The spring turns to summer (2)

Photo 1: To mark the 1st anniversary of starting my weight-loss programme here's the evidence, showing me keeping the birds off our strawberries!

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Photo 2: Here's one for Si from Hastings, an enormous jellyfish washed up on the beach. Can't wait to swim in the sea - hopefully all the jellyfish will have gone by then.

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Photo 3: Jérémy (the chef at La Paillote) with Tine and me. Am I the gooseberry here?

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Photo 4: Shreddiestock! Keep them coming folks: they've got a long sell-by-date!

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Photos 5, 6&7: The sun had heated the water in our plastic pool to 25°C and here's the evidence of our 1st dip this year.

The spring turns to summer (1)

As a way of apologising for being 'unblogful' (pas un vrai mot, mes lecteurs français) here's the first of two posts bringing you nearly up-to-date with recent activities.

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Photo 1: Although no coypus were to be seen on a recent canal walk we loved this field of beautiful cattle and curious calves.

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Photos 2&3: Our first swim of 2010 in the campsite pool (notice the crowds) - I look like I'm on the slab there!

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Photo 4: A marriage made in heaven - Tine's chocolate cake and home-grown strawberries, mmmmmmm!

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Photo 5: A new-to-me beach to the north of Olonne, la Plage de Paracou where I spent a couple of hours reading and sunning whilst Tine taught her Super U students. It's a hard life!

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Photo 6: Our California poppies which are taking over the front of the house - perfect flowers that need no looking after.

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Photo 7: Our friendly gecko is back, curious to see what we had had for lunch.

Demolishing the jetty

So, just to bring you up-to-date with the (lack of) jetty.

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Rather than have any accidents on or under the storm-damaged jetty the council decided to demolish it with a whole army of machines. Photo 6 looks very like a photo I took two years ago when they were constructing the second version. Hopefully version number three will be stronger and up-and-running for the 2011 season. (Thanks to LCA for photos 3 & 4, by the way.)

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And finally: Matt seems to delight in scootering round to the back of the house and frightening us at unexpected moments! Here he is seen doing his Wallace (of Wallace and Gromit) impression!

Garden update

People are always asking how the garden is growing so here is a visual update to feast your eyes. Despite the recent disappointing weather we have our fingers crossed for lots of produce this year.

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The tomatoes went in just a few days ago, the plants very kindly given to us once again by our neighbours. In the local tradition we have protected them from the gusty wind by using roof tiles. Nadine's tomato jungle is on its way!

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Our radishes have been amazing, prolific and very fast growing. We eat them French style with butter and salt: what a fabulous mix of flavours!

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Next we have our French beans which don't look very happy. Jean reckons the soil hasn't been warm enough but hopefully hotter days will be with us soon.

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Broad beans, potatoes and onions follow, all looking very healthy.

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And finally, yes, the swimming pool is back in situ. Here our construction expert oversees developments with her instructions! Now where is that sun?

Days out

It was lovely to have Lindsay come and visit last week even if we had quite a busy time while she was with us! On Monday we went up to Olonne to take Tine to her afternoon lesson whilst we drove on to La Chaume for a wander along the estuary. Lindsay remembered the beautiful wisteria (glycine) we saw last year - equally impressive this time around.

When we got back to the port entrance a huge vessel was preparing to leave. I had no idea that Les Sables catered for such large boats and the captain drew a large crowd to watch his manoeuvering skills turning around to exit the port.

Next day we motored up to Nantes for Tine's carpal tunnel operation. The four hours she was in the hospital gave Lindsay and me time to walk into the old heart of Nantes, have a very tasty galette (photo 6), followed by a stroll around the castle and cathedral. We walked back to the hospital to find a very chirpy Tine ready for home!

Photo 9 is a famous landmark known as the LU Tower. There were originally two towers which marked the entrance to a well known French biscuit manufacturer in Nantes. Sadly the other tower was demolished in the 70s.

Thanks to Lindsay for most of these photos!

Happy Hour 'til September

After a busy week (including Tine's carpal tunnel operation on Wednesday, and Lindsay's visit - more next time!) we finally got La Paillote spruced up for the 2010 season and Matt opened his doors to the public on Saturday.

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As you can see he was blessed with sunny weather (sadly now disappeared again) and last year's chef (Jérémy) back on board, with Mousse and Floppy starting before too long. Tine won't be doing pizzas until next month when her hand should be repaired.

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Thanks Lindsay for the first photo showing your faithful blogger, Tine, Matt & Cynthia sampling a pre-opening beer. It was thirsty work getting prepared! The rest of the photos show how hard everyone worked. Hope you notice the international flags for the World Cup, plus Matt's new beer o'clock flag to signal when he's open.

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Finally an apéritif before enjoying Jérémy's first meals of the season. Wonderful!