Hello All
The Blackies who were supposed to have eggs which fed us, scurried their supplies away and had babies instead so now I have to feed them. I love it when a plan doesn't come together. She is doing remarkably well for a first time hatcher and had 13 chicks, sadly only 11 left now. Aren't they tiny.
So we are entering a chaotic period where all I do is eat, sleep and worry about whether I have made enough Cumberland sausages. It is the first Christmas Market this Sunday for us in Brossac and the weather is looking dry, though not sunny for Sunday, fingers crossed for a good one. Patrick has offered to come home again this weekend and help out it might be a good opportunity for him to see if he can cook a roast dinner as he had mentioned last weekend that maybe it was time to learn. If he does you can have pictures next week.

Saw some more of my lovely Crane friends migrating south today to sunnier climes. Did you know that there are 26 sleeps until the days start to lengthen again. Yippee.
See you at a market somewhere
Helen

Hello All
Well Christian Gleaner from 1825 who said "a change of work is as good as play" which is interestingly the earliest origin that can be found for this phrase, not sure that I completely agree with you. I suppose in a sense some muscles and joints in my body did have a rest this week, however there were other muscles and joints that then made their presence felt after I had made my way once again up the grassy, muddy slope carrying yet another roll of fencing. I must add at this point that I only survived the week with assistance from a very good, friend and my children who all toiled with me through the rain moving fences, sheep and finding sheep that had gone walkabout to the neighbours.
My husband abandoned me for drier, foggier climes in Yorkshire this week to have his first holiday in 4 years. Well abandoned is not precisely correct, I, like a fool, encouraged him to go away thinking that the weather would be reasonable and I would manage perfectly well for a week. Did anyone notice the weather this weekend? We had hail and a thunder storm on Saturday and fairly solid rain from Thursday through till Monday. 

He went on a sausage making course for some inspiration and ideas, to the sea in Bridlington to visit friends and then Essex(?). Whilst in Essex, again visiting friends, he runs into Jimmy of Jimmy's Farm fame and has a chat. Whilst recounting his adventures with TV celebs, I was distracted with concern for whether he had completed the shopping list he was given.... 9 and a half out of ten was his result. For some reason despite my having spent a year working for a sherry company in Spain many moons ago, I have been unable to educate him in the differences of each type of sherry. I should be grateful however, that at least he came back with a bottle of Spanish sherry rather than an imitation and that more importantly than that he remembered the tea bags.
Number 3's eyes nearly fell out of her head at the mountain of chocolate that came in from the car, so I won't tell her yet that it is only the half of it as the rest is stashed for Christmas.
Talking of Christmas there are a few markets we will be attending locally.

Sunday 30th November- La Giraudiere, 16480 Brossac.
Sunday 7th December Manoir de Longeveau, between St Séverin and Aubeterre 16390.
Sunday 14th December Duras Christmas Market, 47120

See you all soon
Helen

happens again they can use the second toilet whilst the first is being repaired. 
This, once again, is not progress. I don't think I view my childhood through rose tinted spectacles and I am sure I would have remembered my Dad cursing at the toilet, if it had been a regular breaker downerer, if Gavins behaviour is a standard approach to the irritations of plumbing.
So with all that said happy flushing
Helen

Hello All
Yes it is time to get the winter duvet and the electric blanket out of the cupboard, find the axe and make sure nothing has died in the chimney. The chill has arrived. Mind you we have had our fire going for a couple of weeks as our house is prone to being rather damp once the really hot sun has disappeared.
Ha gotcha.... hands up who thought I was going to say it is nearly Christmas, time to think about what you might want to eat during the festivities and possibly make an order. But no, I wasn't.... but seeing as how we have touched on the subject maybe you would like to think about it;-)

Here is our tree surgeon swinging about in our very large trees outside our tobacco barn conversion.It was very impressive listening to the trees being felled and as you can see he is quite a long way up. The first photo is taken from the first floor window. 

Here is the upstairs of our barn all boarded out. We are on a pause before the window stage as I am still trying to find the best value for money site in France as my first foray into window pricing gave me a price of 5000 euros which was way out of our budget. It is lovely big space upstairs and we spent an hour or so this morning drawing lines for where the rooms and bathrooms should be. Gavin has come up with a clever plan for an airing cupboard so goodbye to all those damp sheets that get hauled in from the garden at this time of year.
With regard to the dog attack on the sheep and insurance we are still waiting for a response from the dog owners insurance but we are hoping for a fairly straight forward run as there are no challenges involved but we will see.
Thermals and thick socks for tomorrows market methinks.
See you all soon
Helen