Baby corn!!!

You can feel that  summer is on its way out... the mornings are crisp and the wind has changed (yes, spoken like the true profound gardener! haha). This Summer was a big disappointment with Spring having the summerlike weather and too much rain in July and August... I'm hoping for Un bel été indien ...

In work news the woman I've been replacing is coming back to work September 13th so my contract which goes until September 10th most likely will not get renewed. That said she's coming back part-time so who knows what may happen. I'll have to wait to see with the director as well as HR. In the meantime I'm getting ready for some family fun in October. I'm so excited my little sister is coming to visit! She hasn't been here since I lived in Caen back in 2005 (pre-blog!!) I think it was... and I haven't seen her since I went to Australia! She's coming all the way over here for only a week so I'm planning things to do... hehe

Garden progress

Sadly my tomatoes kicked the bucket with some mysterious (to me) disease... The rest is doing well though!














Corn!!!

Baby pumpkin!!


















Teenage spaghetti squash being a typical teenager and trying to escape!

Monday beach walk

peach pie 2.0

I made peach pie this morning. The last time I made one was two years ago according to my blog!  We're invited to a friend's house for lunch and I wanted to take a dessert that wasn't too rich and chocolaty. I got some white peaches and even made my own crust this time around. I'll let you know how it tastes... I can't really cut a slice out before we go... although I'd love to!

Squeeeee!!!

Garden update

 Yup, garden update. I ran around taking pictures of my garden to blog while Mystery Guest started up the BBQ! We had his family over for a good 'ol fashioned American BBQ for lunch. On the menu? Homemade burgers (this ain't no MacDo!), marinated chicken, potato salad (with purple potatoes!) and his mom brought over some salad and some carottes rapees. Unlike a French lunch there was no entree nor cheese course but we did start off with an apero before hitting the cheeseburgers and fixins! Of course for dessert I had to go a bit nuts with not only cookies but a big Red Velvet that always impresses people :) Yum.

So everything was yummy and we had a great time sitting outside enjoying the sun (which decided to show itself after a good week of rain around here - good timing!) and I gave a couple tours of my garden:

 Blueberries on the left, tomatoes in the middle and a combination of pumpkin, butternut and corn to the right.

 Monster pumpkin!

 Love the little tendrils that hook on to anything and everything!

 Zucchini!

My garden is going bonkers!!

It's official! I've got my new birth certificate!

job update

This week has been busy, a huge learning curve and on my feet all day. Plus I'm working Tuesdays through Saturday so now that it's Sunday I'm totally confused!

This have been going well. Luckily I'm familiar with the computer system from my experience with the Company last year but it's a whole new world other than that. Before I was on the phone all day, in English. Now I'm on my feet all day and dealing with customers face to face in French - aside from the random English person coming in and then asking where I learned my perfect English (haha).

I think the hardest thing is dealing with numbers. I know my numbers in French but have always had a hard time with rapid fire telephone numbers etc. So when someone comes in and spits out their number I'm trying to catch up on the quatre-vingt-douze etc by typing in a 8 first then deleting it for a 9 and then missing out on the rest of what they've just told me. But I'm getting better.

Surprisingly I haven't had too many comments on my accent, maybe once a day but never criticizing, just curiosity which is nice especially considering that I'm not working in a big city so people aren't exposed to that many foreigners around here and country folk can be extremely wary of foreigners. Luckily here in Normandy Americans still have a very good reputation from the war (not like the English and their more recent, and well deserved I might add, reputation) so when I do say I'm American people smile instead of giving me snide comments.

So the job it self is going pretty good so far. It's a one-month contract for now but there is a chance it could be  prolonged. But at least it's a great experience, my first 100% French job for a big French company and that will be nice to put on my CV in any case.

First zucchini of the season!

Blueberries from the garden for dessert!