mars 26 - avril 4: Chateau Monfreville start

This WWOOF farm is indeed at a chateau, a building that dates, in part, from the 14th century. Other parts of the house were built after, all the way up to the “new” part containing kitchen and dining room which is only about 200 years old. The house and surrounding land are owned and maintained by a very nice English couple, June and David who are in their 60s. They’ve had the place since 1989, living here full time the last nine years.

The chateau is run as a B&B with rental cottages, too. The cottages are former horse barns, converted into two separate rentals. B&Bers generally stay in the chateau itself where the rest of us sleep. I have a sweet room on the top floor – great view of the barn and sheep field, plus out over the marsh. My bathroom is in the round tower which was apparently rebuilt at some point in the chateau’s history since it originally housed a staircase.

As mentioned, yes, there are sheep. And perhaps more excitingly, they’re all going to have babies sometime within the next few days. Right now they approximate beached whales or walruses with spindly legs. A few morning s ago, I woke up to the sound of one baa-ing loudly. She was stuck on her back after having rolled there, so I went outside and used my leg in her back to roll her to the point where she could stand up. Apparently they get stuck like this sometimes even when not pregnant, but it’s more likely now.

There are also chickens of a few different kinds, most kept for eggs, though five are being fattened for the pot right now, too. June also has lots of fruits and veggies planted, everything from salad greens in a polytunnel to holdover beets outside to kiwi vines to leeks. They use lots of the vegetables here just for eating, but also sell some salad to a restaurant and some produce to people who rent the cottages. We’ve been enjoying homemade jam as well…

David is a very good cook and makes lunch every day. We have a hearty breakfast around 8am – full English breakfast or porridge or cereal and toast. Break for coffee and McVittie’s chocolate biscuits at 11am. Lunch at 3pm, and fend for yourself at dinner if you want anything. It’s a decent schedule, though it wreaks havoc on exercising since running is not the greatest after a large mid-afternoon meal.

Since this is a B&B/rental place, I’ve done a bit of housework here in addition to the more outdoors kinds of tasks. I’ve vacuumed (or Hoovered, according to June), swept, dusted, mopped, polished silver, and changed beds. But more of my time has been outdoors. Planting small bean plants in the ground, planting potatoes, weeding. Not only are there produce plantings, but there are also flower beds all over. Daffodils are up as well as lots of primroses (which are wild here), some tulips, rosemary bushes in flower, and lots of other plants that I don’t know the names of. I’ve also potted up plants into bigger pots and started some seeds. Working in one of the greenhouses is especially nice on chilly days when they heat up rather fast.

We’ve had some beautiful weather days so far, even eating outside last Friday. But we’ve also had cold and wind and rain. It’s like that saying about New England “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.” But here it’s really true, and you can see the weather coming across the flat, flat marsh. Marsh and warm weather also mean little bugs which have not been fun when running. But it’s an ok trade-off for the countryside.