Mornac-sur-Seudre

I’ve crocheted (nearly finished the blanket! exciting) and I’ve read (about which more later). I’ve made sandcastles and jumped over waves. I’ve pottered and talked and cooked and eaten cheese and drunk wine and swam and sunbathed. I love doing nothing.

Two weeks with no phone, no internet, no television and no newspapers. Heaven.

My mum’s house is in the Charente Maritime, in an area which supplies over half of the oysters grown in France. Above is the nearby village of Mornac-sur-Seudre, which is classified as one of the most beautiful villages in France.

And below, the breathtakingly gorgeous 11th Century fortified church.

More photos and words tomorrow.

back soon

Tales from the Village will return on Sunday 29th August – see you soon!

august at the allotment

At August 12, 2010
By Rachael
In Allotment, Children, Gardening, Photography, Village life
28

We scooted up to the allotment late this afternoon, in between rain showers.

I’d love to say that growing vegetables has had a wonderful influence on the children, and that they happily eat anything they’ve helped to produce at the allotment. But, er, it hasn’t. We have courgettes (aka zucchini) coming out of our ears, and the children think they’re evil. The neighbours are starting to hide when they see us approaching because I keep giving them away.
(Note to self for next year: seven courgette plants is overkill for a family of six. Oops.)

a walk through the cornfields

The smell of fields being cut and the sound of combine harvesters working late into the night is one of my favourite parts of late summer. Tractors and combines thunder past our house at five in the morning, and rumble home long after dark.

I wanted my children to grow up in the countryside and understand where their food came from; collecting eggs, seeing cows being milked, knowing that the cute piggies were destined to become bacon.

Martha Stewart Living in the UK (hooray)

So, Martha Stewart is launching her magazine, Living, in the UK. And according to the Independent newspaper and a little chat I had with Hallmark channel on Twitter, it looks like her Martha Stewart Show might be making it over here, too:

I do love me a bit of Martha, and I’ve been reading her magazine for years. I have to confess that part of the magic for me is the American adverts, the strange cooking terminology (what is a stick of butter?) and the references to strange gardening zones which make no sense to someone who lives in England.