Susie Heselton

Oops, I forgot about the blog

2011-06-07T15:27:00.002+02:00

Not that anyone really reads it....

What's been happening?

I've been busy with council work, producing the bulletin municipal etc. I have 3 children that I child mind on a part-time basis.

My main 'news' is that in december I submitted my application to have French nationality (well, dual nationality - I don't need to stop being British!). After 2 requests for supplementary documents my dossier is now complete and I am just awaiting the decision. I hope I will be accorded French nationality before the end of the year so that I can get myself on the electoral roll ahead of the Presidential elections next year.

The Orangery at Versailles

2011-06-07T15:26:00.001+02:00

DSC_0316, a photo by Susie Heselton on Flickr.

A quick trip to Paris area and a visit to the gardens at Versailles. I just love the Orangery (probably because I like order, symmetry, and green plants!!)

24/04/2011

2011-06-07T15:18:00.001+02:00

24/04/2011, a photo by Susie Heselton on Flickr.

My herb pots and shrub-tubs

Knock Knock !

2010-05-14T17:35:00.001+02:00

Nikon D40 029
Originally uploaded by lisleoise

Long time no post (again) Just trying out iPhoto - Flickr - Blogger to see how easy it is - I may post a bit more often then.

Summer 2009!

2009-10-17T21:47:00.011+02:00

Goodness, how time flies, and I haven't updated for ages!

Summer 2009 was a great summer, the best since the heatwave of 2003.

At the end of July Lisle celebrated the Fête de la Bastide. The assistant mayor, Michèlle, did the guided tour in French then I followed along behind with a small group of anglophones to do the English speaking guilded tour. Early evening we had a banquette in La Place des Banquettes, appropriately! It was a very successful day and evening with a very large crowd coming along for the spectacle later on in the evening which was by a very good theatre troupe, in and around the medieval part of the village.

We also had a concours de peinture with many artists coming to paint scenes from the village. There were lots of different styles and techniques on display:

As usual Holly was absente most of the long school holidays, staying with friends here, there & everywhere with her pony. This year she joined her friend's troupe and took part in the Fête du Cheval at St Astier at the end of the holidays:

Ross was equally absent, either in his room (!!) or going into Périgueux on the bus to meet up with friends - we discovered that there is a bus service from the next town. It worked very well except when Ross forgot to go to the bus stop on time for the return journey, it's not ideal to have to do an hour's round trip to pick him up >:(

As usual, the second weekend of August is party time in Lisle with the 4 day Fête de la St Roch. Holly was Première Dauphine and looked beautiful having spent all morning at the hairdressers:

Pre-Fête, on the Friday night, Serge and Martine hosted a party chez-eux which was a lot of fun. This is me and the girls:

A good summer, if a little too dry (rain that is!!), I'm hoping for a wet autumn as to-date we've had no rain to speak of for months and everything is so parched - at least I'm don't need to cut the grass, it's been three weeks since I last went over it with the tondeuse and it hasn't grown at all, it's very crunchy to walk on!

...and the chicks. The eight surviving chicks turned out to be four hens and four coqs. Heuresement, I managed to sell on the four coq chicks (as well as 'dad') to new homes so didn't need to kill and dress any :D So now I have a flock of 7 Light Sussex hens and a pair of Silkies.

First Day Out Free-Ranging

2009-07-27T11:14:00.002+02:00

My little chick-a-dees are growing very quickly. They're almost completely feathered up now and look just like their parents, like mini Light Sussex. This weekend they had their first free-ranging experience at 5 and a half weeks old. They thoroughly enjoyed it, flying and running about all over the place. The Silkie couple are keeping a watchful eye on them and guiding them around. It was very funny watching the Silkie hen yesterday - three of the chicks had flown up onto their run which is 50cm high and Silkie kept walking around the pen looking up at them not quite understanding how they got up there - because of their feathering Silkies can't fly. She did squat down at one point ready to launch, I could see that she was considering trying to get up there herself, but then thought better of it!! The three chicks soon came down and off they all trundled around the garden.

Rosie, the Light Sussex hen that was broody and gave up after 2 weeks is broody again! She's been like it a couple of days and is very persistent so I decided to pop 5 eggs under her this morning, so they'll be due on the 17th august. I will let her get on with it this time and not try to seperate her like last time, so fingers crossed everything will be OK with the other LS hens and cockerel!

Two Weeks Old

2009-07-03T16:09:00.005+02:00

The 'indoor' chicks have their first venture out onto grass. I have 'converted' an old fashioned wooden playpen into a small run fully enclosed with chicken wire with a secure lid - I do not want another incident.

Another 2-3 weeks and they can go outside full time but for now they still need the heat source especially at night until they are fully feathered up.

Twenty One Days Later...

2009-06-28T09:05:00.004+02:00

...and the chicks start to hatch. A tiny hole first appears in the shell then over several hours the chick slowly cuts a line around the egg before forcing its way out of the shell.

They're very wet and wobbly when the come out. They stay in the incubator for 24 hours while they dry out, rest and find their feet. They then get moved into the brooder (I'm using an indoor rabbit cage) with a source of heat to imitate the mother hen where they would normally keep warm under her wings. Traditionally this would be an infra-red lamp but I have bought and 'electric hen' which is basically an up-side-down hot plate on legs.

They stay in the brooder under the heat for 5 weeks. After that they'll be moved out into a coop and run in the garden seperate from the other hens until they are fully grown when I will integrate the hens (and the coqs will go in the freezer).

Of the 9 eggs in the electric incubator 8 hatched which is a very good hatch rate. Unfortunately I only had one egg hatch from the two hens that were sitting. One of them gave up after 2 weeks and the other's eggs weren't fertile. I've now split the chicks up so that there are three outside with the Silkie hen, who is a fabulous mum, and 5 in the brooder cage. That only makes 8?!

Sadly the lone chick that hatched under the Silkie was snatched through the chicken wire of the run by the other chickens and was dragged off. I did manage to retrieve it but it had suffered a badly broken leg so I had to cull it. A steep learning curve and a lesson learn't - I need smaller gauge wire on the run, and the outside area has now been re-designed so that there are two seperate free-ranging areas.

Two Broodies and an Incubator

2009-05-31T08:42:00.006+02:00

Yay, at last 2 of my hens have gone broody. But only after buying an incubator and an electric hen!!

Rosie one of my Light Sussex hens, and PomPom the Silkie are both sitting on a mix of LS and Silkie eggs. In the second photo is the Silkie with another LS who has decided to now lay her eggs in the broody coop, accompanied by the coq who managed to squeeze through the small pop hole!

The eggs should take 21 days to hatch, so about the 17 June I'll post some photos of newly hatched chicks, if all goes well. Rosie is being a fantastic broody, PomPom not so well as I keep finding her not covering all the eggs, maybe there's too many for her...

Fencing off the pool

2009-05-24T07:41:00.008+02:00

Following on from the visit by the puéricultrice in february we had been told that in order to have my childminder status renewed we must put a fence around our pool, despite having a security cover that conformes to the national laws.

I wasn't too happy when I received the letter from the Préfecture telling us about this, especially as during my 60 hours of training in the autumn I had been given a document stating that our pool cover was acceptable.

So, we set about looking at the options and costing them up. Fortunately it was a "fence of 110cm+" that was required and not an AFNOR approved pool fence, as that would have cost several thousand euros. I did not want to put a fence directly around the pool as it would have completely ruined the look of the garden that I had so thoughtfully designed. We decided to go for a picket type fence to close off the entire garden area that the pool is in (our 'south' garden). Before going ahead with this we insisted that the peuricultrice come out and approve our plans and the fence that we showed her on the website.

Ian arranged with a friend who has a large trailor to go over to Tréllisac to buy all the fencing, posts, brackets etc. and then set about digging 12 post holes 60cm deep. Unfortunately we had a few days of heavy rain and the first lot of post holes dug turned into ponds overnight as we have clay soil and so they just filled up!

It's been hard work but the result is very pleasing. It finishes off the garden in fact, as the two areas that it seperates are very different in style - the pool area (the south garden) is a Mediterranean style stoney beach with palm trees, parasol pines, olive tree, lavenders and oleanders, and the other area (the west garden) which has the trampoline and other garden toys is very much English in style with a large herbaceous border and 10 mature trees along the lawn running down to the gates.

The puéricultrice will be visiting again this week to approve the work, then I should get my agrément as Assistante Maternelle renewed for another 5 years and I can continue to be Nou-Nou for Apolline and Manoa, 'my' two adorable little girls.

Susie's Silkies

2009-04-02T15:00:00.005+02:00

My new additions this week. A pair of Silkie chickens, or Negre Soie as they're called here.

I've been waiting for one of my Light Sussex hens to go broody so that I can hatch out some chicks for meat/eggs. But being the impatient type I decided to add to my flock a breed of hen that are notoriously broody and very good 'mothers'. I was talking to my local pizza van man because I noticed he had some Silkies when I was out walking the dog past his house a while ago. When I said I was looking for one to be a broody he said "oh no you need a callie [a regional name for a broody bantam from what I can gather] which is very broody, Negre Soie aren't broody birds". I did try to explain to him that everyone says Silkies are broody, I even told him about the French Negre Soie Club's standard saying they are good broodies and mothers but he still won't have it. Anyway he said I could "have" his "callie" and he would bring it round when it goes broody. Anyway, being very impatient, after a few days I asked if I could take it now rather than wait, he agreed and I took around my catbox and he said he would catch it that evening and bring it round. It also turned out that "have" meant a loan whilst it was broody. A few days later and nothing (did I say that I'm impatient!) so I walked the dog past his house and caught him in so had the conversation again and we agreed that I could buy a pair of Silkies from him. I didn't really intend to get a cockerel as well but I'll probably keep them separate from the LS to start with and I can always sell on any Silkie chicks, I've already had one person ask for some who I mentioned it to.

They are now installed in the new broody coop, which was a bargain from Auchan (my preferred supermarket), it is actually a dog kennel but we've adapted it and attached an enclosed run.

The Light Sussex chickens were very inquisitive, stalking around the run and trying to peer in the door as the Silkies were staying well hidden away. After a couple of days they have now settled down well and in a few days time I will try free ranging them with the others. It will be interesting to see how well they get on after having a week of adapting to each other albeit seperated by chicken wire.

Cute looking things, the hen reminds me of Big Bird from Sesame Street!

Culture Clash!

2009-03-28T14:52:00.010+01:00

It's that time of year again - Les Repas des Chasses - the big 'do' the local hunts put on for the end of the hunting season. Each commune has it's own hunt, well at least one, and the repas includes many courses each one usually consisting of something that the hunt has shot! The salle de fêtes was packed as usual with the aperos going on for what seems like an eternity - just get the food started please, especially as there are roughly eight courses to get through!

The entertainment was the usual, a local three piece ensemble consisting of a middle aged lady who plays the tambourine and sings (after a fashion!), a young lady on the accordion and a young man of Portugese origin who plays the keyboards and does most of the singing. They are called Les Années Tubes and they play a variety of french pop and proper dancing music, that's to say things you can tango and waltz to!! It's the third time I've seen them at a 'do' this year alone - that's probably at least 2 times too many.

This is where the title of this little story comes in. There is me with a group of friends and other locals bopping away to some French 60's tune on a saturday night a couple of weeks ago when I got the giggles. I was thinking how surreal this is. Here I am on a saturday night in the middle of this unmistakeable rural France soirée when tomorrow morning I am off to Paris to see Peter Doherty in concert at Le Bataclan club, I mean just how much of a clash in culture can you get from one day to the next!

Ah Paris - J'adore Paris!!!

Ross and me drove over to Angoulême the next morning to pick up the TGV high speed train to take us into Montparnasse in the south west of Paris. One of Ross' friend's parents have a beautiful little appartment just off the Jardins de Luxembourg in the 5th arrondissement that they let us use as they weren't needing it then. We arrived late afternoon, installed ourselves in the appartment then went off to check out the shops (which was a novelty as it was sunday afternoon!) that Ross wanted to go to in the 4th arrondissement which is within walking distance up the Boulevard St Michel, past the Sorbonne, crossing over the Seine and past the Notre Dame Cathedral. He particularly wanted to go to Fripe-Star, a vintage clothing store and Noir Kennedy, a chain of clothing stores (the branch in Bordeaux is better IMO). After overspending in there we headed back to the appartment stopping off at a café near the Sorbonne for something for dinner. The next day was breakfast at Starbucks, at Ross's request, more shopping, loads of walking, and a bit of sight-seeing before going back to the appartment to chill for a bit, get changed and head off to the concert.

Peter Doherty is Ross's hero and biggest influence in his own music (he is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, harmonica playing talented young man who I am very proud to have as my son). He arranged to meet one of his cyber-friends, Olivia, at the concert who was going with her mum and a friend. Obviously not wanting to cramp his style I left them to it and went up on the balcony for a seat and a good view. It's a great, intimate venue, really quite small, the balcony only has about 6 rows and the rest of the venue is standing only which Ross & Olivia did right in front of the stage. Surprisingly I enjoyed the concert and am converted to Peter Doherty's music, and I like his new album Grace-Wastelands. After the concert had finished we hung around and got drink from the bar. After most people had left one of the band members came out, Adam Ficek, who is one half of the Babyshambles with Peter Doherty and so Ross went over chatted to him, got his autograph and their photos taken together.

The next morning we left beautiful, although rainy, Paris and headed back to Montparnasse to catch the TGV. Flying? No, I'll take the TGV please. It's on time, to the second, clean, seats are reserved numbered (make sure you get on the correct carriage - there is an LCD screen on the side by the doors with the numbers on), it's fast, smooth and you can see all the beautiful countryside as you glide through it.

Next week, I'm taking Ross and a friend to the Garorock Festival in Marmande to see Peter Doherty again as Babyshambles are playing - only a 2 hour drive so no train needed this time.

22° - warmest day of the year so far!

2009-03-01T08:46:00.004+01:00

What a stunning day it was yesterday the last day of February. Clear blue skies and warm sunshine. A superb spring day, even though it's still offically winter.

Mid afternoon the mercury touched 22° in the shade - I have two thermometres attached to the apple tree, north facing to give a true shade reading and about 1m off the ground. One's a digital receptor to my weather station so I can 'read' the temperature from the kitchen and the other is a mercury minimum/maximum traditional thermometre.

Apart from a réunion at the Mairie in the morning, yesterday was a 'me' day. I did bits and pieces in the garden: put some grass seed down on some bare patches where Ross's skateboard ramps had been, tidied up after digging up a 6' olive tree and potting it up as it really wasn't doing well in the ground, cleaned out the chicken coop (a quick poop-pick with the marigolds on as it had a complete clean the other day!), then I chilled out in the hammock, read my bouquin (The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella - I'm having a chick-lit period), had a snooze then got up went in the jacuzzi with a glass of Montravel and read my book some more...

...by which time it was time to get ready for our 'girls night'. The idea being that the girls do absolutely nothing except go to the local bar then get picked up by one of our men who in the meantime have been cooking the four course meal and preparing cocktails for our arrival. Ivor did the Champagne cocktail, Ian cooked the starter of prawns in a red sauce, Stuart produced a delicious roast should of pork with all the accompaniments, Andy provided a superb cheeseboard and Mike some lovely chocolate profiteroles for desert. A lovely relaxed evening without the effort of having to speak any french - last saturday we went to the local Limens football team repas and next week it's the repas de chasse (the local hunt ball to close the season) so it was nice just to have a chat and gossip in english!

A visit from the social services!

2009-02-24T13:08:00.005+01:00

This morning I had a visit from the Puéricultrice and the Assistante Sociale as part of the process to have my agrément to be an Assistante Maternelle renewed (my registration as a childminder). The agréments are valid for 5 years - it's gone by very quickly since I was first visited in June 2004. For the renewal you have to go through the same process as for your first registration: lots of forms, certificate for a police check, home visits plus 60 hours of stage (course)... I hate having the home visits, it's like being interrogated, especially the usual discussion regarding the safety of the swimming pool even though it has a security cover that complies with the normes. Anyway, it's done now and hopefully in due course I will have my new agrément that will take me through to 2014.

A Hitchcock moment

2009-02-22T08:26:00.002+01:00

Les grues cendrées (the common crane) migrate over our region twice a year. Generally they overwinter in the warmer area around southern Spain/north Africa and in the summer they live in the Scandanavia area. Their migration route tracks diagonally across France, right over our area.

Yesterday afternoon there was wave upon wave of them going over, literally thousands. It was a très grosse journée de migration according to this website that tracks them - anyone who sees them can report their sitings of the grues on it. Many people have reported yesterday's vols as the biggest groups ever seen at one time. You can most often hear them coming before you actually see them. Occasionally they will stop, regroup and circle before finding their bearings again.

I love to see them going north at this time of the year - it's very exciting as it's a real indicator that the good weather and printemps va arriver. It's not so good when you see them starting to migrate south when winter's on it's way.

They are very noisy as you can hear from my wobbly video clip - I'd just jumped out of the jacuzzi (after a heavy gardening session) to film them and was struggling to keep the towel wrapped around me and point the camera up into the sky!

My Hobby : My Chickens

2009-02-05T12:00:00.006+01:00

I've been keeping chickens for two and a half years. I started off with four gorgeous Marans from Irene (Hardworkinghippy): 1 black, 1 copper black, and two wheaten coloured (brownish). Sadly they have all since died through illness or had just dropped down dead, which chickens are prone to do unfortunately!

It's been quite a learning curve requiring lots of reading books and forums on-line and just gaining experience as you go. They are real timewasters though - I spend ages just watching them, they are very peculiar creatures not unlike little dinosaurs. They follow me around the garden and when I go to the shed they come running, often taking flight too just to get a handful of corn which they eat out of my hand, they also love treats like apple, tomatoes, pasta and potatoes. If I can't see where they are because they're hiding somewhere under a hedge I'll call out "chook-chooks" and they come to heal! I was doing this once completely unaware that there was a family out on a promenade walking up the lane - they must have thought I was completely mad and thinking elles sont folles les anglaises.

I now have three lovely Light Sussex hens and a pure bred coq. They all have names as these are pets as much as egg givers: the littlest hen is called Poppy and she is a superb layer of medium sized light brown eggs, next is Bella whose eggs are slightly larger and darker, and lastly Rosie who lays bigger, darker eggs than the other 2. The coq, in the picture, is called Marius II and was bought from a local breeder of this race. He replaced Marius my 1st Light Sussex coq who dropped down dead very suddenly just before Christmas just as he was starting to put on his magnificent plummage and before he had even crowed his first cocorico!

Once spring starts to make an appearance I'm hoping that one of 'my girls' will go broody. Now that I've got a coq the eggs should be fertile (Marius II is certainly performing well, and often. Maybe I should have called him Randy). I've got a broody coop ready & waiting to put her in and will pop under her about a dozen mixed eggs from all three which should hatch into lovely little fluffy yellow chicks in 21 days.

Here comes the dilemma. These chicks will not have names, except for three hens which I will keep as fresh laying stock. Any coqs, which is likely to be around 50% of the hatchlings, are destined to be turned into coq-au-vin. The dilemma being that daughter Holly is adamant that be will NOT be killing any of our chickens! Maybe I can sell few - Light Sussex are quite sought after.

There are lots of photos of my chooks in the slideshow at the bottom of the page.

My favourite on-line forum is The Poultry Keeper Forum a mine of information and friendly banter. Another I visit regularly is Poultry Chat.

Rosie & Bella

Tempête Klaus

2009-01-28T11:12:00.000+01:00

The southwest of France and northern Spain was badly hit by tempête Klaus last saturday.

We didn't suffer any damage at our house, I had secured everything possible on friday when I heard of the approaching storm. The only thing I didn't think about was the bâche that covers the chicken's run. It is attached to the posts of the run and as the wind picked up the bâche started pulling the posts over. So rather than have it wrecked I went out in increasing winds and quickly cut it down and shoved it in the shed.

We lost power from midday to 9pm. I had been at a meeting in the Mairie in the morning when the power went down which meant that after I had picked Ross up from his guitar lesson and returned home we couldn't get in because we have electric gates! Fortunately we have another set of gates at the top of the garden which meant running up the road (which had become a river) in 100km/h plus winds and horizontal lashing rain, lean over the fence to unlock the padlock and squelch across the saturated garden to get to the house. Later on in the afternoon I decided I had to make plans for a potential night without electricity as I'd heard on the radio that it may not be restored until Sunday night at the earliest. I went up in the grenier and found the poêle à petrole for a bit of heating and got out all the candles and torches I could find. It was very cosy in the kitchen surrounded by candles, playing Yahtzee, Trivial Persuits and Uno! We have a gas hob so we were OK for cooking dinner. After 9 hours sans électricté the kids were getting bored and Ross was getting withdrawal symptoms from not being able to use his computer or electric guitar. At 9.15 the power was restored to whoops of joy from Ross!!

Locally there wasn't too much damage compared to those further south-west and in Spain where there was loss of life and a great deal of devastation particularly in the forests and pine plantations. We suffered a lot of flooding as you can see from the above photo where the river rose so very rapidly - the river is usually 3m behind the solitary tree at the end of the road in the distance. It has subsided very quickly though and the rivers are now back to being higher than normal.

J'ai fait les soldes!

2009-01-10T21:26:00.004+01:00

I've had a lovely day today.

I went into Périgueux with my adorable friend Desanka (French/Serbian) had lunch out, 'did the sales' and caught up on local gossip - one very juicy bit!!

In France the sales are strictly controlled with start and finish dates, the winter sales started on the 7th January and run through to the 10th February.

Usually I detest clothes shopping but today was somewhat of a revelation. Whereas I'd go into a shop, flick through some rails, not find anything and then leave very disheartened and depressed I actually spent a bit of time going through the rails carefully and found loads of things that were 'promising'. Sadly, though not for the debit card, very few of the things actually fit me and I only came away with three tops.

Desanka showed me a few shops that I hadn't been in before mainly because they are more expensive than I would usually pay for clothing but with upto 70% off there were some real bargains to be had.

There are loads of designer boutiques in Périgueux, my new favourite shop is Manoukian where I bought a couple of items.

I am going to start a serious diet now and start doing lots of abs exercises so that Desanka and me can hit the summer sales, on the last Wednesday in June, with more success than I had this time.

Unbeknown to me Ian took Ross out shopping and came back with a new acoustic guitar, stands for his growing collection, another harmonica (different key to the others) and a tambourine. Lucky boy!!

My daughter's pony

2009-01-06T14:59:00.004+01:00

Holly didn't have school this afternoon, so we went up to the stables to get some

photos of her pony Kallye in the snow.

Overnight Snow

2009-01-06T12:58:00.004+01:00

Overnight we've had a couple of centimetres of snow fall.
Very pretty.

It has made the roads a bit treacherous though as most of the roads around here don't get gritted. I decided to drive my son to collège this morning. Bad move, on the way back I managed to slide on campacted snow and black ice, very gracefully I may add, into the back of a huge, black 4x4. Not a lot of damage done: his bumper got a chunk taken out of it and it popped off it's fixings, my little car has a slight dent on the bonnet.

It's a great way of integrating though - his daughter is in the same class as mine and I've only ever passed a "bonjour" before but we had quite a chat at the school gates at lunchtime and I now know how to fill out an accident form!!

Views of Lisle

2009-01-02T22:02:00.000+01:00

The memorial of the 1st and 2nd WW during the ceremony on the 11th November.

Views of Lisle

2009-01-02T21:55:00.001+01:00

The 'office' !!

Views of Lisle

2009-01-02T21:54:00.000+01:00

Allée de Labrousse which runs from 'Chateau Bas' seen at the end (just!) to the river Dronne behind the lens.

Views of Lisle

2009-01-02T21:50:00.000+01:00

The field behind our house which is nestled behind the trees on the right. The village is tucked down in the valley just to the left. It's about 500m to the village centre from our house.

Views of Lisle

2009-01-02T21:44:00.000+01:00

During the summer months the 'beach' on the banks of the Dronne become very popular. There is a resident lifeguard to surveille the swimmers and passing canoeists. On the opposite side of the river is the Municipal Campsite.

Views of Lisle

2009-01-02T21:42:00.000+01:00

The river Dronne that Lisle sits on. The name Lisle derives from the Latin Insula meaning Island. Records of the village date back to around 1000ad with it becoming a 'ville close' in 1211.

Views of Lisle

2009-01-02T21:38:00.000+01:00

The outside of the Lavoir where the water flows into the Boulidour, a stream created by the confluence of the underground streams.

Views of Lisle

2009-01-02T21:36:00.000+01:00

The 'Lavoir'. A natural spring that orginates from the Massif central. The water is of a very high quality - better than Evian it has been said. Lisle sits on a network of springs and underground streams. Every home in the village had a private well in the front room. There are many wells around the commune where the water comes to the surface. In the Lavoir pictured some housewives still do their laundry!

Views of Lisle

2009-01-02T21:32:00.000+01:00

The Listed church and the 'Halle'

It's My Birthday!

2009-01-01T15:09:00.000+01:00

New Year's Day 2009 - my 43rd Birthday

The party last night went well - it was not as good as previous years though. My onion bhajis went down very well, they were gone in a flash, the locals think I am such a good cook!

I'm really tired so having a chill out day as you can see!! It's 15° calm and blue skies. I've just started reading a book that I've borrowed and it's very addictive. A lot of the books I've recently read have been a bit of a slog to get into to, but this one is a real page turner for me "The Thirteeth Tale".

Ian's going to be cooking dinner tonight - Madhur Jaffrey's Prawns in a Dark Sauce, quite light and very tasty.

New Year's Eve

2008-12-31T09:47:00.004+01:00

The last day of another year of my life. Time seems to pass so quickly, but I suppose that is because I lead quite a busy life and never have time to be bored.

We're going to a party tonight. The usual gang of about 40 or so locals, we take it in turn to host, everyone takes a platter of food and some drink. Stéphane has all the DJ/lighting equipment for the disco and Jean is a DJ on local radio so we're well equipped to party!! Tonight it's at Anne-Sophie's house, or more accurately in the 'hanger'. With the lighting and smoke machines it should be more glamorous than it sounds - at least there are no animals usually in there, so no smells or shit!

I'm going to make a load of onion bhajis with a raita sauce to take as our platter of food - expect loads of tears with all that onion chopping.

Bonne Année à toutes et à tous!!!

Let's hope that 2009 ends in a better state than 2008 has done!

The South garden

2008-12-31T09:43:00.000+01:00

We had the pool rebuilt in 2005 and had all the surrounding lawn changed to terracing and 'beach'.
I just love my pool and go in it every day between May and October when it's open!

2008-12-31T09:40:00.000+01:00

Looking down across the North garden to the West garden and out over the views across the valley. The BMW is now sold!

The north garden from a different angle

2008-12-31T09:39:00.000+01:00

Another angle of the North Garden showing the laurel hedge planted 18 months ago.

Part of The West Garden

2008-12-31T09:38:00.000+01:00

I love my hammock - lovely to read in or have a little siesta when it's too hot under the shade of the Catalpa tree.

Part of The North Garden

2008-12-31T09:36:00.000+01:00

My Garden

2008-12-31T09:34:00.001+01:00

This lovely view was taken in June 2008.

I spend a lot of time in my garden. The plot is about 3/4 acre with the house sitting in the middle. The plot is on a gentle south-west facing slope, creating micro-climates around the garden. The NE corner is often about 2°c cooler than the SW area.

The layout effectively gives us 4 seperate gardens: north, south, east & west.

The pool is in the 'south' garden and is surrounded by a shingle 'beach', palm trees and parasol pine trees. It's a real suntrap.

The west is divided from the north by the driveway and is a sweeping lawn with 6 maple trees lining the drive, a weeping willow, a Catalpa, a Tilleuil and an apple tree. This area also has the 3m trampoline on a raised flat area surrounded by a mixed border of lavenders, standard roses, spreading conifers, shrubs and perenials.

The north garden is lawn with a central spreading conifer that covers a circle of about 8m diameter with other very tall mature conifer trees dotted around and a massive Pampas grass. When I first gave the Pampas a serious haircut I discovered that it forms a Polo mint round of about 3m - probably about 30 years old, and as it dies out from the centre it creats the Polo effect. This part borders the lane with a brick wall and a laurel hedge.

Following the path around the edge of the house leads us to the eastern garden. I did have a large vegetable plot here but found it too much hard work with not enough time to manage it. Having had a very disppointing year in terms of crops I decided to grass it back over. It is now my "Chickenopolis" where I free-range my hens (more to follow on that subject). It's also the utility area of the garden where the shed is (my "office"!) and the laundry line.

The last few days of a very busy year

2008-12-29T21:10:00.005+01:00

What a busy year it's been.

This time last year I was busy with our 'team' of 15 putting together our prospectus for the 'Elections Municipals' for the local council elections in March. I was on the team of the existing Maire (Mayor), although I had also been invited on an opposing team but decided to be loyal to the Maire who'd asked me to be on his team back in July '07. We well and truly thrashed the opposition with no need to go to a second weekends voting which many communes had to do if no 1 team had more than 50% of the votes.

So, since March the 7th I have been Conseillère Municipal Susie Heselton! It's been busy since and I have taken on various commissions varying from municipal buildings to tourism to school transport. I have also found myself to be the 'official' municipal photographer and have my DSLR at hand to report on village events and send them off to the local press or to publish in the Bulletin Municipal. I have taken over publishing the Bulletin Municipal from the secretaries at the Mairie who have more than enough work to do without that as well. There is a small team who decides what the content is and we collectively write the articles and I put it all together on Publisher then send it off to the printers as a PDF. I've made a lot of changes to the appearance of the publication, a 28 page A4 colour book produced in May and November, and have since received many complements for it.

As well as my council work I also work voluntarily on a few other associations: L'Amicale Laïque (equivalent of the Parents' Association), the local riding stables, and the Club Mix'ages (which organises events and outings for the people of Lisle). I help with the Comité des fêtes as well although I'm not on the bureau.

On top of all that I work part time as an Assistante Maternelle, a registered childminder. I've been an AssMat (horrid expression!) for nearly 5 years and have just completed a 60 hour training course to have my agrément renewed. I have had a few charges, currently I look after an adorable little girl called Apolline, she's 13 months old and is such a joy to care for. I also have another baby 'booked' for April/May who hasn't actually been born yet. Not sure whether it's a boy or girl yet, the mum is a local independant physiotherapist, very much into alternative therapies etc, a really nice woman. I did have another booked for the beginning of December but they let me down at the 11th hour despite me keeping a place for him for the past six months - but we won't go there!