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| Our home in Champagne 'Aupres de l'eglise' |
Well I finally feel like I have started the year after yesterday spending a day in the garden in the sun under blue skies. It is enlightening and uplifting to see new bright green shoots emerging on the vines and herbs and know that spring is not so far away.... While trimming, clipping, digging in compost and raking leaves we were able to spend time pondering the new season in the garden with an eye to growing food for the table to share our home grown fruit and vegetables with our guests in the warmer months. It was a cold snowy icy end to 2010 and has been hard to motivate one into the great outdoors apart from gathering wood and doing the essential 'stupid market' shops for food and the obvious walks to the bus stop to catch the 'car'. Having said that we saw the New Year in with a group of friends and Kiwi guests listening to the guitar around the BBQ!!
This is my first post and as the year develops and the days get longer I hope to share some stories and madness about rural France while we go about our daily life or as our guests call it 'live the dream'....for five years we have been renovating our barn to create a family home in the deep countryside in Champagne. So after years of builders fatigue that is not a new adventure but last year we decided to do B and B and that has been a real adventure...it is like 'traveling without leaving home' as a guests of all shapes, sizes, ages and nationalities arrive on your doorstep to be wined, dined and bedded in our home. Last year was surprisingly busy and we loved every minute of it! This year we have so many returning guests who we now see as old friends booking frantically as they all plan for the holidays whilst sitting warm inside on a chilly January evening. We look forward to seeing everyone again...seeing how the kids have grown and catching up on their lives over the last 12 months.
Today we all slept in meaning the school run for our 14 year old daughter was well behind time and the whole day started in a flurry...tonight we have guests from the U.K. who also run a B and B so time to wake up the house, make the beds and cook the supper. We are looking forward to sharing a leg of NZ lamb, a glass of champagne and some stories and ideas with them both....A NZ night for another Kiwi ex pat 'living the dream' in a different way on the beautiful coast of Devon looking out over the sea...something we miss always...I may even make a pavlova with kiwifruit for dessert...any excuse...
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