bon appetit !

work in progress

happy kids on a christmas tree hunt

Happy "turkey" day!

Thanks to our friend Nicole's great T-day enthusiasm, Thanksgiving this year was like the real thing. Okay, due to local conventions about when a turkey can be slaughtered (not before December, and that's final), we had two stuffed guinea fowl where the turkey should have been, but there was green bean casserole, glazed yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie... Our French friends are ready for more next year.

four hard days' nights

If ever there were a home built of good times and the sweat of good friends, you're looking at it. These past two weeks have been rich!! Squeezed around our long kitchen table, we've guzzled wine and gorged ourselves in excellent company. And I've had a fine time watching the men at work, wielding chainsaws like they were nail-clippers, leaping from beam to beam with the grace of mountain goats, tossing roof tiles impressive distances (sometimes vertical) with the precision of major league pitchers... The result: the structure is up at last, and the roof is on. Thanks to all the friends who gave so much, with enduring humour and good cheer. And thanks to the weather (sorry Olivier... who spent the previous week prepping the frame with Gilles in persistant gloom and torrential rain...)
The last word - we love it!!

four hard days' nights (part 2)

our house

wild times

Hey! Louise blew out her 4 candles this week, a big pile of lumber has arrived and wonderful souls have popped out of the woodwork to help lay pipes, break through stone and pour cement... Amazing to see it all coming together; it's almost time to raise the walls! We have a new temporary kitchen (to be perfected down the road, but very functional for now) in the former "bathroom nook" and there's a great new vastness to our main room - very pleasant. The huge hole in the wall, under the archway, was nice for hearing the birds and let in an amazing amount of light, but yesterday we did close it up with plywood considering the nip in the air this time of year. Still, the weather is cooperating, and thanks to Gilles logistical genius, the project is pretty much on schedule for a snug structure to be up before winter arrives. The girls are on school break this week and we're attempting to have some nice family time. All the houses in the village are occupied this week, with chimneys smoking, windows lit up, and kids voices ringing in the air.

pirates!

come sit by the fire ...

cowgirls for a day

Summer one minute, fall the next.
We recently spent an afternoon at the riding school's annual open house. Now that Louise is almost 4, she has finally realized this longstanding dream of hers. Mia just "went along for the ride", more interested in dressing the part than actually getting on a horse, but she eventually gave it a try. The horses were so patient and gentle - all the kids grabbed brushes from a big bucket to rub them down and brush their manes and tails. The older riders cleaned out the hooves while the horses just stood there calmly.
This start of autumn has been stunning and we've already made one big batch of chestnut cream. There is still a lot more gathering and harvesting to do... It's a busy bountiful time!

i wish there was a poem

faux stone walls

An update on the addition, which was on summer hiatus these past few weeks: the foundation walls are in place, and have been clad in stone to match the house. Nice forgery, no? This involved hand picking the "nice flatties" from the heaps of stone we've accumulated through various projects. To clear the building area, we had to knock down our old "water closet" that had been tacked onto the house in the 60s. So, for the time being, the loo is outside (see cute little outhouse below).