On holiday until 8th August, 2008. Have a good one.
Here's a pic of me on the front page of the French magazine L'Express, an article within pretending to be know something Auvergnats.
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10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
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The purpose of this blog is to gather in one place the best farm blogs from around the world. Recommended farm blogs are asked to send a brief email (to info AT ianwalthew.com) about their farm and their blog, and to include their own recommended farm blogs. I then make a posting. If it gets any more complicated that that, then....well, the idea is that it doesn't get much more complicated than that.
Visitors
Farm Blogs from Around the World is compiled by Ian Walthew, author of A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream. (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, hardback 2007; Phoenix Paperback, UK, 2008; Phoenix paperback, USA 2009).
Contributing editors to Farm Blogs from Around the World
Phoenix paperback, USA , 2009
Jeremy Irons
'I read A Place in My Country with absolute unalloyed delight. A glorious book.'
Jeremy Irons, Actor.
Jeremy Irons, Actor.
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ABOUT FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
SCROLL DOWN THIS COLUMN AND FIND FARM BLOGS FROM:
AFRICA
AUSTRALIA
CANADA
FRANCE
GERMANY
NEW ZEALAND
SLOVAKIA
U.K.
U.S.A.
&
GENERAL RESOURCES
At Farm Blogs I am trying to gather in one place the very best of global blogging about farms and anyone involved in food or natural fibre production on any scale.
The idea behind Farm Blogs From Around the World is that people involved in farming/rural blogging recommend the blogs that they themselves find the most interesting.
AFRICA
AUSTRALIA
CANADA
FRANCE
GERMANY
NEW ZEALAND
SLOVAKIA
U.K.
U.S.A.
&
GENERAL RESOURCES
At Farm Blogs I am trying to gather in one place the very best of global blogging about farms and anyone involved in food or natural fibre production on any scale.
The idea behind Farm Blogs From Around the World is that people involved in farming/rural blogging recommend the blogs that they themselves find the most interesting.
When a blog is recommended to me, I add the blog to the blog rolls below, then contact the recommended blog, asking for their own recommendations.
And so it grows, organically, hoping that good bloggers will lead us to great ones.
Thanks for your interest and support.
This is a non-commercial blog and doesn't take advertising.
Contact me: info AT ianwalthew.com
Blog: A Place in the Auvergne
Books:
A Place in My Country (Amazon.com USA)
A Place in My Country (Amazon.co.uk)
Website: Ian Walthew
How to Recommend Your Own Blog
PLEASE: IF YOU WISH TO RECOMMEND YOUR OWN BLOG PLEASE READ THE INFORMATION PROVIDED HERE BEFORE CONTACTING ME.
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
HUGH-FEARNLEY WHITTINGSTALL
‘When stressed out media exec Ian Walthew panic buys a Cotswold cottage as an escape route from the urban treadmill, he unwittingly acquires a window on a corner of rural Britain at work and at play, and his writer’s eye sees just what’s going on. Walthew has a genuine gift for bringing both people and places to life and marshals his runaway real life narratives with a novelist’s skill.
The story of his surprising friendship with his neighbour Norman - who is trying to keep his ramshackle farm and his dignity together with a few strands of baler twine, while his millionaire neighbours embrace the prairie concept of modern industrial farming - is compelling and often deeply moving.
And Walthew’s own struggle with age-old issues of identity, friendship, community and a place to call home are fresh, sympathetic and never trying. It’s not the sort of book you’d pick up expecting a page-turner, but that’s exactly what it turn's out to be. It even has a proper ending.’
Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall
http://www.rivercottage.net/
The story of his surprising friendship with his neighbour Norman - who is trying to keep his ramshackle farm and his dignity together with a few strands of baler twine, while his millionaire neighbours embrace the prairie concept of modern industrial farming - is compelling and often deeply moving.
And Walthew’s own struggle with age-old issues of identity, friendship, community and a place to call home are fresh, sympathetic and never trying. It’s not the sort of book you’d pick up expecting a page-turner, but that’s exactly what it turn's out to be. It even has a proper ending.’
Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall
http://www.rivercottage.net/
FARM BLOGS FROM AFRICA
- Food, Fun & Farm: Farm Life In East Africa ! (Tanzania; 3500 acres; Wheat, Saffflower, Seed Beans; With lots of East and South African Recipes) Recommended
- Ishtar News (Niger; Esther Garvi is part of the Eden Foundation in Niger. She and her family moved there from Sweden, over 24 years ago. They believe that "the key to prosperity for the poor lie in underexploited, edible trees and bushes - the "Lost Treasures of Eden.") Recommended
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
TIM BUTCHER
‘I have been reading about the British countryside all my life but this is the first post-modern take on a national asset so routinely taken for granted. Author Ian Walthew takes a 12-inch plough to the cosy complacency that so many apply to the subject and reveals that 21st century rural life is not a place for the genteel - in a corner of Gloucestershire most commonly viewed by outsiders from their 4x4s as they hurry to overpriced weekend retreats, he finds a farming heartbeat that is proud and defiant, defended by a cast of characters that outshine The Archers. A revelation of a book.’
Tim Butcher
Author of Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart(Richard and Judy Galaxy Book of the Year 2008, 3rd Prize Winner)
Tim Butcher
Author of Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart(Richard and Judy Galaxy Book of the Year 2008, 3rd Prize Winner)
FARM BLOGS FROM AUSTRALIA
- Bredo Valley View Farm (NSW; pigs, oats, goats, sheep) RECOMMENDER
- Daylesford Organics (Victoria; 'We are a Certified Organic mixed family farm in Daylesford Victoria. We focus on sustainability and biodiversity. We have orchards, market gardens, ducks and chickens. We work with the seasons and in any given year will produce up to 40 varieties of apples, hazelnuts, berries, free range eggs and up to 30 different vegetables often with several varieties of each. We enjoy growing heirloom varieties with lots of different flavours and colours as you can see by our carrots on the banner. We sell produce to local cafés and restaurants and at farmer's markets'.) RECOMMENDER
- Garden, Kitchen and Veranda (Adelaide Hills, South Australia; Deb's vegie garden at Nirvana Organic Farm) RECOMMENDER
- Gilroy Farms (NSW; 5,000 acres; dryland broadacre cropping; Faba beans, chick peas, barley, wheat) RECOMMENDER
- Nirvana Organic Food and Produce (Adelaide Hills, South Australia; 4.5 ha; Orchards, Seasonal nuts & berries) RECOMMENDER
- Scarecrow's Garden (South Australia; half acre; town block; organic gardening) RECOMMENDER
- Bush Babe (Central Queensland; reasonable sized Australian cattle property)
- Down to Earth ('Simple, down to earth, back to basics'/I write about my ordinary day to day life of working in the home, vegetable and fruit gardening, slowing down and being mindful, cooking simple food, keeping chickens and worms, composting, green cleaning, stockpiling and preserving. I hope what I write about encourages and supports you towards your own changes'. (Recommended)
- Drywell (Recommended)
- Hills and Plains Seedsavers.
- David's Farm
- Farmer's Wife (Sheep property)
- Morvenvale Farm (New South Wales - between Walgett and Collarenebri on the North Western Plains; 14000 acres; wheat, barley, chickpeas. fababeans)
- The Duck Herder (Recommended)
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
THE OBSERVER
'Stressed city couple seeks slower life in Cotswolds idyll'. The premise is so familiar there's even a predictably technical term for it: 'downshifting'.
Yet it's hard to think in those terms about A Place in My Country, given the care with which Ian Walthew has skirted all the sprung traps of nostalgia and sentiment.
A thoughtful observer and magpie-ish collector of oral history, Walthew has a sharp sense of the absurdities and the assets of his native land, reinforced by years living overseas. In his country life, escaped cows and the hunt ball jostle for space with barn raves and hawkish property developers.
Avoiding the usual bland elegy for the rustic and redemptive, his book is a valuable memoir, both personal and social, a meditation on belonging in one of many Englands.'
The Observer
Yet it's hard to think in those terms about A Place in My Country, given the care with which Ian Walthew has skirted all the sprung traps of nostalgia and sentiment.
A thoughtful observer and magpie-ish collector of oral history, Walthew has a sharp sense of the absurdities and the assets of his native land, reinforced by years living overseas. In his country life, escaped cows and the hunt ball jostle for space with barn raves and hawkish property developers.
Avoiding the usual bland elegy for the rustic and redemptive, his book is a valuable memoir, both personal and social, a meditation on belonging in one of many Englands.'
The Observer
FARM BLOGS FROM CANADA
- Country Living in a Cariboo Valley (British Colombia; 11 acres; We have about 7000 sq feet of vegetable garden area, which also includes strawberry, raspberry and rhubarb patches. We left a city on the West Coast for life in a valley in the Cariboo region of British Columbia) RECOMMENDER
- Just Another Day on the Prairie RECOMMENDER
- Providence Acres Farm (Ontario; We sell fresh chemical-free produce and farm fresh, cage-free, brown eggs. We also sell handmade soap, herbs and nature craft. We cater to those who want the unusual in their gardens and kitchens, such as shaggy mane mushroom starter in the autumn and fresh fiddleheads in the spring) RECOMMENDER
- Sparrow Haven - A Suburban Refuge for the Rural at Heart (Ontario; 90 ft x 110 ft lot.) RECOMMENDER
- Campbell's Honey (Campbell's Honey is a Canadian beekeeper blog and a great place to read expert tips, and stories and understand an apiarist and his love of honeybees.) Recommended by his son!
- Ottawa Hortiphilia (Ottawa; An enabling site for the horticulturally obsessed. Life around my urban plot is green! (except in the middle of winter in Canadian zone 5a then it's mostly sludgy brown and white.) Recommended
- Tiny Farm Blog (Ontario; 2 acres; Organic micro-farming with two acres and some tools ~ a daily photo journal; 'TFB is the first farm blog I found. Since I own a tiny farm, I can relate to the day to day chores and trials at this farm. I like the photography included in each post. This farm is in Canada, so I know I'm behind schedule when they are doing things I should have done 5 weeks before.') Recommended
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
‘Having lived and worked abroad as a director of the International Herald Tribune for most of his adult life, Walthew, along with his Australian wife, Han, made a snap decision, aged 34, to buy a house in Gloucestershire, and embrace life in the country.
This is familiar territory, but Walthew combines his own story - coming to terms with the untimely deaths of his father and brother - with that of the land and the people who make up village life.
Funny, touching and ultimately very moving, this is a beautiful, unsentimental account of a personal loss that is reflected in the rapidly changing texture of life in rural England.’
Sunday Telegraph
This is familiar territory, but Walthew combines his own story - coming to terms with the untimely deaths of his father and brother - with that of the land and the people who make up village life.
Funny, touching and ultimately very moving, this is a beautiful, unsentimental account of a personal loss that is reflected in the rapidly changing texture of life in rural England.’
Sunday Telegraph
FARM BLOGS FROM FRANCE
- A Place in the Auvergne (Puy de Dome; 5ha; poultry, dairy, vegetables, fruit, pigs) Recommender
- Association Jean-Hugues, Le Chevrier (Puy-de-Dome; 50 ha; goats)
- Caseophile ("For cheese lovers; info on cheeses, cheeses & wine; all you always wanted to know about cheese!")
- Eco-Gites of Lenault (Calvados, France; stories from an English family in France who are setting up an eco homestay and intend to supply organic veges and local produce to their guests.) Recommended
- Ferme des Hautes Chaumes (Puy de Dome, 230 hectares; dairy, cheese, Fourme Fermier; Estive; Mountain grazing at 1500m April-September) Recommended
- GAEC des Hautes Chaumes (website; not blog)
- La Ferme des Supeyres
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
DAILY TELEGRAPH
'a poignant portrait of country life....the book could have been a rollicking, laugh-a-minute riff on ignorant townies having to ask what exactly a heifer is. There are certainly some fine comic episodes.. but it quickly turns into something more sombre - and more interesting...
His beautifully written book is an elegy for an England that is dying, or at least in terminal decline.'
Max Davidson, Daily Telegraph
His beautifully written book is an elegy for an England that is dying, or at least in terminal decline.'
Max Davidson, Daily Telegraph
FARM BLOGS FROM GERMANY
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
‘Even peripheral characters…really come to life; as does the beauty of the Cotswolds and the harsh realities it conceals. A Place in My Country is an edifying consideration of the English countryside, its rich history and its attempt to adapt in today’s world’
Times Literary Supplement
Times Literary Supplement
FARM BLOGS FROM IRELAND
- Organic Growing Pains (Ireland; small allotment; vegetables; organic) RECOMMENDER
- Ollie's Place: Organic Food, Farming, Research, News & 'Views with Oliver Moore (with a particular focus on the Irish situation)' Recommended
- Restoring Mayberry. ('I like this blog as it's about homesteading, self-sufficiency, and the environment as well--and how these are all interconnected. The author, Brian Kaller, lives with his family in rural Ireland, but is from the US originally.)' Recommended
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
CHRISTCHURCH PRESS
Who hasn't thought, occasionally, of chucking it all in and starting up a new life in the country?
After years in France climbing the corporate ladder, Ian Walthew finds himself back in his native England and, with a working life looming in London, does just that, although it must be said more by accident than by design..
On a whim, he and his wife buy a cottage in the Cotswolds – surely one of -England's prettiest regions.
Walthew is something of a burnt-out case when they arrive, and the story of this book is as much one of his own regeneration and coming to terms with his past, as it is an account of a life in the country.
As Walthew adapts to his new situation, it is his neighbour, Norman, a struggling, small-scale farmer (who barely acknowledges the new arrivals in the first few months) who gradually becomes the focal point of much of their day-to-day existence. Having lived what could be seen as a fairly typical modern life, flitting around the world for work and leisure, Walthew has his eyes opened to his own country by a man who has rarely left the area.
Through Norman – and his hard, battling, rustic life – Walthew develops a greater appreciation of what is there, and, just as importantly, what is being lost as the rural landscape – both social and physical – is irrevocably altered by 'progress'. It is a disappearing life – traditional farms pushed aside by bigger operations and developers catering to affluent lifestylers.
Walthew is not a hopeless romantic – he is well aware of the economic forces at work. But you can't help but feel that on many scores he's absolutely right, and while the country may be economically richer, it will be socially poorer as Norman and the likes are gradually squeezed from the land.
Well written and well constructed, this is an enjoyable, funny, often poignant book, and one that will resonate with many New Zealanders.
After years in France climbing the corporate ladder, Ian Walthew finds himself back in his native England and, with a working life looming in London, does just that, although it must be said more by accident than by design..
On a whim, he and his wife buy a cottage in the Cotswolds – surely one of -England's prettiest regions.
Walthew is something of a burnt-out case when they arrive, and the story of this book is as much one of his own regeneration and coming to terms with his past, as it is an account of a life in the country.
As Walthew adapts to his new situation, it is his neighbour, Norman, a struggling, small-scale farmer (who barely acknowledges the new arrivals in the first few months) who gradually becomes the focal point of much of their day-to-day existence. Having lived what could be seen as a fairly typical modern life, flitting around the world for work and leisure, Walthew has his eyes opened to his own country by a man who has rarely left the area.
Through Norman – and his hard, battling, rustic life – Walthew develops a greater appreciation of what is there, and, just as importantly, what is being lost as the rural landscape – both social and physical – is irrevocably altered by 'progress'. It is a disappearing life – traditional farms pushed aside by bigger operations and developers catering to affluent lifestylers.
Walthew is not a hopeless romantic – he is well aware of the economic forces at work. But you can't help but feel that on many scores he's absolutely right, and while the country may be economically richer, it will be socially poorer as Norman and the likes are gradually squeezed from the land.
Well written and well constructed, this is an enjoyable, funny, often poignant book, and one that will resonate with many New Zealanders.
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
FARM BLOGS FROM NEW ZEALAND
- Cabbage Tree Farm - Recipes and stories from a rural 10 acre block in Kaipara (Northland, New Zealand; 10 acres; Bridget and her husband moved from the city onto a ten acre block totry having a go at being self sufficient and doing it successfully Imight add. Fantastic recipes to go with Bridget's great cooking. Another great read.) RECOMMENDER
- Goings on at Mad Bush Farm (Maungaturoto, North Island; 10 acres; cattle; chickens; vegetables; Yucca plants; "It's our family blog about our day to day life (most of the time) mixed in with farming related media releases, art, blog reviews, photography and editorial as well as loads of animals.) RECOMMENDER
- Farmlet (A NZ family striving towards self-sufficiency, cheese making is one of their interests among other things.) Recommended
Waikato Times (NZ)
'As an ex-Pom and a current country dweller I found this book both moving and sad.
Walthew was a high-flying media executive whose jet-setting lifestyle had driven him to the edge of breakdown.
When a business reorganisation sees he and wife Hannah moved from Paris back to England, a Sunday drive finds a cottage in the Cotswolds and a dramatic change of lifestyle.
Hannah was a web designer and Ian thought he'd get work as a consultant.
Instead he found himself doing a lot of running, and very slowly getting to know some of the locals.
When a miracle happens and a longed-for but seemingly impossible pregnancy becomes a reality, bringing them baby Annie, their affinity with a rural lifestyle seems assured.
I found very moving Walthew's narrative, with its vivid descriptions of the English countryside and its people. However, while the varied flora and fauna may be still there, at least in some places, The massive changes being wrought by money, the class system, industrial farming and modernisation are making irreversible changes to the rural population and way of life which has long been thought of as quintessentially English.
His farmer neighbour, Norman, is a taciturn but determined remnant of what was once an area dominated by small mixed farming, mainly done by tenants of the landowning class.
Ian becomes aware of the difficulties faced through the closure of local sales, and the competition for help from local contractors.
Lack of work and dwindling finances finally force Ian and Hannah to give up their rural dream, and move to Brussels to recoup.
What struck me about Walthew's story was the various similarities to what is happening here in New Zealand. An interesting, but sobering read.'
Walthew was a high-flying media executive whose jet-setting lifestyle had driven him to the edge of breakdown.
When a business reorganisation sees he and wife Hannah moved from Paris back to England, a Sunday drive finds a cottage in the Cotswolds and a dramatic change of lifestyle.
Hannah was a web designer and Ian thought he'd get work as a consultant.
Instead he found himself doing a lot of running, and very slowly getting to know some of the locals.
When a miracle happens and a longed-for but seemingly impossible pregnancy becomes a reality, bringing them baby Annie, their affinity with a rural lifestyle seems assured.
I found very moving Walthew's narrative, with its vivid descriptions of the English countryside and its people. However, while the varied flora and fauna may be still there, at least in some places, The massive changes being wrought by money, the class system, industrial farming and modernisation are making irreversible changes to the rural population and way of life which has long been thought of as quintessentially English.
His farmer neighbour, Norman, is a taciturn but determined remnant of what was once an area dominated by small mixed farming, mainly done by tenants of the landowning class.
Ian becomes aware of the difficulties faced through the closure of local sales, and the competition for help from local contractors.
Lack of work and dwindling finances finally force Ian and Hannah to give up their rural dream, and move to Brussels to recoup.
What struck me about Walthew's story was the various similarities to what is happening here in New Zealand. An interesting, but sobering read.'
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
BBC COUNTRYFILE MAGAZINE
'Unlike many escape to the country books this is a revealing and sometimes painful account of life in 21st century English countryside. Walthew discovers how class and wealth splinter rural communities but also finds personal contentment, if not a perfect idyll. It is beautifully written and very moving. This is a great book, if you like to have your misconceptions about our land thoroughly challenged.’
BBC Countryfile Magazine
BBC Countryfile Magazine
FARM BLOGS FROM PORTUGAL
FARM BLOGS FROM SLOVAKIA
FARM BLOGS FROM SOUTH AFRICA
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
OXFORD TIMES
'Books about cosmopolitan urbanites discovering the joys of country life are two a penny, but this one is worth a second glance. Walthew's vivid description of the moral stress induced by his job as a high-flying executive with the International Herald Tribune newspaper is worth the cover price alone. The story of finding the dream cottage, the impulse buy, and the last-minute panic are standard for this genre, but Walthew has some more interesting things to say. His outgoing personality - and perhaps his cosmopolitan background, and his Australian wife - allowed him to integrate into village life but keep an outsider's point of view. He gradually realised that the villagers were far from the united community of townies' dreams, and that economics was forcing drastic changes on traditional rural life. Highly recommended.'
Oxford Times
Oxford Times
FARM BLOGS FROM THE U.K.
- A Life Less Simple (Gloucestershire) RECOMMENDER
- Arcadian Advocate ('a shire county'; 1500 acres; Mixed) RECOMMENDER
- Smallest Smallholding (England) RECOMMENDER
- Woolly Shepherds Diary (Somerset) RECOMMENDER
- Round the Water Trough (Location) RECOMMENDER
- Woodpightel Cottage (Smallholding) RECOMMENDER
- The Cottage Smallholder (Not a farm, however this great blog is about an English couple trying to be more self sufficient with growing their own veg, keeping chickens, curing their own bacon and trying hard (succeeding too) to make gourmet meals from budget priced supermarket food.) Recommended
- The Diary Of An English Gardener - I work as a gardener on an English country estate and here I will publish extracts from my own personal diary along with a few other bits and bobs along the way (Derbyshire; Bob is a gardener on a country estate. A day to day diary of his going's on as well as great photos, and tips on growing of plants and vegetables. Bob is a former farmer and still very much into the farming way of life. Brilliant blog definitely one to read.) Recommended
- Fr. Peter's DIY Environmental Ideas (Recommended)
- Fr. Peter's Environmental Notes (Recommended)
- My Tiny Plot (SW England; Urban homesteading; "It's a blog about vegetable gardening and seasonal cooking.") Recommended
- The Weaver of Grass (Yorkshire; sheep; I am a farmer's wife living on the Eastern edge of The Yorkshire Dales with my husband and a young border terrier; Pat is a farmer's wife writing about day to day life on their farm andthe wonderful places she visits. Pat is also a talented writer and poet. Another fantastic read. Pat: "we are retired and although we live on a farm we let our land and/or take in other farmers sheep and cattle) Recommended
- Becoming Domestic: Leaving London and downshifting to become a full-time parent and rural homemaker
- Colour it Green
- Dave's Allotment (England; allotment; vegetables)
- Field Day (General Resources; Tim Relf's blog on Farmers Weekly.co.uk)
- From (Home) Farm to Fork! (Gloucestershire, England; mixed; organic)
- Lavendar Jack (Somerset)
- LittleFfarn Dairy (Wales)
- Locks Park Farm
- Musings from a Stonehead
- Not a Proper Farmer (Shropshire)
- Peak Food
- Ramblings (Devon, England; Smallholding; Life in Devon: murblings on farming, food, animals, art, books, politics & stuff)
- Rural Villager (Wilts)
- The Accidental Smallholder (Scotland)
- The Edge of Nowhere
- The Longer View
- Land Strategies (General Resource; a regular round up of news and comment about consumers, the food they buy and the places they buy from, aiming to provide British farmers with an easy way to keep up to date with consumer trends.) Self-recommended
- Warmwell (UK, General Resource)
Phoenix paperback,USA, 2009
NATIONAL FARMERS UNION 'COUNTRYSIDE' MAGAZINE
FARM BLOGS FROM THE U.S.A
- Alpaca Farm Girl (Alabama; 10 acres; 60+ Alpacas; Katy Spears has been breeding high quality huacaya alpacas for nine years. She is the mother of four children, and manages a herd of 60+ alpacas.) RECOMMENDER
- Brookfarm Alpacas (CA; 33 acres; Alpacas, Maremma; Nubian dairy goats, poultry) RECOMMENDER
- Amazing Graze Farm (Ohio; homestead; Christian) RECOMMENDER
- Back to Basic Living (Location; 65 acres; Our adventure into Homesteading and getting back to basic living. Life is tough, but living doesn’t have to be; 23 chickens. We grow our own vegetables, eat deer from our property, and focus on eating more naturally.) RECOMMENDER
- Bluebird Meadow Farms (NY; 35 acres; poultry; vegetables, berries; slowly transforming a home and land into a sustainable farm that provides for many) RECOMMENDER
- Brookfarm Alpacas(CA; 33 acres; Alpacas, Nubian dairy goats, NZ Red rabbits, Poultry) RECOMMENDER
- Cedar Cove Farm (Missouri; Christian; His land and His creatures are our top concern. It is with this in mind that we seek to provide good food, without any chemicals or hormones etc, to our local communtiy. We believe in supporting local agriculture, staying small and building relationships with our customers; raising the best tastin' chicken in Ozark county) RECOMMENDER
- Church View Farm (West Virginia; An innovative artisan farm in Hampshire County; dedicated to sustainable agricultural practices.) RECOMMENDER
- A Dairy Perspective (Wisconsin; dairy farm; "Jennifer and Zacchary are a young couple running a small dairy farm in Wisconson. This blog is about their challenges in day to day life while finding some time to enjoy themselves. This is a great blog well worth reading. Jennifer's humour is riveting. One excellent blog.") RECOMMENDER
- Georgia Farm Woman (Georgia;100 acres: cows, goats, donkey) RECOMMENDER
- The Dairy Princess Diaries (California; Sustainable farming, farmstead, cheese, charcuterie, chatworking; Through food and friends, finding myself in my local community.) RECOMMENDER
- Goodness Gracious Acres (FL; 1.5 acres; goats, cheese, milk, chickens, turkeys, Nubians) RECOMMENDER
- Hidden Haven Homestead (North Carolina; homestead; goats, off grid living, soapmaking, frugal living, milking the goats, gathering eggs,making soap, making cheese;) RECOMMENDER
- Homesteader Life: Christian Agrarian Counterculture (NY; 200 acres; organic dairy - Jerseys; poulty; hog; vegetables, maple syrup; hunting, trapping) RECOMMENDER
- Life On A Southern Farm (Georgia; 100 acre farm; cows, goats, 6 guineas, chickens, donkey; back to basics, debt free sort of life; stories, and recipes.) RECOMMENDER
- Life on the Farm (TX; 14 acres; CSA farm; market garden; 'A blog of my journey from horticulturist and horse pasture keeper (aka barn queen), to organic, local produce farmer, or agriculturist to be more formal, at Eden's Garden. A new branch of my life unfolding. A new organic, local, urban CSA farm is in the making - to the delight of locavores - folks seeking healthy, fresh, natural and local eating, in DFW'; Renewable enegry) RECOMMENDER
- Life on Tracy's Farm (Texas; 3 acres; 3 acres to learn on and grow in. A place to share with my family and friends. A place where hummingbirds battle and frogs sing loudly) RECOMMENDER
- Mud Ranch's Real Dirt (California; 38 acres; Hereford cattle, Kiger Mustangs, Jacob sheep) RECOMMENDER
- Nature's Harmony Farm (Georgia; 76 acres; family-owned, pasture-based, local-market sustainable farm; believe in orchestrating an environment harmonious with nature, where animals are treated with love and respect and are free to naturally express their characteristics) RECOMMENDER
- Northview Diary (NY; Life on a family dairy farm in the wilds of Upstate New York) RECOMMENDER
- One Wild and Precious Life (Brewster, NY; 1 acre; Bluestone Farm is a small farm, devoted mostly to sustaining the Sisters of the Community of the Holy Spirit (Episcopal Church USA) and their guests, but we also sell at the local weekly farmers market from June-November, and we sell eggs and maple syrup throughout the year. Also 40 crops and poultry; wine) RECOMMENDER
- Our Plain and Simple Life - Just the day to day pathway of our plain and simple family, living a plain and simple rural life. (Mississippi; 19.7 acres; Christian; Currently, we have goats and chickens (and a lot of dogs and cats!) We plan to start building the fruit orchard on a small scale, our garden areas, and meat rabbits this year. We are a Plain, homesteading, homeschooling, Bible-believing, self-sufficient, God-reliant family of 11...) RECOMMENDER
- Plowing, Sowing and an Occassional Harvest (Texas; farm; cattle, cereals) RECOMMENDER
- Raising Country Kids (Montana; ranching; cattle, farming; This is real life on the farm with four kids) RECOMMENDER
- Ran with the devil, Walked with angels (Texas; rebuilding the farm inherited from my grandmother in Texas.) RECOMMENDER
- Skoog Farm Journal (NY; 5 acres; horses; organic garlic, vegetables and flowers) RECOMMENDER
- Stony Brook Farm (NY; 30 acres; Pasture Raised and Grass Fed; Welfare, Ecology, and Taste in Schoharie, NY; "I farm thirty acres, about half of which is leased. If I can work out a long-term lease with my neighbor, I hope to be farming eighty acres next year. I raise pigs and meat chickens on pasture and feed them a locally grown and ground grain mix, and I raise grassfed lamb") RECOMMENDER
- Sugar on Snow: Finding and Preparing Vermont’s Local Foods (VT) RECOMMENDER
- Sweet Local Farm (MA; 3 acres; self-sustaining homemstead) RECOMMENDER
- Throwback at Trapper Creek (Pacific Northwest; 180 acres; Hereford, Guernsey; Sustainable logging; Australian Shepherd) RECOMMENDER
- A Vermont Family's Farm - Bosky Dell Farm (VT; 22 acres; dairy, poultry, pigs, bees, vegetables, co-op) RECOMMENDER
- Adventures in the 100 acre wood: the ongoing adventures of a family of six living in the woods, homesteading and homeschooling. (WV; 100 acres; 'Stumbled upon this farm, she is also from WV. Like hearing about her life in WV in comparison to mine.' ) Recommended
- Ante Family Agrarians (Texas - about to move; Homestead; Christian; "This is the process/journey of our family (The Antes) in seeking the Lords will in separating from the modern ways, back to a biblical, agrarian, simple way of life.") Recommended
- The Bedlam Farm Journal ( ) Recommended
- Beesybee fiber's Blog (Life in West Marin seen through the eye of an needle/'Visually beautiful blog, beautiful colors, wonderful projects'.) Recommended
- Chickens in the Road - Life in Ordinary Splendor (West Virginia; "It was a cold wintry day when I brought my children to live in rural West Virginia. The farmhouse was one hundred years old, there was already snow on the ground, and the heat was sparse-—as was the insulation. The floors weren’t even, either. My then-twelve-year-old son walked in the door and said, “You’ve brought us to this slanted little house to die.") Recommended
- Confessions of a Pioneer Woman (Location; Acreage; Crops; Livestock; "A a thirty-something ranch wife, mother of four, moderately-agoraphobic middle child who grew up on a golf course in the city; I write about my decade-long transition from spoiled city girl to domestic country wife. I post photos of cows, horses, and my four weird children, and frequently include shots of cowboys wearing chaps. In my Photography section, I include Photography and Photoshop tutorials. In my Cooking section, I post step-by-step photos of all the cowboy-friendly dishes I’ve taught myself to cook through the years, and in Home & Garden, I chronicle the start-to-finish remodeling project of an old guest house on our ranch.") Recommended
- The Cornucopia (Iowa; 'A small family farm located in rural northwest Iowa. Our goal is to be good stewards of the resources God has given us in land, water, plants and animals. We pursue organic methods to raise vegetables and market them with the label of Certified Naturally grown. We also range free-range broilers, hens, purebred Berkshire Gilts and 2 cows at present.') Recommended
- Dissertation to Dirt (Austin, TX; Neysa, who is making a transition from academic life to the farm. A large CSA farm) Recommended
- DMAR Alpaca and Maremma Blog (Weblog based on alpacas and Maremmas/ 'Alpacas, maremmas, oh my. Great educational information on everything alpaca. My kinda gal!') Recommended
- Dry Creek Cronicles - Letters to scattered family and friends (Kentucky; 30 acres; homesteading) Recommended
- An Emergent Agrarian - One man's journey from the Corporate to the Agrarian for the sake of Faith and Family (Pennsylvania; Reformed Theology, Christian Agrarianism, Farming with Horses, Woodworking and Computers.) Recommended
- Fancyin' the farm life (Location; Mother of 3 and wife to an amazing guy. Working towards the dream of one day having a farm, living off the land, and taking care of some critters.) Recommended
- Farmgirl Fare (Missouri; 240 acres; Recipes, stories, and photos, from my crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres) Recommended
- Farming the WC (Westchester County, NY; 180 acres; a farm and an environmental center in operation) Recommended
- Girl on the Rocks (FORMERLY KNOWN AS KNIT THIS… KNITTING, SPINNING, 'Clever, creative, frequent entries' ) Recommended
- Home Sweet Farm (Brenham, TX; 'Brad and Jenny Stufflebeam are great mentors, not to mention great human beings and wonderful farmers! His blog has provided many a new Texas farmer with start up planting plans and great tips and advice as well as info that keeps us abreast on legislation, etc.') Recommended
- Honest Farm ('Inspirational blog with gorgeous photography, recipes, and great food ideas. She promotes buying your food locally.') Recommended
- The Inadvertent Farmer ('This is a beautiful blog written by a lady who has various farm animals and a camel. She posts recipes with gorgeous photographs on her blog ') Recommended
- Keepin' It Rural (Oklahoma; Not a cowboy or a farmer or a hayseed or a redneck, though I'm a bit of all those. Mostly I'm just a country boy) Recommended
- Living off grid at Eclectic Culture Farm (Location; 40 acres; Crops?; Livestock?; "We were your fairly typical homeschool family of 7 (soon to be 8) living on a hobby farm in the rual midwest... But as of October 15, 2008 we changed! Join us on our adventure of purchasing and moving into a 40 acre Amish farm with 9+ outbuildings, a pond and more. Oh yes, did I tell you we are living "off-grid"...? We have no electricity and all that goes with that... The outhouses too...") Recommended
- Making it home...while we are here - Rev. 1:7 (Mississippi; small acreage; Christian; We just bought this place and we will be transforming it into the simple little homestead we have dreamed of, as it will probably transform us) Recommended
- The Martha Blog ('Although Martha Stewart blogs about many aspects of her life, she often writes about her farm in Bedford, NY. Her farm is what mine would look like if I had endless amounts of time and money. I'll keep dreaming.') Recommended - the fruits of crime?
- The New Agrarian (a small house near a medium-sized city, Upper South; 1.25 acres; backyard poultry, cooking, dendrology, gardening, herpetology, homebrewing, Pennsylvania Dutch food, pickles, urban agriculture, woodworking) Recommended
- New to Farm Life (A COUPLE MOVES FROM THE BIG CITY TO THE COUNTRYSIDE AND STARTS A SMALL FARM...WAIT, YOU'VE HEARD THIS PREMISE BEFORE? WHAT? TRITE? HACKNEYED? BUT, I HAVE GOATS. REALLY CUTE PICTURES OF TINY BABY GOATS. AND CHEESEMAKING RECIPES. WE SLAUGHTER OUR OWN PIGS AND CURE OUR OWN BACON! WELL, THAT'S IN THE MASTER PLAN, ANYWAY. JUST READ IT, YOU'LL SEE.) Recommended
- Pile of O'Melay's - Herein we document our quiet life (Missouri) Recommended
- Prairieland Herbs Blog - Adventures from the Farm (Iowa) Recommended
- Rachel's Tiny Farm ('This is a fascinating blog for an east coast farmer to read because she is located in Arizona. She can grow citrus, she has a completely different growing season, but I can still relate to her. She is a "next generation farmer" and very talented artist.') Recommended
- Rhymes With Vanilla - "Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans." -John Lennon (Colorado; Acreage; Living a simple, very ordinary life in breathtaking Colorado with my husband, three dogs and a herd of cats. Taking life a day at a time and vowing to never stop learning) Recommended
- Rodale New Farmers forums ('I also frequent the Rodale newfarmers forums, which consists really of several blogs in some of the threads; specifically, the "daily Journal" thread. There are 3 farmers who pretty regularly post.') Recommended
- Rooster Hill Farm ('This blog has introduced me to some aspects of farming. I particularly loved the visit from the AI (artificial insemination) Guy in his cow painted vehicle.') Recommended
- St. Fairsted Farm ('This blog is about farming, rural issues, and food. She gives good tips and have nice photos.') Recommended
- Schoonover Farm Blog (Washington State; This is the newest blog for our little farm in Skagit county. Here we raise Shetland sheep, Nigerian Dwarf goats, Satin Angora rabbits & pheasants. In addition we have donkeys, llamas, chickens, geese, ducks, peafowl and a turkey. The blog describes the weekly activities here.) Recommended
- Seasons Eatings Farm (Maine; 45 acres; located in rural Washington county, Maine. We own 45 acres of mostly forested land. The market garden is one acre of intensively grown land.) Recommended
- The Shambles under Highland Butte (Oregon; Life on a small farm in Oregon) Recommended
- Simple/Green/Frugal CO-OP ("This blog is written by a co-operative of writers. We all have our own personal blogs but we have joined together here with the hope of providing a helpful reference point for those living simply and sustainably.") Recommended
- Skippy's Vegetable Garden ('All time favorite gardening blog! Kathy updates all the time and takes great aerial shots of her home garden and community garden. I also like the radish and cucumber martinis she features.') Recommended
- Stony Run Farm (Oregon; 'The author focuses on living simply and sustainably, and is inspiring to me because it's about being self-sufficient on just one acre. She's a wonderful writer, too.') Recommended
- Sugar Mountain Farm (Vermont; Stories from a small farm in Vermont's mountains raising pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, dogs and kids naturally on pasture.) Recommended
- Surviving on Massachusetts ('This little local food/garden blog is great. I relate to the writer because she lives in my state and is about my age. She also leaves me great comments!') Recommended
- This Garden is Illegal - Gardening isn't a hobby, it is an obsession (Ohio; A gardener in the Cleveland suburbs waxes on and off about her garden, the flowers, what she wants to do in her yard and how it all fits into her everyday life.) Recommended
- Turtle Rock Farm (Oklahoma; 100-year-old wheat and cattle farm in north central Oklahoma. Still operating as such. Also, my sister and I have started a retreat center here. So our blog covers both areas - farming, especially, as it relates to sustainability.) Recommended
- Urban Gardens: Unlimited Thinking for Limited Spaces (NY?; ''a great combination of urban farming and green design. The blog is run by Robin Horton, and I think she's in the New York area, but not sure.') Recommended
- A Verb for Keeping Warm (CA; Spinning, Dyeing, Knitting, Weaving, & Ethnographic Textile Exploration) Recommended
- Willing Hands Organic Farm ('Our Little Adventures, On Our Little Plot, Growing Big Dreams') Recommended
- Wilmoth Farms (Kentucky; 1000 acres; mixed farm; "Farming life on a thousand acre mixed farm in Kentucky as told by Rachel. Fantastic photography. Great stories to go. This is a must read and one to follow.") Recommended
- Barnstorming (Washington) Self-recommended
- MommyMommyLand (New York; 60 acres; sustainable organic farming) Self-recommended
- Rosewood Hill Farm (Virginia; Writing about agriculture, farming goats,and growing wine grapes) Self-recommended
- ThistleDew Farm (East Tennessee) Self-recommended
- 3 Acre Homestead (Florida; homestead)
- Apifera Farm - where art, animals and lavender collide. (Oregon)
- A Single Mom's Adventure into Urban Homesteading (Michigan; homestead; urban)
- Blue Line Farm (Michigan; 20 acres; one horse farm, 5 acres cleared)
- Clear Brook Farm (Vermont)
- Cold Antler Farm (VT)
- Cowboygs, Kids and Sunsets (Arizona; a cowboy's wife)
- Cricket Bread (North Carolina; Trace Ramsey works at the Eastern Carolina Organics)
- David's Farm (NJ; Organic farm)
- Diary of a Farmer (Texas; Beef; chickens)
- Down On The Farm (Ohio)
- Elements in Time: Creating Edible Landscape (Seattle)
- Lazy Toad Farm (NH)
- Frazzled Farm Wife (South Dakota)
- Homesteading Hickory Hills (Southern Missouri)
- Liberty Farm: Adventures in building a small sustainable farm for raising healthy food and healthy kids.
- Melissa Hart the Knolltop Farm Wife (Michigan, dairy farm)
- Life on Bean Road (NH)
- Massa Organics (CA - organic rice)
- NightLife: Chronicles of Less Urban Living (Idaho; 5 acres; small-scale organic farming)
- ND Homekeeper (ND; farm/homestead)
- Notes from Desert Weyr Farm (CO)
- Patchwork Jacob Sheep (Georgia; Jacob sheep)
- Pockets of the Future Blog (Virginia)
- Sprout ( NJ; a gardening blog about growing, cooking and eating vegetables)
- The Beginning Farmer (Iowa)
- The Morning Farm Report (MO)
- The Adventures of the Farmers Wife and Rural American Woman Magazine (Wisconsin)
- The Deliberate Agrarian (New York; homestead; Christian)
- Trailing with Tap (South Dakota)
- TNfarmgirl (Christian Agrarian)
- Wrensong Farm (WA; 5 acres; smallholding; Jacobs, Shetlands; Peacocks, Emus, Ducks,Turkeys; Belgian Tervuren, Australian Shepperd)
- Wunsapana Farm (NY)
- Abounding Harvest
- Barefoot Gypsy Blog
- Blue Fox Organics
- Bull Run Farm
- Butterfly Hill Farm
- Bluebird Meadow Farms
- Black Ram Farm
- Boulder Belt
- Caerwyn Farm and Spirits
- Circle M. Farm
- City Bees Blog
- Colle Farm
- Crosswind Farm
- Dennisranch’s Weblog
- Fair Share Farm News
- Farmbedded
- Farm Life
- Farm Top Hilly
- Farmgirl Fare
- First Fruits Farm
- Friendly Farm
- Glenrose Farm
- Gallagher Farm
- Harmony Valley Farm
- I Love Farms
- Head Spring Farm
- Laughing Orca Ranch
- Little Homestead in the City
- Maple Creek Farm
- Midlife by Farmlight
- Moonmeadow Farm
- Mv Fibre Farm
- Oakhill Organics
- On the Way to Critter Farm
- One Green Generation
- Plamadon, View from the Farm,
- Pinwheel Farm
- Red Wiggler Community Farm
- Reimann Family Farm
- Small Farm Blogs
- Stogrow
- Stories from the Farm
- Sugar Creek Farm
- Sunflower Farm
- The Baalands
- The Golden Touch Farm
- The Peterson Farm
- This Blessed Life
- Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere
- Urban Hippie Farm
- Write in the Sonlight
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
SUNDAY TIMES
GENERAL RESOURCES
- Agricultural Law (U.S.A)
- Alex Tiller's Blog on Agriculture & Farming (U.S.A)
- Ask Jackie
- Cheese Slave (U.S.A.; For the love of cheese. And bacon. And butter. And raw milk. And all those other things we're not supposed to eat.)
- Common Sense Agriculture, Conservation and Energy (U.S.A)
- Daily Yonder (U.S.A)
- Daughter of the Soil (Glos., U.K.)
- Dave Duffy Blogging
- Deliberate Agrarian
- Eat Wild
- Eat. Drink. Better. (U.S.A.) Recommended
- Edible Nation
- Ethicurean (U.S.A; Chew the Right Thing; Someone who seeks out tasty things that are also sustainable, organic, local, and/or ethical - SOLE food, for short.)
- Farm Blogs.org (U.S.A.; Farm Blogs was created for farmers by a real farm family. Each of the pictures on this page were taken on our family farm. You don't have to be a web developer to get your farm online with the tools that are available these days. If you are involved in agriculture and would like to start blogging about your farm, you can get yours here on Farm Blogs quickly and easily. We can even help you sell products on your blog with e-commerce.)
- Farm Foody
- Farming Friends (UK)
- Farmnet.com (Australia; a free service helping Austrlian farmers and rural communities setup their own webpages)
- Field Day (UK)
- Freedom Gardeners.org
- Growing Goodness (U.S.A)
- Info Farm: The National Agricultural Library Blog (USDA)
- John's World
- Kelly the Kitchen Kop - Your Health Detective (U.S.A; New and healthy recipe ideas, along with plenty of Health and Nutrition information) - Recommender
- Land Strategies Blog (U.K.)
- Legal Ruralism
- Local Harvest (U.S.A; Real Food, Real Farmers, Real Community)
- Mariann Fischer Boel (The EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development)
- MaryJanesFarm - Simple Solutions for Everyday Organic (USA)
- Path to Freedom (U.S.A., CA)
- Slow Food (a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.)
- Sustainable Table (U.S.A.) Recommended
- The Graduate Program in Agricultural Law (U.S.A)
- The Modern Homestead (U.S.A.; This site is dedicated to the skills and philosophy for more self-reliant living. Whether you have access to fifty acres or only a patio pot, you have the opportunity to produce more of your own food for yourself and your family, to enter more fully into the yearly cycle, and to know your place in the web of life.)
- The Simple Green Frugal Co-op blogspot (Writers co-op) Recommended
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Ian Walthew was a newspaper executive with a career that took him round the world, who one day did a mad thing. He saw a for-sale sign on a cottage in the Cotswolds, bought it, resigned and moved in.
For the first few weeks he just lay on the grass in a daze.
Then he started talking to his neighbours and digging into the rich history of this beautiful part of England. Out of his inquiries grew this affecting and inspiring memoir.
What sets it apart from others of its ilk is the author’s enviable immunity to cliché and his determination to love his homeland better than he used to. His elegiac account of relearning how to be an Englishman should be required reading for anyone who claims to know or love this country.’
Financial Times
For the first few weeks he just lay on the grass in a daze.
Then he started talking to his neighbours and digging into the rich history of this beautiful part of England. Out of his inquiries grew this affecting and inspiring memoir.
What sets it apart from others of its ilk is the author’s enviable immunity to cliché and his determination to love his homeland better than he used to. His elegiac account of relearning how to be an Englishman should be required reading for anyone who claims to know or love this country.’
Financial Times
Ian's Rural Blog from his home in the Auvergne (France)
THE SHOOTING TIMES
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
LUCY WADHAM
‘This is a story about a man who leaves the reassuring numbness of the rat race, in order to relearn how to live. Not usually a non-fiction reader, I'm generally wary of 'confessional' books, which I often find narcissistic and dull.
A Place in My Country is beautifully written, poignant and wise and has all the narrative pace of the best fiction.
For anyone who loves England but doesn't necessarily know why.’
Lucy Wadham
Author of Lost, Castro’s Dream, Greater Love (Faber and Faber). Her first novel, Lost, was shortlisted for the Macallan Gold Dagger Award.
A Place in My Country is beautifully written, poignant and wise and has all the narrative pace of the best fiction.
For anyone who loves England but doesn't necessarily know why.’
Lucy Wadham
Author of Lost, Castro’s Dream, Greater Love (Faber and Faber). Her first novel, Lost, was shortlisted for the Macallan Gold Dagger Award.
More information about Ian Walthew
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
WWW.THEBOOKBAG.CO.UK
‘At the age of 34 Ian Walthew was the worldwide marketing director of the International Herald Tribune living in various parts of the world and leading a jet-set lifestyle. He was also on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Faced with a move back to London, he resigned and rather than buy a property in London he and his Australian wife bought a cottage in the Cotswolds to give Ian the peace which he needed to recuperate.
The cottage was next door to Norman's farm. Norman was a bit fearsome until you got to know him, but his struggles to keep the farm going in the face of falling prices and competition from the highly mechanised 'agri-business' arable farms kept him under a lot of pressure. Little by little Ian and Han develop a relationship with Norman and the other characters of this tightly-knit community.
When I started this book I did wonder if it was going to be an English version of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence - an amusing and entertaining read but ultimately rather superficial. I couldn't have been further from the truth. This isn't just the story of two people wanting an escape from the city; it's an examination of the state of the British countryside and a careful consideration of whether or not the way of life is sustainable. At times the writing had me close to tears.
The stars of this book are the people. Although Ian narrates the book he doesn't dominate it, but allows the villagers to shine through. It was fascinating to see his relationship with them develop after it was initially assumed by some people in the village that he and Han would be part of a more upper-class set. The couple's growing relationship with Norman sees him take a fuller part in village life. Geoff, the larger than life landlord of the local pub becomes a firm friend, but it's Tom, the ex-gamekeeper, to whom Ian becomes closest and who introduces him to the real country way of life.
It's several days now since I finished the book, but I was so moved by it that I didn't feel able to write about it immediately. It's by no means an easy read, but it's one of the most rewarding books that I've read for quite a while.’
www.thebookbag.co.uk
The cottage was next door to Norman's farm. Norman was a bit fearsome until you got to know him, but his struggles to keep the farm going in the face of falling prices and competition from the highly mechanised 'agri-business' arable farms kept him under a lot of pressure. Little by little Ian and Han develop a relationship with Norman and the other characters of this tightly-knit community.
When I started this book I did wonder if it was going to be an English version of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence - an amusing and entertaining read but ultimately rather superficial. I couldn't have been further from the truth. This isn't just the story of two people wanting an escape from the city; it's an examination of the state of the British countryside and a careful consideration of whether or not the way of life is sustainable. At times the writing had me close to tears.
The stars of this book are the people. Although Ian narrates the book he doesn't dominate it, but allows the villagers to shine through. It was fascinating to see his relationship with them develop after it was initially assumed by some people in the village that he and Han would be part of a more upper-class set. The couple's growing relationship with Norman sees him take a fuller part in village life. Geoff, the larger than life landlord of the local pub becomes a firm friend, but it's Tom, the ex-gamekeeper, to whom Ian becomes closest and who introduces him to the real country way of life.
It's several days now since I finished the book, but I was so moved by it that I didn't feel able to write about it immediately. It's by no means an easy read, but it's one of the most rewarding books that I've read for quite a while.’
www.thebookbag.co.uk
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
If you would like to be listed on this site, please write to me at info AT ianwalthew.com.
If you would like to recommend your favourite farm blogs (and you don't need to be a farmer or blogger to do this), please also write to me.
If you are listed here and haven't sent me your own recommendations, then please, return the love! And if you like, please feel free to link to Farm Blogs From Around the World.
This is quite an ambitious project; it will only work if bloggers share their knowledge and insights and spread the word.
So please, if you can, do so:
Please link to this site, email your farm/rural blogging friends, invite them to join in.
If you would like to recommend your favourite farm blogs (and you don't need to be a farmer or blogger to do this), please also write to me.
If you are listed here and haven't sent me your own recommendations, then please, return the love! And if you like, please feel free to link to Farm Blogs From Around the World.
This is quite an ambitious project; it will only work if bloggers share their knowledge and insights and spread the word.
So please, if you can, do so:
Please link to this site, email your farm/rural blogging friends, invite them to join in.
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
Blog Archive
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▼
2008
(368)
-
▼
July
(92)
- Holidays
- Rural Gentrification
- WTO talks collapse over farm trade
- Cattle 'en pension' in the Auvernge Mountains
- Book review: The End of Food
- Evening milking in the mountains of Auvernge
- Afghanistan's opium
- Atmosphere tense as WTO talks stall
- WTO talks progress, but new farm issues surface
- Produce photos from an iPhone
- Coca farmers in Colombia
- Farm Market in Brockport, New York
- WTO asks U.S. to lower farm subsidy ceiling
- Something you don't see very often these days
- Troubled world trade talks show signs of progress
- Blue tongue reaches my corner of the Auvernge
- Backlash brewing against ethanol in United States
- A Place in the Auvergne
- California becomes first state to ban trans fats
- African cotton farmers hope for trade breakthrough
- Peter Mandelson, the EU trade chief, calls WTO tal...
- European panel fails to endorse milk and meat from...
- Farmers in Afghanistan
- Photos from Skoog Farm
- Argentine agricultural secretary quits
- Q & A: Should you avoid food with mold on it?
- Slow food savors its big moment
- Japan recycling more leftovers for animal feed
- McDonald's posts $1.1 billion in profit on Europea...
- Salmonella traced to jalapeños
- Ethanol industry braces for EPA decision on its fu...
- U.S. offers to cut farm subsidies by $1.4 billion ...
- 'A Midsummer Harvest of Bogus Trend Stories'
- Enjoy your own homegrown food without the sweat
- Cuba to grant private farmers access to land
- Trade powers struggle to save WTO round
- EU to slash farm tariffs to help global trade talks
- Mideast facing choice between crops and water
- Alex Tiller's Blog on Agriculture & Farming
- The Woolly Shepherd Recommends
- Rise in food prices has Bolivian coca farmers plan...
- President of Argentina withdraws tax increase on g...
- WTO: Farming exporters tell rich nations to open a...
- As price of corn rises, U.S. catfish farms dry up
- World food crisis drives up U.N. aid funding need
- U.S. food agency lifts Salmonella warning on tomatoes
- The world's most expensive food
- A Life Less Simple Recommends
- Country, the city version: Farms in the sky gain n...
- The Common Agricultural Policy: sorting the facts ...
- Mariann Fischer Boel Speech: Climate change and wa...
- Mariann Fischer Boel Speech: We want more agricult...
- Mariann Fischer Boel Speech: Who will feed the World?
- CAP Reform: Commission welcomes adoption of reform...
- Import of fresh meat from South America
- Commission proposes School Fruit Scheme worth €90 ...
- Green Party announces its ticket for 2008 presiden...
- THE FEED: The man who dared to question ethanol
- Action on Doha trade deal; Stop the finger pointing
- EU raids Cargill and Bunge in price-fixing investi...
- Hunger brings anguish for millions of Pakistanis
- Shareholders turn to sharecropping
- Biofuels called a major cause of soaring food prices
- EU raids firms in investigation of agriculture ind...
- South Korean Parliament to open inquiry into beef ...
- OPINION: Shortages are not the problem
- Food-themed festivals thrive as growing declines
- Dairy Princess Diaries Recommends
- Agricultural Law Recommends
- Colour it Green Recommends
- Letter to the IHT: A hungry world
- High food prices may cut opposition to genetically...
- Woodpightel Cottage Recommends
- Americans get that one wrong all the time too.
- Animal rights activists and ranchers clash over pr...
- EU moves to cut back target on biofuel use
- Lettuce on the White House lawn
- Legal Ruralism Recommends
- Round the Water Trough Recommends
- A Farm blog for a newspaper
- Export tax that angers farmers advances in Argentina
- The Wild Places - Book recommendation
- PATH TO FREEDOM / Little Homestead in the City
- 4.6 million Ethiopians urgently need food aid, Uni...
- The Morning Farm Report - Lohman, Missouri.
- Notes from Desert Weyr Farm
- More rains hit flooded U.S. Midwest
- Rural Argentina, once a government supporter, is n...
- Late snow brings relief and hardship to Northern R...
- South Korean auto workers back beef protests
- World Bank pressures G-8 on oil and food
- Something farmers never knew and now the NYT does!
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▼
July
(92)
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
A PLACE IN THE AUVERGNE
'The Auvergne'
by Ian Walthew
(Published in L'Express - in French: 31st July, 2008)
Auvergnats always ask why you chose their ‘pays’, can’t understand how you could leave yours.
You don’t want to disappoint with the prosaic truth.
That you were searching for anywhere with a little land, south of an east-west axis traversing Lyon (the weather); more than 100 km from any airport that can take a Ryanair jet (to avoid their passengers).
Somewhere to hide from people talking about property prices, private schools and ‘plans for the weekend’.
That you were searching for a place where you could still smell the soil and the ‘fumier’ and the ‘cave’ on the clothes of your friends.
That you saw a house on the internet in a region called the Auvergne, a region you had never visited; that this house was too close to a RN, but the contours rolled well over the map, distant from the blue lines of autoroutes – you’d pass by this place on your way back to Paris from the south one day.
And we did.
People think they can find good houses, places, people. But you can’t. They find you. You set out, drift around, and wash up on a friendly shore.
Most people are scared of the open sea, the great expanse of the Auvergne, so they take the TGV to places they know, places where they have friends and acquaintances, places where they drop anchor with their urban determination to self-associate.
The Auvergne has no TGV, it’s poor. That’s why the people are so welcoming and hospitable, says my neighbor, Jean-Baptiste.
He’s 86 now, a retired ‘menusier’, the missing fingers to prove it. He speaks Oc, at the market – when it’s not too hot, too cold, too wet, too snowy, too foggy - when the ‘troisieme generation’ go down the mountain early in the morning to talk a lot and buy a little.
Rich people, rich places, they’re not so welcoming, they don’t give so much. Arms are held wide to greet you but the embrace never tightens.
My wife didn’t want to go too far south, to the land of two seasons and burnt, aching, brown grass. In the Auvergne, winter is long, but spring and autumn explode and implode in shades of colours too fleeting to paint; the summer is hot and languid, deserved by the trials of winter, not an easy given.
The Auvergnats like to think of themselves as reserved, cautious, private. They can’t show their endless curiosity about you, because here privacy is hallowed, so their questions are absurdly roundabout or so direct so as to appear unlike a question at all - more a statement of fact that you may wish to confirm or not. (I do, they don’t.)
But they do open up, and quicker than they like to acknowledge. They are a kind, warm people with a brusque façade but one which is easily chipped in the cold, melted in the heat of shared seasons.
How would you describe Auvergnats, Jean-Baptiste?
‘There aren’t many of us left.’
He pauses, sitting on a bench in his ‘potagère’, made of a piece of wood rested on two old oil drums, in the shade of June apple tree, green and hopeful. Reflecting. ‘Amoureux,’ he smiles.
And their faults?
‘We have none. No, one mustn’t exaggerate. Of course, I’m sure we do.’‘Such as?’
He doesn’t like to say.
They’re not to be shared lightly, not with the readers of a newspaper that Jean-Baptiste has only vaguely heard of, and certainly never read.
So this ‘foreigner’ (and here that word doesn’t mean coming from another nation) will tell you things you know but do not understand.
That ‘radinerie’ (stinginess) is a virtue, nothing is wasted. And you dare to speak of reducing consumption, of recycling and saving this planet.
That for the Auvergnats, land is an obsession: their willingness to argue over a 20 cm strip of useless ground; the story of a family picnic where two brothers end up fighting over who would sit under the shade of which of two trees.
So how did we get here? We stumbled, that’s the answer. Emotional refugees from a land of loss to the Auvergne, a place of endless discovery.
The EU and one arm of the government pours millions into the region to attract incomers like us, while another Minister closed the maternity ward and threatens Ambert hospital that brought us near this town, where our third child was born.
I asked Brice Hortefeux (when he was sent last year from a place called Paris to win over the bourgeoisie in the valley) why this was, why one hand could give so much while the other took away life, our future.
That’s a good question, he said.
(His suit looked very expensive in our marketplace, positively gleaming, his tie so fat and silky, his hair coiffured like a woman’s: that must be what they call ‘French flair’.)
So what’s the answer then?
His bodyguards hustled him away. He didn’t stay long.
The Auvergne: apparently a part of a country, ‘une et indivisible’. But I see no proof.
A place where the poor own their homes and their land, and have done for generations.
Where everyone has the right to build their own home on their own land, however ugly-pink and destructive to the Auvergne’s greatest asset – the ‘patrimoine’ that serves the tourists – and turn the roads leading to its towns into messy, elongated stains.
A place where Jean-Baptiste, the third generation of his family to live in his house, who has had three neighbouring families in his family’s life here, his place, greets an Anglo-Australian couple with two children and a removal fan from Brussels without missing a beat (nor when his dog kills our cat two days later, nor when our dog kills his chickens). Curious. Calm.
It was close to misery here; people got by on 3 or 4 cows. They ate beef only once a year, even the rich who could live well off 10-15 cows. The Fete du Pays, August 10th, a beef pot-au-feu.
We eat more beef now. There is little misery, not much money. But life in the Auvergne is a life apart: simple, straightforward, our table the farm food of ‘petits producteurs’ (still); clean air and cold water that slide off and out of primordial mountains; stories old and new, jokes, a small universe, an immense space of freedom.
Do we live in France? I’ve no idea.
Ian Walthew is the author of ‘A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream’ (Phoenix, May 2008, London).
Photos of his mundane, simple life from his place in the Auvergne can be found at www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
by Ian Walthew
(Published in L'Express - in French: 31st July, 2008)
Auvergnats always ask why you chose their ‘pays’, can’t understand how you could leave yours.
You don’t want to disappoint with the prosaic truth.
That you were searching for anywhere with a little land, south of an east-west axis traversing Lyon (the weather); more than 100 km from any airport that can take a Ryanair jet (to avoid their passengers).
Somewhere to hide from people talking about property prices, private schools and ‘plans for the weekend’.
That you were searching for a place where you could still smell the soil and the ‘fumier’ and the ‘cave’ on the clothes of your friends.
That you saw a house on the internet in a region called the Auvergne, a region you had never visited; that this house was too close to a RN, but the contours rolled well over the map, distant from the blue lines of autoroutes – you’d pass by this place on your way back to Paris from the south one day.
And we did.
People think they can find good houses, places, people. But you can’t. They find you. You set out, drift around, and wash up on a friendly shore.
Most people are scared of the open sea, the great expanse of the Auvergne, so they take the TGV to places they know, places where they have friends and acquaintances, places where they drop anchor with their urban determination to self-associate.
The Auvergne has no TGV, it’s poor. That’s why the people are so welcoming and hospitable, says my neighbor, Jean-Baptiste.
He’s 86 now, a retired ‘menusier’, the missing fingers to prove it. He speaks Oc, at the market – when it’s not too hot, too cold, too wet, too snowy, too foggy - when the ‘troisieme generation’ go down the mountain early in the morning to talk a lot and buy a little.
Rich people, rich places, they’re not so welcoming, they don’t give so much. Arms are held wide to greet you but the embrace never tightens.
My wife didn’t want to go too far south, to the land of two seasons and burnt, aching, brown grass. In the Auvergne, winter is long, but spring and autumn explode and implode in shades of colours too fleeting to paint; the summer is hot and languid, deserved by the trials of winter, not an easy given.
The Auvergnats like to think of themselves as reserved, cautious, private. They can’t show their endless curiosity about you, because here privacy is hallowed, so their questions are absurdly roundabout or so direct so as to appear unlike a question at all - more a statement of fact that you may wish to confirm or not. (I do, they don’t.)
But they do open up, and quicker than they like to acknowledge. They are a kind, warm people with a brusque façade but one which is easily chipped in the cold, melted in the heat of shared seasons.
How would you describe Auvergnats, Jean-Baptiste?
‘There aren’t many of us left.’
He pauses, sitting on a bench in his ‘potagère’, made of a piece of wood rested on two old oil drums, in the shade of June apple tree, green and hopeful. Reflecting. ‘Amoureux,’ he smiles.
And their faults?
‘We have none. No, one mustn’t exaggerate. Of course, I’m sure we do.’‘Such as?’
He doesn’t like to say.
They’re not to be shared lightly, not with the readers of a newspaper that Jean-Baptiste has only vaguely heard of, and certainly never read.
So this ‘foreigner’ (and here that word doesn’t mean coming from another nation) will tell you things you know but do not understand.
That ‘radinerie’ (stinginess) is a virtue, nothing is wasted. And you dare to speak of reducing consumption, of recycling and saving this planet.
That for the Auvergnats, land is an obsession: their willingness to argue over a 20 cm strip of useless ground; the story of a family picnic where two brothers end up fighting over who would sit under the shade of which of two trees.
So how did we get here? We stumbled, that’s the answer. Emotional refugees from a land of loss to the Auvergne, a place of endless discovery.
The EU and one arm of the government pours millions into the region to attract incomers like us, while another Minister closed the maternity ward and threatens Ambert hospital that brought us near this town, where our third child was born.
I asked Brice Hortefeux (when he was sent last year from a place called Paris to win over the bourgeoisie in the valley) why this was, why one hand could give so much while the other took away life, our future.
That’s a good question, he said.
(His suit looked very expensive in our marketplace, positively gleaming, his tie so fat and silky, his hair coiffured like a woman’s: that must be what they call ‘French flair’.)
So what’s the answer then?
His bodyguards hustled him away. He didn’t stay long.
The Auvergne: apparently a part of a country, ‘une et indivisible’. But I see no proof.
A place where the poor own their homes and their land, and have done for generations.
Where everyone has the right to build their own home on their own land, however ugly-pink and destructive to the Auvergne’s greatest asset – the ‘patrimoine’ that serves the tourists – and turn the roads leading to its towns into messy, elongated stains.
A place where Jean-Baptiste, the third generation of his family to live in his house, who has had three neighbouring families in his family’s life here, his place, greets an Anglo-Australian couple with two children and a removal fan from Brussels without missing a beat (nor when his dog kills our cat two days later, nor when our dog kills his chickens). Curious. Calm.
It was close to misery here; people got by on 3 or 4 cows. They ate beef only once a year, even the rich who could live well off 10-15 cows. The Fete du Pays, August 10th, a beef pot-au-feu.
We eat more beef now. There is little misery, not much money. But life in the Auvergne is a life apart: simple, straightforward, our table the farm food of ‘petits producteurs’ (still); clean air and cold water that slide off and out of primordial mountains; stories old and new, jokes, a small universe, an immense space of freedom.
Do we live in France? I’ve no idea.
Ian Walthew is the author of ‘A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream’ (Phoenix, May 2008, London).
Photos of his mundane, simple life from his place in the Auvergne can be found at www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com
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A PLACE IN THE AUVERGNE
'The Old Soldier in Hospital'
by Ian Walthew
(Published in the International Herald Tribune, 17th April, 2008)
PUY-DE-DÔME, France: The world has turned, the markets have dropped, panic is in the air. I suppose.
Here, in our mountain home, we are sick with flu, first me, then my wife. The weather is closed in.
Down the mountain, at the hospital in town for my monthly treatment - because of a medical condition, they need to top up my gamma globulins every month - I sleep so deeply that two of my bottles are changed without Pascale, the nurse, stirring me.
When I awake, I have a roommate. The Auvergnat is old, frail. I am English and 42 years old. Normally I have a room to myself.
When I lived in Brussels, the day treatment ward was shiny and new - 16 reclining seats, facing each other. I used to take the same chair by the window, with its view of the power station.
If you shared the same treatment rhythm as someone, you could see their steady improvement, or more often their gradual decline. Four hours, once a month, watching the person opposite fade. Never did we speak.
Here they closed the maternity ward, but the hospital remains open; two beds a room, a view of the church and the hills above. And people speak to each other.
We strike up a conversation and I discover that my roommate shares the family name of one of the masons working at our house.
In these parts it is a common name. Despite this, he knows the mason, and his father and mother, and where he lives and how their families are related.
Monsieur Beal has had six operations in as many years. He used to weigh 86 kilograms, now he weighs just 48 kilograms, 106 pounds. He has had a kidney removed, and half his pancreas, if I hear him right, and more, too.
When I ask if I might take his picture he stands tall, like the soldier he was. He did his military service in the elite para commandos under the command of an infamous colonel.Monsieur Beal did 26 combat drops in Algeria, mostly intercepting rebels on the Tunisian and Moroccan borders.
When not fighting, he was the colonel's driver: "It was like that. At base we were drivers or cooks, but when we jumped we were all the same."The colonel? "He was a great man. For his 40th birthday, he gave the entire regiment leave and we drank so much beer, we purged our bodies of the desert through every orifice."
What happened to the colonel?
"He was captured at Dien Bien Phu, but he escaped, pretending to collapse, while crossing a single file wooden bridge, into a crocodile filled river."
Monsieur Beal likes the English. His regiment was deployed from Algeria to Cyprus. They weren't told why until a few days before the operation, but it was for the drop on the bridges over the Suez Canal, south of Port Said.
"We had the easy bit, we French only had a couple of regiments to spare, everyone else was in Algeria."
Resistance was low. "The enemy soldiers weren't soldiers, just men conscripted at the last minute, without shoes, without rifles. A few nests of resistance, some pill-boxes, it was over very quickly. We found piles of abandoned helmets that could fill this room. The Israelis had destroyed the Egyptian Air Force; it was all done before we dropped."
On sentry duty at the canal, the English guards never took out a pack of cigarettes without offering one of their fine smokes to us French - the French Army gave us straw to smoke. And the English always poured us hot tea, with milk, without asking. With Egyptian honey for sugar. They were good men."
In Cyprus, Monsieur Beal and his fellow soldiers were given a tour of a British warship. As they went down the gangplank afterwards, each of them were handed a cornet of frites - not a little thing, like an ice cream, but a great big bag, hot and steaming. They were the best frites he had ever eaten. He never forgot those frites.
The last poilu - the last French World War I infantryman - is dead. Now it is the men of Indochina and Algeria we shall speak of.
Why is the past always more interesting to me than the present? Why is the heard more rich than the read?
Twenty-six combat drops. Suez. The colonel.
The colonel is still alive. And so is Monsieur Beal, next to me in a hospital bed in the Auvergne.
Ian Walthew is the author of ‘A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream’ (Phoenix, May 2008, London).
by Ian Walthew
(Published in the International Herald Tribune, 17th April, 2008)
PUY-DE-DÔME, France: The world has turned, the markets have dropped, panic is in the air. I suppose.
Here, in our mountain home, we are sick with flu, first me, then my wife. The weather is closed in.
Down the mountain, at the hospital in town for my monthly treatment - because of a medical condition, they need to top up my gamma globulins every month - I sleep so deeply that two of my bottles are changed without Pascale, the nurse, stirring me.
When I awake, I have a roommate. The Auvergnat is old, frail. I am English and 42 years old. Normally I have a room to myself.
When I lived in Brussels, the day treatment ward was shiny and new - 16 reclining seats, facing each other. I used to take the same chair by the window, with its view of the power station.
If you shared the same treatment rhythm as someone, you could see their steady improvement, or more often their gradual decline. Four hours, once a month, watching the person opposite fade. Never did we speak.
Here they closed the maternity ward, but the hospital remains open; two beds a room, a view of the church and the hills above. And people speak to each other.
We strike up a conversation and I discover that my roommate shares the family name of one of the masons working at our house.
In these parts it is a common name. Despite this, he knows the mason, and his father and mother, and where he lives and how their families are related.
Monsieur Beal has had six operations in as many years. He used to weigh 86 kilograms, now he weighs just 48 kilograms, 106 pounds. He has had a kidney removed, and half his pancreas, if I hear him right, and more, too.
When I ask if I might take his picture he stands tall, like the soldier he was. He did his military service in the elite para commandos under the command of an infamous colonel.Monsieur Beal did 26 combat drops in Algeria, mostly intercepting rebels on the Tunisian and Moroccan borders.
When not fighting, he was the colonel's driver: "It was like that. At base we were drivers or cooks, but when we jumped we were all the same."The colonel? "He was a great man. For his 40th birthday, he gave the entire regiment leave and we drank so much beer, we purged our bodies of the desert through every orifice."
What happened to the colonel?
"He was captured at Dien Bien Phu, but he escaped, pretending to collapse, while crossing a single file wooden bridge, into a crocodile filled river."
Monsieur Beal likes the English. His regiment was deployed from Algeria to Cyprus. They weren't told why until a few days before the operation, but it was for the drop on the bridges over the Suez Canal, south of Port Said.
"We had the easy bit, we French only had a couple of regiments to spare, everyone else was in Algeria."
Resistance was low. "The enemy soldiers weren't soldiers, just men conscripted at the last minute, without shoes, without rifles. A few nests of resistance, some pill-boxes, it was over very quickly. We found piles of abandoned helmets that could fill this room. The Israelis had destroyed the Egyptian Air Force; it was all done before we dropped."
On sentry duty at the canal, the English guards never took out a pack of cigarettes without offering one of their fine smokes to us French - the French Army gave us straw to smoke. And the English always poured us hot tea, with milk, without asking. With Egyptian honey for sugar. They were good men."
In Cyprus, Monsieur Beal and his fellow soldiers were given a tour of a British warship. As they went down the gangplank afterwards, each of them were handed a cornet of frites - not a little thing, like an ice cream, but a great big bag, hot and steaming. They were the best frites he had ever eaten. He never forgot those frites.
The last poilu - the last French World War I infantryman - is dead. Now it is the men of Indochina and Algeria we shall speak of.
Why is the past always more interesting to me than the present? Why is the heard more rich than the read?
Twenty-six combat drops. Suez. The colonel.
The colonel is still alive. And so is Monsieur Beal, next to me in a hospital bed in the Auvergne.
Ian Walthew is the author of ‘A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream’ (Phoenix, May 2008, London).
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
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Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
Phoenix paperback, USA, 2009
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
VACATION RENTAL APARTMENT IN PARIS
10% discount for bloggers on Farm Blogs from Around the World
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