Last year we spent not enough time in the garden, due to her indoors spending far too much time studying. It got out of hand. Stuff found its niche. The strawberries in particular spread. Everywhere. All over a south-facing patch of the walled garden that was otherwise occupied by creeping buttercups, the mainstay in our Normandy meadows at this time of year.
We had tried unsuccessfully to grow strawberries in other parts of the garden, possibly less south-facing, possibly slightly damper, po...

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Well, we did our bit for Earth Day on 22nd April, and got Very Earthy indeed, muddy even, in our re-rotavated but still rather sticky and heavy patch!

So, here is the first planting of the year, with a bunch of brassicas (Romanesco and caulis) and some tender Appia lettuce seedlings artfully arranged around the outside of the first bed, prior to interior planting of beans and peas ... 

We will hopefully try to protect the lettuce from our voracious Normandy slug population with some organic so...
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Here are our latest chooks: 4 French hens! White Sussex....and various. We've reinforced the fence to avoid another foxy drive-by, and we shut them up completely in their house at night... Chickens are sold here in France as "Prêt à pondre" (Ready to Lay) - somewhat like Prêt à Manger (not these ones!) or Prêt à Porter (well you'd look pretty silly). 


 
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Here's a small boy's vision of an alternative energy centre!

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Et voila! Our very first lamb arrived safely this morning!

After seemingly little effort, to first-time mum, who wandered
around in a daze for about 2h without her little one in tow...
 
Then we did a very short "force-feed" of little one onto the nipple,
and she has since settled, apparently happy with her lot....
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Snowdrops at Le Vivray have melted away now.
Taken over by daffodils. Awaiting lambs with impatience.
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Follow us on Twitter as @echorenovate

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Vos enfants n’aiment pas trop l’anglais? Vous avez envie de vous y mettre, mais ….? Plus d’excuses - c’est le moment! Venez prendre le thé avec nous, jouez avec nos enfants, participez a nos projets d’écorenovation. Accueil chaleureux assuré dans une famille anglaise qui adore la culture “british” tout en étant pleinement integrée dans leur vie normande! Contactez-nous!

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