Keeping Thanksgiving

Embracing my expat self- I have almost always hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, no matter where I have lived.  Germany was a bit challenging to get a whole turkey, (“…are you sure you don’t want us to cut it up for you?  …will it even fit in your oven?”). In the UK I just had to find …

When walnut trees go bad, or, that explains the rubbish tomatoes

I was fairly baffled by how poor my tomato crop was this year- I put it down to multiple heat waves, not pruning the tomatoes enough and possibly choosing the wrong varieties for the location…last year I had x2 tomato plants in pots next to the front door that didn’t receive much attention and they …

Autumnal assessment

And voila- summer over, equinox blew by and here we are in autumn!  Right now that means a freezer full of goat, a potager that just won’t stop producing chard and courgettes, and now a nice little pile of pumpkins.  I still can’t find the secret chicken nest- so only 1-2 eggs a day.  Aaaaand …

Potager year one: hmmmmm

Harvest time! Sort of. Not the most abundant potager harvest this season- and that isn't just because I am being greedy, which I probably am, but a couple other reasons as well: Unusually hot dry summer (most people we know with a veg patch are grumbling)Hey – it is the first year…we are bound to …

…and then there were three. Sentimentality in smallholding.

We have had a fairly emotional week.  We returned from our trip to see family in England to find our little fragile White Ears had passed away, peacefully while napping in the pasture.  He was always very small and we had to hand feed him to be sure he got enough to eat, so we …

Striving for…imperfection (and an aside on oily fish)

Living in France has taught me that perfection isn’t always the best goal.  A slightly wonky stone wall is beautiful and wouldn’t look right of someone came and straightened it up (shore it up, yes that is OK, you don’t want it falling on anyone!). I don’t mean that you settle for less or just …

Jar collecting

Before we moved to France I used to keep jars in the anticipation I would find time/supplies to make delicious jam to share with my friends and neighbours.  The usual scenario was: Make one batch of something each yearGet really motivated and excited and collect jars until they were spilling all over the floor of …

Budget, breaking bad brain habits and…breathe

The featured image of cheese doesn't really have anything to do with this post- it is just there because I am 'grateful' to live in a country that has an endless supply of delicious cheese. 🙂 OK, two things to start: For reasons I won’t detail because I am trying to be more of a …

A small rant on “wouldn’t everyone like to run away to France”

Without going in to tedious detail that just gets me shouting at inanimate objects….this was a statement made recently to Dom.  I think there are more important things for people to focus on than our decision to move to France and the fact that it doesn’t fit in with a particular picture of ‘responsible life’. …

The first day of the next bit

Many of my friends know I'm moving ahead with a pretty big life change right now.  The moment it became ‘reality’ for me was the afternoon of 19 October 2016, while I was sitting on a train platform in Jerez, waiting for a train to Cadiz.  It was the first proper ‘holiday’ I had taken …