I will be updating this diary at least once a month. However, to give you an idea as to what we’ve been up to this year, I will start by writing a little about what’s been happening to us this year……..
January 2006. We celebrated the New Year at Linguer. Our farmer friend François showed Dave how to make willow baskets. Went to the UK to see family and friends.
February 2006. In UK.
March 2006. Back to France and at last we have Internet connection. It is great to be able to email friends and family without having to drive to the cyber café about 8 kilometres away. Finally finished the bathroom this month – painting and tiling.
April 2006. We were invited to the first birthday party of our neighbour’s daughter. Her name is Sterenn (Breton for star). I made a large chocolate cake covered in crystallised primroses and chocolate butterflies, which went down very well. Met an English couple that have just bought a house not far from us. I made the usual hot-cross buns at Easter and gave some to each of our neighbours – they don’t have hot-cross buns in France. Made a simple willow screen for the garden – it would have been bigger but I ran out of willow. Dave pointed up the front of the house and it looks good. Our neighbour François retired at the beginning of the month but he still had a cow and calf. He had milk, which was no longer collected so asked if we wanted some. The milk was very rich and creamy so I skimmed off the cream and made butter – I made scones with the buttermilk.
May 2006. Completed and posted the forms for the French tax – I went to our bank and they kindly helped me to make sure I had everything correct. Went to a local nursery that had a sale and we bought 6 large rhododendrons and 6 azaleas for only 48€ (about £30). Dave made a rustic arch and screen and we have trained clematis and honeysuckle over it – also planted two trachelosporum jaminoides (a very long name for an evergreen climber with scented white flowers). Planted two pumpkin plants and two courgette plants in our vegetable garden.
June 2006. Spent the first part of the month preparing for our walking holiday. We had loads of stuff in pots (box cuttings, oak and horse-chestnut saplings, laurel etc.) so Dave planted them in our vegetable garden, which is being used mostly as a nursery bed this year. See separate web page for our walk.
July 2006. Finished our walk on 15th July. Our friend Pete picked us up the next day and we visited with him and his wife Annie for just over a week. Pete drove us back to Linguer on 25th July. When we arrived home we found that the electric was off and the fridge freezer had defrosted itself. Judging by the smell it had been off for some time! We got the smelly thing outside and then I had to empty it – not good! To cut a long story short, it took some time before we got rid of the smell. We also noticed that our outside socket and plug for the water pump was smashed. Found out some time later that the house had probably been struck by lightening during one of the worst storms for some years. The storm had caused a power cut and loss of telephone to quite a few of the houses around us. It zapped our telephone and we had to buy a new one.
August 2006. Planted leeks at the beginning of the month and the pumpkins and courgettes are growing well. Went to the UK on 20th – we had been invited to our friend’s wedding on 26th. Were able to spend valuable time with our daughters Kate & fiancé Bry, and Emma & husband Luke too, which was great.
September 2006. Managed to get to the Record Office to do some family history research. Don’t get to do it too often now that we are living permanently in France. I managed to find what I wanted after a bit of detective work.
Went out one Saturday evening to watch one of the biggest Severn Bores of the year. It was late evening and almost dark. We heard it coming for some time before it swept by. We could hear surfers calling to each other too. The following morning we went to see the bore again and my friend Liz took some amazing photographs – will try to get a copy for the web page. Here it is! (click for larger image - opens in separate window) Thanks Liz.

We celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary just before returning to France and my 55th birthday just after. (Had a celebration in the UK with Kate & Bry, Emma & Luke the weekend before). The vegetable garden needed weeding when we got back, we had pumpkins growing well and the leeks were looking good too. Planted some purple sprouting. We put together the plans and paperwork for the extension to our cottage and I took them to the Marie on 25th September.
October 2006. Bought a buffet (dresser) from a depot vent (second hand place) for 110€. It needed assembling and had a bit of damage but Dave did an amazing job and it looks the business. I was able to put all our glasses and decent china in the proper place at last. Made the Christmas cake and started “feeding” it with brandy. Received the permission for our extension on 14th and began work on 17th. For pictures of our extension please look on separate web page.