Farm Blogs from Around the World: February 2009

Saturday, 28 February 2009

Sparrow Haven Recommends....

I think we're on the right track for quality here at Farm Blogs from Around the World, because according to Dee at Sparrow Haven in Ontario, Canada, all her favorite farm/homesteading blogs are already listed.

However there is one missing which she recommends and it's:

My Tiny Plot

"This blog follows the gardening chores, successes, and failures of a small postage stamp garden in UK."

PLEASE HELP SUPPORT FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.
A big ask I know, but if you can, please help me support my time on 'Farm Blogs from Around the World' by buying, reading and blogging/reviewing my book:

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

It's about urban downshifting to rural England (and a bit more).

I don't take any advertising on this site but your support would help me show my wife that this blog project is more than me just pursuing my obsessive interest in all things farming/gardening/smallholding!

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!) dare I say it...

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)

A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew

Farm Blogs
Ranch Blogs
Rural Blogs
Countryside Blogs
Smallholding Blogs
Urban Homesteading Blogs
Homesteading Blogs
Homestead Blogs
Allotment Blogs
Apiculture Blogs
Bee-keeping Blogs

Auvergne
Auvergnate
Auvergnat
Auvergnats
France
Rural France
Blogs about France

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

Sparrow Haven (Ontario, Canada; Urban homesteading)

Sparrow Haven was recommended to me by Back to Basic Living.

Dee was kind enough to drop me a line about her blog:

Sparrow Haven is a small suburban lot of approximately 70 x 100'. In that space we try to provide food for ourselves as well as natural habitat for any wild creature who chooses to take up residence, contrary to our neighbours' wishes.

We have three raised beds, hopefully to be four this year, for growing vegetables and herbs, as well as one old apple tree, two old crab apple trees, and three newly planted babyapple trees in addition to the garden.

To expand our growing space we also use various pots and baskets to grow various produce.

Sparrow Haven is a learning/ practice ground for a larger homestead we hope to acquire before we are retired.

PLEASE HELP SUPPORT FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.
A big ask I know, but if you can, please help me support my time on 'Farm Blogs from Around the World' by buying, reading and blogging/reviewing my book:

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

It's about urban downshifting to rural England (and a bit more).

I don't take any advertising on this site but your support would help me show my wife that this blog project is more than me just pursuing my obsessive interest in all things farming/gardening/smallholding!

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!) dare I say it...

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)

A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew

Farm Blogs
Ranch Blogs
Rural Blogs
Countryside Blogs
Smallholding Blogs
Urban Homesteading Blogs
Homesteading Blogs
Homestead Blogs
Allotment Blogs
Apiculture Blogs
Bee-keeping Blogs

Auvergne
Auvergnate
Auvergnat
Auvergnats
France
Rural France
Blogs about France

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

Our Plain and Simple Life Recommends....

Our Plain and Simple Life (recommended to me by Back to Basic Living) recommends the following blogs:

Most of the truly inspiring bloggers I know of currently are US..sorry.

Ante Family Agrarians

(Texas - about to move; Homestead; Christian; "This is the process/journey of our family - The Antes - in seeking the Lord's will in separating from the modern ways, back to a biblical, agrarian, simple way of life.")

The Simple, Green, Frugal Coop

"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. "

Living Off Grid at Eclectic Culture Farm

"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... Come along and start here for the beginning of the journey..."

and two already recommended by other bloggers:

Throwback at Trapper Creek

The Pioneer Woman

HELP SUPPORT FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.
A big ask I know, but if you can, please help me support my time on 'Farm Blogs from Around the World' by buying, reading and blogging/reviewing my book:

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

It's about urban downshifting to rural England (and a bit more).

I don't take any advertising on this site but your support would help me show my wife that this blog project is more than me just pursuing my obsessive interest in all things farming/gardening/smallholding!

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!) dare I say it...

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)

A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew

Farm Blogs
Ranch Blogs
Rural Blogs
Countryside Blogs
Smallholding Blogs
Urban Homesteading Blogs
Homesteading Blogs
Homestead Blogs
Allotment Blogs
Apiculture Blogs
Bee-keeping Blogs

Auvergne
Auvergnate
Auvergnat
Auvergnats
France
Rural France
Blogs about France

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

Our Plain and Simple Life: Just the day to day pathway of our plain and simple family, living a plain and simple rural life.

Our Plain and Simple Life was recommended to me by Back to Basic Living.

As always I wrote to the recommended blogger and was pleased to here from Deanna.

We are a simple living, homeschooling and life-skilling family of 11 in north Mississippi, living on 19.7 acres. We are slowly clearing and working to build our land to more usable status, adding animals and other items as we go.

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 working toward being self-sustaining and self-sufficient here on our homestead.

Small steps every day, leaps and bounds in our dream vision. The way the world is moving, it only makes sense to get prepared to do things differently than we were raised.

Thanks Deanna. I'll be posting on your own recommendations shortly.

HELP SUPPORT FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

A big ask I know, but if you can, please help me support my time on 'Farm Blogs from Around the World' by buying, reading and blogging/reviewing my book:

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

It's about urban downshifting to rural England (and a bit more).

I don't take any advertising on this site but your support would help me show my wife that this blog project is more than me just pursuing my obsessive interest in all things farming/gardening/smallholding!

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!) dare I say it...

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)

A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew

Farm Blogs
Ranch Blogs
Rural Blogs
Countryside Blogs
Smallholding Blogs
Urban Homesteading Blogs
Homesteading Blogs
Homestead Blogs
Allotment Blogs
Apiculture Blogs
Bee-keeping Blogs

Auvergne
Auvergnate
Auvergnat
Auvergnats
France
Rural France
Blogs about France

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

A Word from The Weaver of Grass.

The Weaver of Grass (UK: "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") was recently recommended to me and here is a word from her:

I am not sure about joining in world farm blogs - we are retired and although we live on a farm we let our land and/or take in other farmers sheep and cattle.

There is enough activity to keep my countryside blog going but very little farm news that would be interesting to other farmers.

We are only marginally interested infarming policies as it no longer really affects us.

I personally came into farming late in a second marriage and am a retired school head of department in English, so my blog is more of a countryside blog /poetry/literature etc.

Can I just add that although last year I did post more general agricultural news and farming policy, this is going to pretty occassional from here on in, simply due to lack of time.

But thanks to the Weaver for writing back.

The Skoog Farm Journal Recommends....

I'm really excited to have some recommendations from long-time supporter of Farm Blogs from Around the World, Lori Skoog at The Skoog Farm Journal.

Some of the blogs have already been recommended, but I'm delighted to have tracked down a second blog from Africa thanks to Lori.

Here are Lori's recommendations:

Ishtar News
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."

Bedlam Farm Journal
Jon Katz, an author and photographer, writes daily posts on the happenings at his farm. His three dogs, Lenore, Rose and Izzy, are a very big part of his life.

Food, Fun & Farm Life in East Africa
Lynda and her family live on a very productive 3500 acre farm in East Africa. Her posts offer outstanding recipes and a National Geographic type view of her country, as well as her travels.

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
Ree Drummond, a city girl, met and married a cattle rancher. In her blog, she posts fabulous photography, recipes, home and garden information and more. The government supports them in the care of a very large herd of mustangs that live on their land.

These last two recommendations from Lori are more horse focussed than farming, so I have not added them to the blog roll - this blog is about people involved in the production of food and natural fibres - but they are certainly interesting.

The Barb Wire
Tamara chronicles her explorations of the Barb horse and more. Her photographs are exceptional.

Dream Valley Ranch
This Ranch is located in Colorado, and the owners have very generously rescued 6 dogs and 5 horses. They are very dedicated to these animals.

A big ask I know, but if you can, please help me support my time on 'Farm Blogs from Around the World' by buying, reading and blogging/reviewing my book:

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

It's about urban downshifting to rural England (and a bit more).

I don't take any advertising on this site but your support would help me show my wife that this blog project is more than me just pursuing my obsessive interest in all things farming/gardening/smallholding!

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!)dare I say it...

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)

A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew

Farm Blogs
Ranch Blogs
Rural Blogs
Countryside Blogs
Smallholding Blogs
Urban Homesteading Blogs
Homesteading Blogs
Homestead Blogs
Allotment Blogs
Apiculture Blogs
Bee-keeping Blogs

Auvergne
Auvergnate
Auvergnat
Auvergnats
France
Rural France
Blogs about France

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Agriculture in Europe II

'MAP' ('Monitoring Agri-trade Policy') 01/09 is now available at http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/publi/map/index_en.htm

Topic: "The New US Farm Bill: Zooming in on ACRE"

PLEASE HELP ME SUPPORT 'FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD' BY BUYING, READING AND REVIEWING MY BOOK
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

IT'S ABOUT URBAN DOWNSHIFTING TO THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE.

A BIG ASK I KNOW, BUT I NEED TO SHOW MY WIFE THAT THIS TIME CONSUMING FARM BLOG HOBBY ISN'T JUST FOR MY OWN AMUSEMENT AND INTEREST IN ALL THINGS FARMING (WHICH IT IS!)

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!).......

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)

A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew

Farm Blogs
Ranch Blogs
Rural Blogs
Countryside Blogs
Smallholding Blogs
Urban Homesteading Blogs
Homesteading Blogs
Homestead Blogs
Allotment Blogs
Apiculture Blogs
Bee-keeping Blogs

Auvergne
Auvergnate
Auvergnat
Auvergnats
France
Rural France
Blogs about France

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

Agriculture in Europe - EU Newsletter

No. 194 - 30 January 2009 - European Commission Newsletter
Agriculture on Europa
Food Labelling: the Commission acts against Italy
Commission declares State aid to the fruit and vegetable sector in France to be incompatible with the common market
Commission investigates Portuguese aid for the collection, transportation, treatment and destruction of slaughterhouse waste
Commission authorises restructuring aid for French poultry export firm Tilly-Sabco
Commission proposes EUR 5 billion new investment in energy and Internet broadband infrastructure in 2009-2010, in support of the EU recovery plan
EU reintroduces export refunds for dairy products
European Group on Ethics (EGE) asks European Commission to embed ethical principles in agriculture policies
Results of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council
Dairy market: Commission proposes additional measures to help dairy sector
European Commission welcomes European Parliament's vote on Plant Protection Products Regulation
Over 500 responses to Green Paper on agricultural product quality
Measures expected to reduce human salmonellosis caused by eggs
Commissioner Fischer Boel: Speeches and blog entries
Registration as PDO, PGI or TSG

A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew

Goings on at Mad Bush Farm (Maungaturoto, New Zealand) Recommends...

Thanks to Liz at Mad Bush Farm in New Zealand for the following recommendations:

http://dairyperspective.blogspot.com/

USA

Jennifer and Zacchary are a young couple running a small dairy farm inWisconson. This blog is about their challenges in day to day lifewhile finding some time to enjoy themselves. This is a great blog well worth reading. Jennifer's humour is riveting. One excellent blog.

http://kyfarmlife.blogspot.com/

USA

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.

http://cabbagetreefarm.blogspot.com/

New Zealand

Bridget and her husband moved from the city onto a ten acre block to try having a go at being self sufficient and doing it successfully I might add. Fantastic recipes to go with Bridget's great cooking. Another great read.

http://weaverofgrass.blogspot.com/

United Kingdom

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.

http://thediaryofanenglishgardener.blogspot.com/

United Kingdom

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 andvegetables. Bob is a former farmer and still very much into the farming way of life. Brilliant blog definitely one to read.

PLEASE HELP ME SUPPORT 'FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD'

BY BUYING, READING AND REVIEWING MY BOOK
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

IT'S ABOUT URBAN DOWNSHIFTING TO THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE.

A BIG ASK I KNOW, BUT I NEED TO SHOW MY WIFE THAT THIS TIME CONSUMING FARM BLOG HOBBY ISN'T JUST FOR MY OWN AMUSEMENT AND INTEREST IN ALL THINGS FARMING (WHICH IT IS!)

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!).......

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)

A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

While we're on the subject of New Zealand.....

Please forgive the shout out, but while we're on the subject of New Zealand, here's a nice email I recently received from the books editor at the New Zealand Herald:

I am the books editor of the New Zealand Herald newspaper, and I have just read A Place in My Country for pleasure during my Christmas holidays.

I wanted to contact you to tell you how interesting and moving I found the book. It is so well-written and observed. I found it fascinating and full of gentle, non-judgemental insights into how the English rural landscape, which so many NZers relate to as that is where many of our ancestors came from, has changed.

There is a fairly constant diet of bucolic "move to thecountryside and find peace" programmes on TV here, made in the UK. Your book tells the real side of the story.

Please take this message as one of admiration and praise for your very finebook.

Authors need emails like that, they warm the heart. So thanks for that.

And this was a review from the Christchurch Press in New Zealand:

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.

Christchurch Press

PLEASE HELP ME SUPPORT 'FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD' BY BUYING, READING AND REVIEWING MY BOOK
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

IT'S ABOUT URBAN DOWNSHIFTING TO THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE.

A BIG ASK I KNOW, BUT I NEED TO SHOW MY WIFE THAT THIS TIME CONSUMING FARM BLOG HOBBY ISN'T JUST FOR MY OWN AMUSEMENT AND INTEREST IN ALL THINGS FARMING (WHICH IT IS!)

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!).......

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)

A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew

Goings on at Mad Bush Farm (Maungaturoto,New Zealand) Recommended

Goings on at Mad Bush Farm was recommended to me and here's a word from Liz in New Zealand. (Mad Bush Farm is the first Kiwi blog to be recommended to Farm Blogs from Around the World, and I hope the first of many more to come.)

Why anyone would like my insane blog, pass there. It's mad enough [as you can see from] the title.

We're having a dry spell here at the moment which is concerning me. Lack of water is a worry especially with the stock I have here drinking several hundred litres a day right now.

How do I describe my blog???? That's a hard one.

It started off because of a calf aptly named the Terrorist. Number five on the list of calves we have raised over the last few years.

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.

We encourage comments, we love to hear people from all over the world. It's a friendly blog and anyone can comment. We welcome opinions and any other blog recommendations as well.

Located on the outskirts of a small rural town called Maungaturoto in the Kaipara District Northland New Zealand (We're inthe upper part of the North Island).

The area we live in is a predominately dairy focused area.

The town has a Fonterra Dried Milk Powder plant which is the main focus of employment for the local township.

We're also only ten minutes drive from the eastern arm of theKaipara Harbour.

Awesome place to be.

Acreage on our farm is 12 acres. We're running 5 head of cattle, two old horses, six cats, and growing some kind of vegetable garden that for once isn't being eaten by the chickens and the cattle. I'll be developing the farm to incorporate the commercial growing of Yucca plants over the next five years or so. It's mainly a lifestyle rather than anything else. We love it here.

And everyone on the farm is certified as sane- for the moment at least.

PLEASE HELP ME SUPPORT 'FARM BLOGS FROM AROUND THE WORLD' BY BUYING, READING AND REVIEWING MY BOOK

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream

IT'S ABOUT URBAN DOWNSHIFTING TO THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE.

A BIG ASK I KNOW, BUT I NEED TO SHOW MY WIFE THIS TIME CONSUMING FARM BLOG HOBBY ISN'T JUST FOR MY OWN AMUSEMENT AND INTEREST IN ALL THINGS FARMING (WHICH IT IS!)

Please support your local independent bookshop, but (yikes!).......

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)

A Place in the Auvergne
Ian Walthew

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

Back to Basic Living Recommends

Back to Basic Living recommends the following blogs:

Below are six blogs that I recommend. Some are farming/homesteading blogs, and some are blogs from people living in a rural area and taking steps to get back to basic living and be more self sufficient:

Fancyin' the Farm Life

Making it Our Home While Here

Our Plain and Simple Life

Rhymes with Vanilla

Sparrow Haven

A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream (Amazon.co.uk)

Ian Walthew

A Place in the Auvergne

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

Back to Basic Living (Recommended)

Thanks to Penny for the following:

You can read about us and the beginning of our adventure in homesteading on our website at http://www.backtobasicliving.com/aboutus.html.

Briefly, after years of dedicating our lives to making more money and being "successful" in the corporate world, we awoke one morning and took stock of where we were and the cost of getting there (in terms of our quality of life and physical/emotional state), and asked ourselves if it was worth it.

Although we had achieved our goals in terms of income and corporate "success", we decided to leave it behind and get back to basic living. In doing so we have increased our self sufficiency and our quality of life.

My husband quit his job when we moved to our homestead, and I work from home.

We live on 65 acres in a small double wide trailer.

We have two dogs and two cats, and we raise 23 chickens. We grow our own vegetables, eat deer from our property, and focus on eating more naturally. We heat our home with a wood burning stove and wood from our property. I make home made bath products (www.pennylanebath.com) to bring in a little extra money.

The state of our economy and government concerns us greatly, and we know that as things get worse in this country and around the world, we can only count on ourselves to pull through it.

The goal of our blog (www.backtobasicliving.com/blog) and website (www.backtobasicliving.com) is to document our adventure into homesteading, provide step by step instructions for activities other homesteaders may be interested in, and share our day to day life in the hopes that those yearning to get back to basic living will be encouraged to pursue their dream.

A Place in the Auvergne

A Place in My Country (Amazon.com)

A Place in My Country (Amazon.co.uk)

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

Sunday, 1 February 2009

Jojo Recommends.....

I feel bad about this because I received a very nice email with some great recommendations, but I'm damned if I can trace Jojo's blog name and address. So Jojo, if you're reading this, can you please kick my fading mind into gear and drop me a line at info AT ianwalthew DOT com and I'll post again on you!

In the meantime, here are your recommendations....

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/ Sugarmountain farm. Vermont.
Awesome blog. Walter is so well read and i like going there for tips and what his family is up to. Plus, a huge fighter of our NAIS program that the USDA are trying to pass. His other site is Nonais.org. He is a hog farmer and always questions the status quo I really like that. Always thinking how to do it better. Extremely knowledgeable hog farmer.

http://www.agriwoman.com/blog.html
Adventures of the Farmers wife. (not sure location) This is a new blog I’m following. I think she is onto something and I really enjoy following both my passions at once. She is starting up a magazine for “rural women” and also is a farmer/farmer’s wife. I think she mentions 5th generation on the same land. Unheard of nowadays. So, I’m looking forward to her blogs in the future.

http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com/ Alpaca farmgirl.
First blog I’ve found that raise alpacas. And I just started to watch her blog. Like it a lot. Goats and Alpacas are a lot alike so I plan to learn a lot from her.

http://omelays.blogspot.com/ Pile of O’Melays.
Just plain ole down home country fun. And their antics with children and raising them around farm animals.You can tell by his writings he’s just a really smart guy. And his posts are interesting.

http://apiferafarm.blogspot.com/ Apifera Farm. Oregon.
Her moniker is “where animals, art and lavender collide”. How could I not follow this blog. ;) art and animals. My two favorite things. She is a wonderful artist. And she writes books and stories about her donkeys. And they are precious. If I could afford her paintings I would decorate the whole house in them. It’s her fault I have a miniature horse. And thinking of getting a miniature donkey.

http://www.prairielandherbs.blogspot.com/ Prairieland Herbs. Iowa.
I first found them looking for all organic soaps and oils and lotions. Became a customer. Then realized they had a blog too> :) And became a fan and follow regularly. I now make my own soaps and I like to visit for inspiration and to see what they are doing on their farm and store.

A Place in the Auvergne
A Place in My Country (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country (Amazon.co.uk)
Ian Walthew

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

Bredbo Valleyview Farm Recommends....

Martyn Noakes at http://bredbovalleyviewfarm.blogspot.com/ in Australia recommends the following blogs:

http://theduckherder.blogspot.com
These guys are close to wher I live, not really a farm but they are having a go. The Blog is entertaining and mirrors alot of our life adventures, just on a smaller scale.

http://madbushfarm.blogspot.com
I would love to visit this part of New Zealand. The commentary of their daily life is absorbing and humorous - In that Kiwi sort of way.

http://drywell119.blogspot.com/
Australia. Ours is a country of contrasts, except for drought. I like this Blog for it's family focus

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/
This one is about living the simple life - not big time farming, but you can still learn a lot from the tiny/micro farmers

A Place in the Auvergne
A Place in My Country (Amazon.com)
A Place in My Country (Amazon.co.uk)
Ian Walthew

Paris / Montmartre/ Abbesses holiday / vacation furnished apartment rental

Country Living in a Cariboo Valley Recommends..

Country Living in a Cariboo Valley (BC, Canada)

recommends the following blogs:

Seasons Eatings Farm (U.S.A, Maine)

Seasons Eatings Farm is located in rural Washington county, Maine. We own 45 acres of mostly forested land. The market garden is one acre of intensively grown land.

The Shambles under Highland Butte (U.S.A, Oregon)
Life on a small farm in Oregon

The Modern Homestead US (General Resources, 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.

Back to Basic Living (U.S.A)

Our adventure into Homesteading and getting back to basic living. Life is tough, but living doesn’t have to be.

Farmgirl Fare (U.S.A, Missouri)

Recipes, stories, and photos, from my crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres.

A Place in the Auvergne

A Place in My Country (Amazon.com)

A Place in My Country (Amazon.co.uk)

Ian Walthew

The Experience of Incomers: what's yours and what's your advice for potential incomers to a rural community?

What would be your top pieces of advice for anyone planning on moving from the city to a rural community?

My recent post on Country Living in a Cariboo Valley mentioned their experience as incomers into rural Canada, Annie and her husband having being city-dwellers on the West Coast.

We're both originally city kids, so when we moved here, we didn't really know what we were doing. This has resulted in a lot of laughter in our neighbourhood, from folks who have listened to our (somtimes silly) questions. They tell us they're glad to see some new people come and trying living off the land, and they are eager to help us with advice or if we have problems.

My personal experience of being an ex-city dweller moving to the countryside and the reactions of the 'locals' has been nothing but positive, first having returned to London from Paris (after 10 years overseas) and then deciding on the spur of the moment to move to the Cotswolds in the English countryside.

Equally, where we now live in rural France, in the Auvergne, our experience has been, if anything, even better.

But it's not always so.

In my book about our experiences in the Cotswolds (A Place in My Country: In Search of a Rural Dream - Amazon.com) there was the incomer who had his garden poisoned for upsetting a long-established local.

Here in the Auvergne, a goat farmer, new to the region, has received death threats, had his buildings burnt and worse.

Of course these experiences are not representative, but they do expose underlying tensions between normally quite highly capitalised city downshifters and long-standing local residents who resent the influx of cash and opinions, and it has to be said, sometimes the clumsiness of incomers in learning how to fit into rural communities.

I'd be fascinated, for those of you who have moved to the countryside, to hear of any weird and wonderful experiences you have had (don't worry, I won't give away your details!)

Equally, for those of you who have always lived in the countryside, how do you feel about incomers?

It's clear that one of the biggest problems is to do with land values and incomers pushing up the prices of both land and housing, often creating problems for young local people who can no longer afford to live in the communities they grew up in and wish to stay in. This problem is more acute in more crowded parts of Europe (certainly in the Cotswolds and many parts of France) but I have also heard of this being a problem in rural communities in striking distance of big North American cities, in particular in California, and in Australia and New Zealand.

Please drop me a line if you have an anecdote I can share - keeping your exact location and name etc. out of it of course. There is an assumption by many incomers they will be met with open arms, but it ain't always so.

A Place in the Auvergne

A Place in My Country (Amazon.com)

A Place in My Country (Amazon.co.uk)

Ian Walthew

A Place in the Auvergne Recommends....Country Living in a Cariboo Valley (Canada)

I'd like to Recommend today Country Living in a Cariboo Valley in British Columbia, Canada.

Annie has sent me some great photos but I've exceeded my upload limit (despite buying more space with Picasa, but it turns out that no, this doesn't apply to your blogs, which seems a bit misleading to say the least - any tips on this gratefully received).

So I'll leave it to Annie to tell their story.

We left a city on the West Coast in 2006 for life in a valley in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. We're in Gardening Zone 3 and even in the summers, we have to be on the lookout for frost. It is not unusual for us to experience temperature swings of 25 degrees Celsius, In the Same Day! So, we use row covers on our heat loving veggies (beans, squash, etc.) and grow tomatoes and peppers in our small greenhouse. Until I can figure out a way to grow corn under cover, it won't happen. No one here has been successful growing it out in the garden. Oh it will grow....it's just that before the growing time is over, we can be sure of a killing frost!

We are trying to be as self sufficient as possible, so we do a lot of canning and freezing. Also cold room storage. We have started saving our own seeds, which we'll be planting for the first time in 2009 (rutabaga and carrot). By the following year, we hope to be able to add mangels and sugar beets to the seed list.

We raise weaner pigs, purchasing them in the Spring and butchering them ourselves in mid-October. My husband does his own brining and smoking of bacons and hams. We also trade pork for lamb and hopefully this year also beef. We also raise meat birds (Cornish Giants) to fill our freezers and those of our families and friends. We have laying hens to provide us with eggs. We sell eggs which in turn purchases the hens feed.

We grow as much of our animal feed as possible, relying on our huge veggie garden and our two animal gardens. Mangels, sugar beets, potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, etc. What we don't use for ourselves goes to the animals.We want to continue to expand on this, as we would like to stay away from the feed store, if possible.

We're both originally city kids, so when we moved here, we didn't really know what we were doing. This has resulted in a lot of laughter in our neighbourhood, from folks who have listened to our (sometimes silly) questions. They tell us they're glad to see some new people come and trying living off the land, and they are eager to help us with advice or if we have problems.

Annie, just one question from me which I always try and include in the data I put on the blog roll, and that's how many acres/hectares you have? This allows people to find blogs with farms/homesteads of a similar size to theirs or to what they are thinking of doing. Could you drop me a line and let me know? Thanks.

8th Feb. 2009: and the answer is....

Our farm is just over 11 acres. A fair bit of that is woodland, then a creek and very overgrown pastures, which we hope to rejuvenate once we can free up some time. We have about 7000 sq feet of vegetable garden area, which also includes strawberry, raspberry and rhubarb patches.

A Place in the Auvergne

A Place in My Country (Amazon.com)

A Place in My Country (Amazon.co.uk)

Ian Walthew

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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

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/

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)

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

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

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.

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.'

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

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

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.

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

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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

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).