Wow, three years of blogging! How the time flies when you are having fun!

Three years ago today, I published my first blog!  The time has just flown, and when I first started, I expected to run out of steam in a few months!  

Thanks to blogging, I have seen so much more of not only the Charente, but everywhere we have recently visited.  Having camera in hand makes me so much more observant, and I now notice things that in the past would have gone unseen!  In reading blogs, I have also taken tours through other people's eyes to almost all the places in the world, and ones I am unlikely ever to visit in person.  Thank you everyone for this, but I must single out  three blogs for   special praise; to Gaelyn, who has given me the finest views of the Grand Canyon I could ever expect to see, and also to Joan and Graham for keeping Africa alive for me.  There are others who doubtless deserve mention, but these three have been quite exceptional for me. 

I have made friends all over the world; some I have met, and others I keep in touch with by email and hope to meet one day.  When I have not been feeling well, people I barely know have been there for me, and when I feel like taking a short break from the computer, all my followers and vitual friends are there when I return.  Thank you everyone who has made my blogging experience a great one and I hope to be at it for some time to come.

For the past month I have been posting about our trip to Casablanca, so here are a few of my favourite photos that I have taken over this period here in the Charente.

09/01/13 I saw this gorgeous specimen parked outside our bank.

11/01/13 One of very few sunsets we have seen this year. It is mostly cloudy and raining!

14/01/13 While on the highway to Angouleme, being followed (temporarily!) by a Porsche, our favourite car!

and the same day, the flooded River Touvre on the outskirts of Angouleme.

16/01/13 Friends to dinner, and at last I had unpacked the decanter that my parents had bought many years ago in Mozambique. Probably red and white wine would look better but I was drinking Rose so......

20/01/13 We had a luncheon in the local village and decided that taking the car out was too risky, so we used shank's pony instead!

Same day, looking through some trees. Wonder when this cart last had an outing?!

24/01/13 A very cross goldfinch seeing off a blue tit at the feeder.

25/01/13 The River Son, not far north of us, is normally a quiet stream, but has now burst its banks.  The rain just does not stop!

26/01/13 A macro of my flowering orchid; a birthday present a couple of years back.

27/01/13 Raindrops keep falling on my head.........

28/01/13 During a break in the rain, I was walking around the garden trying to find a subject for a photo, when this very tiny fly landed right on the moss that I was looking at. Right time, right place!

minutes later, this goldfinch posed perfectly for me.

29/01/13 I noticed that there were some signs of apple blossom looking 'spring like'.

30/01/13 The church at Suaux seen from the entrance to the Mairie.

and on the way home, we saw this Norwegian Fjord horse in a waterlogged paddock.

31/01/13 I was fascinated by this 'rose' like fungi growing on the wood in the woodpile. 

A great tit poses for me.

02/01/13 The church in La Rochefoucauld

and the supermarket,

while the sky outside suddenly turned black.

Arriving home, we appeared to be in the eye of the storm!

04/02/13  Finally, photos of two blue tits and....

a great tit, waiting patiently for his turn at the feeder!

See also - My Life Before Charente Updated 08/02/2013

and my daily photo diary at http://photodiarydps.blogspot.fr/

Two Years of Blogging!

It was on 8 February 2010 when I became motivated to write a formal blog.  I originally started a version for family and friends two years earlier, so they could see progress made with the restoration of the house we bought in 2005.  I have spent the last 6 summers in France, doing what work I could, in both the house and the garden, while Nigel worked in the UK to pay for it all !  Due to company takeovers and mismanagement, Nigel became fed up with his  working life, so, in October 2011, he  decided to walk away.  By the end of the year, we had moved lock, stock and barrel to France and retirement.  Our house in the UK was on the market then, but I am happy to say that in the last week, contracts were exchanged and we are thankfully no longer UK homeowners!

But back to the blog - it has been two years of fun, and meeting people  through blogging; I have had the pleasure of many personal contacts.  The family and friends for whom the blog was originally started, are few, but I now have officially 188 followers and 'new' friends from all over the world.  I would never have believed when I started out, that so many people would be the slightest bit interested in what I was doing. Obviously I was wrong, and I would like to thank all those who follow my blog, leave such kind comments,  and those who are interested enough to ask me questions.  I try to vary my posts  between local tours,  home, garden and cookery, so I hope that there is something interesting for  most tastes.

I have to admit that I sometimes find the blog time-consuming, but I have discovered that even if I take a break, everyone is always there waiting for me when I return! Thanks for your confidence and support.  When either of us have not been well, I have had both comments and personal emails full of concern; it really is appreciated.

It has been a great two years, thank you everyone.  I will finish off with a few of my photos of our house and garden, taken over the past years .  For those who have joined my blog more recently you can read a little more about me HERE

Our French home in 2005

and what it looks like now.

The garden after the septic tank had been put in 2006! I might add this was mostly clay from the excavation, which, with a lot of stone, we had to remove.

and now :))

also the vegetable garden

This wall was between the kitchen and a bedroom! We knocked it down to make a big kitchen/diner!

The same view today.

and the kitchen 2005

The kitchen as it is now

Our bedroom 2005 had an earth floor and a very low ceiling

and the change to now! The little doorway is still there, but with a new glass door. We have tried to keep everything as original as possible. The hole in the wall to the left of the window is the old oven, (our house originally housed 3 families).  The window sill is in fact one large stone with a dip in it, originally a wash basin.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing a few "before and after" photos of our home in France.   Once again thank you all so much for not only reading my blog, and passing comments, but for many of you that have become friends as well; I am truly honoured. 

Photos taken 5 February after waking up to a blanket of snow.

and the robin peering through the window

while the sparrows and chaffinches gather under the feeder.

Beetroot with Orange Sauce and Five Spice Mango Chicken

As we have so many beetroot in the garden, I have been looking for new ways to cook them, especially as we both prefer them hot rather than cold.  The other day, I discovered this recipe here and we both loved it so much, that I thought that I must share it with you all.  It really is very special, and what was left over, tasted even better when re-heated the second day.

Beetroot with Orange Sauce

I dug out 3 quite big beetroot which I roasted, skinned, and cut into chip shapes. I am sure precooked beetroot would work just as well.

225 g dark brown sugar

150 ml malt vinegar

15 ml cornflour

Juice and grated rind of 3 oranges (I only had one, but I used all the zest and for the extra juice which I realised I needed, I added a bit of apple juice which I had on hand)

Preheat oven to 150°C/ 300°F/ Gas Mark 2. Put the strips of beetroot onto a baking tray.( I put them directly into a pyrex dish).

Mix the sugar with the vinegar in a pan over low heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix the cornflour and some of the orange juice together and set aside; then add the rest of the juice to the pan with the grated rind. Simmer for another 5 minutes and then stir in the cornflour mixture to thicken the ingredients. Pour over the beetroot and then place in the oven to warm - about 5-10 minutes, or until ready to serve.

This dish was definitely a 10/10 and I will be cooking it again and again.

The second night I served it with rice and the following recipe, but hot* not cold, see at the bottom:

Five Spice Mango Chicken

Serves 8

Preparation 15 mins (Chicken pre-cooked)

750 gr cooked chicken with no bone
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Mango Sauce

2 large mangoes peeled (I often use tinned if fresh are unavailable)
8 mild (I use hot!) peppadew peppers from jar. (These originate from S.Africa but I have seen them on the shelves in the UK and Australia. I am sure bottled small peppers would do as well, or a home roasted red pepper or two)
200g/8oz Greek yoghurt
6 tblesp mango chutney
1 tblesp Chinese 5 spice powder
Juice 1 lemon
Few drops of Tabasco sauce

Garnish

Fresh salad leaves
2 mild peppadew peppers thinly sliced
Lots of chopped parsley

1 For the sauce cut the flesh of 1 mango roughly into pieces and put into food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and whiz until smooth and blended. Season with salt and pepper.

2 Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and mix with the mango sauce in a mixing bowl. ** Cut the flesh of the remaining mango into 1 cm pieces and mix in with the chicken mixture. Taste and check seasoning.

3 Spoon the chicken mixture into a dish, decorate with the salad leaves and sprinkle over the peppadew slices and parsley- serve cold.*

** If you want to prepare the day ahead, omit the chopped mango and leave it mixed with a little lemon juice in a bowl. Just stir in before serving.

* To serve hot simply add one teasp of cornflour to the mango mixture before blending in the processor. Then add the chicken and mango, put into a shallow oven proof dish and bake at 200ºC for about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with peppadew and parsley and serve. ( I sprinkled with the pine nuts as I had some roasted leftover from a previous dish, I forgot the parsley!).

Cold, it was delicious with toasted pine nuts sprinkled over.  Hot, every bit as good!

This originates from a Mary Berry recipe and was sent to me by an "old" school friend. It really is fantastic; I have tried it both hot and cold.

See HERE For the original recipe. 

A very quick and easy dish to cook and the result is good enough to serve up at a dinner party.

Enjoy

P.S. 30 Jan 2012 17h00 It has just started snowing! So much for the mild winter!