New resident at La Basse Cour

I got a big surprise when I went upstairs in the barn this afternoon:

A beautiful Barn Owl (L'Effraie des clochers, chouette effraie ou dame blanche) had taken up roost in the A frame. He or she had got in through the post holes that are still open on the gable end and was sleeping the day away quietly.

Aren't we lucky to be able to see such a beautiful animal so close .....

Sunshine at Last!

It's been truly miserable weather over the last three weeks. We've been stuck under a persistent damp front with rain falling at some point nearly every day. Hockey on Sunday on our home pitch was another first for me - a 5m x 5m section of the pitch was under 2 inches of water - it took skill to hit the ball over the pond from restarts!

On a positive note we can work inside the barn now without being particularly disturbed by the weather and the measures we've taken against the damp on the north wall have had a good test.

The sun came out on Sunday and Barbara took some great pictures of the harvest and a cat asleep in the salad box - that's a yellow card with serious punishment for any re-offence!

Some of the courgettes that "got away"

Squashed Salad

Gardening - Challenges and Sucesses

Despite the amount of time that we've spent on the barn the potager has been productive again this year. The weather was cold, wet and extremely challenging through the Spring - as we all agreed at Claudette and Jean's summer garden party - and in July it got worse. We had multiple sowing failures of beans, spinach and parsnips and everything is weeks later than last year. In 2011 we had enough potatoes to get us through to February, this year a devastating attack of blight means that we've just had to buy potatoes again. Some things did very well however, particularly the soft fruit and we had great crops of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.

Blackberry in flower

This Blackberry was originally growing two houses ago in Farnborough, a root was then taken which is growing strongly in Suffolk at Judith and Steve's house and a further rooting made it over to France in 2010 on the removal truck. This one produced nearly 25 pounds of fruit this year and yet another rooting is growing ready to be transferred to the top potager this winter.

Despite the failures and problems we have had some spectacular successes. Last year we couldn't grow courgettes at all - this year they've been brilliant:

 Almost all the root crops have done well; beetroot and celeriac particularly so. The peach tree produced a large crop although about three weeks later than in previous years and the ever reliable walnut is beginning to drop another large crop of walnuts although again it's about three weeks later than last year.

Saving the best to last - our pumpkin and butternut squash crop has been excellent:

Harvest Day

 Nigel Slater has a great recipe for Pumpkin and Butternut Squash: Nigel Slater Recipe

Our New Neigh .... bour

"Where did that horse come from?"

It's a reasonable question, especially at 7:45 when we came back from our morning walk. When we'd gone out it was dark and when we came back there was a horse in the field at the bottom of our garden.

Neighbours are a relative word for us - Lucian lives opposite us and then his son Dominique and Nicole about 400 yards down the road, then Jean and Claudette a bit further along. But really we are tres rurale as the French say. We often have cows in the fields adjoining us - they have much more character than you might imagine - but once you've seen one you've seen them all really. And cows have a nasty habit of escaping into our garden where they are currently the prime suspects for one of our apple trees that seems to have been nibbled.

So a new neighbour is a big thing for us. And horses seem to be quite rare in the area, certainly I've never seen one on the farms next to us. This one (working name "Champion") is a very elegant tan with a blonde mane. He's showing some wear and tear on his flanks - looks like he's spent the summer in a harness somewhere - but Bertrand (Dominique's son) comes down every morning to groom him and dress his worn spots.

Carrots gratefully accepted

Champion

Due to our rather hemitic life at present as we press on with the ceilings I've not got the chance to find out the story (or Champion's real name) from any of the three generations of our neighbours who are involved with the farm. He's enjoying being in the field next to us and loves galloping around the field at full speed - I've never ridden a horse but there's something really majestic about a horse in full flow.