Our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud with private heated swimming pool and gym

Today at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud with private heated swimming pool and gym we released the first full-length Halloween video for children to enjoy.

I hope you enjoy and if so please share:

Happy Halloween preview from our Brittany holiday cottage with Private swimming pool and gym near Baud

As Halloween approaches at our Brittany holiday cottage with private swimming pool and gym near Baud we are celebrating Halloween with a  Happy Halloween preview of our movie to follow on the eve of the festivities.

We hope you enjoy!

Naomi takes a cold water challenge at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud with private pool and gym

On Naomi's first visit too France in 2012 she accepted a cold water challenge at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud with private pool and gym.

It was early March and it was the first day the pool had had its winter cover removed - the temperature of the water was only 4 degrees.

For a laugh click here for the video:

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated pool and gym near Baud

Just finished a new blog on hub pages at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated pool and gym near Baud.

For a step by step guide click here    How to protect Banana plants for winter

 

Our Brittany holiday cottage with heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

Yesterday at our Brittany holiday cottage with heated swimming pool and gym near Baud my new hub on how to clean a green swimming pool was published.

For a step by step guide on how to maintain a crystal clear swimming pool and how to deal with the problems of a green pool click here

Enjoying the private heated pool for the Easter holidays at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private swimming pool and gym near Baud

Today at our Brittany holiday cottage with private swimming pool and gym near Baud Naomi filmed her recipe for Biko, a wonderful sweet dessert made from sticky/glutinous rice.

For a step by step guide please click here

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

A new venture for Naomi at  our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud is to start a Filipino recipe show on you tube.

 

For more details plus a list of all the ingredients  click Here

Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

Particularly during the winter months at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym I tend to get more active with my on line promotions.

One avenue I started was an attempt to write popular hubs on hub pages and thank fully after a lot of trial and error I have finally got my first hub post to hit over 10,000 views.

For a look at my hub in more detail just click here. 


Just for a bit of fun a video I made a few years ago incorporating the Carnac stones

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

During the winter months at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud we attack all the big jobs while we don't have guest here.

This time last year I killed two birds with one stone so to speak by dismantling the wooden terrace of La Forge to use the wood to fuel the fire to burn out a very large tree stump sitting in the middle of our lawn.

For a detailed step by step method to burn out a tree stump an easy way including a video - click here

The tree was cut down 3 years before and during that time the stump was used to hold a plant pot until it was ready to burn:

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

At our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud yesterday our final guest of the season with the pool open departed so James and I took the opportunity of no guest present and a glorious day to dig up the boule court to expand the lawn area.

We are contemplating with the larger lawn to provide guest the opportunity to play croquet in the garden as an alternative to ' Boule'.

In a day the boule court was dug over, racked flat, new top soil added and grass seed sown - we now have 4 weeks before the next guest arrive and I'm sure by then the area will be all grass.


La Forge is available to rent all year where as La Veille Maison is available from the end of may through to the start of September.

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

As we arrive soon at the end of the pool season at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym at the end of September. I am amazed no one has beaten my under water challenge yet of swimming 7 lengths with a single breath.  

In fact no one has beaten my daughters record either of 3 lengths for anyone under 15 years of age even though she was only 9 when she set the record.

The video below captures me doing 6 1/2 lengths - the 7 is a very special day and I have not been lucky enough to capture it on camera.

The best a guest has done to date was we had a 19 year old boy swim the same as in the above video.

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

In March at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud we open the pool ready for the arrival of our first guest.

Some 5 years ago Naomi enjoyed her first trip too France and I managed to persuade her to jump in the pool without testing the water - it was only 8 degrees. (for a laugh have a look at the video)

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated pool and gym near Baud

Today at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated pool and gym near Baud it was bright and sunny and its forecast to be the same over the next week, therefore it was time to bring out our Bird of paradise plants and bananas for our new tropical garden beside the new terrace of La Forge.

The terrace was constructed at the end of February and this month as the weather has been improving the planting up of all the new boarders has begun.

As mentioned above we have Birds of Paradise,several varieties of Banana, in addition we have planted up Arum's of different colors and Canna.

Ready for our guest to enjoy at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud

The new brighter terrace of La Forge our Brittany holiday cottage

Climbing up the terrace we have planted 2 varieties of Jasmine and 2 varieties of honeysuckle all chosen for there scent.

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

Over the last week at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud I have been busy working in the garden.

'Killing two birds with one stone' I dismantled the terrace of La Forge to fuel the fire to burn out the large tree stump within the garden. For a full explanation of the work carried out click this LINK

The tree stump is now gone and my next job will be to build a new terrace for the Brittany holiday cottage La Forge.

The other cottage La Veille Maison has a large fixed terrace over looking the garden and pool also.

The terrace of La Veille Maison Brittany holiday cottage

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

Yesterday at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud I popped out to our local swimming pool shop to purchase every thing I needed for the start of the season.

A tub of all in one pool chemicals, box of skimmer nets, new pool net and a little treat for the children to enjoy an inflatable pool slide.

The type of pool slide I purchased yesterday for the children to enjoy.

I'm sure the slide will provide hours of fun and makes for a lovely treat for guest to enjoy in La Forge or La Veille Maison our child friendly Brittany holiday cottages.

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private pool and gym near Baud

Over the last week we had a problem at our Brittany holiday cottage with private pool and gym near Baud with watching English TV.

In La Veille Maison we have a free sat satellite system installed and over the last week we were getting a message saying ' New service - please wait' and nothing would ever happen on half the channels even though it said we had 100% signal.

Then on Friday all channels were lost as it said no signal what so ever - I tried again on Sunday to see  100% signal had returned but still half the channels were missing and we had the same message showing on the screen.

Today we had our new receiver arrive a Manhattan Plaza HD-S2 and within 5 minutes we were back up and running all for just £44 on Amazon and it looks like the picture quality has improved from the previous receiver.

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud

Today at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool and gym near Baud we remember Elsa our Rhodesian ridgeback who passed away in January 2014.

There are a few lovely pictures of her within this short movie - the normal life expectancy of a ridgeback is around 10 -11 years Elsa was my friend, my companion and my daughters guardian for 12 years and 4 months before she passed away.

She will never be forgotten.

We planted a flowering cherry tree within the garden of our holiday cottage to remember our loyal friend.

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated pool and children s play area near Baud

At our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated pool and children s play area near Baud we ordered some protective rubber matting this week to protect children playing  on the climbing frame which is being installed in March.

The matting is 23 mm thick and has been rated for a fall of 3 meters so with our maximum height being 1.5 meters it should provide a lot of protection.

We were considering using bark but the cost would have been the same and you could have problems of animals using it as a toilet, children throwing all around the garden and it rotting away over time.

This rubber matting is supposed to allow the grass to grow through, for lawn mowers to cut the grass over it and for it to blend in to the garden so overall it seemed the best solution. Only time will tell if it does blend away.

The rubber mat that will be installed at our Brittany holiday cottage to provide protection within the children s play area.

For a great family holiday La Forge and La Veille Maison offer every thing you could wish for in southern Brittany.

Christmas at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud

This year we spent Christmas at our Brittany holiday cottage near Baud as a family and just enjoyed a quite day together.

First train set

James received his first train set from his grandparents which he really enjoyed play with.

La Forge is available to rent during the Christmas and New years celebrations so if you fancy a holiday in France over the Christmas period we offer some great deals.

La Veille Maison is available from the May half term holiday through to the start of September.

Our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool near Baud

During the low season at our Brittany holiday cottage with private heated swimming pool near Baud I get to do the jobs that can not be done while we have guest staying.

Over last weekend I tackled the 2 tree stubs in the garden and have found a very easy way of getting rid of the stumps. After doing research on the internet I decided that burning the stumps was going to be the easiest solution.

Here are the basis steps on how to burn a tree stump with ease:

1: I dug down 6 inches below ground level to allow the stump to be burnt below ground level.
2: I drilled 1 inch holes 6 inches deep all over the top of the stump and half way down at an angle in to the center of the stump.
3:I then filled the holes with kerosene and allowed to soak in for 24 hours.
4: I then placed a metal drum over the stump and filled the drum with charcoal to cover the stump which was 12 inches above ground level and lit the coals.
5: I then reduced all the airflow after the coals were lit and then just waited and in 48 hours with one additional top up of coals I was left with just a hole in the ground.

The stumps were completely gone - It was such an easy way to get rid of the tree stumps and at a relatively low cost.

The ground will now be used to extend the children s play area in the garden after its covered with safety mats and bark in case of falls from the climbing frames.

Our Brittany holiday cottage is very much a child friendly holiday destination.