{"id":816,"date":"2016-03-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kergudon.com\/https-www-kergudon-com-monday-21-march-back-but-not-been-away\/"},"modified":"2020-05-12T15:54:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T15:54:43","slug":"monday-21-march-back-but-not-been-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/monday-21-march-back-but-not-been-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday 21 March – Back, But Not Been Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another apology required as it has been two weeks (and a day if you\u2019re counting) since I posted my last blog.\u00a0 Sorry.\u00a0 The reasons for this are that, while we have been working, we have also been entertaining, and sadly both David and I have succumbed to a nasty virus that has knocked us out for a period.<\/p>\n

I mentioned in my last blog<\/a> (if you remember that far back!) that we were expecting our first weekly guests of the year at the end of the following week.\u00a0 Their pending arrival set the work plan for that week which needed to be completed in the few dry, calm gaps between the breezy periods and the howling gales.<\/p>\n

Thankfully some of the preparation needed was internal as we had to re-paint some areas of Priory following the roof work completed, as well as maintenance in Hayloft which could be completed in all weathers.<\/p>\n

More challenging was completing the new wall in front of Hayloft, or rather, replacing the gravel at the base of the wall.\u00a0 Over the years the gravel had mixed with accumulated soil and dirt reducing its attractiveness and making it easier for weeds to grow.\u00a0 We will need to buy more gravel to spread around the drive eventually but before this I wanted to sieve what I had removed to replace the gravel and put the soil on the bed.\u00a0 While this was seen as verging on madness by our neighbours the result is very pleasing. No photo yet as we haven\u2019t planted the bed but I will publish in my blog on Sunday (as close a promise as you\u2019ll get to both the photo and me posting the blog!)<\/p>\n

Our guests last week were a charming couple from Jersey with their very young daughter and Dave\u2019s uncle and aunt, Chris and Clint, in Hayloft.\u00a0 It was their third visit to us at Kergudon but the first that coincided with one of Saint Cadou\u2019s Fest Noz events which, as the first of the year, was the local soup competition.<\/p>\n

\"Holiday<\/a><\/p>\n

The Soupbenn was the first Fest Noz that David and I attended last year as our introduction to Breton culture and it was good to attend this year and share it with Dave\u2019s relatives.\u00a0 Sadly we arrived too late to taste any soup as it had all run out (Dave had cooked an excellent meal at home to welcome his aunt and uncle who had kindly brought 4 dozen oysters with them for us all to enjoy)<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0663\"<\/a><\/p>\n

but we were able to watch some Breton dancing \u2013 although couldn\u2019t persuade our guests to join in!<\/p>\n

\"Fest<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Fest<\/a><\/p>\n

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We would always welcome any guest to Kergudon but these guests seemed to bring a fantastic change to the weather with them and it has been dry and warm, sometimes hot, since 12th<\/sup> March. Not only has this meant David’s daffodils, which he planted in October, have started to flower and look fabulous but we have been able to continue the huge amounts of work needed outside and tame other areas of the garden that had been left to get wild \u2013 last week was hydrangeas.\u00a0 The west side of the orchard has a wall of hydrangeas (which love the soil conditions here) that look amazing in the late summer but the plants hadn\u2019t been controlled for a number of years allowing them to get large but straggly and encroach further and further into the lawn.<\/p>\n

\"Gite<\/a><\/p>\n

By cutting them back we hope to ultimately make thicker, bushier shrubs with a greater concentration of flowers contained in a smaller space where we can also plant other shrubs which give greater variety and more interest throughout the year.\u00a0 As we may have said before, the garden is going to be a multi-year project \u2026<\/p>\n

\"Self<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday was another amazing day and we took Chris and Clint\u00a0to the south coast of Brittany and an excellent fish restaurant, L\u2019Estran in \u00cele Tudy, that we had been introduced to last autumn by our friends Mercedes and Jean-Pascal who joined us for lunch.\u00a0 A very agreeable lunch was followed by a lazy afternoon soaking up the sun on the terrace of a B\u00e9nodet and not much gardening done!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0009\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wednesday was when I tried to clear the HUGE pile of garden cuttings that had accumulated over the previous 9 months since my first (and last) bonfire.\u00a0 The amount I needed to burn was considerably more than my first bonfire, in this photo, while the scale isn\u2019t great, the old chicken shed at the back is 2 metres tall at its roof and the pile was taller than this throughout the whole of the old chicken run.\u00a0 Despite the fire burning for 8 hours I didn\u2019t clear the lot and a second fire is needed \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"Self<\/a><\/p>\n

School on Thursday was followed by my turn to be in bed for 24 hours unwell which, sadly, meant I wasn\u2019t around to welcome other friends who arrived that night for a long weekend and David was left with hosting duties that evening as well as producing another amazing meal.<\/p>\n

I bounced back on Friday when we took our friends on an adventure to find the fabulous L\u2019\u00cele-Vierge beach on the Crozon Peninsular whose picture we have on our home page.\u00a0 You can not get close to the beach by car and is not easily accessible from the land side \u2013 in summer some people come by boat.\u00a0 However, with a little care and confidence you can climb down the cliff to the beach which is well worth doing to reach this perfect secluded and sheltered beach.\u00a0 Will definitely be going back in the summer.<\/p>\n

\"Gite<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Gite<\/a><\/p>\n

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The weather stayed warm enough to allow us to have a late lunch picnic on another, but much more accessible, beach \u2013 the plage de l\u2019Aber until we returned home to another of David\u2019s fabulous dinners on his aunt and uncle\u2019s last night.<\/p>\n

We were very sad to see David\u2019s relatives depart on Saturday morning but consoled ourselves with a stroll up Menez Mikael with our friends and a full afternoon\u2019s rugby watching as the Six nations came to a great end.\u00a0 Sadly, as the last match didn\u2019t end until almost 11pm, by which time we were well bedded in with wine, cheese and a fire sadly we didn\u2019t go out to the Hangar Association\u2019s Bal des Mutantes but understand that it was a great success.<\/p>\n

\"Holiday<\/a><\/p>\n

As Chris and Clint\u2019s third visit it is good to hear that they always see significant change between trips.\u00a0 We know we have made a lot of changes but, with anything that which evolves relatively slowly that you live with daily, you don\u2019t always appreciate the changes.<\/p>\n

Yesterday we took our friends for lunch to Roscoff and another great restaurant that does excellent fish (its great to have so many visitors who love seafood!) and a bracing stroll around the headland.\u00a0 A late return meant no blog yesterday.<\/p>\n

\"IMAG0095\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sadly we said goodbye to our friends as well this morning which has meant our \u2018time off\u2019 has also come to an end and it is back to work tomorrow to make the most of the last 2 forecast dry days.<\/p>\n

Easter this weekend \u2013 but also a blog on Sunday.\u00a0 Promise.<\/p>\n

Salut.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another apology required as it has been two weeks (and a day if you\u2019re counting) since I posted my last blog.\u00a0 Sorry.\u00a0 The reasons for this are that, while we have been working, we have also been entertaining, and sadly both David and I have succumbed to a nasty virus that has knocked us out…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ben-and-daves-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}