June .... already ???

Our last blog was sent at the end of 2025. Nearly 6 months ago ....

We slowly came out of the winter darkness with a somewhat depressing rainy forecast to finally meet a time of renewal: SPRING! And now everything speeds up. Spring is one of the busiest time for me in the garden.

But first of all, lets start with some creativity. I guess we can speak about creativity in various ways: Mike is creative in his building processes and imaginative in his ways of fixing things; I consider myself creative in the garden and in the kitchen and we can also think about creativity as hobbies. This is what I will present now, some interesting projects I made lately.

In January, I took my lovely PegLoom board out of his storage place to see if I could make a carpet for Kira.

I had not used my PegLoom for quite a while and my girlfriend Monique had recently showed me various techniques to create what I was looking for. I started step by step, counting my rows, measuring the length of each pattern, targeting a maximal length of the whole project, etc. It was a "trial and error" adventure and because I wanted it right, I needed to be patient by doing and re-doing where needed. I have to be honest, it was not easy and this is something you have to do often if you want to be good at and speed up a bit the production. But hey! All and all, I am really happy with the result and Kira loves it as well which is more then half of my satisfaction.

Continuing with crafty activities, I have always fancied to make a wicker basket. Never found the time nor the person to learn it from, until I met Sabine, a french artist who does this for a living. Entering her workspace I immediately realized how time consuming this is. In order to prepare our day, she had harvested the wicker, sort it by thickness, soak it over night to be able to bend it the next day and then spend the day assembling it to make a basket. She makes 3-4 / day, with her artistic hands ;)

This is what I was able to produce in just 1 day (with her guidance)

First, I had to make the flat bottom to which I could tie the vertical support to create the form I wanted, here an oval form.

The end result is splendid. This basket will last me ages I am sure of it. You should see me walking to the garden with my basket in my hand looking for something to harvest for supper. Just love it !! Not every basket need to be as beautiful, so I will probably try some "looser" ones with different material.... one day ....

Since last year I have been carding wool from different sheep coat, most of them have not been washed because the felting process (with hot water and soap) cleans it. But I wanted to try "needle felting " and for this technique, I needed clean wool. A colleague of mine had stored in her garage bags of clean wool coming from her mom's mattress. Here in France you can still find those old wool mattresses (like in our bedroom, haha). She had not kept the mattress because it was too narrow but she couldn't throw the wool away, so precious this wool seemed. I think that the reason was that those bags were meant to be mine ;) Life is good

So I started felting a dog and the only thing I needed was a special needle (or a couple of them because I broke the first ones....), some wool and lots, and lots, and lots of patience. The result is fine and the whole process was fun so I started a sheep ;)

Like you can see, I try my hands at a lot of different things. Doing it once allow you to see if you would like to go further in the mastering of the new skill or just leave it as it is and enjoy that one-time experience.

Visitors

We have had a period rich in visitors. First came Melissa with her family. She messaged me out of the blue. She was ending her vacation in Spain and on the way back to the Netherlands she could make a small detour to come and have supper with us. What an awesome idea! Melissa is an old colleague of mine, dietitian, I had not seen her since August 2016 so my answer was: YES!! And here they are !!! A great moment to meet the kids (born after my departure from the Netherlands) and see Remko again. We had a great time, thanks a lot for this special moment together.

Irna came during my vacation in May. For those who are following our blogs, Irna came in 2024 with her rooster, remember this one?

Anyway ;)

I went to pick up Irna at the train station in Toulouse, she came from Cahors which was about a 2 hour train ride. She stayed 5 days and finished her little vacation with a Chi Kung weekend retreat in Toulouse.

Irna and I have LOTS in common and life is really easy around her.

The weather was unpredictable jumping from windy to rainy to sunny and then rain again. But we managed to do fun stuff, chat a lot and weed of course ;)

The day that picture was taken, Irna had weeded all around the beautiful garlic plants and I had prepared a patch for the beetroots. The work went fine with laughter and at the end we were really proud of the accomplished tasks. Irna helped putting the wood chips around the beet plants, a bit more water and DONE.

That evening, after walking with Kira, I decided to visit the work we did, just wondering if the slugs had found the beets. My biggest surprise was not the slugs (there was none), it was that someone had scratched all the beets out of the ground. NO!!!!! Once again, life is good to me because I was able to put back the plants in the holes, wishing for the best the next morning. And it worked. The plants will survive. The next day, we found 2 or 3 wholes in the fence which protects my garden from the chickens. A clever chicken was probably the culprit ;)

Another unexpected visitor was Clovis (and Jean-Louis)

Coming back from the market in Aurignac on a Saturday afternoon, I walked towards the chicken coop with the idea to open the run to free them for the afternoon. Walking down I came nose to nose with a donkey. Looking around, there was a man sitting at out picnik table. He explained that the donkey needed a rest and the place was perfect for an hour stop. He actually asked me if my name was Nancy. "Yes, how do you know this? ", I replied.

In our garden you can see a board that says Le Potager de Nancy . Enigma resolved, haha.

I gave Clovis (the donkey) some straw and I invited Jean-Louis f(JL) for a bowl of homemade soup. We chatted. JL was on a road trip with his donkey, no timeline really set but places and people to visit underway.

They left as they came, using the main road. Bon Voyage !!

Where are we at with our building projects?

Well, at the moment, Mike has 2 job sites to run: the renovation of the third house (photo here right) and the new building project. Depending on the weather, the helpers and Mike's energy, there is lots to chose from. And both projects are moving forward. We are not in a hurry, that makes all the difference of the world in feeling pressured and stressed. If you would like to know why the front of the first level has been demolished, read our previous blog, everything is explained.

Aside from planning the building processes, Mike has to find the correct material, used or new, and make adjustments where needed.

As an example, Mike found "second hand" windows. The frame had to be adjusted to match the new window size. This takes time and energy but Mike's organization and building knowledge makes all possible.

Bees

A quick update on the bees. Last year's hive has survived the winter and worked hard during the "colza season". I was able to harvest about 25 kg already. Unfortunately, I decided to divide my hive into 2, using a frame that had a Queen cell. This was at first glance a great idea but the Queen cell had been made because something went wrong with the actual Queen. By removing the frame I also remove the possibility for this hive to survive by making a new Queen. Realizing my mistake during the following inspection, I had to buy a new Queen from a beekeeper I know. Fortunately, the introduction went well. Because of this inappropriate action, I have missed the acacia season. But no worry, I am on time for the linden honey and everything else until September.

Municipal elections and the Presidentials

In March of this year, I was elected as part of the Municipal Council of my village. The team is professional and fun enough to work with, I think we will be able to do good things for the village the coming 7 years.

In France, the elections of the new President in 2027 is making people talk

so I decided to present myself ;)

This is not photo shopped, but this is certainly not for the Presidential. There are about 10 boards all over Saint-Gaudens showing my picture.

The store where I work has decided to make a 2 weeks campaign promoting the fact that we are a cooperative. Our goal is not only to sell organic food, it is also to educate people on the environmental AND social impact of our society model. By putting in place "crowd funders", we sustain local projects. We are proud of keeping the spending money locally. And we decided to get the message OUT.

I hope with this blog to wake up some buried ideas or dreams that are trapped inside of you, or just to acknowledge that they are there and you will do (or are already doing) something with them . ENJOY LIFE FULLY !!!!!

The next blog will be dedicated entirely on the new building site. Thanks again for keeping up with us ;)