Angles sur L'Anglin France Pt.2

We are visiting one of the most beautiful medieval villages in France. Angles sur L'Anglin gets it's name from the Angles, the Saxon tribe that invaded England in the 5th century.

It is about an hour's drive from where we are staying and by sheer coincidence an artist friend of ours is running a 2 week painting holiday here, so we made it our first port of call on this trip. Phil was also my art teacher for a while so I begin with a photo of one of my paintings, not done in situ., but from a photograph at home.

Here we are visiting Phil and his wife Pam at the chateau where the art course is taking place. The guests who are Phil's students from England, spend the morning painting the scenery around the village. They then have a few hours off in the afternoon to swim or relax before back to painting in a studio before dinner, which usually takes place outdoors, at one of the market place restaurants. Pam & Phil used their R & R time to show us around so do come with us, you won't be disappointed. The temperature is in the mid 80's f.

If you double click you will see Alan in the centre of the photo with Pam.

Ruins of Chateau Guichard which dominates the village

Stay tuned for Part 3

Into Rural France - Pt 1

Do come and join me on this journey into the heart of rural France over the next few posts. Having left home at 6.30 am we took the shuttle train under the channel (see last post) arriving in Calais at 11.0 am and drove through France arriving at our destination at 7.45 pm. The temperature was in the mid 80's and we were so glad to be driving our newly acquired car which had air conditioning, a first for us. It is July 2002 and the journey has been good apart from 2 wrong turnings while negotiating our way around Paris and then missing the by-pass around Poitiers and driving through the town centre in the rush hour.

We are staying with English friends who now live in France some 45 kilometers South East of Pottiers. Tony and Ruth bought a small farm and dilapidated farm house and have spent 10 years converting it to the lovely place we see here today. Initially Tony moved to France with one of his sons doing the work himself while Ruth, who is a doctor,stayed in the UK to earn the money with which to do it. At the time the only way up to the top floor of the house was via. and outside step ladder. Once the house was in order they then worked on turning part of their barn into a Gite for rental. This small Hamlet of just five dwellings is about 5 kilometers from the main road.

http://www.summerwineholidays.com/

We will be out touring the area but for today I will take you around the grounds.

The Farmhouse



The Barn and Gite

Scenes from the back of the house and garden. Gardening is a hobby of Ruth's and I found it interesting to see how she managed to tame large areas of farmland into some beautiful rural gardens, especially in an alien climate.

Looking back towards the house from one of the fields

Milk sheep just sheared. If one does not use the land in France then high taxes have to be paid on it. I am not a milk lover so I visited the local supermarket (13 miles away) to buy my skimmed milk

Walking down to the lake that Tony had made in order to stock with fish for the fishermen that came to stay at the gite.

If you double click you will see that man who even manages to get into French pictures on the far bank.

An evening sunset

I think one of the main memories of this garden was lying listening to the enormous frogs that croaked all night

A Trip Under the Sea bed

Before I take you under the sea bed, let me show you how different our garden pond looks at the moment. Solid ice. We have had below freezing temperatures since the New Year. Snow then a slight thaw, then a freeze over and then snow on ice which makes for very slippery pavements. I managed my first walk in 4 days today. It was easier to walk in the park as snow and ice on grass is not slippery but crunchy. Snow is brilliant to walk on but ice not so.

The waterfall is freezing as the water runs down

However the Bergenia is a nice contrast

I was wondering where to take you at the beginning of this new year. No, I am not going travelling but digging into the archives. I thought a sojourn into the middle of rural France might be nice.

It will take a few posts but before commencing with that I will show you how we choose to cross the channel. We use the drive on shuttle. Foot passengers have to use Eurostar but this is a quick way if taking the car.

These particular photos are none too clear as they were taken in 1996 when the tunnel first opened and before I had a digital camera, but I did not take any on subsequent trips so these are the best I have.

We have had coffee in the terminal building, checked in before passing through customs and security etc., and here we are waiting in the queue for the next train. Much, much busier these days.

We drive down the ramp and onto the train. These trains are so long that they have different entry points. As you can see, the train goes straight into the tunnel and the beauty of having all the customs, security and imigration taken care of before the flight, we drive straight off the train and onto the motorway on arrival.

This is our first journey on Le Shuttle and as there were no buses boarding we were able to drive into the spacious carriages used by buses. The train in general has an upper and lower deck and are half the height of what you see here.

You can stay in the car or get out, but as there is nowhere to go most people just stay in their car. The journey takes 40 minutes, 25 of those under the sea bed.

Alan points out that this is on the return journey because he is wearing a different shirt. The people in the car behind were Americans and as we had recently returned from time in the States we had much to talk about. The shutters you see behind this car come down between every six cars throughout the whole of the train, they are fire doors. One can walk through the double swing fire doors to use the toilets.

The only other way to take the car to France is on a ferry and some are seen here in the Port of Calais.

Stay tuned for the trip which took place in 2002.

January with Music and the Written Word

January is here again, the time when I start thinking about going through all my cupboards, shelves, wardrobes, drawers and anywhere else that I could possibly
de-clutter. My computer needs de-cluttering too. Also the time when I make my first efforts at spring cleaning. Where do I start I ask myself.

I have decided to make a start by cataloguing and sorting all our videos and DVDs. We also plan to transfer the videos that I want to keep on to DVD discs,(sometime?).

I have archives of videos (bought and/or copied from TV) of the Royal Family as I am an ardent Royalist it would take up a lot less room if I did this.

Also apart from the many DVDs I have bought or had for gifts we have dozens and dozens (no, the number is in the hundreds) of free ones given as supplements in our weekend newspaper. At the rate that I sit and watch these they could, and probably will, last me for many years.

I do enjoy my travel sets(Michael Palin particularly) and wildlife (Richard Attenborough) and the numerous costume dramas and Classics. I may at the end of the task confess to how many I find - we'll see!

C.D.'s. Tapes and books need to be gone through too.

Before I begin this afternoon (hopefully) I'll just show you my latest acquisitions in this department.

I love these 2 new C.D.'s. The Priests I bought for myself and Katherine Jenkins was part of my Christmas present from Alan. 'The Priests' - 3 Irish Priests who recorded an album of sacred music and suddenly found themselves famous. I watched a TV programme of their rise to fame and they came over as 3 very intelligent and charismatic priests who were very caring and compassionate towards those in their care. They turned down a tour of the States because of their priestly commitments and were donating any profits to charity. All this apart I think they make a lovely sound.

Katherine Jenkins is a Welsh Mezzo Soprano and sings popular Sacred Arias on this C.D.




This book, Tales from Walnut Tree Farm,I bought for myself with a token I received from the makers of my favourite cereal when I made a complaint, because I found an inch long piece of sharp wood in my cereal.

Roger Deakin, the author kept notebooks of his daily thoughts, feelings, impressions and observations. Discursive, personal and often impassioned, they reveal the way he saw the world. He had an extraordinary and restless curiosity about both the natural and human worlds. This coupled with his love of literature and music and his sense of humour make it interesting reading.

Then we come to Michael Palin's latest. We are watching his latest travel series on TV so Alan bought me the book. He is revisiting some of the places and people that made a lasting impression on him during his 'Around the World in 80 Days' travels 20 years ago.

These 4 novels were bought for me by my daughter Jane. Susan Sallis and Anita Shreve are two of my favourite contemporary authors.

Lastly, this particular set of 10 books, which I also put in Jane's Christmas stocking, I bought for myself. They do stand on their own but together they make for a long saga. They are about a village in England set in the 1990's. They are not 'idealistic' like the Miss Read books on village life earlier in the last century, but every aspect of modern contemporary life takes place in this village. I picked the first one up over Christmas and thinking I would maybe just occasionally read one in between my other reading, I find it hard to put them down. In one sense they are very easy reading but also the tension is quite consuming. I am about to start on the 4th one, as is Jane.

OK there is still an hour before dinner preparation to begin my new task!

We Move From 2008 into 2009

Moving from 2008 to 2009 was a very special time. I never take these times for granted, I know I am truly blessed.

We began at 7.0 pm in the home of my next door neighbour (about 35 of us) where we tucked into a delicious home cooked meal of Salmon en Croute (or chicken) with new potatoes and accompanied by various salads. This was followed by a number of delicious home made deserts. I chose cooked Cheesecake topped with a large spoonful of hot blueberries and blackcurrants. All cooked by my next door neighbour - thank you Julie.

This was followed by a time of fun games and charades. I got just a little too enthusiastic when during charades I was to act out a plane crash. Having flown through the air I then crashed to the floor, literally, and my elbows and knees certainly know about it today. If I play games, I play to win - maybe one day I will have to learn to 'grow old gracefully!'

We then went into a time of praise and worship and the person leading this time talked of the number 9 being the number of the Holy Spirit. (8 is the time of new beginnings and it was certainly that for us). This was very appropriate as the vision was to know the life of the Holy Spirit living out through all of us this coming year.

To add to that I shared that the only block to this was unbelief. Like we take Salvation by faith, we also take the indwelling Life of God within us by faith. We do not look for the evidence in order to believe, but believe in order to see the evidence. Nothing we can do, we believe and God does it.

The breaking of bread together came next.

Our evening then continued with a time of praying for each other in small groups and for 10 minutes before and after midnight all voices in unison sang Holy,Holy,Holy - Show us Your Glory. We were only aware of midnight when we heard the fireworks going off in the neighbourhood.

It then takes quite a while for everyone to hug every single person and wish them a happy new year with a word in season for each. Thank you Lord for the priviledge.

I would like to thank every person that visits my blog for the comments and encouragement that you leave here. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you to those where we have met up in person, for those many E-mails, gifts and cards over the year.

I leave you with this fun card (origin not known to me) and wish everyone
A Very Blessed and fruitful 2009. Love Barbara

2008 has gone

Now we need to face 2009


There may be risks involved

We may need to face road blocks

So stay alert

Share time with friends

Jump over obstacles

With care

and caution

Face challenges

Remember to laugh

Co-operate

Discover

Make new friends

Be ready for adventure

Stick together

and you will be able to go far

Very far

Well, not quite that far

Always take time to smell the flowers

Don't forget to rest and relax

And don't forget those close to you

Life Isn't/Life Is!

Machu Pichu

photo by the daughter of a friend

I just finished reading a novel recently "Addition" by Tony Jordan. As well as being an authoress she is also a molecular biologist. However that's nothing to do with the story. It's not the story that I wanted to post about but the last paragraph.

"Many people miss their whole lives you know. Listen,life isn't when you are standing on top of a mountain looking at the sunset. Life isn't waiting at the alter or the moment your child is born or that time you were swimming in deep water and a dolphin came up alongside you. These are fragments. Ten or twelve grains of sand spread throughout your entire existence. These are not life. Life is brushing your teeth or making a sandwich or watching the news or waiting for the bus. Or walking. Every day, thousands of tiny events happen and if you're not watching, if you're not careful, if you don't capture them and make them count, you could miss it.

You could miss your whole life.

I like this and I am sure everyone has their own interpretation.

A very Happy and Blessed New Year to all. Barbara