Posted by: LizzieBG in Wine, Hens, Guests on
Sunday 14 September, 2008
I've just come back from collecting the morning bread, cakes and fruit. Here's the list:
One watermelon, one yellow melon, one green melon, 5 apples, 5 slices of ham from the bone, 5 croissant nature, 4 croissant beurre, 3 croissant abricot, 3 noix de pecan, 2 pain au raisin, 2 pain au chocolat, 1 pain au lin, 1 pain complet & 1 festivale brune.
I already had peaches, oranges, bananas, nectarines, salami and cheeses. The hens have laid enough eggs for me to offer all 9 guests boiled eggs too this morning. It's now 8am and the table is complete. I just have to wait for guests to come down to breakfast.
It's jumper time at 6.30 when I trot off to the village. There's suddenly an autumnal nip in the air. Worry not, if you're still to have your hols here, it warms up wonderfully during the day, but pack a jumper eh? We close in a couple of weeks' time and I love the change to autumn. After the languid summer heat which is just ennervating, I adore the re-found energy that comes with cooler days.
And I'm longing to get going on the vineyards, to help them recover from their hideous hail-bashing of last week. If you're interested in seeing how the wine is going you'll need to nip over to our sister site at Chateau Mal Au Dos . I've copied all the wine-related entries over there and will be continuing the wine story there.
Meanwhile I think I hear footsteps, so I'm off to boil eggs - for exactly 3 minutes 20 seconds. With no food-miles to count, our hens eggs are nest-fresh and take less time to cook to perfection.
Posted by: LizzieBG in Le Couvent rooms, Hens on
Monday 14 January, 2008
Today it's very chilly. We have an appointment with the accountant this afternoon, so we've abandoned the vines for a day. It's cold and we have to pay our taxes so it seems the perfect excuse to reward ourselves with a holiday. I've just booked us into a lovely riad in Marrakesh for a week in April - a recommendation from some great guests who stayed here this summer.
We'll squeeze it in before our first guests of the season arrive at the beginning of May. Oooh, what a treat.
For those of you who've stayed at Le Couvent, you'll know that Ali and I have a separate apartment and that we shut the main part of the house for the winter. Today, however, our lovely cleaner Patricia is hoovering away upstairs, so I've lit the big fire in the kitchen. The air outside is full of woodsmoke and the hens are burbling away by the kitchen door. It makes a change to be here at the big table.
Ali is beside me framing lots of original old photos we bought from the archive of the now defunct San Francisco Examiner. They really are extraordinary testaments of their time and you'll see them on the staircase walls when you next come to stay.
Posted by: LizzieBG in Roujan, Hens, Gardening on
Tuesday 08 January, 2008
The municipal gardeners of Roujan know how to prune trees - even if it does look a bit viscious during the winter. I'll take another photo during June - they'll either be dead or blooming.
Our chickens, on the other hand, look in the peak of health. It's probably having a break from laying that's re-vitalising them.
