BOB - Installment 3 (most probably last BOB installment)

Well even though it seems such a long time ago I wanted to write up the third and final Bob post.

Although it has already been almost two months since the event I often think about what a brilliant time was had.

I think Gairy has already written enough about it so i don't want to go on, but just to say another GREAT BIG THANK YOU to all those wonderful people who made it as special as it was.

Here are another load of pics that I think are worth seeing.

The dashing groom begrudgingly sporting his hand made, locally picked head garland.



Now, I didn't particularly want to post a photo of me - but this shot shows off the beautifully handmade dress that Rachel made for me.



I couldn't not include a picture of the best crackling I've ever tasted, now could I?



Here is a nice family shot of the Mannions.



This was the chorus of the speech/song that Anna and Briony got the whole party singing. It was hilarious. Even Gairy saw the funny side.



Paul was in charge of the music and he did a brilliant job. (I'm hoping someone sorted him out a chair at some point and that this shot isn't evidence of why his back was buggered the following day).



There were some big shapes being thrown until the early hours of the next day.



On the Sunday someone came up with the genius idea of using the barn for some wrestling.

Here are the two little'uns - no, not Alfie and Isla, but Briony and Arti.



Ben and Eddie were pretty evenly matched.



Here is a shot of Anna and Ben in a somewhat intimate hold.



Gairy and Matt also in a somewhat intimate hold.



We also had tug of war, this is a nice shot of Richard - winning I think?



All in all it was a great success and we're super duper happy!

Since then we have managed to get Sheepee 3 new lamb buddies, build them all a home and get to know them all. We've also started work on the terrace outside our big living room/kitchen and although it is very heavy work, it is coming along nicely.

We've also had a few visitors and had a lovely time identifying and picking mushrooms and cooking up a feast with them.

The weather seems to be turning, the leaves are beautifully muti-coloured and the temperature has started dropping. Bring on winter.

BOB - Installment 2

right then, here we go - round II.

since Bob i've found myself wandering past the B+B barn doors and looking in, seeing the straw on the floor, the bunting (i hate that word!) strung up and the bath still full of water/labels and thinking.....ahhhh, happy days.....

as most of you will know i'm not usually one for sentimentality but i genuinely had a grand old time at Bob and many times every day since i stop and think about how much fun it was ("stop it, i'm getting a tear in my eye" i hear you say!).

don't get me wrong if you lunatics had stuck around any longer it'd have driven me mental (not to mention the stress and strain of all the preparations, cooking and general running around) but i think we'd all agree that it was a damn fine weekend of a Bobbing - no???

ok, ok, enough gushy stuff - on to some more photographs.....

another ten of the best coming your way.

1. tent-city (where there is now a sheep enclosure):



2. the simple-shitters:



3. the beautiful map created by ali and anna (with a splendid frame by our resident artist - mr webber):



4. alfredo and isla (the best of friends - sometimes!):



(they're also identical from the back)

5. anna's 30th birthday.

SO OLD!!!!!

here we all are at the abbey having a spot of luncheon and a piece of chocolate cake (ok, ok, i had three pieces - christ, get off my back already!):



although this is strictly speaking an extra photo it's related and so counts as one so.....

this is a view of the abbey from above where we parked and walked down:



6. my new road bike:



ain't she a beauty?

oooops, sorry - how did that get in there....?

please disregard the above entry - completely irrelevant (but it's a good looking bike - no?)

6. (the real number 6) taco - the biggest, friendliest, hairiest dog in the world:



you gotta love 'im!!!!!

7. rooster-roo:



that's a hell of a photograph (nice one young katz).

8. it's officially booze o'clock:



so much booze - so little time!

from what i remember the beers tasted fantastic!

the wine and cider also went down a treat - a good result all round on the alcohol front!

9. bride and ceremonial official in a somber mood:



so serious!

10. dancin':



the dancing got started fairly early on but the dancing evening can really be split into two shifts.

- the early shift (up until about midnight)

star attraction - matt - throwing down some crazy shapes (including the patented 'putting out a fire' maneuver).

- the late shift (from midnight until 04:30)

main village idiot - gairy - making a complete and total fool of himself and refusing to be removed from the dance-floor until finally, at 04:30 when most people were trying to sleep in their tents mere meters away from the barn, i was hauled off to bed.

a big thanks has to be aimed at nitty for sitting on his ass doing his best to make it look like DJ's actually do something for a living (did i say that out loud?) - i mean for spending the evening playing some really great music - thanks buddy, it was very much appreciated!

ok, that'll do for Bob - Installment 2.

i hope you all enjoyed it as much (if not a little more) than i enjoyed writing it.

until next time.....

BOB - Installment 1

hello there folks, how the devil are things....?

seeing as Bob was such an event it seems only fitting that we blog it's ass in stages.

and so with that in mind i would like to welcome you all to the Bob - Installment 1.

this post is just a quick one to say:

thank you so much everyone for coming and for helping to make Bob the fantabulous success it turned out to be.

we thought we'd planned something that would be fun for everyone but we didn't quite expect it to be quite so much fun or to run nearly as smoothly as it did.

those of you (you know who you are) who gave your time and effort (above and beyond the call of duty) with the cooking, cleaning, delegating, organising, decorating, killing/butchering, playing and the rest are absolute heroes - without your help we wouldn't have been able to enjoy the weekend and we're eternally grateful for all of your hard work (and no, there will be no cash gift as thanks - honestly!).

although it's (about 18 months) too early for us to have any 'official' photographs i did just want to give those of you who didn't make it out here a taste of what you missed.

here are 10 very nice moments from Bob for you all to enjoy.....

1. our newest simple-person 'pee-pee-o-pee' (said with a hawian accent):




this is the sheep formally known as 'mouse' but it's now 'pee-pee-o-pee'.

she's a french rare-breed sheep with only two farms still breeding them in the Alps.

we've gotten the number of one of the breeders and are going to get a couple more so that we can help keep the breed alive in the future.

it was a wedding gift from Julio and Valerie - thanks guys.

2. a two meter long baguette (professionally cut by young mr nitty):



3. some high quality river action in one hell of a nice spot!



4. hand-made signage by miss katz and miss beavis.



5. rudie getting in on the ceremonial action - good 'ole rudie!



6. one hell of a pig roast (or so i hear as i missed most of it and was too drunk to remember the rest). a certain mr monkey boy put in a humdinger of a cooking shift (all day-night long) to make it that extra bit special - cheers buddy!



7. some serious displeasure at having to chop onions for 50 people:



8. the most anatomically accurate and comically genius wedding cake bride and groom ever (made lovingly by ali):



9. some bloody tasty local cheeses and home-made chutneys/piccalilli - MMMmmm!



10. and one beautifully written and elegantly performed speech/song by anna and briony.



these are just some of the many great and memorable moments (snatched from peoples facebook albums) and there'll be many (MANY) more photographs, moments and embarrassing stories being unveiled as they become available.

there aren't any individual 'thanks' going on here as i'd be here writing all night but needless to say we're forever indebted to so many of you for helping to make Bob one of the happiest days of our lives - thanks.

join us for the next thrilling installment of 'Bob - the blog series' as/when information, photographs and time become available.

cheers.

the boo, the noo, some bugs and some mugs!

good evening folks,

it's all go here at simple HQ with preparations for Bob coming along nicely although there's not been much worth blogging for a little while but here's what's new with us.

- goodbye boo, hello noo.

after one expensive repair job too many we finally decided that enough was enough and said goodbye to sha-boo-boo.

but.....

we're now the proud owners of sha-noo-boo (see what we did there? with 'new' in the title - genius!).

it's not the biggest change as far as vehicles go as you'll see from the photographs below.

the boo:



and the noo:



we've sold the boo to julio (a friend who nikki woof'd with a couple of years ago) and it is currently being renovated prior to embarking on a whirlwind tour of the world.

julio is taking the boo through europe, into russia, china, india, back through the middle-east, into north africa, down through east africa, to south africa, back up through west africa and then returning to europe.

it's a hell of a journey and we're a little proud that the boo is going to have such a damn fine adventure!

- here's a cool moth that we saw the other day:





he/she's got amazing antlers (i'm sure they're not called that but you know what i mean).

- and this is the caterpillar of the Hummingbird Hawk Moth which monkey boy found outside:

it's a crazy looking dude - no?





- we've also sourced the booze for Bob.

the beer is from a local micro-brewery in Saint Agreve which makes some bloody nice ales!

www.lagrivoise.fr

the wine is from a place a couple of hours south of here (near the Ardeche Gorge).

www.masdintras.fr

and finally, the cider is being brought from the UK (as we couldn't find any local cider) and is Westons Premium Organic.

www.westons-cider.co.uk

- a few weeks ago we took delivery of the Chestnut trees which will be used to make our terrace (once Bob is over).

here's Roger in his Unimog making it look easy to shift 9m/27ft trees:



- what next.....oh yeah, i know.

we went to a Cooperative Wool place a little south of here to get some new mattresses as, although our 'hand-me-down' mattresses have done us proud we wanted to get something a little more comfortable for the future (as well to help provide spare beds for Bob).

the place we visited was:

www.ardelaine.fr

it's all natural and handmade from their sheep herds on the hills above the place, sheared by them, cleaned, dyed (naturally of course) and then made on the premises into amazing wool products.

we're now the proud owners of two new sheeps-wool mattresses which are incredibly comfy and should last us for years to come.

- finally, we're been making glasses for Bob.

that's right - making!

it seemed a little daft that we throw away (ok, recycle but still) many bottles and then were thinking of buying glasses for Bob.

so.....we looked into making our own (thanks for the help/advice Vicki).

and it's easy!

you score a little mark at the desired height on the glass with a porcelain cutter, turn the bottle (we used the foot-powered pottery wheel we have) and then heat the bottle (holding the blow-torch) at the required height (that of the scratch) until the glass heats up and magically cracks leaving a perfectly splendid drinking glass (once the edge is sanded smooth).

here's what we started with:



and here's how they turned out:



we're currently about 2/3rds of the way through the manufacturing process (as we want at least 60 glasses for Bob) and so you'll be able to sample them in a months time.

ok, that should about do it for now as it's getting late and i'm tired.

see you soon, gairy.

Three little pigs.....

Firstly let me apologise to those of you who have been waiting by your computers for another simple update. It has been a while and for that I am sorry.

Lots has happened since last writing on here.

We had Mr P3 travel back with us at the beginning of June and Shabooboo broke down. We ended up with no car for a week or so and had to walk to the shops - 5hr trip, but it was a beautiful sunny day and the three of us managed to carry enough food back home after a lovely long walk. P3 also helped us with moving a whole lot of slate and tiles - so thank you very much for that Mr Three. But unfortunately he also broke his wrist after falling off my bike just down the hill from here! Not the best start to a 18 month tour of the world, sorry dude.

We've also been hard at work to prepare things for the oncoming Bob (mine and Gairy's "big day") - there will be pictures of the progress shortly.

Anyway, what I know you are mainly interested in is the fact that we've jut officially become pig farmers!

This morning me and g went to Edith's farm - a lovely lady not far from here, who very kindly sold us 3 of her lovely piglets! They are all females so that we don't get overrun with piglets. They didn't much like all the moving about (I now fully understand the phrase 'squeal like a pig') but now they are happily (if a little timid) in their new home (pig ark).

Here you can see how we made our pig ark.

This is the base we built in the workshop.

This is the ark with the ends on.



Here it is in place in the pig sty.



And with the bright red roof on. We also added a little ramp for them after this picture was taken.



And the little piggies themselves. Hanging out.



When they are young they are a bit scared of people but hopefully they will become our friends and like Edith's pigs let us scratch and tickle their bellies.



We also picked up a load of organic food for them which is good enough for us too (red lentils, pasta, quinoa and mixed grains).

Enjoying their water and food.



I'm sure there will be lots more pig pictures on here soon.

Other news:

We have been building a couple of bbq type pits for the big feast in August.

Below you can see the elusive "Monkey Boy", working the angle grinder on an old oil drum. He cut it in half and then we made a frame for each half to house the fire pits.



We've had an extremely hot and sunny week or so and the plants in the green houses are starting to look good.

The gerkins/cucumbers starting to flower and spread, we will build them a climbing frame in the next couple of days.



Here are a couple of lettuces. We have been enjoying our salads recently with home grown lettuce and rocket and radishes too. We've also been gorging ourselves on our home grown strawberries - sweeeeet.



While me and Gairy were in England at the end of May, Monkey Boy was hard at work not only cutting grasses and clearing space for the pigs arrival etc but he also designed and built a trebuchet! It works extremely well especially with eggs. Here's a not so great picture of it.



We've also made some elderflower cordial and have started the process to try and make elderflower champagne - we'll let you know how that goes.

All the flowers are just beautiful - check these ones out.



That will do for now.

Nighty night.

Nikki