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Rainbow Cottages in France, 7 lieu dit Street André, Saint-Nicolas-du-Pélem (2026)

18/06/2026

Thursday, 18 June 2026

Sun came through later today around 0900hrs. The girls had their breakfast out in the garden under the pergola. I did the hens on the field and in the garden and fed the cats.

I’d arranged to meet Celia to walk and have lunch today. I set off for Rostrenen but saw the lower diesel prices at SuperU so stopped and put in €30 worth. I didn’t fill up in case it continues to drop. Today it was €1.879 down from €1.959. I drove to Rostrenen and popped into Lidl and Le Clerc before heading for Celia’s home. It had begun to pour with rain on the journey and the sky was very dark grey, quite different there than it was in St André.

Chat and coffee with Celia and Al and we decided to postpone the walk and lunch until tomorrow. I have to be in Rostrenen tomorrow mid-afternoon for a hearing appointment so would be over there anyway. I drove back home via the field and collected one egg from their new laying place the barn. The girls had watered the polytunnel, cleared more of the garage and hoovered up the thousands, and I mean thousands of fly bodies in the studio. Yet more recycling, mainly packaging to go to the poubelles.

I made soup for lunch and then had toast with Bovril and toast with a squashed banana. Beautifully sunny this afternoon and at 1530hrs it was exactly 26°C. My washing on the line had dried and been brought in. I cooked a pan of new potatoes and hardboiled a couple of eggs for later. The girls are having stuffed pasta tonight which is defrosting in the kitchen.

We were talking about places the girls would like to visit while they are here and it seems that the Resistance Museum at l’Étang Neuf is high on the list and maybe the Bon Repos market on Sunday. I was wondering about the Friday evening market at Mur which was always good for a visit, but don’t know if that still happens.

About 1615hrs I took another couple of bags to the recycling and dropped the girls off at Coz Salou to walk over the tops and then back down to Lanrivain gare and from there back home. I said if it was too much they could give me a ring and I'd collect them.

I came back topped up the garden hens' water and put a container of water on the driveway for the dogs from next door who are always thirsty it seems. Then a Snickers bar and an episode of Lovejoy. I want to be outside in the sun but it really is just too hot for me.

17/06/2026

Wednesday, 17 June 2026

Reasonable night's sleep again and at 0730hrs I fed and watered the hens and sheep before coming back to shower and wash my hair. Dishwasher emptied, cats fed laundry and machine and hung out and then the girls arrived for breakfast outside in the garden.

O930hrs and it was bright sunshine and 21.4°C with lots of little white fluffy clouds. The girls put their washing into the machine and then the first task of the day for the girls was to clean all the bits on my car which the car wash never manages to reach somehow, and then hoover and clean up the inside.

I found the cat comb this morning which has been missing for a few days. Usually, I comb the cats through every day. When I combed Claude, whose coat is so, so thick, the quantity of loose fur which came off him was quite amazing – photo below. Although Fifi had also not been groomed as she wasn’t here for four days, she didn’t have even a tenth of the loose hair that Claude did.

This morning while the girls were cleaning the car, one of the new hunting dogs from next door, Altesse, came over and ran off with a bottle of washing up liquid. We followed her into my neighbour’s garden and found a small hand brush which she had also obviously nicked from my garage entrance. There were shoes on their lawn too, although not mine. My garage door is permanently opened up so everything is available to her, but at least we will now have an idea of where any missing items might be, lol. The girls did a good job on the car’s not easily accessible bits and I put the car through the car wash at SuperU to finish the job. Unfortunately I forgot to close the front passenger window completely and there was more than a little bit of water ingress. Luckily nothing stays wet for very while the temperatures are so high.

I had my usual physio appointment at 1230hrs in Bourbriac and went slightly early to go into Point Vert. When I arrived it at the medical, it seemed that Maud had got behind and she said I'd be at least 20 minutes late starting. I left promising to return and went to Carrefour Market and bought liquorice sweets and mushrooms and arrived back in the waiting room with time to spare, also took photos of the church and a strange cloud on the way back.

On the way home I stopped at the field – I found four eggs hidden in a new place – and planted out some lettuces which I’d bought in Point Vert. Then back home to the girls clearing up the garage and we all went to SuperU to get food for their next two suppers. Amelia will be cooking for them so that frees me up. When we got back, I made some lunch as I hadn’t eaten and it was 1445hrs. I had cold roast chicken and mayo, with new potatoes and butter and salad. 26.8°C at 1500hrs and not a cloud in the sky here in St André.

The girls had showers this afternoon and we had another leak from the bathroom. Well, we know it’s not the floor as that is now completely sealed. Will came over and removed plasterboard from the ceiling below to view beneath the bath. This was less than two hours since the leak and everything was dry. I ran the shower. No leaks. It is so frustrating. As both the hot and cold water supplies are under pressure Will felt that it must be the waste, so he will order a new waste tomorrow and fit at the end of the week. Fingers crossed as I have had enough of this bathroom’s troubles.

I had some of Lou’s duck terrine for supper with toast and red currant jelly and very good it was too. I followed this with a white chocolate icecream lolly and sat out in the garden for a while to enjoy that and then a coffee.

16/06/2026

Tuesday, 16 June 2026

Much ER cooler start to the day with 16.9°C at 0850hrs and a grey overcast sky. All hens fed and watered but I left the garden girls in their house as we were going to strim their run first thing this morning.

The nurse arrived to take blood this morning for my usual check. She had trouble getting the internet for some reason and instead of taking the prescription she took a photograph of it. Not quite sure why that was. Sometimes I thinks life gets more complicated rather than less.

The Workawayers are sorting the worksurface and the shelves in the garage. I have already taken three bags of recycling as a result. My worker has strimmed the hen run, behind the hen run, the far drive, the log shed triangle and along the roadside. We fetched the trailer up and left it in front of the house and are now concentrating on controlling the excessive growth of vines and wisteria along all the along all the gites and my house. It's necessary to avoid the grape clusters as he cuts, so not a quick job. Trailer already emptied once and now waiting to be filled again.

We moved. Gavin, the mannequin who is usually in the garden here, up to the hen area in the hope that foxes might see his shape and assume it was a human in the run. My worker pi**ed everywhere around him because apparently human urine is supposed to deter them.

Lunch in the garden in the sunshine. 1340hrs it was 25°C exactly. Then back to cutting the vines and wisteria again. I too have been trimming back everything I can see which I can reach, and clearing the weeds in the driveway while I've got the big trailer here to dump everything into.

All trimmings dumped at the field and next was strimming, strimming and mowing. While that was being done I drove to SuperU car park to pick it up some missing parts from the swimming pool I bought. Also popped into the shop and got some more chicken legs.

Home via the field and I dropped off the swimming pool pieces so that the swimming pool could be erected and we started to fill it from one of the IBCs.

The girls finished doing the garage work surface and shelves and it looks much better. They then went off for a short walk locally. They're going to cook their own supper tonight as Amelia was missing cooking. I made buttered prawns with soy, sweet chilli sauce and lettuce.

Every time someone goes up to the field they are surprised to see a man in the chicken run. Of course it's just Gavin but it takes some getting used to and does look realistic from afar.

The wisteria and grapevine looks so much neater along the houses now, and along my part the wisteria is beginning to flower again.

15/06/2026

Monday, 15 June 2026

From the spots on the window this morning it clearly rained overnight. Not sure how much. At 0800hrs it was19.8°C and quite a few clouds about. I did the hens everywhere and fed Claude and Lulu. Still no sign of Fifi. Yesterday I checked all rooms in the houses just in case. She'd managed to get in and got shut in but no joy.

Maggie arrived to do the changeovers and we started with my house as I was having to leave partway through to collect the American Workawayers, Amelia and Julia, from Guingamp bus station. I washed my bedding and got it out on the rotary line before I left. As I arrived in Guingamp I went to Leclerc for bread and ham before going to wait for the bus arrival. The girls messaged me to say they'd be slightly later as there have been a lot of traffic. Their bus dropped them outside the train station instead of the in the bus area, not sure why. We drove back and had a good chat on the way.

Lunch was different things on toasts for different people. Julia has a nut allergy and the bread I bought wasn't suitable so she had crisp breads which they'd brought with them. After lunch the girls sterilised bottles ready for the elderflower cordial. I strained the contents of the bucket into a funnel and into the bottles and we ended up with nearly six litres of elderflower cordial, and I was very pleased.

We then drove to SuperU to buy suitable food for Julia and also various fruit and other things.

This morning I'm sorry to say that three more hens were taken from field by a predator and I presume it was a fox. It really is so heartbreaking to lose the animals like this.

We all had a relaxing afternoon and then early evening the girls came over to make their pizzas up and bake them for supper. Towards the end of the evening, I went up to shut the personal door to the Henbox while the girls watered plants in the polytunnel. I then got the garden hens to bed and we all went off to our respective beds having all had busy days.

14/06/2026

Sunday, 14 June 2026

Bright start to the day when I went up to do the hens on the field at 0800hrs and then in the garden. I brought back a lettuce from the polytunnel.

The guests from The Hive, with the two very sweet, well-behaved little girls, left lat 0930hrs and I put the bedlinen and towels into the washing machine. Half an hour later I hung it on the rotary line and in less than 2 hours it was all bone dry. Maggie will be here tomorrow to do that changeover, Middle Cottage and my house.

When I went to get cat food from the garage, I remembered to stir the elderflower cordial. Fifi was missing yesterday all day and I haven't seen her today either. She did have a habit a few years ago of going off for a few days at a time but I thought that had stopped. Fingers crossed that she's okay.

A very warm day and I sat out under the pergola in the shade to read my book club book with a cup of coffee. Lunch was dos de cabillaud, floured, battered and deep fried. There has been a constant beat of music playing from some kilometres away both yesterday and this morning. I hate it. It's relentless and selfish.

It was too hot for me to sit outside this afternoon so I stayed in and watched some episodes of Endeavour. Also cleared up the kitchen table which is my favorite dumping ground, as my American Workawayers should arrive tomorrow and will need somewhere to sit and eat with me. I had banana on toast as a snack while I was watching Endeavour.

Annie messaged me to see if I had eggs for her to collect, but I only had two in the dish, which became four when I collected two from the field. The hens are not laying well at the moment. Supper was prawns in Marie-Rose source with potatoes and salad, followed by chocolate dessert.

It's been a gloriously hot sunny day. Too hot for me to be outside in the sun but lovely to see it so bright. I don't know what temperature it reached today, but when I looked at the the sensor at 1720hrs it was 29.3°C. In view of the heat, I went up to the field again to check that the hens were all okay. They have lots of water containers so that should never be a problem. I topped up one one of the the two containers in the garden hen run and threw them some of the chopped up heads and shells from the prawns with breadcrumbs.

13/06/2026

Saturday, 12 June 2026

0540hrs and misty out there. Two hours later I fed the garden hens and then drove up to feed the field hens and sheep. The sheep don't need feeding because of all the grass but I just feel mean going past them with a bucket of feed and they look at me longingly ...

Usual chores done and laundry washed overnight hung out on the line. I drove to Bricomarché to return two of the hardboard sheets that weren't used this week. Instead of a credit back to my card they gave me a credit slip to pay with next time I buy something. They told me to take a photograph of it as if it's kept too long the print fades ... I took two shots of it whilst I was in the shop.

Then on to Leclerc to buy bread for the freezer and then back via SuperU. There were dancers and singers in the store as it's the 20th anniversary of the shop. They were dressed in black as you will see in the a photographs I took and one I pinched from the SuperU site. I just bought lemons and after an age at the checkout drove to Lou and Sam to lend them some containers to make terrine. I only just caught them as they were getting into the car as I arrived.

Back home by the field and I collected two eggs from the Henbox. Sun starting to come through well but they weren't very many bees flying new at the new Hive. Still a bit dubious about whether they've settled or not.

Lunch was two boiled bacon sandwiches with lettuce and mayo. I prepped a chicken leg and got the ingredients ready for my soup this evening. I tried to sit outside to read my book club book but it was just too hot for me, 27.4°C at 1420hrs. I spent most of the this afternoon watching Trooping of the Colour, which I don't think I've ever seen before. They certainly had the right weather for it. Two white chocolate ice cream lollies were consumed during this event.

Having bought two lemons this morning, I set about making elderflower cordial. Everything prepped, heated, mixed, stirred and stored in a fermentation bucket in the garage. I just need to remember to go out in stir it occasionally during the next 48 hours.

Late afternoon Steve and Lorraine popped in to collect some eggs and I took in all the washing which was bone dry. As they left a representative from Orange arrived to persuade me to have fibre. He had already seen my Starlink dish and asked me how it was. I told him that since August 2024, apart from the worldwide outage one day, it has never gone down and that I was very happy with it. I said if that changed then I would contact them.

Forty-five minutes later my French one-night guests for The Hive arrived to find their accommodation before joining family for dinner out. When they return this evening, they are bringing two small children with them who were not on the booking. They said it's not a problem and they can put them on two little beds they've got down in the sitting room area. Luckily the other room in the house is not let so I'll allow it this time but it's very cheeky and would be impossible if the other room were let.

Sam messaged me to ask if I had any kittens in the village as he'd found one under the bonnet of his van, uninjured thank goodness. I'm not aware of any but there are stray cats down near Françoise house, so you never can tell. They are always for trying to find the owner if there is one.

Supper was chicken soup and a bowl of potatoes and butter, followed by yet another ice cream lolly. No more eggs while I went up to the field to look.

It's far too hot for me, 27.2°C at 1840hrs. How they are managing to play tennis at Queens I do not know. Next door they are all playing ping pong in the garage but at least they're in the shade.

12/06/2026

Friday, 12 June 2026

At 0800hrs, 14.5°C, grey and overcast. Water on the windows so it must have rained a bit overnight. Hens everywhere fed and watered and sheep fed too.

Only time for one coffee as I'd slept badly, less than five hours sleep, but woke late. No sign of any bees at the new hive. Maybe a bit cold still or they might have done a disappearing act. I'll know later on ...

Kettle on for my worker's arrival and after changing my fly strips in the kitchen, on with the bathroom floor, fitting the hardboard and then the lino. Not the easiest job as quite cramped with stiff sheets of material which all needed to be cut around pedestals, rather like a large eccentric jigsaw.

I emptied the dishwasher and stripped chicken off bones ready for my lunchtime soup.

We went to the field to collect the trailer, which gave me the opportunity to look at the beehive. I was thrilled to find that the bees were all there and settling in. It's a huge swarm and I'm really happy. Thank you so much, Al for your help.

We went off with the trailer to the tip, where we met Gilles, combining the trip with visiting SuperU for silicone and lunch. Brought back some new plasterboard and corrugated tin - I rarely come back with an empty trailer. When I lived in Cornwall, the children wouldn't let me get out of the car at the tip because I'd come back with more than we took.

Back home and we ate lunch before continuing with the floor, replacing skirtings, basin pedestal, door. Next was all the siliconing.

Up to the field to sort out another beehive to try and attract a swarm for Al and Celia, and then a bit more strimming. Very hot out there now for working - 24.1°C at 1640hrs. So much mowing and strimming to do, but my worker will be back to do that again on Tuesday next week. Thanks, for all your work today.

Supper tonight will be a second bowl of soup and cheese and ham salad. Too hot and too tired to cook properly.

I sat up on the field watching the newly put out bait Hive and spent just over an hour cleaning some hive frames to waxi for another bait hive. It was too hot to sit directly in the sun, so I sat just behind a small plum tree in perfect dappled shade.

Short video of newly occupied beehive in comments.

11/06/2026

Thursday, 11 June 2026 evening

Thursday evening.
Well, I What'sApped Celia to let her know about the swarm. In the early evening she came back to say that Al would come over and help me try to get them into the hive. I was really grateful as I didn't feel able to do it by myself.

The bees were certainly not happy at being disturbed and it took multiple attempts to get the majority of them into the top of the hive. We were both covered in annoyed bees but our suits did the job. Finally, they were starting to crawl up into the entrance and eventually they were also fanning at the entrance with their bums in the air. This was a good sign. Fingers crossed that they remain in the hive overnight and are still there in the morning.

We left the field and Al dropped me off at the calvaire as he drove back home. Phew! I was tired before and now I am absolutely shattered. It's quite exciting and stressful when there are so many bees on the move and it was a large swarm.

11/06/2026

Thursday, 11 June 2026

Dry start to the day when I walked up to the field to do feed the hens and sheep. As I was doing the garden hens The Middle Cottage guests were taking their luggage to the car and we're gone by 0830hrs. I started to do the laundry straight away and did manage to get the towels dry but will have to finish off the bedlinen tomorrow.

My worker arrived and we started on the To Do list. He fixed the door latch as Nino the dog from next door was managing to push open the driveway door. Then removed the tiles from the floor in the bathroom where we're changing from tiles to lino. All the bags of tiles went up to the trailer and will take it to the tip tomorrow.

Then up to the field where he cut all the rubbish timber from the barn into kindling. We've left it in wheelbarrows in the barn to keep it dry and hopefully the Workawayers I have here next week will bring it down and stack it in the kindling sheds.

He mended a gate entrance which had a broken post and fixed another latch on another gate which was having problems.

Whilst we were up there I walked over towards the beehives and the one we prepared at the weekend for a swarm had a swarm hanging underneath it.

I left to go shopping at SuperU and also onto Rostrenen to buy hardboard to put under the lino which will be fitted tomorrow. I visited Lidl on the way back home and bought strawberries.

Back home and steak for lunch with salad followed by strawberries, sugar and cream. Lovely!

I went back up to see the bees and the swarm had not moved. Finally, I suited up and brushed about half of them into a bucket and deposited them at the end of a plank which I'd leant against the entrance to the hive. I'm not sure whether they'll go in. We'll just have to wait and see.

Not a very pleasant end to the afternoon. Felt quite cool out there even though the temperature was still 16.8°C at 1850hrs. Again, the breeze is quite strong today.

Only one egg collected today. In spite of that, supper will be eggs on toast.

10/06/2026

Wednesday, 10 June 2026

12°C at 0800hrs mainly sunny all morning with the occasional very very light shower for moments.

All animals done and dusted and today I've tried leaving the main door shut to the Garden hen house and just leaving them the pothole to come through. We shall see what happens.

Early walk with the girls at the pool for 0900hrs. It was quite cool. I think due to the breeze and I had a fleece and a scarf on. A good walk and then a quick pop into SuperU where I bought several things from the reduced cabinet: cherry yoghurts, country paté, two steaks and a box of patisserie items. Also bought a large bucket of popcorn. It started raining on the way home so we were lucky with the timing today.

Back home for a very early soup for lunch for driving to Bourbriac for today's physio session. Maud was a bit behind so she put heat pads on my back and I lay there for about 10 minutes before she started on me.

Back home by the field where I collected just one egg had a quick glass of water and set up for Langoelan where I was meeting someone to collect something they were selling. I arrived early which is when I started writing this. Came back via the field and collected a further two eggs. One chick seemed to be missing, hope it’s just hiding somewhere. One hen in the garden run is definitely using the pophole so hopefully the others will copy her.

Supper was a second bowl of soup and country paté on toasts, followed by a cherry yoghurt. Typed out the list of To Do things for Sam, who will be here tomorrow. There is so much on there I could do with him here for a month! Lovely sunny evening but the temperature is definitely lower than it has been. 18.5°C at 2000hrs and quite a breeze.

I had a quick chat with my Portuguese returning guest this evening when he got in from work. The Middle Cottage guests, Rachel’s friends, leave in the morning for their St Malo boat. Maggie will be here on Friday to do the changeover after Sam has hopefully finished most of the messy work in there.

I am shattered and wouldn’t have been long going to bed except that the girls have all come through the pophole and I now have to wait for them to go to bed the same way. Be careful what you wish for seems to be the phrase coming into my mind.

The photo is of the boys here 13 years ago. I miss them coming each June.

Rainbow Cottages in France

18/06/2026

17/06/2026

16/06/2026

15/06/2026

14/06/2026

13/06/2026

12/06/2026

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