Busy, busy, busy. Snake!

Very busy of late.  The blackcurrants have all ripened on cue, and there's loads of them again.  They seem top thrive on neglect as they didn't get pruned last year.  Given quite a bit away and some of our guests have had some.  Well, quite a few actually.  I said 'help yourselves' so they did.  Everyday.  I wasn't going to get any for us as I still have plenty in the freezer from last year, plus several pots of blackcurrant jam, plus two and a half bottles of blackcurrant vodka, but in the end I relented - can't bear to see them go to waste.  Anyway, I found a recipe for blackcurrant jelly, which although it requires two lots of cooking, does at least avoid the need to prick each currant first or even the worry of the jam ending up like a jar of little bullets.  Finished it today, it's all potted up - here's hoping it tastes alright.  I did an apple and blackcurrant crumble the other day, that was nice, and I bought a cheap bottle of vodka in Lidls this week, so I'll do another blackcurrant liqueur with that.  Better drink the rest up.

Had a snake in the garden today. Adrian was watering the bamboos and it slithered out in front of him. Then it started climbing up inside one of the bamboos, then a bit later it got brave and came out across the grass, onto the terrace and hid itself amongst the tomato pots. Looked it up and it appears to be a 'Coulevre d'Esculape'. The longest snake in France I think and mostly harmless (depending on what creature you are). Well, it has no venom, but a fondness for killing it's prey by constriction. Here are some pics:

We've had some lovely guests in lately, so that's cheered me up no end.  The sun is shining, the guests are nice and life is so much better.  Although nearly had some issues with the french folk that are leaving tomorrow.  They arrived last week, first of all they wanted the heating on, although it's the end of June.  Then they wanted a torch, which I do loan out from time to time if guests staying in the gites at the far end of the garden are going out for the evening and getting back late after dark.  But these guys are in the cottage nearest to the parking area, there's an outside light and it doesn't start getting dark until nearly 11pm at the mo.  So I wasked them why they wanted it and for how long.  'The whole week please.  We need it incase we want to get up to go to the toilet at night'.  'In that case, 'No'.  We do have lights in the cottage you know.  The switches are located near the doors'.  There was something else, but I can't remember what it was now, something trivial.  Anway, two days after they arrived, I was cleaning in one of the other gites, it was about 9.30am and Adrian came to get me, said one of the women wanted to talk to me.  Well, I arrived at the house, she was standing outside, still in her dressing gown and pj's and I thought, 'oh, what now, what can be so bad that she hasn't even been able to get dressed yet?'  So I took a deep breath, smiled my very nicest smiled and asked her how I could help.  'Have you got any documentation?' she said.  Well, at this point I am nearly having a breakdown, what the hell does that mean?  Insurance, registration, what?  We've got it all, it's all above board, I was just stressed that she was asking for it.  'No, no' she says, 'Publicity, business cards, that kind of thing.  We thing your place is wonderful and I want to tell all my friends and relatives about you, they must come and have a holiday here, it's so lovely.'  And since then they've been nice as pie, every time I see them, they tell me how wonderful it all is and of course, they've also enjoyed plenty of blackcurrants.  You never can tell.

It's the girl's school fete on Sunday.  It's good, but it always drags on, there's lots of hanging around and it's always hot.  They all dress up to a different theme for each class and parade through the village first of all.  Georgia's class are going to be cowboys and cowgirls and Isabella's class are going to be trees.  Due to set off 2.30pm.  Probable start 2.45pm.  Then they get on stage, class by class, and put on a little performance.  Due to start 3pm.  Probable start 3.45pm.  This year they are doing extra performances for various reasons, so I expect it will finish sometime around Tuesday.  There's a bar and a crepe stall and other stalls with games and prizes and what-have-you, so plenty of opportunity to spend money in the name of supporting the school, I just wish they'd get organised a bit better. 

Getting a few crops in the garden now.  The carrots are failing, so that's a shame as they were so good last year, definately one of my favourite crops.  On the other hand, we're getting some peas, raspberries, strawbs, a little mangetout and the broccoli, leeks and sweetcorn are still alive (nothing short of a miracle).  The courgettes are still alive as well, but not in the best spot this year, so not sure if we'll get any courgettes themselves as there are no flowers yet.  The melons are still waiting to be planted out.  Oh yes, we've also got quite a few tomatoes growing, although they're still green.  And so far a success - I've finally manged to get a sunflower seed to grow.  There are other thing to tell, but it's late now and I can't be bothered.  But here's a couple of pics of the girls and their peas:

You may or may not know that my mother broke her leg about three years ago.  She and my father had gone out for the day to Dinard (almost an hour an a half's drive away) and after lunch she fell and thus broke her leg.  She was therefore in hosital in Dinard for some time, which was, quite frankly, a bit inconvenient.

Well, this week-end my Dad had gone away with a friend of his to 'play-trains' somewhere up near Caen, by all accounts it's about 2 hours drive, wherever they are.  Well, yesterday morning we got a call to say that he was in hospital, very unwell.  I won't go into details, but they kept him in overnight for obs and it seems that he will be fine.  Anyway, I was in the middle of preparing the cottage for the new arrivals due yesterday (who are french and Adrian doesn't have enough french to greet them on his own) and the girls were at home (it was a Saturday).  We would have found a way round this for me to be able take Mum up there, but then the wife of the friend that Dad had gone away with said she would take Mum up there and after much to-ing and fro-ing with regards to which car to take, they set off.

What I subsequently realised is that my parents have obviously found a niche-market in tourism literature and are currently researching a new book.  Working title: 'hospitals of northern France for the older generation of traveller'.

So, on Friday morning, the second estate agent came around.  First of all I thought he'd only just got out of bed and not had time for his very small but very strong french coffee, he was clearly half-asleep. Very difficult to talk to, definately had a sense-of-humour bypass, but more thorough than the previous guy, so that was a positive.  Again no commitment on value, he's going to have to calculate it and get back to us at the begginning of the week.  Bracing myself for the typical estate agents sales speak I also asked this guy if they had any nice little local houses we and my parents might be interested in.  'Um, I think we might have one or two nearby, I'm not really sure'.  Not really a good advert for tempting us to go with them to sell our place.

In the afternoon, the third estate agent came over.  Much nicer guy.  Thorough and pleasant to talk to.  Although he also asked us what price we wanted.  Gave up this time and told him.  He promptly added 50,000 euros on to it and said he'd be happy to market it at that price.

Anyway, it's nice to get back to living in a tip again after a few days doing the 'show home at home' look, which really isn't us.  To be honest though, I don't think it made any difference.  House value over here seems to be calulated on square metreage of the property and that's that.  Hence the second agent has had to go away and 'calculate' the value.

Just a little foot-note on the bees, I'm sure you're deserate to know, they seem to have eaten the remainder of the honey and then disappeared again. Cheeky little things.

More bees! Estate Agents!

Well, the beehive mentioned in the previous post has at last been attracting the bees.  Late this morning we noticed lots of them flying around and going in and out of the hive, obviously moving in.  Unfortunately, they're not from round here  - ie not the ones from under the eaves nearby, nor from any of the other eave-bee-hide-outs we have.  They appear to be honey bees and actually I find it all very fascinating.  I'm hoping I'll be able to wangle a visit to see them in situ in the summer.  Here are a few pics:

I must explain the paint job on the front of the house - we are currently in the process of fixing it up a bit and it will look better soon!

The first of the estate agents came this afternoon.  What an arsehole he was.  Typical estate agent mind.  Met him when we went into the agents to make the appointment and didn't really take to him then.  Wouldn't commit to a price.  Kept asking us what we wanted for it, what did we think it was worth.  Well, that was exactly why we are asking the estate agents around, we wanted to know what they thought.  Kept telling me about other houses he's sold and trying to remember the owners names as though I would know them all (local area population somewhere around 50,000 people).  I half expected him to be one of those foreigners who ask you 'how's the queen these days and have you seen her lately?'.   He hardly spent anytime in anywhere, in fact, didn't look at everything (although he did say it looked nice and had been decorated 'with taste'), didn't ask a thing about the business which is part of the sale, or even why we are selling up.  Then I asked him if he had any nice places going in the local area (in case we stay) and he said that he did but he was 'going on holiday on Saturday' 'Are you really?' I respond, slightly confused as to why he felt the need to tell me that. 'Yes, for the whole week, I'm taking the plane'.  'Would you like to borrow my phone, you could call someone who cares?'.  'No thanks' he said 'What I mean is, you won't be able to see any properties in this area'.  'Oh, the agency is closing for everyone to take their holidays is it?' I innocently enquire.  'No, it's only me who's going away, the agency will still be open, but I do your area, so you wan't be able to see any property'  'And no-one else can show us around in your absence?' 'No'.

Bloody hell!  Sometimes I am such an eejit.  Cooked some chook for lunch and boiled up a bit extra to have cold in a salad the following day.  Had a few scrappy bits of chook left over that we wouldn't eat, so I also boiled them up as a treat for the cat.  Drained chook, but too hot to put into fridge, so I covered it with a bit of kitchen paper to keep off flies whilst it cooled.  Returned to kitchen later to find peice of kitchen roll on the floor, one entire piece of chicken breast missing, the other two nibbled at and the little bits I cooked for the cat - entirely untouched.  So she's had some expensive meals of late finishing it up.  My own fault.  But now she wants more and keeps pestering me whenever I go in the kitchen. 

The estate agents are coming in tomorrow and Friday so I have been trying to tidy up the house.  Just got the kitchen and the lounge left to do.  I can barely even get into the garage at the mo, so I'm not even going to bother with that.  One of them (estate agents) rang and cancelled today because they have gone bust.  (Didn't really know what to say to the obviously emotional young guy who called who had presumably just been informed that he had lost his job.  Don't think I'd have bloody called if it was me!!!).  They were due to come tomorrow morning so at least that gives me a bit more time to finish cleaning.  Not sure what they'll make of the beehive currently perched precariously above our front door.  Someone is trying to collect the bees that have set up home under the eaves above our kitchen window.  All it seems to be doing is providing a free meal for the bees who land on the edge of it, eat the honey and then bugger off.  Also the honey is dripping onto the ground in front of the door so we'll probably have an ant infestation by the morning.  But hey, that's living in the countryside for you!

Too much going on

So much going on of late I don't know where to start, so this could be more waffly and disjointed than usual.  But the football is on and talk about being on every channel.  I put on the english tv - Italy v Paraguay.  I put on the french tv - Italy v Paraguay.   

Firstly though, going back to last year's end-of-season theme of 'crap food guests leave', some recent french guests left a fair bit of food in the fridge, mostly yogs, a bit of butter, some oil.  All fine and am happy to consume it.  However, they also left loads of little 'fromage blancs' which I refuse to eat these days having been force-fed them three times a day when I was in Alcatraz, sorry hospital, after Georgia was born.  Isabella eats them though, so long as she can have half a jar of sugar sprinkled on each one, so they didn't go to waste.  They also left an interesting item called 'Bouillie de l'avoine' which I have never seen or heard of before.  It was made from oat flour, water, salt and may have had milk in it too, but I can't remember.  As you will see from the pics below it looked like insipid brown blancmange and had the same texture too.  In a word 'unpleasant'.   However, I'm all for trying new things, especially local produce and the packet did say that it was a 'traditional Breton product'.  So I insisted that we all try it.  I duly followed the instructions and sliced it and fried it for five mins on each side in some butter.  Well I can report that it did indeed taste as disgusting as it looked.  Vile. Gros.  Horrid.  You get the picture.  In fact have three pics - before, during and after:

Tempted?  I bet you're not!

So, what next.  Georgia has Chicken Pox.  Poor thing, she's actually quite well during the day.  A bit off her food and a bit pale, but otherwise fine.  She's covered in spots now, they're all over, not a body part untouched I think, and they do bother her at night.  At 3am this morning I had a brainwave (quite miraculous really considering the time, but we were both desperate) and remembered I had some kiddies anti-histamine syrup in the cupboard.  Unfortunately, she didn't like it and spat most of it out.  Adrian and I did a good double act involving distraction techniques and pouring it down the back of her throat before she realised tonight, so hopefully she'll have a better night tonight.  I tried bathing her in bicarb (with water as well of course) but the water seemed to iritate her more than the bicarb soothed her.  I've also tried applying calamine lotion, but she doesn't like that because its cold.  The worst thing for her though is that she was due to go to a friend's birthday party on Saturday.  Her first one and she's been talking about it for a few weeks now, she was so looking forward to it, but couldn't go - she was very upset.  I thought about covering her up and sending her for a bit anyway (naughty I know, but she'll have picked it up from school where all the other kids will have been anyway),  but she seemed to be gaining spots by the minute and by lunchtime I had to either admit defeat or send her in tights, a long-sleeved poloneck jumper and a woolly hat with ear flaps.  I know when to give up.

Cheeky buggers no.3:  If you've been reading of late, you will know about the cheeky guests we've had of late.  Had some more last week, not the best start to the season.  The day after they arrived, they invited their friends around.  Now, we don't mind people having friends around, but it is in our terms and conditions and also in the info file in the properties that we would like to know about it in advance.  Several reasons - firstly, this is our home and we'd like to know who's here, I don't think many people would allow complete strangers to be wandering about on their property, secondly, insurance reasons - we cannot allow them to use the equipment, pool etc, thirdly, to be fair to our other guests who have come here for a quiet holiday and lastly just because it is polite!  Well, needless to say, these people did not feel the need to mention that they would like their friends to visit.  The first time we didn't realise until they were leaving (we'd been out) so we just let it go.  But then they came back at 10pm, with two small children, parked under the hangar and made themselves at home.  Well, this time we were more than a little unhappy, especaially at that time of night (we've had guests sneak people into to stay overnight before), so I went down to have a polite word.  Well, they were all half-cut so I didn't get very far, but they assured me they wouldn't be staying the night and would be leaving soon.  The next morning, one of them came over to apologise and said that they 'weren't expecting them, they just turned up'.  Although how people just turn up somewhere where their friends are without first having directions and an idea of when they will be there is beyond me.

Anyway, they were Jehovah's and they very kindly left us some of their literature behind, which I read - strong stuff I have to say and this month's edition was all about not being deceitful and not steeling.  And there in lies my problem.  Firstly, the deceitfulness (forgetting to mention their friends).  And then steeling.  They'd asked if they could have some wood for a bbq but told them that our wood supply was green and not suitable for burning so no, they couldn't have any, but I could let them have some charcoal and firelighters and they said 'no thanks' to the charcoal)....).  Unfortunately, there was a small pile of our wood  left by the bbq after they'd gone....  Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with folk having religious beliefs, providing a) they don't try to recruit me, b) they don't wage war in the name of their God and c) they are not hippocritcal about it.  I mean, leaving three leaflets pointedly on the table for us, all about what sin is and that steeling (of any sort - it was very specific) and deceifulness are the sins of the week having commited both of those sins themselves!!!!!

I think that's enough for tonight, I'm trying to watch Gavin and Stacey anyway.  Cracking.

Feeling a bit better now - Adrian finally got around to making Pina Coladas after I bought the ingredients some time ago.  They do go down very easily, yet they are surprisingly strong.  Good for the soul.  But not great for thinking straight.  Tried to run a bath for the girls just after finishing my drink.  Got distracted by Adrian messing about on the computer (see below) and filled it too full and too hot, so let some water out.  Still distracted by Adrian messing about on computer and let out too much so had to refill, almost ran out of hot water, but it was enough for them.  Anyway, I could still work the computer better than Adrian - see pics below -this is us - we have been well and truly Avatared:

Blimey, I'm knackered!  Been working like a mad thing since we got back from our little break away.  All our gites will be full this week, four of them have been full since last week.  Not complaining really, coz it's all moey coming in, but it's been crazy trying to get everything ready on time and then do changeovers this weekend and so on.  Unfortunately, it all happens at once at this time of year - the garden needs attention, the grass needs cutting (2 acres of it) and the gites need preparing - the spring clean always takes ages as the insects move in over winter (squatters rights, they say).  Can't prepare them too early as the little critters move back in again before anyone else gets a chance.  On top of that, Isabella had her dance shows Friday and Saturday eve, which finished at 12.45am each night!  Then having to get up early the next day to start work again has almost finished me off....  However, Isabella really enjoyed doing the shows and naturally she was the best one there!!!  Here is a pic from her first dance - it's blurry because we were a bit far from the stage and I've had to crop it to cut all the other girls out...

They were clowns in case you can't tell!

So anyway, just one more gite to finish today, Adrian's gone off down there already.  I would be there, but I'm waiting for a call back - someone rang just as I was leaving on the school run about the gites.  I asked them to call beack in 20 mins, 'yes, no probs' they said.  Well, 45 mins later and I'm still waiting.  Think I'll give up soon.  Have a feeling I know what they'll say as it was a local number and it's usually the same thing - they're having a family get together and they want all the gites, which sleep up to 22 max, for their family and friends totalling approx 30 in number, for one night only.  Well, 'NO!'.  You may think I'm turning away business, but it's not B&B here, it's not like cleaning just a bedroom and a bathroom, it's a whole house each time, just for one night.  Plus it'll be a major piss-up and not on my land, thannk you very much, plus they always say 'oh we don't mind being over capacity, we'll kip on the floor, to which they get 'well, we do mind, so you won't kip on the floor, now piss off and go and annoy someone who does B&B or a hotel'.

As you can tell, I'm not in a very accommodating mood at the mo.  Well, on top of being a bit tired (did I mention two migraines in the last 3 days?  One I got at night so managed to sleep it off, the other I woke up with and fortunately, my tabs (at €55,00 for twelve) worked on this occasion), we've had a few idiots in already - the lot that left on Sat not only allowed their darling boys to trash the garden (breaking and stamping on plants a speciality), they broke five glasses in one week and one of them thoroughly wet the bed so that I had to wash everything, duvet included and thank God for mattress protectors.  Neglected to mention any of this to us though.  If people tell us we don't mind, the odd glass always gets broken (though 5 is a record) and accidents do happen, we'd just like to know about it in advance!!!!  Also, the minute they turned up the dad said to me 'so is the internet in the main house then?'.  Well, we have wi-fi now,but we haven't advertised it, although we have told people that we've got it if they've asked for it.  Well, I knew I hadn't told this guy about it, so I assumed that Adrian had, so I said 'no, it's wi-fi, come and get the code off us and you can access it the garden'.  Well, I went back to Adrian and he hadn't told the guy about it.  Checked all the e-mails and nothing, so basically, he just assumed that he could use our internet!  Cheeky bugger!  Within two hours of his arrival he was at the house asking for the code.  He'd only left home that morning, he was supposed to be on holiday!  Then yesterday morning I had to chuck some guests out of another gite, they were supposed to be gone by 10am as we had more people coming in, which I informed them of by e-mail previously, plus it's in our t&c's, plus I remended them when they arrived.  Left it until 10.30 then went in to chivvy them up - nothing had been done - they assumed that it would be alright if they stayed there until the afternoon!  'OMG - you're the second lot of cheeky buggers I've had this weekend! No it fucking isn't alright, I need you to leave now!'' 

Anyway, enough ranting, I've waited long enough for this woman to call back and she hasn't and I've got work to do.  Hopefully, I'll be in a better mood when I next write.