New Year.....New Experiences.

2012 started as 2011 ended, with plenty of rain. When it's wet here, it's wet !! It can be quite depressing, as many of the buildings are granite and  grey, so a rainy day with a heavy sky means that everything is grey. Craig hates this weather and this time of the year, so we try either to keep very busy, or curl up in front of the fire with a DVD.

One of the first jobs this year was to tile the roof of the smaller extension. The larger one was finished to keep the furniture dry, so we wanted to get the other one as watertight as soon as possible. This would enable Craig to work inside in the dry - a bonus at this time of the year.

He managed to start on the inside too....

As we live on a slight incline, the water runs down the road when it rains. We had a problem with the water running straight into one of our buildings, so had a chat with the Maire, who arranged for a gully to be dug out to allow the water to flow more freely. We do smile at the work rate here - start at about 9.00am, stop for lunch at 12 on the dot, return at about 2pm, and then off again at 5.00pm. The obligatory lunch break - in the UK, sometimes you'd be lucky to get 30 mins - but here it stretches out beyond belief, and often involves copious amounts of liquid. In fact, we have seen Policemen in the bars, and then driving patrol cars afterwards. It amazes us too, if we are out and about before 8.00am, maybe on the way to the ferry, to see the bars open, and customers inside. Craig made a journey by bus to Morlaix early one morning, and at the terminus, the driver stopped in the bar for a coffee and a.n.other drink before the return journey !

We had housed the rabbits up until now in wooden hutches that Craig had made, but discovered that these hold the wet, and after a while start to rot and smell. The French use a different system called 'clapieres' - they are concrete and come in multiples, like small blocks of flats. I wasn't very impressed with them when I first saw them, but to be honest, they are much more hygienic, much easier to clean, and although not so 'pretty', much better suited to multiple occupancy. We heard through the grapevine, that there were some for sale locally, so visited to view, and made an offer. This was accepted, with the proviso that we dismantled them ourselves. It was a good idea, as it meant that we knew how to reassemble them again. The old lady that we bought them from however, insisted on standing over us while we worked. She was quite friendly, but it was a little off putting !

Once cleaned etc, they looked considerably better !

After being so long without a cooker, some neighbours offered to lend us a spare one they had. We fitted it in the utility room, which meant that we could use the oven, but that I had to go outside to take things to or from it. It often involved a short run to make sure that the food stayed warm, but was another slice of normality, and a more adventurous diet too ! We could have a roast dinner - what a bonus !

We had our first visit to the abattoir about now too - we took the ducks there, left them and then collected them the following day. We have decided that this, for us, is a much more cost effective way - the time taken to pluck etc a single bird, as amateurs far out ways the ease of letting someone else do it. When we collected them, they had been plucked and gutted, and to be honest, looked like a bird that you could have bought at Tesco's ! The amount charged is very little, and something that we feel is justified. The abattoir we have found deals just with birds, so the rabbits etc, have to be dealt with by us (that is the Royal 'us' - I mean, by Craig of course).

Quite early on in the year, we had the sad news that my father had died. He had been ill for many years, and in and out of hospital numerous times, more and more frequently as time progressed, but once more it brought home the distance between us and the family. I was very grateful that we had spoken only the day before. Despite being nearly 90 years old, he spoke to us via Skype, and did his shopping on line ! Work ground to a halt as we prepared to return to the UK ....

The New Year brought with it good and bad times as always....