Sheep in woolly fold - being rounded up for their annual injections. Note how steep their pasture is. The red thing is my coffee cup!

I have uploaded my photos from the visit to Flickr at last - http://www.flickr.com/photos/lornapics/
Here you can see many activities and some stunning countryside.

I went out to the coast today with Aidan, which made me feel better about being back for the sea was also stunning. It was not windy enough to fly a kite, but the sun shone and I ate too many chips and drank a lot of tea and coffee - so a bit back to normal. Determined to be more back to normal tomorrow.

The way through the woods - not closed

One of the paths up to the chestnut groves

The strange thing - I am a really urban animal - I have lived in the centre of towns of various sizes for most of my life. Yet I totally miss the woods, pastures and gardens of the farm.

So I have not settled back to 'normal' life yet, although I have done a few normal things, like watched a high spring tide creep up on the footpath by the caravan cafe. The weather is getting colder although no rain and even some sunshine.

This is one of the things I thought about in an historical way - le châtaigneraie (the sweet chestnut grove) and the paths up to it - - -

A view uphill through the chestnut grove.

 Such groves were a feature of traditional farming from the 18th century - they diversified the rural economy of tough landscapes like this. These seem to have been planted in the late 19th century (the house is dated 1898) and there are well constructed paths up into the woodland. They were harvested by the previous owner but the trees and undergrowth have probably not been nurtured for some time.

The way through the woods - -

The well made path to the châtaigneraie

The woodland also yields some very large mushrooms - -

Mushrooms from the chestnut grove. In France you can get them identified in any pharmacy - stops people eating the wrong ones

I did not eat them - undue caution - -