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Results of the Name the Le Rhun sheep
competition.
Thank you for all your amusing and creative
suggestions! Our winners have now been chosen and contacted by email.
It’s “Well done’ To Louis for picking the
winning name for the leader of our shaggy sheep trio!
Sally (the matriarch)
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..and well done to Poppy and Lauren for
choosing the winning names for the two
younger tearaways. Your sheepy prizes will
be on their way to you this week!
Scruffy and Boo
We look forward to introducing Sally, Scruffy
and Boo to our young visitors this season.
Sally, Scruffy and Boo look forward to extra rations of
sheep nuts!
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Season’s Bleatings from Le Rhun
...where we have three new resident Ouessant sheep sharing
Jock the Shetland pony’s field. He’s enjoying their company and sharing his
stable with them (and enjoying sharing their sheep nuts even more)! They
don’t yet have names as we can’t decide on what they should be! (But more of
that later...)
The three speckledy hens we hatched this spring joined the
laying flock. Sadly one of them was not very strong and we lost her but the
other two are laying well through the winter - one even produced a triple
yolked egg last week!
2011 had many highlights starting with the amazingly warm
springtime and the opening of the spectacular Pont de Terenez. The official
opening of the bridge was bathed in sunshine and we had a brilliant day
enjoying the groups of Breton dancers and bands make their way back and
forth over the bridge along with a fascinating array of vehicles from the
local classic car club.
The summer was very busy and it was great to welcome back
many guests and greet so many new ones too. It’s great to see children
coming back to Le Rhun and making the pirate ship and the play corners their
own for their stay with us - one little girl who was tidying the den she had
made in Squirrel’s Lookout told me in no uncertain terms that I had to leave
as no grown ups were allowed there!
We’re enjoying the long winter evenings with time to sit
round the fire and catch up with friends before the big spring clean up in
preparation for the influx of guests at Easter time (and the arrival of the
new baby that Caroline and Dave are expecting in May).
Now back to the sheep - we need your help! We have three
cuddly black sheep to send to the winning entrants of our ‘Name the Le Rhun
sheep’ competition.
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Open to all previous guests and friends, to enter, just send us an email with your name, address and
suggested name/s to
lesley@lerhun.com by 31 January.
Results will be posted on the website on February 3rd. Good luck!
All of us at Le Rhun wish you and yours a happy, healthy and
peaceful 2012 and look forward to welcoming friends old and new over the
coming year.
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September 2011
Three new residents arrived this month! We
had to call on our next door farmer to help us catch and tag them, but after
a few days they were eating out of our hands.
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June 2011
Chick watch 2011 saw some of our eggs that we incubated
hatch. We had a constant stream of younger ones (and the occasional
grown-up) come and watch them grow. A colouring competition for our younger
visitors produced some amazing pictures of the chicks. |
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April 2011
The construction of the Pont de Terenez
was completed this month It has been an exciting time watching the two
sides inch closer and closer together wondering whether they would meet in
the middle!
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November 2010
Tom, Rebecca, Josh &
Jamie returned to England to enable Tom to undertake a post-graduate
qualification in music teaching.
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October 2010
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Jock the Shetland Pony was welcomed to Le Rhun.
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August 2010
Oliver and Joe are
delighted with the arrival of their baby brother, Jack Henri Sowden, who was
born on August 16th 2010 at Landerneau Hospital weighing 7lb 13
oz. Another lovely grandson!!!
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| March 2010
Thank you all for your enquiries and good wishes. We can now
reveal the new addition to the Le Rhun team!
James Samuel Bruton (Jamie) was born at 8.20pm on Tuesday
9th March, in La Vielle Maison at Le Rhun.
All went very well and Becs and Jamie are doing well.
We look forward to introducing you to him soon. |
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Festive greetings from Le Rhun!  |
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We had our first taste of snow yesterday, much to the
grandchildren’s delight. Josh went for a walk with his Mummy to check on
what was happening in the white world and returned in a state of great
excitement - having discovered deer tracks in the snow he was convinced that
Rudolf was somewhere nearby helping Santa check who should be on the nice
and the naughty list!
The picture of yesterdays’s sunrise is typical of the views
at this time of year - just spectacular!
The garden is sustaining us through the winter with the
pantry and freezer full and even fresh Chinese gooseberries by the bowlful
until yesterday’s frost. The ham is curing in preparation for Boxing Day so
the Bunney festive table is groaning!
We are busy transforming Vieille Maison into a suitable
place for a newborn baby - March is coming round very quickly. Becs is
hopeful that she will manage to achieve a home birth so we all have our
fingers crossed. Thank goodness the Aga can boil copious amounts of water -
good for tea if nothing else!
Bookings for summer 2010 are going well - we’re delighted to
have many guests returning. It’s lovely to welcome back little ones who
remember the pirate ship, the willow tunnel and the hidey holes and arrive
full of excitement and anticipation.
Wherever and however you spend this Christmas season we wish
you all a magical time.
Best wishes from Alan, Lesley, Tom, Becs, Josh, Caroline, Dave, Oliver
and Joe
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| Oct 2009 The long summer season is nearly over and the
autumn half term holiday is giving visitors a welcome week of Indian summer!
We are now busy preparing for winter, moving logs under the barn after their
summer seasoning in the sun, closing the pool and putting the sun loungers
away. It’s been pleasantly mild and sunny through September and October and
we’re still harvesting the last of the summer veg from the garden. We’ve had
a really good crop of walnuts and chestnuts this year and the chestnut
roaster is giving good service! We had a minor setback last week when the
farmer came to cut the corn and we watched the combine harvester slice
through the power cable across the field. The driver was a redfaced but
unharmed and ERDF were here in 20 minutes and all was reconnected within 2
hours without the need for any of the candles I had prepared!
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| Sept 2009 |
Well we have been a bit slow on updating the
news! The season is nearly over and Lesley will be on the case very soon...
watch this space. |
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Dec 2008
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Le Rhun’s second Festive Winds
course took place at the beginning of December. Following four days of
tuition, rehearsal and performance workshops, it concluded with a festive
concert in the very atmospheric 15th Century church in Argol
village square.
Our Christmas elves declared
themselves very satisfied despite being worked hard. They created a
fantastic sound together and we felt that the focus on exploring a range of
techniques to improve performance paid real dividends. A lot of fun was had
between sessions with a walk on the beach at Trez Bellec, and the fireworks
at the annual Argol Christmas market with a hot crepe and glass of vin chaud
was unanimously declared a highlight.
The 80 or so local villagers who
attended were all delighted by the performance. We have already been
approached about next year’s Christmas concert!
Plans are in hand for our next
course, Summer Breezes in September 2009. Contact us at
music@lerhun.com if you would like to apply
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| October 2008
Our visiting working party set sail for stormy seas this
month and began the construction of a pirate ship play deck complete with bell, wobbly bridge, plank for walking
and Jolly Roger flag! The crew were disappointed not to receive a daily tot
of rum but were sustained with hearty brews. The grandchildren adore the
whole thing and have composed a Le Rhun sea shanty. The more senior members
of the family soon identified the need for a muffler for the bell clanger!
As yet the buried treasure remains undiscovered...
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June 2008
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What
have we been up to? ‘Lots of busy jobs to do’, as Oliver, Josh and Joe would
say. We’ve spread 6 tons of gravel around the courtyard and Chestnut Walk,
planted loads of hydrangea, summer bulbs and, of course, veg in the kitchen
garden. We’ve arranged potted plants, tables, chairs and parasols around
the swimming pool and Tom has begun construction of the henhouse using old
timbers from the Piggery which is itself undergoing renovation! Our French
builders obviously think Les Anglais are going completely over the top for
hens, and suggested it would be sturdy enough for an elephants' house. It has
been named ‘Poultry Towers’ and Tom says he will do his best to ensure that
the finished project lives up to the name. Watch this space………
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| April 2008
April saw the first ‘Sounds of Spring’ music course, a week packed full of
rehearsing, one on one tuition and listening workshops, all working towards
the goal of the end of course concert. We worked hard and the players
really felt that they improved over the course of the week. Their
performances in the concert were very impressive! We took time to visit
Locronon, a beautiful village with lovely old buildings and quirky shops,
including a grown up ‘pic and mix’ chocolate shop. We then went on to
Quimper, a medieval city about 40 minutes south east of Le Rhun. The trip
out was a welcome break and gave our visiting musicians chance to see some
of the area.
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The week
was topped off with a very successful musical soiree on the final evening.
The soiree was held in the farmhouse salon, which we set up in a candle
lit-jazz club setting. It was attended by an audience of 20, a mix of
English and French including the mayor of Argol and the feedback we received
was really positive.
Even
more pleasing is that we have agreed with the mayor that we can hold our
December music course concert in the local 15th century church on
Saturday the 13 December, the same weekend as the Christmas Market. It
promises to be a very atmospheric occasion! |
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| Jan 2008
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This
month brought two quite severe frosts – here’s hoping last year’s new garden
plantings have withstood the weather – time will tell!
We had a
succession of friends and family visiting from warmer climes. Huw, an avid
twitcher recorded 18 species of bird in his walk round the farm and woodland
and inspired my New Year’s resolution – to start a log of the flora and
fauna at Le Rhun.
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Dec 2007
It was great to have
time to sit back and take stock as we approached the end of the year.
We went along to the
annual Argol Christmas market on the first cold day of winter with Pere Noel
looking very at home amongst the frosty roofs and children in woolly hats
and mittens. He gave any children who were willing a ride on his horse and
cart and dispensed sweets and bonhomie to all who passed by. The firework
display at night in the churchyard was quite a spectacular sight with red
smoke rising up through the gravestones!
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| November 2007
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We are all on a steep learning curve about
the free food on offer in the woods and hedgerows. Just look at what
an hour’s foraging in the woods yielded! We have invested in a rolling
barrel device which sits on top of the firepit and helps us make maximum use
of the annual glut of sweet chestnuts without the threat of burnt knees from
the odd explosion! There’s a feeling of pure childish delight on
peeling back the prickles to find those glossy brown nuts – it’s like
finding treasure!
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October 2007
Time to draw breath
after the very busy summer and take a closer look at some of the corners of
Le Rhun’s 40 acres. The tractors and combines have now cleared the fields
which are bathed in a golden glow when the autumn sun shines. If you look
closely you will spot Tom trying out the cycling track potential of the
furrows in the field!
The wildlife is much
more visible now the fields and trees are shedding their summer finery and
at supper time last week we were treated to the sight of three deer
strolling past the dining room window on their way to the woods at sunset
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June 2007
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The
magnificent tree at the entrance to Le Rhun, long overdue for a haircut, was
visited by our friendly tree surgeon who trimmed enough branches to keep Tom
and Roger busy chopping logs for three days! It seems that the tree could be
200 years old. After its session of TLC we hope it may be there for a
good many years to come.
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| May 2007 Solar slates have been installed on the
Vieille Maison
extension, we are in the process of connecting them into the system.
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April 2007
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The
first annual (I know but we will do it again, honest!) duck race took place on
Josh's birthday. The winner was yellow duck number 53. A total of 56 ducks
entered, with a staggered start and an uneven course some of the competitors had
to have a helping hand (actually it was a stick) to make it over the finishing
line. Next year we plan to clear the stream of debris before racing commences.
If you wish to partake, then be in residence on April 20th 2008. |
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