Bordeaux harbour

A few days late, but we had stunning weather at the beginning of the week, and on Tuesday I had the morning off, so I had to get out the house, who knows how many days we will get like this

. Driving up the east coast was stunning, I has heading to the Dehus dolmen but I will come back to that later. 



Bordeaux Harbour was looking magical so had to stop for a little wander, 

Its tidal and so more of a safe haven for small fishing boats than what we tend to think off as a modern harbour

Just south of the narrow entrance is Vale Castle which in days gone by probably made it even more of a safe haven!!!

pootling out for a mornings fishing

It really is very pretty, good walking and great bird watching, though definitely at high tide!



its nearly harvest!

Well I mentioned that on Sunday we spent a good few hours inn the garden getting the jungle back under control!  The warmth and showers have meant everything has gone crazy, the cosmos was turning into a tree, so had to go, as had the pelargonium (thought they just had a harsh haircut). Discovered the Japanese anemonies were flowering as the back, but couldn't see them because of the cosmos! 

But a lot more interesting were our edible crops!

 Chris's tomatoes are doing really well up on the roof, remarkably we have a few red ones, even though they aren't under glass.  Thought I was going to be making loads of green tomato chutney, that will still be happening, just not quite so much, which is a pity as its yummy.

Look a red one! So proud!!!!

Don't know if we can pick it, it looks so gorgeous, oh Caro don't be silly, you soft sod!

These squashes appeared from our compost dug into the flower beds, Mrs Ephgraves, thinks they must be happy to have seeded them selves, and that we should wait till the foliage dies back and see what they are like then, so we will wait and see.

Getting a handful of Autumn raspberries every morning, just enough to go one our cerial, but not enough for jam.

What a treat, the taste is sublime.

The fig crop still keeps coming, its definitely been our best year, think we must have had about 100 by now.

Little wild strawberries still keep reveling themselves from under their leaves.

And the rainbow chard just goes on and on.

We have decided to give the tomatoes alittle help with a little plastic greenhouse, so lets see if we can get a few more red ones!!!!!

brilliant late summer swim

Well I did it!

After a very foggy start, the sun came out for lunch, and after a good few hours tiding up the garden, we headed down to the south end of Vazon which is called Richmond. 

Low tide isn't the best time to go, mainly as its so far to walk! 

 But its always best to act when you get the feeling ;-)

Tips on sea swimming, wild swimming, or as we say just swimming!

 The painful bit is crossing the giggle line.

But once you get past that and your shoulders are under then its gorgeous,  

 You see those two boats in the fore ground, well I swam out to the second one,

it doesn't look far but it felt good, we stayed in for about 15mins, and then the cold began to creep in.

So time to leg it for the towels.

Driving along the coast later we kept getting gorgeous wafts of aniseed coming in through the window from the sun warmed wild fennel in the sand dunes, beautiful evening.

last days of summer in the water lanes

Its been pretty stormy for a few days and now it looks like we might be getting a little Indian summer

So we got out on to the cliffs on the south coast, between the headlands of Jerbourg (below) and Icart

There are some beautiful trees around here, think they are ever-green oaks and seem to be just clinging to the rocks, how they survive I don't know!



We bumped into a lady who had just been swimming with her dog down at Moulin Huet, said it was beautiful, I can well believe her, the second half of the year is always warmer and at the moment its a rising tide in the afternoon so perfect. Think I might go in on Sunday. Hold me too that wont you!

Heading up from the cliffs and up the valley

And at the Moulin Huet car park we turned right and head up the Water Lanes, these are very, very old roads, you can still the cobbles at the side of the stream.

a water fall in Guernsey?!!!! No, don't be silly!

And probably our only proper bridge, over here we do every thing on a very small scale



And to the beautifully controlled source, where the stream appears from an elegant granite well

And on the way back to the car we saw this amazing character face sticking out of the hedge,

isn't he brilliant!  Think a whole story could be written about him, its definitely a him isn't he?

I think he is called Herbert, good bye Herbert!

and the winner for beautiful bean is!

Ment to post these photos at the weekend but it all got away from me, sorry!

Every week we have Tasty Friday visitguernsey.com in the Market Square,

 where local food producers sell their wears.

Well this week  the lovely Mrs Ephgraves had these beautiful borlotti beans

Well had to get them, just loved the colour and pattern, actually think it would make a brilliant fabric design, good combination, very pale green with a deep red almost pink, must remember that....

The young beans are a very pale green, but the older bigger beans have a similar patter to the pods.

Well its definitely feeling like autumn is on the way now, so they went in a lamb stew, which was yummy, not quite ready for a fire yet, but looking forward to that, 

I do like the seasons changing, I couldn't live any-where where it was always hot, would get bored!

Sorry have managed to turn Italics on but cant turn it off!!!!

What a surprise, it was delicious!!!!!

There seems to be a glut of marrows over here, I keep coming home to find a few on my door step.

Well I have made 11 jars of apricot and date chutney (marrow is what bulks it out)

the River Cottage preserving book,

 and I am sure it will be yummy, but can't taste it for a couple of months. you have to let it mature.

I have also stuffed them, roasted them and added them to pasta sauces.

But I was getting boarded.

Then on my facebook page a recipe popped up - thank you Rebecca.

Marrow and  pecan cake!

We made it last night and it was gorgeous,

we enjoyed it so much

 that I forgot to take a photo till it was nearly all gone!

The recipe said to make a cream cheese maple syrup frosting, like on carrot cake

but I don't like those big thick slabs of icing, too rich

 (especially on cup cakes, I am more interested in the cake than 2 inches of butter icing, ugggh!).

So I made a maple syrup water icing, perfect.

And it went down very well with every one in the office at St James, actually they want more!

Also thank you Kate for the marrow, actually gratefully received :-)

secret shell surprise

After Lihou we headed to The Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Fort Hommet,

Fort Hommet is at the north end of Vazon

(which is a brilliant beach, loads of sand and very gradual incline)

Round the back is the entrance to a German bunker, and in side you get the surprise of your life, because you find this!

This amazing project was started in the 1960's as a labour of love by Hubert Le Galloudec, he wanted to turn some thing that had been built out of evil, into some thing that was beautiful and peaceful.



the walls are covered in religious symbols depicted in periwinkle all collected from local beaches

They are stunning in a innocent way, but I cant remember what the cockerel stood for, but I think it was my favorite

here's one we all know, Noah's Ark

The States of Guernsey closed it in the 70's due to health and safety, but a group of locals got it opened in 2005 and set about restoring it, as vandals and water had caused a lot of damage, 

They are still repairing it (and have an amazing stash to be working from), and volunteers open it on the second and fourth Saturday of every month from April to October (2 till 4pm). And its free, but its nice to make a donation.

So you have 3 more weekends to go and admire Hubert's amazing legacy this year

He looks a real character doesn't he?

Lihou

During the summer I work nearly every Saturday but yesterday I had the afternoon off and the sun same out and it was a very, very low tide.

Low tide?  Why is that important?

Well as dreadful as it sounds I have never been to Lihou, a small island off our west coast that is connected to us by a tidal causeway.

Chris decided that had to change, so we headed west.

The notice board at the top of the cause way lets you know the times its open,

as does the tide time page in the Guernsey Press. 

You really don't want to get stuck with the tide, cause it would be really embarrassing!

Heading down across the cause way,

 I do love the way the stones have been laid, beautiful, but also so organic.

You can see the only house on the island on the horizon,

do take shoes that don't mind the sea as they will get wet!

Looking back at Guernsey and one of our many German Fortifications

Ok, was going for a very bright look this morning, I do love my colour ;-)

one of the many huge rock pools on the way over

We made it!

looking south to Le Hanois lighthouse

The house we saw before is the only building on the island, it used to be private, but about 10 years ago the island was given to the Guernsey National Trust.  And you can now rent the house,  my friend Emma www.beinspiredby.co.ukregularly holds yoga weekends there, it must be beautifully calm when the tide is up and you are cut off from Guernsey.

Before the house, the island was home to a monastery for centuries,

 now this beautiful ruin is all that is left.

You are just north of L'Eree beach and so you get a fantastic view of Fort Grey or as the locals call it 'The Cup and Saucer'

Big open skies and rolling moor land, it really was beautiful, looked good for kayaking as well, though will have to do some reading up as the tides round there are pretty hairy!

Good bye Lihou, I promise not to leave it so long next time