Welcome to the Blog part of the website. This is my attempt to make sense of Kate and I living in France, the lifestyle,the french, my home and animals and anything else that seems amusing to me. Sorry I have a strange sense of humour!! 

The blog is written on a monthly basis with regular  news of my adventures and those of my animals at La Godefrere.  You can now look us up on our new facebook page - La Godefrere.

This website can no longer host my blog so I have changed to using wordpress. This can be accessed through the following link:

Link to my blog

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Browsing Archive: November, 2017

I survive a week alone; can I survive conjugation of French verbs? We have rubbish cats; Archie has a “rhume” and it is “Soiree dansante” time

Posted by Graham Parish on Monday, November 27, 2017,

Well, all is now well with the world as Mrs. Parish has returned from her visit to the UK. I managed to survive the week and keep the cats and the hens in order. The hens have now started laying again and I think the prospect of the change back to proper management has encouraged them. I have to thank my good friends Ian and Sarah who fed me for a week. Well actually it was Sarah who did the cooking but Ian kindly offered the late-night taxi service to get me home after dinner.

The cats were ...

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Home alone and I meet up with old friends and new friends here at La Godefrere and encounter the mystery of the hens that won’t lay

Posted by Graham Parish on Sunday, November 19, 2017,
 
Well, here I am on a Sunday afternoon and I find myself in charge at La Godefere as Mrs. Parish has gone to Britain to visit her mother and other members of the family. Mrs. Parish left on Thursday evening with a car laden down with 60 bottles of French wine and an array of Christmas gifts for the family. She will be away for a week and returns on Thursday morning.

When I say that I am in charge that depends upon whose view you take. The cats clearly believe that they are in charge and consta...

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All quiet on the western front, we join the French on Remembrance Day; the cats take the moral high ground and we are loyal eaters at the Lion d’or

Posted by Graham Parish on Sunday, November 12, 2017,
Yesterday was Armistice Day in France. Unlike Britain, France marks the remembrance of its war dead by a public holiday. So, the remembrance ceremony always takes place on 11th November.

But this is France and they have their own way of doing things as I have often pointed out. In each of the 36,681 Communes in France there is a ceremony conducted by the local Mayor and representatives of veterans’ organisations. In each commune there is the same message from the President which is read out ...

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Where the wild things are. Autumn Watch comes to La Godefrere and we are amazed at the results!

Posted by Graham Parish on Sunday, November 5, 2017,
The weather has changed again and this week the fine weather turned colder and wetter as the wind came from north. The north wind brought new arrivals and we had our first flock of fieldfares arrive in the garden to feast on the fallen poire pears at the bottom of the orchard. In fact, after a quiet few months there is now great activity on all our bird feeders.

There seem to be greenfinches everywhere in the garden and particularly at our bird feeder tree where the black sunflower seeds are v...

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About Me


Graham Parish Graham Parish is a former UNISON Trade Union official who retired to France with Kate (a previous self employed gardener and now resident gardener here) to start a new life of wine, cheese, french bread and a vegetable garden on a large rural french farm with holiday gite, and associated animals.

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