A Death

'If you have animals, you'll have dead animals.'

The cou nu http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cou_nu_(poule) has died.  It has been very hot today, but the chickens have shade, water and food, so what killed her?  I found her in the corner of the chicken-shed - quite dead - stiffly so.  Charlemagne was most agitated when I removed her.  Maybe he thought she was just asleep.  Charlemagne - no she wasn't.

We need help - now!

When I was here in May, I bought 4 courgette plants.  They all came from the same stall at the market, they all went in the ground at the same time, and they have all been watered etc at the same time.  The only difference is that 3 of them were put into the area where the chickens used to be, the fourth was used to fill a gap in the vegetable plot.

Spot which is which.  John is used only to provide some scale.

We gathered the crop on Friday, and took a box of them to Le Jardin, the local restaurant (http://puychagut.com/restaurant/).  We ate some on Friday night and the leftovers yesterday.  I gathered as much again today.

We need new and exciting courgette recipes NOW!