 What an extremely warm week it is proving to be and what a delight for the sheep to have a few days to sunbathe before the inevitable and needed break for rain and cooler days again. I am currently sitting with the window open in an effort to boost my vitamin "D" levels so I am strong and healthy for the year of change or not change to come. Honestly talk about living in limbo land. I have decided action is the cure for over thinking and depression. And having sourced an excellent new translator we are powering through the tardy paperwork hoping to keep Le Préfet happy with The Franklin Family. We have received some ominous lists of paper required and after reading them I usually put the paper down for a day, and then read it again the following day. It is quite amazing how a little reflection can make things seem less challenging.Then calmly (I can hear my children laughing at my use of the word calmly ;) ) I proceed with the most dificult longwinded item, then an easy one to make me feel better. Thus we are nearly prepared for the first interview in the family on Monday. Yay or not yay, depending on which member of the family you are.  My Dad was "a thinker", or that's what he used to call himself when he fell asleep on his garden chair. "Are you asleep Dad?" "No, I am just thinking". When you tried to rescue his glass of beer or red wine from his hand his fist would clench around the glass to signal his thinking state. I always thought thinking was a waste of time making you prone to inaction and blue days, and frequently warn my sister against its dangers. However, in recent years with the degradation of the environment, the politics or maybe my age,?, I find myself chopping meat in the butchery having a thinking session. Whoa! Fortunately I have managed to not sever any arteries in the process as the mind wandering off could cause a knife to wander too.  Many people have challenged me environmentally, intellectually, politically and spiritually and occassionally I have had to bite my tongue to avoid a difficult situation, but after some gentle reflection I return to the same conclusions with regard to my opinions on my time on this planet. If you can live your life and leave it environmentally, intellectually, politically and spiritually better than you started then you are doing allright. I am reading a book at the moment which I did not initially enjoy. It is full of people who have broadened their minds through discussion, sharing and reading, and more discussion, sharing, changing and reading. These characters are from all walks of life and are together under trying circumstances and make it through to the other side as whole people with good energy to bring to life. It is a pity that the bulk of power currently is held by people who appear to be unwilling to learn through sharing and discussion and do not appear to be people who are remotely interested in leaving anything behind of any lasting value for anyone. This is not meant to be a miserable blog it is meant to uplift you, to think, and then do, preferably with other people to bring about change big or small to help leave something behind of which you are proud. Big smiles to everyone Helenx P.S Below our latest catch ;) What a cutie!  Barn Kitten ready for the vet to sterilise
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 Our most fluffy cat has been very unimpressed with current climatic events and takes her punishment of being captured and dried in a towel with the usual amount of cat enthusiasm. This is what my face really looks likes when I have to fold up my market umbrella after a wet market day, which have been decidedly frequent since the beginning of the year, but we have persevered and on the whole people turn out to make their purchases come rain or.... well, in fact..... rain ;) It is however a beautiful sunny day today, and although Sunday does not include any selling product time for me, I have successfully dried some washing outside on the line. All is good. There has been a bit of an explosion of animals on our little farm and Gavin has a lot of running around to do after all of our new young stock. Our early lambs of which there are a number of twins, are continuing to arrive, not thick and fast more a slow trickle, which actually suits us at this time of year when so many hours in already short days are being consumed by wood carting and fire tending. We have had some goat kids as well to swell the numbers, and we are now waiting to see if the grass will start to grow. There is some evidence of its arrival. With more to come as there will be a slight increase in temperature which after all the rain is often a good sign for grass growth. We could certainly do with some early grazing as the season last year was really not good. Talking of population explosions, 10 days ago we had 35 pigs and this week I think we have 56. Hmmm I think pigs are actually just rabbits in disguise. Who knew!  As you can imagine all the big children have returned to their various study locations and we 3 are back in the swing of term time and general day to day stuff again, however I am trying to inspire myself to make some progress with organising our home environment so that we can put things away and then find them again, which would be a novelty for us. Anyone who knows where we live and how much Gavin is a collector of anything that looks like it might be useful will be laughing hysterically, and I can feel it all the way down the internet fibres. I may need to let Gavin in on my secret plan for him and me, although he may start to come out in hives at the thought of throwing something away ;) wish me luck. So for all you European readers here is a photo of my mother-in-laws vegetable garden in Zimbabwe this week with her 14 feet ish or 4.2metre ish tall maize....The rake in the foreground is a standard garden rake. :o  Now it is February we can all start listening out for the returning cranes and also the returning delivery runs that we do around and about.
See you all soon come rain or shine. Helenx |
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February 2023
Helen FranklinI am farming sheep and goats on the Dordogne/Gironde border with my husband and our 3 children. We have an on farm butchery and sell our meat direct to the public via the markets and delivery points in our local area |
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