Charentaise Floor

The Charentaise pebble floor that I have been following in the posts HERE and HERE has now been finished. 

I have not seen it yet, but the owners, who spent many hours working on this floor, pebble by pebble, have sent me the following photographs.

Nearly there!

and finished.

It is very impressive and I am sure that they must be very proud of what they have achieved. Well done you two.

One Year Blog Anniversary

February 8 2011  I started this blog one year today; I can hardly believe it!  It has been an amazing year and I have 'met' so many new friends, some literally.  This blog was started originally so that friends and family could follow what I have been up to, where I have been and what I have been cooking.  Suddenly, like Topsy, it grew and grew and now I have almost 100 followers, well over 11,000 page views and climbing fast.  I have so enjoyed building new friendships from all over the world and your comments are a delight to receive and mean so much to me. Thank you one and all.

This is my 160th post and I thought I would take one of my favourite pictures from each month since I started the blog, and celebrate a little of the whole year in one place. 

February 2010 posts covered several months, as it was all about 'the beginning', from when we bought the house in France (Sep 2005) up until 18 July 2007; this photo, although in the February postings, was in fact taken in June 2006.  The old plaster had been removed from the outside of the house, to reveal the lovely stone work underneath. Repointing had not started at this stage.

 http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/02/june-2006-part-3.html

March 2010 also covered several posts from 2007 until 1 January 2010.  In April 2008 we finally succeeded in getting rid of the leaks in our barn thanks to some fine workmanship from our local roofer.  Not forgetting, of course, help from our neighbour in lifting the tiles, which made life considerably easier.  Note that the exterior walls had been finished and pointed in this photo.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/03/april-to-august-2008-part-21.html

April 2010 I returned to our house in France after the winter spell in the UK. Despite spring arriving with me and the garden being full of spring flowers and blossom on the trees, my favourite photo just had to be this cute little donkey which I saw one day on my way home from shopping, via the scenic route.

 http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/04/scenic-route-home-part-47.html

May 2010  This was a difficult month to choose a photo from, as I was torn between three, this lovely view, the Citroen 2CV's parading in Chasseneuil and the very first asparagus that I was able to cut from the garden.  This view, which I finally decided on, is taken from the Resistance Memorial, which is positioned to overlook the town of Chasseneuil and all the areas beyond, where the four principal members of the local resistance group were based.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/05/memorial-de-la-resistance-chasseneuil.html

June 2010  Another difficult month to choose from and I thought this was going to be easy!  There were some stunning sunsets this month, the garden was looking fantastic and there was the post on La Rochefoucauld Chateau.  I finally decided though that my favourite was farming country, with hay bales as far as the eye can see.

 http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/06/round-and-about-5-part-72.html

July 2010 France in July; not really a choice here, as I can only go for the photo taken on the 14th when the country celebrated Bastille Day. What a great night we had!

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/07/bastille-day-celebrations-and-tdf-part.html

August 2010 This month I had to look no further than one photograph; this was probably my favourite of the whole year.  It was the most magical sunrise with storm clouds, nothing like I had ever seen before (or since!) and I just happened to look outside at exactly the right moment.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/08/magic-of-nature-fiery-sky.html

September 2010 I gave up trying to decide for September and finally thought that a collage was the only answer,  maybe not all my favourite photos, but to me, the interesting ones.

Top Left - Our gates, which I had finally managed to finish painting see HERE.
Top Right and Bottom Left - My September garden see HERE
Bottom right - My friends' beautiful Charentaise floor HERE

October 2010  Was my return to the UK for winter; although this may not be the best quality photo, as it was taken though salt encrusted windows from the ferry, I think it is was certainly a favourite of my followers, and most people remembered the words of the song "The White Cliffs of Dover".

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/10/travelling-back-to-uk-part-3.html

November 2010 was the month I met up with fellow blogger Anne.  As I previously commented, it was  amazing that after following each other's blogs for several months, we discovered that our homes in the UK are in the same village.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/11/meeting-up-with-fellow-blogger-and.html

 December 2010  As it was a very cold December, I decided that this was one of my favourite photos of a 'cold seat'!!  I have to say it was once again a very difficult choice, as I did love the photos that I took of the small town of Wantage.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2010/12/im-dreaming-of-white-christmas.html

January 2011   Certainly my favourite photo that I posted in January is the one of St Nicolas Church in Newbury, taken across the Kennet and Avon Canal.

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/2011/01/st-nicolas-church-newbury-uk.html

February 2011   As I am only just into the month of February, and this was the month I started last year, I feel as if the 12 photos above show only a very small proportion of what I have seen, lived and cooked during the last 12 months.  It has been an interesting and educational time for me while I looked up the history of the places I have visited.   Most of all though, I have loved 'meeting' each and everyone of you who have joined me in my travels around the Charente, and latterly around the UK, working in the garden and cooking in the kitchen.  Some of you have become very special friends, but I feel very honoured to call all of you, world wide, that have visited and commented on my site, my friends. As I said earlier, thank you one and all for an amazing 12 months. 

I will be back in the Charente the end of next month and I will of course then be posting about our home and local villages in France.  That is once I get a broadband connection back, which is not likely to happen overnight!!!!  If I disappear for a few weeks you know where I am!

Meanwhile, I will cover a few of the places I have visited here in the UK and some odd posts with some of the photos I still have not posted from France.

I have just received the news that I have won a cookery book written by Linda Burgett who runs a blog called My Kind of Cooking.  You will love her blog and she posts some incredible recipes, all of which are so easy, and using very few ingredients.  Please go and visit her at My Kind of Cooking   What a wonderful way to celebrate my first anniversary.  Thank you Linda.

Update on the Charentaise Floor.

On Sunday morning, I made an early start and went to collect some more horse manure for the garden.


Early Morning mist en route, the two 'lumps' on the right are horses!

 Take as much as you like -  free of charge; great stuff!


The large manure heap, with the rising sun just adding a glow



The vegetable beds where I have taken out the potatoes and the onions are now well dug over.  I decided that if I dig in a load of manure at this stage, the beds will be nicely ready for next year's crops. It should settle down well over the next 6 months.  It is mainly manure and shavings with some hay mixed into it. Thanks R & I for giving me the lead on the location of this bounteous manure heap.



The garden ready for next year's planting after a fnal dig over.

On my way home, I stopped off at these friends' house to see how their Charentaise floor was progressing.  See HERE . So many of you have asked me if it is finished yet.   It looks just great and now only needs grouting to finish it off. You are only likely to see this final touch next year. Although it may be done before I leave, I doubt if I will be back to take more photos. Meanwhile I am very impressed; this has been a very time consuming job, but well worth the effort. Congratulations on  a wonderful traditional floor!

A work of art.

Horse Manure etc!

At the barbecue to which I went on the night after Nigel returned to the UK, I met a delightful English couple. During the course of conversation, and talking about the garden, I mentioned that I needed a lot more compost and commented about the price of it.  I have been buying it by the (small) bagful at building centres. I was told that there were some stables near them where I could  possibly get manure; they used to go there on a regular basis, before they  started generating their own rabbit compost. A few days later, I received a phone call and I was offered their help,  by way of a driver, car and trailer; how could I turn down a wonderful offer like that? I have the car, but no tow hitch or trailer, so I would have had to have collected it in bags.

On Sunday morning at 09h30, we were on our way to the stables with our large cubic metre builder’s bag, (courtesy of David), in the back of the trailer. We thought it would be easier for offloading when we returned to our house. I was so overwhelmed by the size of the manure pile, and the filling of the bag, that I forgot all about the camera! I did remember it just before we unloaded it.

My friend partly hidden under the plum tree after tipping the bag out of the trailer.

After moving the manure from the builder’s bag to the two large compost bins, I had one bin full right to the top and the other about 6 inches from the top. As such all for free, what a pleasure. Next year this will have turned into ideal compost for the garden.

I also have a third, and larger, bin which is slowly filling up with all the 'rubbish' from the garden.

On our return to my friends, I was shown around and I was astounded at the work they had done to their house; just the two of them and it was so professional. They had not only done roofing, but had laid magnificent wooden flooring, amongst a number of other jobs. Nevertheless, what really took my eye was the floor they are now laying in their entertainment area outside. There were originally just two walls with recesses in the wall where the chicken used to nest. There are now two more low balustrades, the materials bought some years ago from a building being demolished in the UK.

Also there is now a full roof over the whole area. To return to the floor though, they had dug up a Charentaise pebble floor from a room which is now their utility room.

They are now re-laying it in the entertainment area. It looks wonderful already, and I am really looking forward to seeing the finished product. Congratulations to you both, I am impressed and I am so glad I met you.

Note one of the recesses in the wall at the back where the chicken used to nest! I hope to take some more photos when the floor is finally finished.

Lastly, but most importantly, thank you so much for your help in the acquisition of the valuable garden compost. Not only for the thought, but the car, trailer and your time involved.