Rock pooling, hunter gatherer style

I thought I should tell everyone about yesterdays trip to the seaside because I'm still buzzing about it now. Our French fisherman friend, Stephan, told us that there was going to be a really low tide up on the Cherbourg peninsula looking across the channel to Jersey.

We set off in convoy around mid day, 3 families in 3 cars, for the hour and a half journey. You could tell Stephan had amazing local knowledge as we turned down an unmarked bumpy road, turning at the end onto a sandy track and parking behind a 20 foot high dune. As we climbed over the dune the sea stretched out in front of us and the feint outline of Jersey was visible in the distance. The biggest expanse of sand ever sat between us and the sea where the tide was already going out.

Getting our priorities right, we cracked open a couple of bottles of wine and toasted the occasion before tucking into a picnic. Sandwich in one hand, red wine in the other I started the walk across the beach in the general direction of where the rocks were just starting to emerge. To give you an idea of how far out the tide was, I was walking out for over 10 minutes before catching up with the sea.

I'd left all the others eating their lunch in my mission to get the first decent rock pool find and, after wading out to some rocks just emerging from the sea, I hit the jackpot. There, stranded in a pool, was a fish of reasonable size. I didn't know at the time what it was or that it had a mouth full of teeth that could easily slice through my skin. I knelt down by the pool, pulled the sleeve of my jacket up and waited for the fish to pass close enough for me to grab it. At the first strike, I managed to get hold of it and had to hang on tight as it flapped about in my hand. What was peculiar was that this was not slippery like any fish I'd held before, it had a sandpaper like texture to it and it turns out it was a small shark.

As this isn't all about me I thought I should tell you about the lobster hunting. Stephan, in his chest high waders, was moving around some of the boulders looking for holes underneath them. He knelt down next to one that looked promising, the water was about 18 inches deep, then he plunged his arm under the rock going right in to his shoulder. He told us we were in luck, which suggests to me he'd already been nipped, in went his arm for a second go this time bringing out a medium sized lobster with glorious blue colouring.

Our foraging continued and resulted in 3 lobsters, half a dozen crabs, phantom shrimps, cockles and some other similar shell fish oh, did I mention the shark that I caught with my bare hands?

As the tide turned, we made our way back in land for a quick glass of wine before heading off to a local bar for a celebratory beer. I decided we should invite everyone back to ours for dinner which was when we got to sample the treasures of the day. First we ate the shrimps which, although small, were tastier than the prawns I'm used to. Apparently, pound for pound, the shrimps are more valuable than the lobster. Next up we tucked into the cockles and similar such things. There were 4 different types but we didn't know the english names for the other 3. After that the crabs and lobsters were chucked into the boiling vat while Stephan prepared a butter and lemon sauce to serve with them, undoubtedly the best lobster I have ever eaten. As if this wasn't a classy enough meal, Stephan also bought over a sea bass that he'd caught earlier in the week which we cooked on the barbecue along with a huge slab of steak that Patrick bought with him.

I'm really starting to understand what it's like to properly live your life. We have some great friends and I can't wait until the next low tide in a few months, when we can do this all over again.

My latest engineering project

To find an affordable solid fuel Rayburn with a back boiler is a tough job in the UK. Over here in France it's like searching for rocking horse shit. Never to be defeated though, as scouring the free adds with glass of wine in hand I came across just the beasty. Only an hours drive south from here was a Rayburn Royale with a 45,000 BTU back boiler in it. From the pictures you will see what a delightful specimen she is.

The only reason I could afford this bit of engineering genius, were the slight problems that came free of charge to accompany it. Firstly, in a previous attempted repair, the retaining nuts, specific to this type of machine, had been drilled out. The riddler was distorted and the mounting spider for the riddler had melted. The back boiler itself came with a slight leak but this was not a problem as it came with a new boiler, just not the right one. All the rope gaskets were disintegrating and the insulation looked like it may have recently been home to a family of mice.

Mission one was to strip the old girl down so I could tinker with her leaky boiler. Initially I had no great concerns because I can fix anything. All stripped out and cleaned up I attached the hose pipe and filled her up to see what we were dealing with and yes, as promised, there was a slight leak. Depressingly it was on the inside wall of the boiler where welding a plate over the hole was not an option. Angle grinder in hand it was like an episode of scrap heap challenge, first cutting the top off the boiler and then cutting out the corroded section which had two small perforations in it.

The good news is that I no longer have 2 small holes in the boiler, just one enormous letter box instead. My mission now is to cut a lump of metal from the brand new replacement boiler and weld it into the hole in the old boiler. It's been a while since I last had to do some water tight welding so this may take a few attempts.

Before anyone starts getting excited about the fact that we may have radiators in the house this christmas, park that thought as my plan is to get the whole thing ready for installation and then fit it in the spring when I've located some radiators, tanks and pipework.

Janes birthday weekend

Friday night was our friend Patricks 50th birthday party and boy did we have a great night. Having arrived at his house just after 6pm, we didn't get home until 2:30am. An impressive feat for us, especially as we had the kids and mother in law in tow. It was an amazing party where we ate and drank incredibly well. Jane would say I drank excessively but nothing out of the ordinary there. At the turn of midnight, I announce to all the guests, in my best French, that it was Janes birthday. She was thougoughly embarrassed as people sang happy birthday to her.

On arrival home, knowing that we had guests staying in the gite, I went in to sort out the fire to make sure they would all be warm over night. There were no cars about so I was under the impression that the guests were all still at the party we had just left. As I marched into the kitchen to stoke the fire, it became apparent this was not the case as I frightened a sleeping French lady half to death before apologising lots in French and departing. If her fire did get stoked that night, it was not by me.

The morning of Janes birthday and even the kids managed to stay in bed past 10am. I delivered Jane a bacon and egg sandwich, as requested, along with her birthday cards and a beautifully carved piece of Breton furniture I had located on the free adds.

Josh was on birthday cake duty, knocking out his now world famous Dorset Apple cake. Unknowingly Josh found one of the candles that you can't blow out, much to the amusement of Marylines children who thought that Jane was a magician.

Having had a late start to the day, we sort of bypassed lunch and rolled into early dinner. Kirsty made leek soup as we'd remembered to buy the leeks this time and I knocked out some KFT. Kentucky Fried Turkey.

Today has been a proper Sunday. Quite a rarity for us.A bit of a lay in this morning, fresh bread with lunch and glorious sunshine all day. I've planted a load of bulbs and had a good sort out in the green house even installing a tap to make the watering easier.

Post banquet blues

After entertaining so many people here last Saturday, by Monday everything was seeming a little too quiet. Because of this I decided to invite a few people over for dinner on Wednesday night.

With the imminent purchase of one of the closest houses to us, Sylvie and my uncle arrived along with Terry and his friend Howard who were selling the house. I think there were 16 of us for dinner which meant we could squeeze into the kitchen. On the menu this time was a samosa starter, roast chicken and funky carrots finished off with my masterpiece of creme brulee.

It was a really lovely evening and it was the first time we had had Madame et Monsieur Voisin for dinner. As if we weren't making a big enough impression already, the mayor dropped in for a chat during the meal as well. Special thanks to my mum and grandma Mo for their help with the food.

Last night we went to a bonfire party accompanied by our guy AKA Greffigy. Luckily the rain held off and he burnt well. Dave fired up the barbecue and another night of feasting and drinking commenced.

This morning I hijacked Kerry to help me pick up a present from another neighbour. He was in the process of clearing his garage and, having recently seen my banquet hall, told me he had a table top for me. It had come from a past Mayor and was made for his inauguration dinner. Unfortunately it was legless, but no doubt the mayor was as well.