Another Year Rolls On!

We have spent the last couple of visits sorting out a new set of cabinets for the kitchen, having been advised that we really should have a dishwasher in the house. Unfortunately the old wooden units could not be adapted, so we have ended up with some shamelessly modern cabinets.

We haven't quite got around to the finishing touches, but at least the sink and dishwasher are now useable and the kitchen looks much brighter.

As you can see the open fire has also been replaced with a wood-burning stove, which is just as lovely and cosy. A couple of shelves for wood storage, and something to put above the sink in that gap, and it will all be super.

We haven't had the garden furniture out yet this year but as we left the sun was shining gloriously so I couldn't resist another picture:

August in the Sun

We are just back from a blissfully sunny holiday, Normandy at its charming and peaceful best.

Martin has been busy chopping wood for the store, mowing the grass and fixing the WiFi so that it works more effectively (but not to say reliably).

I have begun to tackle painting the interior of the windows, most of which still sport their heavy brown stain. It made a huge difference to the Blue Room just to have more light in the window alcove, and I was inspired to work on other rooms too. One day we will get around to the kitchen!

We do however have a new worktop round the cooker in the kitchen, which Martin has made out of wood we found in one of the barns when we first arrived (and which has also supplied a garden table for us at home). This picture was supposed to show it but you have to look closely!

Meanwhile the leaking kitchen chimney was supposed to be fixed: smoke had been tracking into the upstairs rooms so we have had builders in to strip and fill. Sadly this just led to the smoke finding other crevices along which to travel, and short of pulling apart the entire internal wall we have no hope of stopping it. So for now, everything has been put back and made good, pending the insertion of a liner which would allow us to run a wood-burning stove.

We enjoyed candle-lit supper in the BBQ shack on Martin's 50th birthday, breakfasts on the front terrace every morning and plenty of time in the hammock out back.

 View from BBQ shack

Freshly-mown grass (BBQ shack at end)

The River Douve remains a beautiful picnic or canoe spot, and we saw loads of ducks fly off the lake when we wandered around (though the water level is low so it is rather brown). In fact the house was buzzing with life: bees having a ball on the fuchsias which were in full bloom at the front, and butterflies, bees and moths swarming around the buddleia, which has grown to tree size, in the back garden.

We love the different views around the house as the sun rises and sets: I find this particularly enticing (but maybe that's just me!)

 

Wandering around the fields before we left we noticed that the spring has collapsed, or at least sheep appear to have pushed down the pile of wood and rocks that was blocking it off. Note to anyone visiting: keep an eye on your children in the top field!

He doesn't look very happy about that!

 We were sad to leave, but friends are due there soon to share the pleasure of a relaxing rural holiday, and we shall of course be back very soon!

Chilly Easter

Well, what an odd Spring it has been!

We have just returned from our Easter holiday and found fir trees down everywhere we looked, including in our fields and along the lane. A couple of weeks ago the area had a snowstorm that resulted in drifts 2.5 metres high along our road, keeping inhabitants to their homes for three days until it melted.

We were lucky that only the telephone line was affected by several fallen branches, and as we arrived at the house a young man was just re-attaching the crucial wires. So now we have both telephone and internet, with a skype-type free line to call England.

We gathered lots of fallen wood, and Ben spent some time up a tree on the little island sawing off damaged branches. He and Martin also fixed the wood and tiles on the stables so everywhere is now looking better.

We also stripped a lot of sturdy ivy from the boundary of the paddock, leaving very little in the way of greenery and creating a huge burn pile in the process.

Our problem now is how to stop the chimney leaking smoke into the house: somewhere there is a leak and we have had builders in to find the source. Hopefully they will get it sorted out in the next few weeks and everything will be in working order for a lovely warm summer!

Annual Update

Well I am ashamed of myself. An entire year.

Our family has grown older (the eldest about to turn 21 in a couple of weeks), Martin has started a new job, La Dancrerie has been painted and repaired and above all welcomed us and our friends for cosy, relaxed holidays as the seasons turn and turn again.

We are just back from an Easter vacation en france, having delayed our ferry so that Max could play in a crucial rugby league match (they are very close to finishing top of Division 1) and returning in time for Ben to get back to his part-time service with Domino's pizza and Max and Vicki to revise for impending exams.

We arrived once more in glorious sunshine, having lunch on the back terrace within minutes of arrival.

It was a delight to have the whole family together, and we took advantage by taking a trip to Paris, sending the children off in pairs to explore and meet back at our rented apartement for an evening meal. We took in all sorts of interesting places between us, and now have a selection of pictures from which to compose a diary of our brief stay.

Back at la Dancrerie we welcomed the Lynch family for the weekend before they stayed for the following week, and had a great time down at the lake with Emma the Landrover, dragging out a dead tree from the pond, grabbing freshly-dug badger-balls for a clay-modelling session, and enjoying the daffodils and bluebells.

Rosie and Katy with their clay models

 It being a Spring tide, we took off down to the beach and spent a couple of hours playing rounders and (after breaking the homemade rounders bat) footers, and after a welcome picnic poked around at low tide amongst the rocks to find crabs and lobsters and cuttlefish, bringing home what we could for a veritable feast that evening (the large crabs are, I feel obliged to admit, from Super-U)

The finished crab starter, scrummy!

The Christmas tree we bought for our first Christmas at the farmhouse is now strong and too big to move, seen here as we enjoyed bananas and coffee around a bonfire in the paddock on our last night together:

So au revoir once more to our special place in France We are delighted to have weathered the past two years without having to sell up, and hope that we will carry on enjoying your hospitality for many years to come.

Overdue

Me, oh my, can it really be two years since I popped in here?

We have, of course, spent many happy days in Normandy in the interim, most recently over a very late Easter in April, when the weather was hot and sunny and we idled our days away after a busy time at home.

The exterior woodwork desperately needs another coat of paint, the lake is drying up and needs a new overflow, damp is coming down the chimney and the clever 'Ventilation Mechanique Controllee' system which airs the house in our absence and provides air-extraction for bathrooms and kitchen seems to be playing up. Plus ca change...

Yet we had the most idyllic holidays this month, and our recent guests all seem to have had a lovely time. The Normandy peace and rural calm works its magic and we come home refreshed. So a couple of pictures to bring you up to date, and a hearty encouragement to any of you who feel the urge to come and visit.

Max on St. Remy Beach

Bonfire by the lake late one evening

Workers in the courtyard

View from the back terrace: Lilacs!

Briquebec Market

Union Jacks went crazy before we left: Royal Wedding Fever!

Martin at work in the fields with Emma

Max and friends enjoy La Douve

Getting There

I was going to try to put photos of the house here so that new visitors would know what to expect...but now I can't find any recent ones! Still, here are a couple taken a couple of years ago to show that La Dancrerie is more homely and welcoming than ever. I will add some internal pics once I can find them...

Christmas Times

Restricted as we are to school holidays, it has often turned out that we spend Christmas and Easter in Normandy. We even have our own Christmas Tree, up-rooted and then re-planted each year in the garden, which has so far done us proud. Now that we have a woodburning stove in the salon there is somewhere cosy for Father Christmas to leave his sacks, and that room stays wonderfully warm throughout the holidays.

This is us having reached the top of a very big hill on Boxing Day, and recovering with hot mulled wine from a flask, and Christmas Cake. Scrummy!