our neighbours.....

It all began a couple of weeks ago. Our dear friends Jan and Dave had come to stay for the half term break and we were really looking forward to seeing them. We've missed them a lot since we left, we regularly cat sat for each others' moggies and have been friends since the school gate days. Moreover they have always been at the bottom of the road, - so we've dropped into to each others' homes for a glass of wine, parties and celebrations over the years we've known each other. We knew they were in need of a rest after the busy lives they lead, so we didn't plan anything except for the Jubilee Tea Party. Jan was sitting on the gallery one late afternoon and became aware of a squawking sound nearby. She got the binoculars to investigate further and called us to use the binoculars. There perched on a ledge of a window space at the house 20 metres beyond ours was an owl. We quickly turned to the bird books we keep handy to discover more.
Our new neighbour was a Little Owl(Athene noctua). It measures between 23-27 cms tall and has the habit of perching where it can easily be seen. Well that fitted our owl!
Small with a large, broadly rounded head, long legs and a short tail.

And there he/she sat, and we began to discover that this owl and indeed as it turned out it's partner are raising a family in the space behind the tiles.

Each day I have learnt to listen out for both the parents' cries and that of their offspring! They are good parents, visiting the nest site morning evening and sometimes during the day. They are most active and most noisy at night!

Even in the rain they come to their baby.

One of the parents is guarding the nest from the roof top opposite!

I've tried to photograph the baby but it is really difficult to do so because I do not want to disturb the adults as they fly back and forth with tasty titbit's for it (or them!)

This is the best I could do!

I'll try to keep photographing the site  and keep you up with our new neighbours!



The Rallye des Vins

Yesterday we went to help our fellow commune friends with the buvette for the Rallye des Vins. - Have I lost you already? If so I am not surprised!
The Rallye des Vins is an annual event in June when rally cars race around a circuit which takes them through many of the vineyards and wine areas around here.  The rally is in stages and there were three circuits around Cortambert - the next village to us and where the mairie is situated. We promised we would do a couple of hours in the afternoon to support other residents who were helping. We clambered up the hill though the vineyard to a covered area which was the centre of activities as far as food and drink were concerned and met up with some of our friends.

It was an extremely hot day - probably the hottest of the season so far and everyone was thirsty - we were selling coke, Perrier, water, orange juice, apple juice, shandy, wine, cremant, oringina - you get the picture!

Georges was kept very busy with the beer. When we left at 4:15 420 glasses of beer had been sold!

Amazingly we also had orders for hot dogs, frites and waffles (gauffres). Pascale was kept very busy and very hot!

In the meantime below us, the Rallye continued.

It was a bit scary when you were close to the cars as they came around the bend at great speed and with a lot of noise - not my idea of fun, but it was another new experience in our life here in Burgundy.

If you want to visit us, here's our website www.taizebnb.co.uk

A summer's evening concert....

A couple of weeks back our dear friends Chris and Mary passed on a message to us from Anne-Marie, who with her husband Georges.lives opposite to them in Varanges. The message was would we like to buy tickets for the end of year concert of Cant'Aze. Cant'Aze is a local group of mixed voices numbering over 50 who get together to sing. Now I've heard a lot of amateur choirs on my life time so I wondered what we were in for...
The tickets were duly purchased and on Friday evening we made our way to the parish church in Aze. We parked and joined others making their way into the church. We managed to get seats at the back - but only just....the church was packed out!

Cant'Aze  - we welcome you with great pleasure for our end of year spectacular, and are happy to share with you in a enjoyable musical moment!

Everyone was pleased to come into the cool of the church which was well looked after and simply furnished. We knew we were in for something very different when we saw the bank of lighting and the console controlling them behind us. Soon all the performers entered, dressed in white with a splash of reddy orange scarves.

The audience quietened and the conductor raised her arms and the choir broke into a most exhilarating rendition of "Life is a cabaret"   - but all in French. They were full of life and vitality and I realised that even from my point of view here was a choir who sang extremely well.

The programme moved on at speed, with interjections from 2 commentators.

Sadly we could not glean much from the commentators because our French is so basic but it was an unusual way to link the concert items.

There was no interval - but we were invited to open a little envelope inside the programme where we found a sweet to give us a little refreshment half way through!

We were also invited to join in with one of the items - clearly a popular one judging by the enthusiastic audience around us! If there are any French speakers out there (and I know there are!) here are the words we joined in with.

Unfortunately I cannot turn the words around so here they are the right way round!

Que reste-t-il de nos amours

Que reste-t-il de ces beaux jours

Une photo, vielle photo

De ma jeunesse

Ques reste-t-il-des billets doux

Des mois d'avril, des rendez-vous

Un souvenir qui me poursuit

Sans cesse

Bonheurs fanes

Cheveux au vent

Basiers voles

Reves mouvants

Que rest-t-il. de tout cela

Dites le moi

Un p'tit village

Un vieux clocher

Un paysages

Si bien chache,

Et dans unnuage

Le cher visage

De mon passe

As we stepped out into the cool evening air ( it was after 10:15) we were invited to supper in the Salle des Fetes but being tired we decided to head for home - a  lovely evening, with well presented music  - thank you Cant Aze, we'll come again!!!

Playing the tourist...

It's been really warm in Burgundy recently, and one day after we had watered the potager and done a few other chores, Joe suggested we "play the tourist." This means we go out in the car and head off in one direction and see what takes our fancy as far as locations are concerned. It is truly one of the great joys and blessings of living in what we are more and more considering to be the centre of God's earth!! (OK I exaggerate a little - but not that much!)
We stopped off for a quick salad in Cormatin, and then headed out towards Chalon. We stopped at Buxy for diesel and spent a wonderful hour pottering about in the local garden centre next door to the supermarket. We bought another geranium hanging basket - which Joe will have to hang when he has found a position for a bracket, and other bits and pieces which will be useful(including a pair of bright pink plastic sandals for me - very garish but perfect for pottering about in house and garden! As we clambered back into the car with such other useful items as plant labels and a French book on easy vegetable gardening and turned out of the car park we headed towards Laive. We didn't know anything about it except that the signpost said lac.
We passed a beautiful chateau - Chateau de la Ferte, and then spotted the sign to the lake.

We followed a long bumpy road, but soon saw the lake stretching alongside. Cars were parked on the grass and it was clear a lot of people had brought a picnic and come for the day.

 Soon we were at the lake's edge on a sandy beach watching families and young people and older ones too cooling off in the water. What a lovely sight so far from the sea.

We strolled around part of the lake in the sunshine watching a wide variety of people sun bathing playing volleyball, reading and even posing for artistic camera shots! The last two figures were fishing - and this was the epitome of tranquility itself!

This is somewhere we will add to the list of places that our guests or friends may like to investigate for themselves!

The Jubilee Tea Party

It all began with our lovely friends Jan and Dave arranging to come and stay with us during the English half term holiday this week. Jan posted jokingly on Facebook, why not celebrate the Jubilee in a republic?! So tick tick tick went the little grey cells and I thought how good it would be to have a typical afternoon tea and invite some of our new friends and neighbours. We planned the menu via the telephone and Jan and Dave arrived on Monday with a bottle of Pimms - so uniquely English that all our guests were intrigued - what was in it they asked amazed that unlike France a bottle containing alcohol could be sold without any reference to the ingredients on the bottle. Truly a secret! But they really loved this and were fascinated to find cucumber, strawberries and mint in their glasses!

In the meantime the men had got out the ladders, flags and the bunting and had hung them outside in the garden to welcome the guests. We were blessed with a lovely day - not too hot, but with sunshine and puffy white clouds scudding across the sky.

Meanwhile back in the kitchen preparations were well under way. Yesterday I had cooked Chicken breasts and put them in the fridge when cold ready to cut up into small pieces today. I had also made a version of Coronation sauce, - mayonnaise, chopped apricots, cream, and curry powder. This was also in the fridge.

After going to the market and buying strawberries and also some strawberry jam  made just down the road in Cortambert, we came home to make the rest of the food. The Victoria sponge was filled with strawberry jam and butter cream and dusted with icing sugar. The Dundee cake made earlier in the week was sliced ready for eating. The muffins were iced and the buns had cherries put on them.The cakes completed we set about the sandwiches - egg mayonnaise, salmon and cucumber, and coronation chicken. The crusts were trimmed although with such lovely French bread we could not cut them off completely!

With help from Google Translate Jan wrote on little union Jacks the name of each plate of food in French as well as English - that is, apart from the scones which are so unique that there is no adequate translation - that did not stop our guests who really loved them!

The conversation flowed with the Pimms and the food was both a talking point and eagerly consumed! After almost 2 hours we were left with a few pieces of cake and some delightful comments in our visitors book! It was an international occasion and we were so pleased that our friends could share it with us! God bless the Queen, God save the Queen!

Up hill and down hill!

I've been thinking - yes, dangerous is the word that comes to mind - I know! But it has come to my attention how seriously many people seem to take exercise in the countryside here.
I suppose it is a combination of observing middle aged and older (mainly) men cycling up our local hills  - which are long and sometimes steep, not on mountain bikes, but racing bikes like you see in professional road races,lycra and padded shorts as well as helmets much in evidence but also because my lovely husband Joe, has recently joined the Randonees Clunysoises - the local area ramblers. They go out in all sorts and conditions - for example on Monday last week it was heavy rain and plain miserable, but 15 of them met at the local disused railway station for a 3 hour "ramble" around the countryside.
Joe says that he finds out new things each time he goes, and he loves to walk and is happy that someone is leading so that he doesn't get lost - and there are other bonuses too. He hears French constantly for 3 hours so he is really exposed to the language; he does not need to take a map as someone leading the walk has planned it all out; he is getting exercise and seeing more of the area. He does walk more stiffly for 24 hours afterwards but he is really enjoying this opportunity!
When the weather is lovely there are over 50 ramblers of various ages - but mainly retired people, although meeting on a Monday means that people who have Monday as a day off can join in too. At the end there are sometimes refreshments, or a little degustation en route!
I've mentioned the voie verte before, this is the dedicated route for roller bladers, cyclists and walkers that is mainly flat and vehicle free and gives the great feeling of being in the countryside. So often when we cross it there are couples and families using it - a sense of getting out into the fresh air and being together. In fact this is where I've taken my bike for a ride in the past and it is so safe (and mainly flat!)
Now to be honest I started this blog because the attitude to exercise interested me, but then we had an information sheet through our letter box asking us to move our car between 1pm and 6pm on Sunday because an important bike race was taking place. The points gained by the riders went towards the championship of Saone et Loire. It began at Bray, the next commune to ours, and the route took the racers through Toury and on a circuit of the area.


Here they come - the Bray road race begins!



Now it was a hot day on Sunday and I had not realised that the route was in fact a circular route so after watching bikes whizzing past at speed for quite some time, my interest began to wane. But through the open windows throughout the afternoon we could hear groups of bikes continuing to speed past and I realised the commitment of those taking part.

On they went, and obviously placings were very important!

Each race, and I think there were three - with youngsters, veterans and the very athletic and younger men, was preceded by a race car announcing their imminent arrival through the village.

What I did not realise  - and it was only afterwards that Joe told me, that at the rear of the race was a van with a brush attached to the back of it - literally the sweeper up! When you are busy doing work in the garden a neighbour will offer the expression - "bonne courage!" - it means all the best, well done, take courage - well I wish that too all those courageous people who peddle the hills of the Clunysois!



our first potager....or grow your own!

We had promised ourselves that when we were finally settled here in France we would, in common with our neighbours, begin to grow fruit and vegetables. It is all part of the way of life we have come to value so deeply. It means we know when we eat our own home grown plants where they have come from and that they have not been sprayed with insecticide or any other chemicals and so we are eating the best that we can.
We started to buy plants in the market in Cluny in April. But, being warned by neighbours and friends that we should wait until mid May before planting out, we kept the plants sheltering on the verandah/gallery, and when it went very cold we brought in the 2 cherry tomato plants, the 3 pepper plants and the 2 courgettes so they could enjoy the warmth of the house at night. It has been wonderful to watch them grow - and indeed to watch the development of the vine outside the house,

The vine has begun it's annual growth spurt!

 and the cherry tree and plum trees in the garden. I don't think I have ever been this close to growing nature and it is amazing how fast plants develop.

The plums are growing well! - and it looks as if we will have a big crop!

The cherry tomatoes are developing well in their tub!

When we noticed that it was less cold at night, we begin to "harden" off the plants ready to put into the garden. We had been given a cheque by dear friends who are keen and skilled gardeners with the proviso that it was to begin our French garden and we did as asked and bought a wooden cold frame with a liner. We bought soil to go in it mixing it with compost that is formed from our plant waste in the house such as potato and carrot scrapings and tea bags, onion skins etc. The amount of soil needed was quite a lot but we will try to recycle it and add compost to it as we re-use it. We did plant some things earlier that mid May, and put them in the cold frame and covered it at night with a plastic sheet.  We had bought some lettuce plants and beetroot in to begin with and we have watered them and cared for them with an attentiveness born of a new experience!

The cold frame is full now with lettuces, tomatoes and beetroots!

In England we have grown bulbs and had annuals in pots in the garden and occasionally grown tomatoes in grow bags, but never actually bought vegetables and nurtured them. Here we are surrounded by neighbours who grow fruit and vegetables to supplement their diet and save money buying from market and supermarket.
The plastic sheet seems to have worked well as does the nurturing of the plants in their early stages as now planted out they are growing almost visibly!
After the first plants had gone into the cold frame we waited a couple of weeks then bought another lot of lettuces, thinking they would develop later than the first batch so we will have a supply through the summer. We also planted the beetroots and then more lettuces. Then last week we bought more lettuces, salad onions, leeks, strawberries, cucumbers and a raspberry cane and began to prepare a patch of land at the top of the garden. It is a bit of a pain really as water and tools have to be carried up the steps to the lofty heights!

The veg patch or "potager" is taking shape!

However it is not a problem for one of next door's cats who was sunning himself when I went up to take the photos!

 Perhaps we will extend it again and plant more but it is early days in our "gardening world" and we want to go slowly and make sure we are doing it right. Each time we have planted things in the garden, I have thought about my own late beloved dad. He loved to grow things and I loved his company so much that I was often in the garden with him. He would grow all sorts of things and had a big garden. I'm hoping some of his skills have been inherited by me. Joe has never had the opportunity of growing vegetables before because he was brought up in a town centre so for us both this is a new adventure!
We are pleased to see that the plums are forming on the trees around the garden and also the cherries too. That means we can make jam for our guests - and we know exactly how it's made and where the fruit comes from.
We are blessed to live in such a fertile place!