Sausmarez Farmer's Market

I have posted about these markets before but I just had to show how much lovely produce you can buy for less than £20.

Pink Eye Potatoes, cherry tomatoes, sandwich tomatoes, garlic, plums, zucchini (courgettes to Guern, must be the French influence), green beans, apples, eggs, chillies and Butternut pumpkin (squash to Guerns).

Local produce always tastes better as, quite simply, it has to be fresher, hardly any food miles :)

We try to buy as many of our vegetables at the markets or from the hedge vege stalls as we can. They are usually far cheaper than the supermarkets and nearly always last longer; if they get a chance.

Torteval Scarecrow Festival 2010

There were a few political statements in the Scarecrow Festival this year. This one was called 'BP slicks across the Pond!' It came complete with oil slick, hence the plastic drop sheet.

This was Mr Bee's favourite 'Le Tour De Torteval'. Mr Bee has become a great supporter of the Scarecrow Festival. He loves coming as much as the kids.

This was Granddad's favourite - 'Hung Parliament'. You can just see the Australian green and gold hats Mr Bee bought the kids when he went to The Oval to watch Australia vs England, the fifth test in The Ashes.

This one was one of my favourites. I can't remember the exact name, as I have lost the program we were given at the start of the walk but the Mad Hatter complete with silver teapots was very well done; very Johnny Depp.

B3 loved the Cheshire Cat too.

This one won second prize. It was hung with bird feeders filled with nuts, which are a staple bird food here in Guernsey. It was decorated with a variety of little birds. There was a recorded message about how to feed birds which was playing on a loop. Its name? The Nuts So Scary Crow of course.

I was a little concerned when I read the name of this fine fellow. I kept telling myself this was a family event so I need not be worried. He was called 'The Peeping Tom'. As the festival is held in the lanes around Torteval quite often you can not see where the next entry is so I was preparing to leap in front of anything inappropriate, fortunately once I saw him I realised I was being rather ridiculous. I blame it on sunstroke; nothing wrong with me!

This Medusa entry was named something clever to do with Gorgons. B2 really liked this one, especially all the snakes.

This family have entered every year we have come. Their entries are always clever and push the concept of 'scarecrowiness' to its limits. It was called 'Eye Saw'. It came with an accompanying poem about the dangers of modern architecture ruining Guernsey's traditional look.

'N.E. Old Iron' pushed the definition of a scarecrow as well. B1 always has plenty to say about whether it is truly a scarecrow and whether it should be aloud to compete in the competition. This was awarded a Highly Commended ribbon. They were lucky B1 wasn't one of the judges :)

B3 loved Fifi and Friends. She chatted away telling me all about them, who was who and who was friends and who wasn't. Fifi is a TV series made by the creator of Bob the Builder. Apparently when he sold the rights to Bob the Builder he decided to make a show specifically for little girls and came up with Fifi and the Flower Tots; what a smart and very wealthy man he must be judging by the number of little girls sporty Fifi clothes, including B3.

The kids, and Granddad, loved this one. 'Full Moon' was perhaps one of the most photographed entries of the whole show. All the kids thought it was THE BEST!

Here we have the First Prize winner, 'Traditional Torteval Scarecrow'. What a handsome fellow he is too.

We finished the day with a bounce on the jumping castle, a rummage through the jumble sale and an ice-cream.

My Dad was here with us this year and seemed to really enjoy the festival and the walk through the lanes. Dad always comments on the fact that there are very few places to walk without cars. In the Isle of Man there are kilometers and kilometers of walks, all with public access. In Guernsey nearly everything is private land so I think it was a nice change for him to wander the lanes and realise that although there are no truly wilderness areas here there are still quite places to amble.

Secret Garden in the heart of Town

Mr Bee spotted this open garden advertised in the Globe. It coincided with the week my Dad visited in June. 'La Bigoterie' opened its doors from 2.00-5.00pm on 19th June with all funds going towards helping the Guernsey Alzheimer's Association. Fortunately the way was clearly signed otherwise we might not have found it.

What a view! It must less than 100 meters, as the crow flies, to the Harbour. We had the kids with us so we didn't linger near where they were serving tea and cakes to avoid the whinging.

Such a wonderful, uninterrupted view of Castle Cornet. We made sure we arrived early as we have been to quite a few open gardens in Guernsey and on a fine day, as this was, they are very, very popular.

This was one of the loveliest flowers on the day. I have tried to grow foxgloves, white ones, but the sea breeze at Bumble Bee Cottage has other ideas and they ended up bending over so much that you couldn't see them over our front wall. I have since seen some rather good metal plant supports so I may give them another go.

I love blue and lime green together in a garden. We have a few beds with this colour combination. I have never grown Irises, as I have always thought of them as fussy plants, however I have seen them on a gardening show recently and they claimed that they are easy to grow.

The Garden comprised of four graduated tiers down the hill. The first tier was housed the entry gate and car park. The second tier held the house and largest lawned area with large swathes of flowers beds. Tier Three was the orchard (which you can see in the background) and a formal hedged garden, complete with Roman statue. and the fourth tier was the vegetable garden, sheds and large pond.

This is the view from the fourth level. What you can see is 'The Maze' , also called 'Commercial Arcade'. It is not really very maze like comprising of four intersecting alleyways which run off the High Street. This house really is in the centre of town but you would never even know it was there whilst you shopped below.

The arcade holds all manner of shops. They were originally built in Victorian times and the original plan was to enclose the entire area under a glass domed roof. Unfortunately the developers ran out of money and the roof was never added. It is such a shame as it would have been such a lovely place to shop during winter and would be a wonderful venue for weekend markets in all types of weather. We would not have had to worry on this day however as it was truly spectacular.

As you can see the crowds were starting to arrive by now. This is the view of the length of the third tier.

The orchard was my favourite part of the garden as although it wasn't that large it seemed to exude the very essence of 'The Secret Garden'; high stone walls, gnarled fruit trees. It was a lovely place.

The view looking out toward the Town Church across Commercial Arcade and out to the Causeway which leads to both Castle Cornet and the Lighthouse.

Here is a shot through the entry to the vegetable garden with some naughty little pixie dashing through.

We left the garden via the fourth level gate which lead to a side road which was literally 10 metres to the High Street; there is alot to be said for the wonderful privacy high stone walls grant.

A new French patisserie and ice-creamer had opened up in Town so we took the kids and Granddad for a well deserved Saturday afternoon treat.

Tourist Season is upon us

These photos were taken in July in St Peter Port.

The cruise ships that visit Guernsey are truly enormous.

They are much taller than the buildings in town. There is a height restriction here and, I believe, buildings can not be taller than four storeys.

As you can see the visitors harbour is chock-a-block.

Tourism only counts for 3% of Guernsey's GDP.

The locals still seem to think it counts for alot more - still living in the bucket and spade holiday days of yesteryear!

August Hydrangeas

Thankyou for everyone’s kind comments on my previous post.

No, I have not given up posting it is just that it has been simply manic at Bumble Bee Cottage.

School finished two weeks ago.

The approach of the end of the school year (July in Guernsey) seems to signify that more and more and more needs to be jammed into each and every school day; so instead of things calmly drawing to a close the kids end the year hyped and ready to go, full of the expectation that the holidays will offer a similar amount of non-stop activity.

Fortunately for me, just four days into the start of this summer holiday, visitors arrived.

My Aunty Sue and her grandson (my second cousin, I suppose) arrived for a week and then as a surprise for my Aunty Sue my Dad came to stay as well.

Their holidays overlapped by two days so there was a fair bit of bed shuffling going on but we managed to squeeze everyone in.

My Dad left today on the 12 o’clock to Manchester. He should be putting his feet up in the Isle of Man enjoying a well earned cup of tea as I write this.

So this, my first post for six or so weeks is simply to say ‘hello long time no see.’

My next few posts will be about what we have been up to these last few weeks and what has been going on in this 65 kilometre square piece of land in the middle (well slightly off centre really) of the Channel.

These hydrangeas were photographed on the weekend in the southern parish of Torteval.

I like the faded ones best :)

Beware the dotted blue line.......

Hello everyone,

I haven't posted for a while as I have been really disheartened by the Chinese porn comments that have been appearing on my blog.

I have deleted my two rants about them as that is not why I started to blog. I started so friends and family can see what we at Bumble Bee Cottage have been up to and I have been very fortunate to meet a few lovely people in the mean time.

Mr Bee has just told me that he checks my blog each day, just in case, and he noticed that I had published a few comments by people with Chinese symbol blogger names.

Mr Bee noticed that when the mouse arrow was over the dots at the end of the post, like this ....................., that the arrow changed into a finger, which represents a link.

I went and checked this out this evening and sure enough there were two more links to Chinese porn sites. I had published the comments as they were in English and I just, stupidly, assumed that all the dots at the end were just a way Chinese bloggers ended there comments.

DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THIS.

Please check your comments and be sure this does not happen to you. I suppose I am quite naive in thinking 'What the hell would a Chinese porn site be interested in posting a link on a blog about what there is to do on an Island thousands of kilometres away, with a little bit of china collecting and children's artwork thrown in,' but there you go, what do I know.

So ladies who are interested in my humble raving please, please roll up for the new representative of global Chinese porn sites.

That's right you can get it ALL RIGHT HERE in Guernsey.

I bet you never knew how raunchy we are over here :P

Lihou Island

Last weekend the causeway to Lihou Island was open so we ambled over.

If you decide to go to Lihou Island whilst in Guernsey take the warnings seriously. You will NOT want to get stuck there overnight! There is a cottage for rent on the island but it is not usually 'manned'.

There is a two to three hours window in which to safely cross over, depending on the tides. This is more than enough time to walk over, circumnavigate the island and walk back.

The first time we went it was the week before Christmas 2007 and we wore sneakers - we were totally unprepared novices. We are old hands now well equipped with rubber feet :)

The walk around the island is fairly safe for small children. There are a few areas where they will need to hold your hand as the island drops away a few metres onto a pebble beach.

The walk around the island will take less than an hour at a small persons pace i.e. B3.

This is the view from the island back to the mainland. Can you call it 'mainland' when it too is an island?

You can see one of the larger Nazi Towers built in Guernsey. It is open to the public several times a year. It is on our 'to do' list.

The seagull chicks have hatched and are hiding amongst the bracken ferns. There is one in this photo.

There are two chicks in this photo; well camouflaged, just in front of their parents.

The Sea Thrift was in full bloom on the sea side of the island. We have some of this planted in our garden. It really is one of the toughest plants I have ever come across, I can now see why considering where it originates from.

The bracken fern has done it usual swift, surprise appearance. It grows so fast it is like a green jack-in-the-box; here one minute, gone the next.

There was a Benedictine Priory on the island in the 12th century. Once again Guernsey Tourism has baffled me (although I am perhaps easily baffled) as this too is numbered 'Number One' on the tourist information board. There are three Number Ones we have come across now; perhaps it is some type of secret code!?
These are the ruins of the Priory.

This is the causeway. It is made of local granite and snakes its way through the rocks back to Guernsey. The Bumble Bee'rs always have a lovely time filling up their pockets with sea treasure and I always make sure I clean out their pockets BEFORE things go in the wash; large rocks are not good for the barrel of the washing machine, especially when it is front loading and you can't open it until the cycle has finished.

The times Lihou Island is open are printed in the Guernsey Press and the Globe (I think). It is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours and makes for a nice change from racing around the usual tourist traps. Lihou Island is on the west coast and there are buses you can catch from St Peter Port. Entry is free - but bring the wellies!