost their beloved horse last night, 

R.I.P Tiffany, enjoy it on the other side of rainbow bridge. xxx

 

Our French Life - I almost forgot

I know forgetting is a sign of old age....I don't need reminding, it seems to be happening a lot lately, well I am putting it down to stress and lack of sleep due to the ongoing cough situation ..

Anyway let's get back to the matter in hand,
the thing I almost forgot, it was this:















This was the most amazing full Moon I have ever seen, it was the one on Christmas Day the like of which we haven't seen since 1977 and we won't see it again until 2034, I am hoping we will still be here to see the next one although we will be really old and wrinkly by then, but I do think our life in France is a far better more relaxed life than it would have been in England, I think we get by far a better health screening and care so that should give us a few more extra years - we are keeping our finger's crossed anyway.

The most stress we have had today, we went shopping for some large storage boxes because we have a store room at the end of a bedroom which has started to take over the said bedroom so we thought let's get some storage boxes, we travelled to our nearest Gifi and decided on the largest plastic boxes (2 of them) at 15.99€ each, we were quite happy with our choice, we then popped across town to Action, and! you have guessed it the almost same boxes were 9.98€ each, yep 6€ cheaper, So I have to bring in to play here one of my Mantra's for 2016, try to find the good in every situation, well to be honest Hubby reminded me by saying "go on then find the good in that" me not to be out done thought very hard for 5 seconds and said " we will need more than the two we have and at least now we know where to buy them cheaper" there was a mumbling as he walked on to the next aisle - bless him..he is still waiting for the day when he gets one over on me.

Have any of you ever grown one of those Amaryllis flowers, I was given one as a gift in bulb form, I popped it into a pot as instructed, for ages it did nothing, Then it started to grow and I mean grow, it reached 30 inches and then it bloomed..

Oh yes and it was supposed to be pink and it is clearly white but beautiful

Speak to you all soon x

Our French life - Superstition

3rd January

I know we are not supposed to take down the decorations until 6th January but once new year is over I always feel they are surplus to requirements, so down they had to come, I must admit we don't put an awful lot up - The tree of course with lights and a few other bits and bob's, some of which have been around since I was a child, Christmas was very special in our house but never seems to be the same now






It is a very old one but I might just get a new one for next year





John always struggles with the lights, putting them up and taking them down, I just let him get on with it, he has more patience than me.

All packed away for another year.
We have a fairly big Father Christmas but I forgot to take a picture of him and he has gone back into hibernation now.



As you can see it was John who took them all down and put them away, So while he was doing that I was cooking a nice Sunday lunch, just roast chicken roast spuds carrots and sprouts with stuffing and cranberry sauce, really enjoyed it, I tried to save the big glass dish from getting baked on by lining it with foil before cooking the chicken and roasters in it but it backfired as it took longer to get the baked on foil off and then had to scrub it, not one of my finer idea's

Must set the alarm tomorrow as we have been getting up later and later and although we are retired we do like to have a project or job to do on a daily basis, got to do the jobs while we still can :)

Hope you have enjoyed this instalment - if so why not go to join this blog and never miss one...

Our French Life

Happy New Year

Well it is the 2nd January and I would like to wish all my readers and friends a very Happy and prosperous new year, and to be really honest 2015 wasn't the best due to my health ( had a cough since July which they now say is Asthma) but onwards and upwards as they say.
I am going to try and post every week in 2016 about my life so bear with me as my life can be a little boring.

I    saw today on a friends Facebook page 12 steps for self care.
1.  If it feels wrong don't do it
2.  Say exactly what you mean
3.  Don't be a people pleaser
4.  Trust your instincts
5.  Never speak bad about yourself
6.  Never give up on your dreams
7.  Don't be afraid to say "NO"
8.  Don't be afraid to say "YES"
9.  Be kind to yourself
10.Let go of what you can't control.
11.Stay away from Negativity.
12.LOVE.
I am going to add no 13. Always try to see something good in everything
Now that to me is a good way to run your life I think...Thank you Carol Gibbon.

That's it for today, Please leave a message below as I love to hear from you,
Have a great day...

Our French life

Our French life - I'm back

Hello my lovelies, I am so sorry that it has been so long since I posted in the blog but it has been a strange year which I won't bore you with but here I am and I will try and keep you up to date with what is going on in our lives.

Well it has been a really lovely Summer weather wise with no rain to speak of for many a week, as you will probably remember last year we had one of those wonderful inflatable swimming pools which meant everyone could afford a pool (without all that digging gigantic holes to sink them into) well we had a good think and thought (now we are pensioners) we should take more care of our bodies if we want them to last us and as there were very few days when the pool water was above 28 degrees so it might be better if we got a Jacuzzi, again one that was inflatable and within easy reach of our budget, so in April/May time that is just what we did, we built a large patio and erected a gazebo with curtains so that we could have a bit of privacy (we are terraced) and have lovely neighbours who like to take pictures of us, bless them, the Jacuzzi is heated and so we can have it at whatever temperature we choose and I have to tell you it is shear bliss especially at the end of a day when we have worked to just pop into the tub and enjoy the bubbles. wow it is so relaxing and those bubbles get into every orifice let me tell you.

  
Those round white things are supposed to be seats but the bubbles were so intense we couldn't get them under us :)

 This is where it is housed so well hidden from prying eyes.


I also was told by my cardiologist that I should get an exercise bike so I did

Sadly I just can't get on it for more than a minute and I am sure it would give me a heart attack, I'm not going to give it the chance to find out. (it is now for sale) let me know if you want it.

stay tuned folks 

Baking day

Monday is baking day


It isn't often we miss too much from England as most things can be found in some form or other but every now and then something crops up and we think "I could just eat that or even drink that"

It is usually items that are no good for the figure of course, these are such things as fresh cream cakes with English double whipped/clotted cream, proper chocolate eclairs with fresh cream not that chocolate cream they all seem to have here, I am sure if we went to the large cities we would be able to find anything we wanted but where we are it is very rural, they still go out and hunt their dinner - almost  
Don't get me wrong, there are so many delicious things which are French and equally as naughty if not more so as everything is made with pure butter, So last evening my wonderful hubby John suddenly said "I could kill for a Chelsea Bun" so of course being the dutiful wife that I am I scurried around for a recipe for Chelsea Buns, now as you know the recipe for said buns requires yeast and anything bread/yeast like is not always a success with me so I was a little apprehensive. 
I had acquired some while ago a bread hook to aid the aforementioned bread making so I thought I would put it to good use for this venture, it actually made a wonderful light dough which I left to rise for an hour then rolled it out and spread with wonderful aromatic brown sugar/raisins and little unctuous squares of marzipan just to give them another level of flavour, then it was rolled up and sliced into 12 pieces and sat on their ends in a circle to prove again.

Left to rise

Now it is time to brush with Jam (should have been apricot jam but I didn't have any so used plum) sprinkled lavishly with soft brown sugar, now they must be thrust into the hell which is my oven and baked for approx 30 mins at gas 6. 

et voila

Finished article

We have yet to try them as they are cooling down, but we will let you know :)

What did you make today? let me know
  

Our French Life - Permis de Conduire

Monday 5th January 2015

Prefecture Laval

we had been dreading changing our English driving licences for French ones as we had read numerous postings on the Internet of how some people had to wait 16 months to get it, some of the stories had been of Biblical proportion, so when we went 2 weeks before Christmas to change our permit de conduire (English driving licence) we were expecting the French brick wall along with the Martian speak that is the French Language, not so, it all went very well, The lady we saw there spoke fairly good English and with my French we got there.
Half way through just as things were going fine, those dreaded words (Ah problem) we looked at each other and thought ..NO..
All the double photocopies of proof of residence were fine for John but not for me as my name was not on them, note to self get them all changed as it might be a big problem if John were to die, where would I stand but that's another blog.
John had to sign a declaration to say I lived there so all was ok, the whole thing took about 30 minutes and were told it would take 2 weeks when we would get a letter calling us in to collect the licence's

Voila, Saturday 3rd Jan the letter came, YES in 2 weeks, we were amazed as Christmas had happened in-between and New Year, we were excited and planned to get up early Monday morning and trot off to Laval Prefecture (we don't normally do early in the winter).
We set the alarm for 8am and got up both a little bleary eyed, the dreaded fog was out there and we both said we didn't much like it but we would take it easy and keep our eyes peeled for the crazy French drivers, we arrived at the Prefecture at 10h and took a ticket as per the norm and sat expecting to wait a long time as there were lots of people from other countries (we could tell by their language) well you can imagine when our number came up straight away and we seemed to jump the queue - in we went to be greeted by a lovely young girl who sadly did not speak any English so our French was put to the test, we managed ok, she did John's first showing him a list of information which included the 12 points which here they put on and take away if you are naughty unlike in England where they put them on, is everything backwards here?
Then onto mine - She asked what my maiden name was and proceeded to look for mine under this name, yes sure enough my licence is in my maiden name so I questioned this and she said c'est normale - bizarre.
I think it only took 20 minutes this time, were we just lucky or is it because we live in the Mayenne! who knows, I do think that they take kindly to anyone who try's to speak the language plus it is in their interest to have everyone with French documents as they can now take our points and fine us...

IT IS HERE AT LAST - 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR - To one and all and hope you all saw the new year in where you wanted to be and with whom you wanted to be with, John and I spent it with dear friends in the village who are here on holiday from the UK, we had a few drinks and aperitifs nibbles wished each other a happy new year then walked home and promptly went to bed ( we can't hack the late nights anymore)....

2014 didn't start well for us as I was rushed into hospital on 2nd January just as we had picked up our dear friend Joy from the airport and then spent 8 days in there with a Pulmonary embolism so missed her stay completely, sorry Joy!
I have at least stayed in good health for the rest of the year, we got one of those inflatable swimming pools and had lots of lovely hot days to floating about with our blow up chairs,our friend Fernando came for a visit and we couldn't keep him out of it, in fact it inspired him to go and purchase one himself to take back to the UK,  I am not sure what the neighbours thought about it all but they did come out one day and took photo's of us, they think we are mad anyway :)


We also had some good BBQ's








Joy came back in October to have another re-run and was pleased that I managed to stay out of hospital this time, she was also surprised to see that we had finished her bedroom, which we completely made in a roof space from scratch and it must have been nice for her to not have to sleep on the sofa..Sorry I can't find the pic I took of the bedroom so will have to take some more for another time.

Hoe you all had a wonderful welcome and start to 2015 and that it is a year of good health and prosperity for us all...Happy New Year from John and Roz x

Our French life - It is nearly here

Our French life - it is nearly here

Well as you will have noticed the need for putting the old ink down has eluded me for some time so I thought if I were to get back in the swing of writing my beloved blog then Christmas and indeed the onset of the brand new year which is almost upon us would be as good a time as any...

Christmas... We had planned to spend Christmas on our own this year as John had mentioned that it might be nice for a change but as the year went on and our friends mentioned the usual gathering of the clan we thought it might be better to share it with good friends, we couldn't invite everyone as we all would not have got around the table comfortably so we kept it to 6 of us...this proved to be enough and it took John and I all day on Christmas eve to prepare all the veggies, make two stuffings, chestnut and sage and onion, pigs in blankets defrost half a turkey crown (brought by our friends who have a couple of houses in our village and were here for Christmas) plus a piece of pork, then I made a trifle for one of our guests who doesn't like Christmas Pudding, I did have some Christmas puds but Pauline our very good friend and one of the guests had made one in October so we had that,...this all done we collapsed in our chairs Christmas eve night thankful of the rest (we can't do the entertaining like we used to) getting on a bit now..

Christmas morning and of course John's Birthday we got up fairly early, we had a leisurely breakfast and John opened his birthday presents, we do try to make it special for him, in fact I had mentioned it on a Facebook group I am on and some of the lovely ladies had sent him a card which was quite exciting for him to open cards from ladies all over France and not having a clue who they were (Thank you Ladies of LIFT)

At 11h30 we had a phone call from two of our guests to say they wouldn't be coming as they were both unwell, not to worry we said and speedy good health, then we thought of two other friends who could have come in their place but felt it too late an hour to call and invite them as we thought they would think they were second choice...now the remaining friends would be able to stay overnight and thus enjoy a drink...

We didn't have a starter as such but had Amuse bouche thing's, french pork pie, prawns in little bowls with Mary rose sauce, olives, cornichon and smoked salmon, this filled us up more than we thought so we waited quite a while before eating the main course but thoroughly enjoyed it when we did, we pulled our crackers and put on our silly paper hats, read the jokes and spent some time trying to piece together the puzzles from within, of course we couldn't manage the cheese course and decided to leave the pud until later when we would really enjoy it which turned out to be 5pm.
The weather was extremely warm in fact we didn't have any fires on, it is so different today as the frost has arrived and we have -7 degrees

We all settled down to an evening of TV and chatting then off to bed and it was all over

Boxing day none of us could face a cooked breakfast so just had toast and at 2pm we were all off to another friends for drinks and aperitifs, I was the non drinker/driver so we had to be back before dark, it turned out to be the drive from hell as the rain was of biblical proportions and visibility was non existent, we were indeed glad to be home, there was enough food left from the day before to plate up another meal so after devouring that we both fell asleep in front of the TV :)

Sorry there are no pics as we didn't remember to take one over the whole period.

And so it is almost 2015 and I sit here wondering what it has in store for us (hope it's all good) and I also hope to keep you posted as it happens
   

I would like to thank you all for reading this blog and to wish you all.....

 A Very Happy and Healthy New Year.

Roz & John x