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More culture?

7/30/2015

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Hello All
Having stumbled upon Harry Potter number 6 to watch one evening, I discovered that neither Number 3 nor I had a clue what was going on. So we decided to do a Harry Potter marathon, seeing as it is holiday time and bedtime curfew seems to have disappeared into the ether. You can imagine that all the films in one day would have been impossible with our schedule, so we watched one a night until we had completed the saga. I thought I had seen most of them, in fact I have seen number one, bits of 2 to 4 and none of the rest. I must have relied on the media to tell me the end of the story, and they obviously did a good job as I new  the conclusion just not the exact method. I do enjoy a bit of magic, but I can honestly say I am all magiced up now. So back to reality....
What did you do with your Sunday morning? 
Gavin finally finished shearing. There is nothing like the vet arriving to take blood sampled from the sheep to motivate oneself. As you may imagine finding blood vesels underneath a thick fleece is a difficult task and would make extracting blood a long winded and arduous task. 
I helped out by bringing in the individuals to the shearing pen and discovered that butchery work is very good for arm strengthening. Emily was the paperwork and eartagging person, and Number 3 was.......out for the day galavanting.
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We also finished the silage pit this week. Thank goodness said Gavin. Amazingly handy food though during a very dry season. Below are some of the girls waiting for the vet today. You can see in the background how lush and green our patures aren't.

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I can highly, recommend slow roasted shoulder of lamb for when you have no idea what time you are going to eat and the vet is 2 hours late. In the vets defence, we have never had blood samples taken so quickly from our sheep 90 samples done inj just over 1 hour. At one point Gavin was wondering if she could be a bit slower so he could have a rest from sheep wrestling. Back to the shoulder of lamb it ended up being in the oven for nearly 4 hours at 140 and then another hour at 170 to get the potatoes cooked. I thought I may have cremated it but happily it was juicy, tender and delicious. Thank goodness for aluminium foil.
See you all soon
Helen
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Socialising

7/22/2015

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Hello All
What a great week it has been, I can't believe a whole week has gone past and for a change we seem to have achieved quite a lot, whether any of it is actually work and house related remains to be seen, but we have caught up with a few friends and also managed a bit of cultural  entertainment and education for ourselves and the kids.
As you can see we saw the fireworks on 14th July in Bergerac along with rather a lot of other people, and I managed to snap a reasonable photo with my cheap and cheerful phone camera. Sadly, I managed once again to stand in chewing gum whilst enjoying the pretty lights in the sky. It is the second time this week and at this time of year with the heat it manages to adhere rather well to ones flip flops. Both times it has been picked up from the pavement in a public area, litterred (! ;-)) with bins. 
It is a pity more people don't use the bins for the purpose they are designed. Gavin would prefer they just labelled it, chewing gum that is, a prohibited substance and ban it altogether. He may have a point as it could save quite a lot of bird life, though WD40 may suffer with a downturn in sales as I believe it is excellent at removing chewing gum from some fabrics. 
Then there was the Saint Emillion Jazz Festival. Due to prior engagements for the other evenings we were only able to make the soul/funk night on Sunday and I was, to be honest, expecting nothing special.... Well I left the event quite blown away as if I had just seen a very important future name in the music business "Nina Attal" of course there may be some of you who are more up to date than I, but really, what an entertainer and multi-talented, singing, dancing, guitar and keyboards. Writes and produces her own stuff. Number 3 really got in the swing of it, dancing on the chairs. The acts that came before her were also very good and I believe the previous day was also excellent. Definitely worth noting for 2016.
It is great having the girls at home for a bit. So far I have had chocolate muffins, stuffed eggs and salad, and the most perfectly balanced lunch of vegetarian pizza and pork and leek sausages. Then we went shopping today and we came back with chocolate fudge ice cream, which turned out to be chocolate, walnut and white chocolate chip ice cream, we are still looking for the fudge, chocolate, chocolate biscuits, jelly sweets and more pizza. It looks like my waistline might be in trouble by back to school time. Oh well if we do anymore insulating the new house at 35 degrees, then the accompanying sauna should do the trick.
See you all soon
Helen

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Long Time No Chat

7/16/2015

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Hello All
Well it seems I have not written a blog for a month for which I sincerely apologise. I am not quite sure what happened to June it disappeared in a blur of tutus and music recitals, not to mention a very busy market in Brantôme one Sunday where Gavin and I were observed working together on the market stand... a miracle indeed, I think we even managed the whole day without an educated exchange of opinion. Incroyable!
So after that the computer ceased to function when the floor got in the way of the lap....or that was how it was explained to me. He shall remain nameless, but he knows who he is ;-) This was a disaster of epic proportions, the spare computer is ancient and it is often faster to use pigeon post. L
uckily we found a very nice man living only 15 minutes down the road who rebuilt my trusty steed and we are back in action at warp speed...well pretty fast anyway.

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Then the fridge van decided it was time for a rest and went on a rather expensive health spa visit in Bordeaux for a make-over. She is now fully rejuvenated and in top form. So surely that is the end of it, well no not exactly. The tactor was requested to do a bit of fencing for a friend and so Gavin went out to start it and after much banging and crashing, embellished with the odd creative word, it would not start. So one solenoid later (a bit to do with the starter motor I believe) it should be running again. 
And no that is still not the end of it. Gavin, with his usual thoroughness when I drive somewhere on my own, checked the Volvo out before a trip to Bordeaux to fetch Emily from the airport. She had been staying with friends in UK and got to see Tom Jones in concert lucky girl... Back to the story.... He, Gavin that is, discovered oil in the radiator. This is apparently not a good recipe for longevity of a vehicle, so at some point in the near future I see a car purchase or major repairs on one of our broken down fleet looming. Yay!
Good news is I have just found all my photographs that I thought were lost from my phone and my computer. I do love that "Cloud" thingy. Any gueses on where we went to the beach?

See you at the markets. 
Helen
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    Helen Franklin

    I 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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