Halloween

When I was a child growing up in the UK, Halloween was a small affair, as the only day to remember before Christmas was of course the 5th November. I just loved Bonfire Night, the fireworks and the communal bonfire just around the corner from our house, but now I am digressing, as this is a post about Halloween this year and last.

Noisy groups start coming early in our little village, mostly young children accompanied by adults, but not all, and last year as we didn't open our door at all and a certain of teenagers did not approve and we got "tricked". Our newly finished rendered facade that cost a fortune to do,  received a couple of unwanted eggs, which proved difficult to clean. We were not the only ones on the street to have suffered, and it could have been worse, so this year, yesterday, we welcomed Halloween like licensed haressment but welcomed it still.
We bought many packets of sweets/candies/chocolates, even carved a small pumpkin and placed on the window ledge and prayed we would be spared the wrath of the egg or whatever throwers, and guess what, it worked! We received the visit from fifty kids, some very greedy but all polite.
MK did Halloween around the village with her best friend Valentine and others (with adult escort) and A stayed overnight at a friends.
MK told us that at one house A called at with his group (small village syndrome, MK was just behind) that they received a very frosty welcome, and scared the kids half to death.
I looked on the street from our bedroom window this morning and I could not see any sign of egg shells on the road, but forgot to look further on to the house where the mean mans lives, so I think that I will go and take a second look now...

Pumpkin Seed Cod by Nigel Slater

We bought the third Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries last week and it's probably my favorite one of all.

Alain cooked his first recipe from it last night and it was so good. The pumpkin seed crust was a real discovery as I didn't think that I would like them much, but 

How wrong I was. What a delicious moment we shared at home with the four children in their rooms....bliss.

Half term

It is half term here, so the children have two whole weeks of holiday. Charlotte came home too, with a car full of laundry and a cat. I am been washing ever since. 

For the first time since I can remember, perhaps it is the first time, the four of them actually played a game till the end, and that without anyone throwing a fit or cheating,  they did however complain when I tried to take a photo, still got one though.

Cold day

-The temperature dropped down to 0°c overnight so time to warm up the house a little more. We have a Nest thermostat now and it so good. We can turn up or down the heating from wherever we are and also monitor our consumption.

More later about that because I am cocooning on the sofa, with my two younger children close by and a new book.

Unlike the last one, this one was available on Kindle, so no waiting. " A Brief History of Seven Killings" just won the Man booker Price and if the opinions are tobgo by, it should be amazing.

I'll be back in 700 pages and a few good meals with my family.

Sick and time for books

MK is off school sick today and It seems that both her and I have the same bug.

This has given me chance to finish the latest Joel Dicker book and what a exceptional read it was.

A just need another book as good as this one to stay on the sofa till the rest of the family come home...

Hedge problem

We have two hedges at the top pf our garden that separates  us from our two neighbours. 

This one which is thriving with Lilac, Elderflower, Forsythia bushes et cetera and trees

And this one that I hate and is turning brown and dying all of a sudden, hence the gap in the hedge.

I will like to cut the whole thing down, but our privacy would be comprised, this neighbour has hens and the fence behind the hedge is about a metre high. This is a problem too, especially as we are getting some hens from a friend soon...just need to finish the hen coop...

A solution needs to be found soon, perhaps planting a couple of new bushes each year and cutting back the Thuyas as we go. This hedge is quite long though so it could take ages.

Kitchen before, during and after

I have been looking for photos showing how the kitchen looked when we first moved into this house five years ago and I have not had much luck. There are a couple of photos on this blog but I only found this one on my computer.  The kitchen was a green and white, well a dirty white as the last time it was painted was in the 70's. The oven, hob, sink was on one side and on the other some floor to ceiling cupboard, all green....

We did what we could on a limited budget and this is the kitchen in progress, believe me it was better (it isn't finished on this picture), but still what a mess. 

Here's a similar view of the kitchen taken this morning, no more mess, no more green and so clean. Still fillers to add in the corner and one plug to finish next to the butchers block, and other bits and bobs, but we did it all ourselves over months, no summer vacation this year.  Alain even did the electricity as our electrician wanted 5000 Euros for just wiring the kitchen!!!

The kitchen is open now too. One thing we didn't do ourselves was to demolish the wall between the kitchen and our living space. Took him and two others nearly three days to complete and we do not regret our decision one bit.
More photos soon.