It's finally here

Following 7 months of cooking with only the hob top featured in an earlier post, our Aga finally arrived. We had expectations of seeing it coming over the hill, pulled by corgi's and trumpeted in by The Queen's Guards. Unfortunately it arrived in a transit van driven by Monsieur Bresson the grumpy French engineer. C'est la vie.

The separate pieces are made to order by hand, then boxed up and shipped to be assembled on site. The bulk of it is enameled cast iron

We were loving the graphically correct organisation of the parts

Also how chunky and industrial everything looks. This is old divers helmet is actually the part that pushes out all the heat

At this point we were frothing with excitement

After assembly the cavities are filled with vermiculite to store heat and help it run efficiently

And here she is (with a hint of our new kitchen in the background, more to follow on that in a couple of weeks). Cooking with it is a new experience and the food tastes amazing because it creates radiant heat (versus convection heat, which can dry out food, apparently). Even a cuppa tea tastes more succulent

Wildflowers

We've an abundance of wildflowers on our land. We're unsure of many of the names, but they're all lovely in their own way. Here's a handful:

?

?

Wild orchid

Columbine

Wild strawberry

Peanut
(though sometimes known as wild banshee)

Lucius Lounging

Isn't she a beauty? Yep, those Rietveld 'Utrecht' chairs were a real find

Midnight Oil (wahey!!)

Our Aga will be delivered tomorrow. So, to have the floor oiled and set in time we pulled a 2am until 5am session on Sunday morning to get the 2nd coat down (we're up for Lucius's 3am milk break anyway). The 3rd and final is now on and drying as I write

Ground floor, end in sight

The new oak floor's down. It needs sanding and oiling, but already looks much much much better than the previous orange 1970's tiles. The tiles of misery. Now, the wall joins are plastered and being sanded ready for painting

An Englishman can not, and will not, survive without a cuppa tea. This is what remains of our old kitchen, whilst the new one also sits awaiting oil and sandpaper, installtion on Friday

1 of our lights has arrived from the UK, the other six were delivered to a house in Spain! As they are not recoverable (?) the company is making 6 more for us and should be here shortly

St Faust- Eco Museum of Bees

Bees (abeilles) are a vital part of the culture here as they pollinate the vineyards, as well as make mighty tasty honey. There's a lot of love for their preservation here. St. Faust is a village nearby known for bees and honey production; today, we visited its 'L'Écomusée de la Cité des Abeilles'. All of the planting there is responsible for the extensive honey flavors. Not so sure how the goat is involved though...

(Does anyone know what these are?)

Picklepup

Milky drunk time

Sleepy time

Tummy time, for improved motor skills and head lifting prowess

Day dreamin' time

Limb flappin' time

Froots

The blossoms of a few weeks ago have transformed into baby fruits that will soon be turned into jams, pickles, and desserts. We inherited the trees (mature, and a few of each), so there is an uncertainty on the exact varieties, but this much we know...

Fig

Cherry

Peach

Pear

Pear

Peach (we think)

Tiger Pup

le Taureau!

We've finally bagged ourselves a new mower, we call her 'The Bull'

As you can see the lawn was well and truly ready for some attention

Maybe next time we'll show you our new 2 stroke weed wacker, mmm, smells just like an Aprilia