Wednesday 13th January 2016

Going back to France and the Norman New Year: we were very oyster and prawn at St Vaast la Hogue. Also very deli in smart shop there crammed with coiffed greatnesses showing ruthless aisle cruelty. I don’t think I banged my head on a fancy low shelf because actually pushed but I can’t be sure. We toyed also with Antiques Brocante which was the whole raison d’être of France in the 1980s. You remember all those prie-dieu Val acquired – along with Mariolatric items and electrioleers?

On New Year’s Day we took a walk along a bare stretch of beach to view a ruined German gun emplacement. In the distance was the 3rd tallest lighthouse in the world, La Phare de Gatteville. We could never reach it, only yearn, as in ‘To the Lighthouse’ by V. Woolf. Somehow, looking back only 13 days into the New Year, I hope this scenery is not a sign of what is to come – crashing commodity prices, oil down to $10 a barrel, markets ruined, portfolios reduced to a speck. What is to be done? We’re back to 2008 when in Tobago we sat in that drawing room there and watched markets crashing. Can it be as bad again? Will China crash?

Anyway, back at the Manoir Desmesne, we inspected Frankie-Doreen’s private tractor in its shed. Walking in the village, we saw a novel use of old bikes as planters. Indoors I made a break-through in styling the day-beds. Frankie-Doreen has a series of three-sided day beds in iron for night-use. Very comfortable but hard to style in the day-time because of the three-sides. I had the brain-wave of folding the duvet in half for a much neater effect. Some time later Laura Malcolm sat on the day-bed and squashed the whole thing. I fetched Frankie-Doreen to view the spectacle of Laura ruinously sprawled over the day-bed in the day-time. Oh, how we roared! Laura and I had been wondering about her son, Kelm, who is to be in Peru on his own for a month. I’d been looking at flights to Lima with a view to joining him for company – but it was 36 hours with stop-overs. ‘No-one wants to go there,’ Matt Driver said. Her other son, Ivo, was in the Manoir Desmesne condemning swelling and bloating. ‘It’s just when you’re feeling full,’ he withered. ‘What do you expect if you eat anything?’ This was troubling to say the least and then Laura said you need two different types of salt minimum, one for cooking and a ‘fleur de sel’ for salads.

My Boot with New Year’s Eve Celeriac Puree

I Ran Out of Grey Socks, so Emergency Washed and Dried. Only Remaining Sock was Black which was Wrong Colour

The German Gun Emplacement Viewed on New Year’s Day

The New Year’s Day Walk: In the Distance, the 3rd Tallest Lighthouse in the World: We Could Not Reach It

It Looks Like a Bike Casually Parked…?

No, It’s a Floral Opportunity!