Hottest day of the year so far

What a beautiful day.   I heard my first cuckoo of the year this morning as I walked up the lane to do the animals.   I drove with friends to collect animal feed this morning for their hens and geese and my hens, ducks, rabbits and goats.  It's been the sunniest, hottest day of the year and I've been lying out in the garden since midday soaking it all up. 

 

 
 

 

 

The wisteria against the cottage walls is just starting to bloom again and the tulips under the garden wall are bright scarlet with variegated leaves.  

 

 

 

Basil, Ruby and Bert have been burrowing again in their run.  There's wire going down below ground level to stop them getting through to the next door garden, but this time they are tunnelling towards the cottages.  They then spent an hour or so sitting in the sunshine in a row.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the lane going down from the calvaire to my house in the sunshine and forget-me-nots growing wild outside an abandoned dwelling next to me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The village was really quiet today.  I think I might have been the only one at home most of the afternoon.  I love the peace here.

 

I really spending so much time in the garden, getting a good tan base, eating both my lunch and supper outside and reading a whole paperback - Almost French by Sarah Turnbull.  It's true story about an Australian girl who ends up living in Paris with a Frenchman and how she coped with the culture shock.   

 

 

 

Three things I like:

 

1.   The wall to wall sunshine and heat we've had today in St André.

2.   Walking round in the peace and quiet of the village with my cats following.

3.   Finding the new hiding place where some of my hens are now laying.

Spring and feeling much better

As I drove back from a gentle bowls morning on Tuesday afternoon in the sunshine, I realised that the landscape now has a green shimmer across it as trees are coming into leaf again.  Finally as April slipped into May the weather became warmer and more Springlike.  

Still a bitterly cold wind, particularly in the early morning but often by lunchtime it has dropped and I've spent several hours in the afternoons sitting out in a sheltered spot in the sunshine reading.   One afternoon was with my Breton neighbours and we sat and ate pancakes and drank coffee.   




Here are some of the blooms in the lanes around me.
 

Yesterday I walked over to my car and found this nest on the ground, it had fallen from a fir in my neighbour's garden.  I don't know what bird built it but it was just finished as the moss is still green and fresh.

It's seven days since I came back from hospital and I feel good.  It's frustrating not to be able to do things like lifting and bending - banned for about four weeks - and I'm desperate to work in the garden but I'm going to do as I am told as I want the operation to be successful.
 

The day after I came home I had my first guests of the year in the cottage.  They were from California and I was hoping that the weather wouldn't let Brittany down.  It didn't.  It was dry and warm and they enjoyed their stay here exploring the countryside by car and on foot.  I've managed to get all their bed linen, towels etc. washed and dried today - the first washing on the line this year.

Yesterday evening I prepared a beef casserole with onions, herbs, stock and half a bottle of red wine.  It simmered away in the slow cooker all night and the smell pervading the house when I got up this morning was wonderful.  I had the first portion for lunch with carrots cooked in a little water and butter, buttered boiled potatoes and French beans. There are another 3-4 portions left ready to pop into freezer bags and then the freezer.

I went to the doctor this morning for my usual three monthly prescription and was pleased to see that the list of medications for which the prescription previously took the best part of two A4 sheets has been reduced to six items.  Two allergy products, two digestion items (because of the bypass) and Vitamin D and calcium.  No more statins, blood pressure tablets, aspirin, HRT, asthma inhalers etc. etc.   The French health system has done me proud and I'm so grateful to all the medical people who have helped me here.

Three things I  like:

1.  After an anxious wait for scan and results, hearing that my oldest son doesn't have testicular cancer - thank goodness!

2.  Watching my new incubator automatically turning mixed and Cream Legbar eggs and keeping them at the correct temperature.

3.   Having my first guests of the year in my cottage.