First crops, tree fella's, and DIY

Today, we ate the first lettuce from our garden, this is all new to me, what a delight to pick vegetables and then eat them.I've also made a rhubarb crumble for dinner, our rhubarb plants were given to us by our Stake pres.and by one of my nephews, thank you.We also have strawberries.

We have 'taken down' thin,tall pine trees in the past,but yesterday was different, we have (had ) the very large limb of a tree in the front of the house which was keeping the morning sun from our lounge window, so it had to go.  After some thought and planning we did it, John loves using his chainsaw and with me holding on a rope to help the tree fall in the right direction,which was right across the lane (fortunately only about 6 cars  a day use it), John cut a wedge in the trunk...we've watched axe men so we know it all!!! Then a cut above that and hey presto it slowly toppled, unfortunately we don't have a photo of the moment as you can imagine our hands were full.

I couldn't help thinking that I'd have been worried to death if I'd heard my children were attempting this,so sshhh, don't tell my mum.  

I decided to try some DIY, I wanted a small deck in the woods, it's peaceful and quiet down there and sheltered from the sun, these are the materials I started with (all recycled) and ....after a few hours, some sweat but no tears and with some help from John, this is the result .

I've also pickled some eggs,I've just put cold, shelled, hard boiled eggs into vinegar,is that the right method??
Hope you are all well, enjoying this wonderful weather.We are having a street party (in our garden.) for the wedding, we've invited the other 6 brits from our branch and our farmer and his family.I just need to find some red,blue and white bunting! Au revoir

La jardin

We are loving the garden, lots of work, but the weather has been wonderful. We have work to do inside and keep waiting for a wet day, but it hasn't happened yet.
We visited a flower show in the gardens of a chateau in Josselin last Saturday and I got some ideas for our garden, besides plants and flowers,so I made use of some stuff just lying around the garden and house i.e. an old apple press (for cider making) part of an old farm implement, an old chair and some palletts.Always looking for ways to do things inexpensively I mixed some of the paint for the outside of the house with some of the front door paint for the pale blue I wanted.You'll see the results  below (or above,I seem to have no control over where they appear!!)
John is a great DIYer hence the many flower boxes, fences, bird boxes etc.

Well after an hour catching up with 'stuff' the garden is calling, I must go,I shall be back......

18 April. We visited the new milking parlour and were able to try and milk one or two of the cows. It is fully automated with each cow coming into a milking station, all the operative has to do is offer the milking cluster to the animals udder and the rest is history.
20 April. the weather is still very hot and we have to water the garden each day to keep our crops growing, it is surprising how long this takes. Our chickens are producing well, almost up to full production.

The start of our adventure

Well, we have arrived. We always enjoyed watching 'The Good Life' on television and now we have decided to try it for ourselves.

We left England on the 17th March with everything but the kitchen sink.And arrived in Brittany the next morning glad to find our home still in one piece.

We have had wonderful weather for the last 3 weeks and have worked in the garden every day.John works methodically all day, I work in great bursts followed by a rest or a change of scene. We have conquered the thistles,brambles and dandelions and now just mow the lawn 1 a week  - but with 1/2 an acre it takes a while.

One of our first priorities was to buy our chickens so off we went to the first Tuesday market in Rostrenon and bought 12 beautiful birds.They have settled in well and are laying about 8 eggs a day.We had a mass break out yesterday but they were rounded up without too much difficulty.

We've built 2 raised beds 4m by 1m with wood,manure and earth from the farm and have already planted carrots, onions, peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, strawberries, peas, beans, beetroot & lettuce (some under plastic to avoid the frost).