The English Paysanne

With amazing weather that we are lucky to be having at this time of year the annual chestnut fair at Laguepie was heaving with people today with a few chestnuts as well. Autumnal produce was for sale along with a very sad fungi exhibition, usually this is quiet impressive with mushrooms and fungus lined up in their own labelled bowl with a sticker next to their name green for OK moving to black for death, there was a few of each but they all looked a little sad, a sign that it has been a bad year on the mushroom front.

INJA May 4, 2015   Dear Inja here is a Griffon/Labrit mix.  At two years old she is adorable but very timid, so a fenced in garden is a must here together with loving owners who have the patience to teach Inja that not all humans are despicable. That's the post that was put on Poorpaws blog which I read and it's all history now. When I picked her up this is where she had hidden herself. Scarred of human contact she didn't want to be touched,tail firmly between her legs she half walked half crawled as she was put in the car. Unused to travelling throwing up twice we got home and left her to settle. By the first sleepless night we figured out she had separation anxiety. It's now been almost four months shes been with us, renamed Sorrel each day has been a little challenging but it is getting better. Taking on a rescue dog with many issues of being mistreated, missing out on socialisation and in complete fear of everything is ...

Some may think that South West France is sunny, warm and inviting all year round - it is not, and this week is proving that. The rain has made for an incredibly wet and muddy farm, where us and the animals are beginning to get a bit fed up with (apart from the ducks who are loving the puddles everywhere). Feeling flat after the loss of Milo man we needed to get off the farm for a few hours so a trip to Cordes yesterday afternoon was planned. High up in the sky  Cordes was voted the favourite village of 2014 by the French (but they probably didn't go this time of year) being so high up there the rain would run down the hill and with cobbled streets no mud. We were able to drive right up to the top and park with ease, something which is very hard to do in tourist season. Just as well we decided to eat before we left the farm as no restaurants were open, even the public loos were shut which meant going into the only open cafe and buying the most expen...

After a mild Christmas temperatures went below freezing making the pipes to the  cows bath water and pigs freeze up, containers were filled and fetched for the pigs but its a different matter for a herd of large cows all needing a drink. So on a rather biting windy morning  posts were placed with an electric fence being threaded through from the hanger down to the source in the side field, giving the herd access to the woods as well. It took all morning as plastic fence posts were hunted down and pinched from pig enclosures not in use (we seem to get through an amazing amount of these plastic posts) as farmer J switched the fence on and the cows were led down to water I placed the last plastic post in to see a young steer run through the fence taking the wire with him. So after a bit of colourful language, herding them all back, shutting off the field, having a large coffee the fence was mended and re threaded (more fence posts had to be borrowed ...

 Having picked and re picked blackberries along the edges of our fields we ventured further afield to the woods not that far from us. A old dog walking haunt we haven't been over here for a couple of years, the old path had grown considerably, not good for blind dogs it turned into extreme berry picking for blackberries, rose hips and sloes. All having vicious thorny plants I'm not sure which was worse to pick. With our booty home sloes for sloe gin, rose hips for syrup and blackberries for farmer J's wine. The blackberries were put in the freezer, he needs 11kg so they are frozen in dribs and drabs until the required amount is collected, however miss F and I did hide some for crumbles which he doesn't know about. With one batch of sloe gin doing its thing I started another as it does go down very nicely in the winter months and one just didn't seem enough. Whether it will last for next year we shall see, each day they are stirred with the spoon lic...

Last week was a bit of a non descript week, the everyday routine of farm life of checking, feeding and caring for animals was made a little bit harder with the Indian summer week we had. The sun  shone all week with the temperature a lot warmer than it has been all summer - crazy weather. We kicked back a bit, resting after a busy period and taking things a bit slower. Yesterday once animals were fed and watered we packed a picnic and headed off to St Antonin Nobel Val to the Sunday Morning market where I brought a bargain 3 euro bag of Lautrec garlic, broken and uneven sized bulbs it was unclassified not being able to be sold in a neat plat. On the way back we stopped off at a small village, Milhar, which has a picnic spot by a brook. The small park has been planted with weeping willows where you can sit under their canopy of branches or sit on seats made out of old pallets and willow canes. The sun had made everyone come out, the market wa...