Breaking Barbie's legs

We had a little party yesterday for the girls, partly a leaving party and partly a birthday party for Georgia.  So I made a birthday cake for Georgia; she likes pink, so I made a pink doll cake like the yellow one I made for Isabella a couple of years ago (on here somewhere).  Last time I made it, as I recall, I managed to use one of those 'fake' Barbie dolls, whose legs come off easily, however, this time, I only had real barbies left as I had been sorting things out to pack and the fake ones didn't quite make it.  I tried to put Barbie in the cake whole, but she was too tall, so I had no choice but to pull her legs off.  I managed to get one off alright, but the other broke (the hip joint, to be precise).  Anyway, she managed to get through the whole 'cake-display' event, poor thing, always smiling through the pain.  But now I can't fix her.  I've packed the superglue and can only find uhu, but it hasn't worked.  Adrian says to tell the girls that it's a 'Limited Edition Heather Mills Barbie'.  Either that or 'Limited Edition Hip Replacement this is what happens if you don't drink your milk Barbie'.

Hopefully, here is a picture of the cake.  But I have problems with the photos on here so it could come out above the text.

Oh it worked!  Fancy that!

All I want for Christmas....

Well, christmas is going to be easy for Isabella this year - she just lost another tooth today, so now 'All she wants for christmas is her two front teeth'!

Monsieur Le Stig

Je vous présente the all new Monsieur Le Stig.  Some say he's been spotted in France.    

He's got a new ride as well.

Miscelleous photos

A selection of photos from the summer, not in any particular order, they've been a right pain in the butt to upload, which is why I had to upload them in two separate posts:

The lake at Pouance

Not the best hiding place perhaps...

A walk around the lake at Pouance

Just call me 'Kate'

Miscellaneous photos

At the lake at Pouance












Flags at Pornic












No, not giant labels, jam in miniature.







A selection from the store cupboard:
Top row L to R - Blackcurrant jelly, orange and cointreau marmalade, red fruits jelly,
Bottom row L to R - Bramble jelly, greengage jam, plum and cinnamon jam, apple and cinnamon jelly.





The greengages looked so pretty in the pan that I had to take a piccy.










At the lake at Treffieu












Lake at Treffieu









'Picture of Lily'  (Which leads me to 'Quiz of the week number 3' - What is the song and the group I'm referring to?  Usual competition rules apply (see 'Quiz of the week1')












Lilies at Treffieu











Treffieu










Treffieu













On the train at Treffieu












Our only sunflower - after four years of trying to grow them without success, this year we had four seeds left, they were all planted out and this is the only one that grew.











Yes, I do all my own make-up.

Fab day

Had a day out with hubby and the girls yesterday, a sort of 'birthday day-out' on account of not having done anything else to 'celebrate'. Anyway, we went to Pornic and it was lovely. Wandered around the shops wishing we were wealthy and I was slim (oh, the lovely 'things' and the lovely clothes...). Stopped for a drink outside a tabac/bar (ie not a glamorous cafe) - one large coffee, one glass of milk and one lemonade - 7,80€! Then had lunch on the harbour, which was actually very reasonably priced and then bought ice-creams for desert from an ice-cream place (one of those places with so much choice, you can't choose). Had a walk along the harbour and then got back in the car to find a beach. Which we did indeed find, and a very nice one too. The water was a bit rough and the girls got a few dunkings but they loved it! Came home and sold 60,00€ of stuff from the small ads (although they paid by cheques, so fingers crossed they don't bounce, but they tend not to over here. Anyway, I've got their addresses, so I can always send the kids round to sort them out).

The only slight downer was the late evening discovery that I had not quite shut the freezer door in the morning, so we lost a bit of food (mostly ice-cream, most of which had been left by guests, so not paid for by us). It's my own fault (and not just because I was the one who left the door open) because I had been complaining about a lack of space in my freezers - be careful what you wish for and all that.

Hopefully here are some photos, but goodness knows what order they will be in:

Isabella building a sandcastle on top of her towel.

Georgie.  The people in the background are the ones she chucked sand all over when she shook out her towel.

Hubby's got a brand new toy!

Adrian has got himself a new ride:

And here's an unflattering picture of me on it:

And as there's one of me, there has to be one of him too - his first ride on it, in our garden!  How many wives would let their husbands do that I ask you?!

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:

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'.

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: