I'm in Love!!!!!

In love with a process called Gelli Plate printing.

Not heard of it?  Just type it in Google and oooooooogle it!   For me being a lover of finding ways to texture in watercolour, this is very different as using mostly acrylics which are textured in themselves, but am also experimenting with inks (brusho) and watercolour too and have a zillion ideas in my head.

But first I needed Gelli Plate, whose main ingredient, as the name indicates is humble Gelatine.  But don't be fooled to think its that easy.  i found that Gelatine comes in different forms, those being powder and sheets to name the only two that I have found.  And I am guessing that the content of these will vary depending on where you live.  So there is some degree of experimenting to do here.  But once made the plate will last and even when damaged or stained, you can melt it down again (on the stove or in the Microwave) and reset in a mould.

There are quite a few recipes on the web, and this is one that I used and modified it a bit to suit me, as my plate seemed weaker than the one shown and described. screen.

Gelli Plate Recipe

 There are recipes too that include Alcohol but that seems to be retracted as there were problems with the setting.  My recipe set down here can set without refrigeration, and kept without refrigeration too but if you have room in your fridge and your family wont tuck into it, it tends to speed setting up.  Try and leave it alone for a minimum of 24 hours.  I didnt and it was'nt ready and I had to reset it again.  One day I'll learn!

My first Gelli Plate

  

     Glycerine     -   250ml (From chemists)

     Gelatine       -     35gm = 2 packs dry sheets Gelatine
     Sugar           -    70gm
     Water           -   120ml

     Vinegar       -    120ml (white)

     Salt             -    1 tablespoon

Method: Soak the gelatine leaves in water for 5 mins till soft. Strain and put in saucepan add 120 ml boiling water and add sugar, vinegar and salt.  Heat through but do not boil  Add glycerine.  Stir till dissolved and pour in a suitable dish.  This could be a square glass Pyrex style dish, or a plastic container.  As long as it has straight sides and is over 1/2 inch deep. But it can be whatever size and shape you wish your prints to be and when you are bored you can melt it down and start again.  I made two from the recipe.  One square and one oblong!

This is the first time that I have done anything like this so am feeling my way and the Internet is a fantastic resource for millions of ideas, but experimenting is the key.  So try things out and see what works and what doesn't. But the one thing I did have was plenty of acrylic paint.  So I just played.  I also got out some rubbish watercolour tubes I had and didn't know what to do with and they are perfect for this.Even the Brusho has come out to be tested.. 

Now its play time. I recommend that you watch a few videos on Youtube Click link to see one artists work.  This video is nearly 2 hours long and there is plenty in it. See how others do theirs and then find your own way. Acrylic paints in tubes are ones that I am using as those are the ones that I have at hand, but more liquid ones in bottles can to be used too and I suspect that they will work better. 

Place small amounts on the plate, of colours that you like and then using a roller, brush, scraper, piece of card or even a pallete knife spread the paint around and then press different texture things into the paint to leave an impression.  Bubble wrap, corks, keys, buttons, string the options are endless.  Once your brain starts working on these texture ideas, it wont stop and now I am making my own stencils, masques, and stamps from polystyrene felt, foam and anything I can get my hands on.

The first pull many say (and I agree) is not everyones favourite as there is usually too much paint on the print, and by doing a second pull you are left with "ghosting" marks of the stencil or masque that you may have used. See left .  This produces a far more satisfying print in my opinion and one that you can grow from!

This heart was created by cutting a stencil from thin acetate with a soldering iron.  Worked great!  It melts polystyrene beautifully too.

These are some of my first pulls and this is what I have turned them into! 





After I have sat down with them for a while, I then decide on how I want to take them further and embellish with my Tombo and Zig pens, and silver and gold pens too.  A decoupage here and there et voila!!!! Another creation.

Your imagination is what gets this project going and what you can see in what you created and how far you want it to go!

The result of painting quite thick on the plate but that gave me four pulls and I was able to go in later and enhance with tombow pens and pull out the details that I wanted.


 

This is something I doodled with last night and where I want it to go  I printed off on the photocopier first to test my theory.  Now just have to be brave enough to try it out for real!

Now where do think I will be going with this one?

If you want to see more results of my gelli plate printing, please visit my Pinterest page by clicking here where I will be post more of my art, hopefully as I do it!

Also think of holding craft week holidays here at Bandouille so if you are interested please let me know and I will earmark a week this year!


Feel free to ask questions or comments and have fun!

Bix x

PS  to people that have followed my Bandouille blog in the past!!! Be impressed! My second post in 3 weeks....hey hey!!! x

A Brand New Start!

I know I know….April last year was the last time I wrote this blog, but I have been active all over Facebook and we have recently launched our Twitter hashtag (is that the right way to annouce it???)  Bixxy@bandouille1, so please join us on there too.  And if you feel that I am not communicating send me a message to give me a kick!!!  I also belong to various watercolour groups on the web…so I have not been idle by any means.

 So here we are in 2014 and my main resolution is to get to grips with this blog and we have an exciting year in store. Many of you already have seen our diary for this year so far but here is the line up which is also advertised in January’s Artists and Illustrators magazine.  We are so priviledged to have back Keiko Tanabe, Eugen Chisnicean, Joanne Boon Thomas and Jane Minter who all have had workshops here at Bandouille and already have had some of our former guest book with these artists for this year.  A compliment all round I think you would agree.  So exciting stuff and we are adding to this wonderful array the stunning work of both Amanda Spencer and Stephie Butler, all of whom work in pricipally watercolour.  All details to be found on our website.

To find out more about us and what we do and what is here please read this article written by one of our guests (Nikki Griffiths) we had in October!    http://www.seos-art.org/news/125    

This is another article written on the blog of Doron Art

Lovely to know that we are someones guilty pleasure!!!! To those outside the UK our house has been dressed like the Bourneville brand of chocolate. We are now someones guilty pleasure.  How wonderful!

Doron writes

 "I am sure you remember my painting holiday to France last year at Bandouille… I had some nice painting time after the Christmas holiday and I wanted to paint special thank you message. The holiday was so good that it remind me another good thing… Yes a great chocolate I am sure we all know!

Happy New Year Bix and Drew and thank you for a great holiday"

To read his full article Click here....Lovely read!
http://doronart.com/2013/06/02/bandouille/
 It was such a wonderful thing to know how much Bandouille is enjoyed by our guests and that is what we are striving for.  Also take a peek at the testimonials on our FB page and on our website too..

Please follow this blog for further news on future guest tutors and of course on Twitter too…..and always feel free to comment too.

ART

My artistic year started towards the end of the the Christmas break and I

have been busy putting together ideas for my textures and techniques (see above) classes and creating a small book to help me format a good balanced layout for exercises.  Whilst playing I created a few little gems and these dancers were just a happy accident.  But that’s the beauty of watercolour.  Sometimes things happen that you just don’t expect and the results can be fantastic.

From here I have also promised my self that this year I will paint more pictures for me from my reference library and the Pomegrantes just screamed at me (or Grenade in French) and I just had to try them.  I always seem to choose things that I know are out of my depth but I like the challenge and felt that I met this one full on. I was pleased with the result but regretted that it was so small (just under A4).  So now I want to revisit and do a larger version, perhaps with less fiddling too.

A site that I have joined in the last couple of weeks (United by watercolour – check it out) challenged us to doing our own self portraits, so here is mine in the 3 stages that it took me to do.  Great fun and my first.  Im not a great fan of the camera, or my face, but wanted to be a bit different and quirky and show something that was ME.

 I liked the results and that’s saying something!  Great fun! 



Next challenge from that site is to paint a piece of work from your favourite Artist.  So one of mine is John Singer Sargeant these are the ones I am juggling between Hard choice!  So pop by next time and see what I decided!!!  I'm think the Shadows on the house, or The Lesson. 

 Which would you choose?

I also enjoy just sitting down in front of the telly and sketching and drawing of an evening.  Especially at this time of year.  My children at Christmas bought me this gorgeous selection of drawer knobs, which I adore.  But instead of all being screwed into designated pieces of furniture, I have many other plans for  them before that.

At present I am just painting and drawing them in different ways with different mediums and on different papers too, but would also like to try collage, fabric and maybe mount some in a box frame.

We shall see!

  

That's it for the time being.  I don't want to bore you all.  I shall be posting items as I get them from now on rather than grouping it all together like this and see if that works better for us. 

So keep in touch and see more posts on Chippy and how he is getting on, the renovation on the Chapel and gardening if the weather allows.  Also I will be posting regularly on various crafty items that I have been creating too.

See you next time.

Bx

April Fools! Or are we just happy?

Today in France, people who are fooled on April 1 are called Poisson d'Avril, which literally means the "April Fish." What a fish has to do with April Fools' Day is not clear. Some believe that the fish is tied to Jesus Christ, who was often represented as a fish in early Christian times.

It's probably no coincidence that April Fools' Day is celebrated at the same time that two other similar holidays are celebrated. In ancient Rome, the festival of Hilaria was thrown to celebrate the resurrection of the god Attis. Hilaria is probably the base word for hilarity and hilarious, which mean great merriment. 

No wonder the word holiday is linked with happiness.  Check this out!

Holi - Festival of Colour

In India, the Holi festival celebrates the arrival of spring.  As a part of that festival, people play jokes and smear colours on each other.  Can you imagine being part of this!!!!

For me its always a special day as it was my fathers birthday and holds many (funny) memories of the dreadful jokes my brother and I played on him!

ART WORKSHOPS 
Exciting news!!!!!

We have another wonderful artist - Jane Minter - who has signed up with us to run a Watercolour workshop with us here at Bandouille.  Click here for more details of Jane and her work and the workshop.

Here is what Jean Haines  wrote for Janes first exhibition...


" Ever since I met Jane I have been impressed by her use of watercolour as a medium. She has a way of bringing subjects to life with gentle brushstrokes that tell a story via colour combined with a masterful technique. I am honoured to have been part of this artists journey in watercolour and feel they have a brilliant future in the world of art. " 

                                                            Jean Haines SWA
 Praise indeed!


Especially for those who love painting flowers and/or interesting objects for still life and wishing to achieve a looser style Jane is for you!  As always spaces are limited so be sure to book soon to guarantee a place.

We also have Joanne Boon Thomas, Eugen Chisnicean and Alison Cotton with paintbrushes at the ready to teach you all their secrets.
For details of all our other tutored groups in 2013 please click here..

ADVERTISING
There are a few publications out there showing our advert.  Please feel free to pass these amongst your art groups, friends and family.  The current Artists and Illustrator Magazine has our ad.  The magazine (Artists and Illustrator) also has us featured in an online article showing us as on of the   12 best Art Holiday's ....Yay! We have also re-produced our little "brochure".  Please click here to view.

BIXXY'S ARTWORK
I have been fairly busy the last couple of months finding ideas for the Watercolour Challenge on I Draw and Paint, which I have been running for the last couple of years. 

Since we last spoke I have painted a number of statues using the Brusho product that I love using at the moment, which was March's challenge and have caught up with February's challenge of portraits. I have learnt so much using Carrie Stuart Parks Book on watercolour portraits and by studying wonderful artists like Stephie Butler, Carole Massey and others found on the internet.

This month we have Spring has Sprung and that covers a multitude of subjects.  Contributors to this include Sharons lambs, Gary's ducks and Ann's geese.....all great Easter subjects.

If you didn't already know Art community websites are a wonderful place to belong to and the best learning platform ever (apart from our holidays that is!!!!).

I belong to a few I Draw and Paint which is mentioned above, The Painting Loft and Paint my Photo.  These are my main ones.  Others that I have tried failed to keep me interested or inspired and have therefore fallen by the wayside.  So if you are not member of any of these check them out.  You will find wonderful photos to paint from, a multitude of inspiration and plenty of advice from everyone that is on there.

Oh one last site I have just joined and I L O V E  in Pinterest.....hooked! This site should come with a health warning.......very absorbing!

I think that I will "draw" a line under that now (pardon the pun!!!) as I have promised to reduce the babble but post more often.

More next time about renovation and the garden.......

Please feel free to comment on anything that you have seen or read and see you again soon!

Bx

Fabulous February!

Bandouille in winter

Garden

Not everyone's favourite time of year but for me, when the sun is out and there is a crisp frost on the ground, not many other months in the year can match its beauty.  The sun is strong in the sky and although cold, the air holds a promise of the year to come. The flowers sleepily raise their heads through the hard ground to take a peek for themselves to see if it is indeed safe to come out yet.  The loveliest of all of these flowers (in my opinion are the snowdrops) with their white freshness.

I aim to get the veg patch working for me this year and have already bought some exciting seeds to try out.  Last year I let it go as my hip would not allow me the luxury of working much in the garden, but hopefully by being sensible (ha!) this year and not over doing it I will get some work done there.

Back out there after this posting for more pruning and weeding.  What could be a more perfect task in this weather?

Happy New Year - again!!!!

No I am not going mad!…We have just celebrated the New Chinese Year – the Year of the Watersnake.  I know that this is not normal practice to celebrate this event in the Western world (unless you are of course Chinese) but the event always seems to spike an excuse to hold a Chinese evening so that people can exercise their culinary skills in cooking a Chinese meal or just an excuse to go eat wonderful Chinese food.

We, at AVF in Parthenay as an art group enjoy the challenge of coming up with a suitable painting of the animal that is being celebrated in the appropriate year and this year I have painted a Watersnake.  Not a favourite creature of mine, but fun to try and achieve the skin texture and overall was pleased with the result.  I used Brusho for this piece and is A4 in size.

ART

Talking of Brusho - just a reminder to all that we have three fabulous workshops happening in 2013.  The first in line taking place is Joanne Boon Thomas’s Brusho/watercolour workshop, at the end of June.Brusho although its been around for a while its just now gaining recognition and is an exciting "ink" medium that produces some surpising results.

Eugen Chiscean's watercolour week is in August when he will demonstrate and teach his beautiful watercolour skills.

Alison Cottons Plein air watercolour workshop will be held in September. If you are a beginner I would totally recommend Alisons workshop as her approach is easy to follow and uses every opportunity to work in the fresh air (plein air).  Working principally in sketchbook format she will help you build a wonderful record of your stay at Bandouille and in France.

Jane Minter

There are still some places available so visit us on www.francepaintingholiday.com to find out more and book your art holiday for 2013.

I also have a few other artists interested in holding workshops with us this year and need to gauge interest from you.  So if you are interested in the work of Jane Minter and   www.janeminter.com then please let me know as she would like to hold a workshop in September.

  I have also been in contact with Yevgenia Watts, 

a lady who does Batik Watercolour.  I found this delightful piece of work - named appropriately "French Windows". A fascinating process and one that I would like to explore here! Yevgenia also enjoys working on Yupo which is another area  I would like to investigate further.  Both great fun to watch and I am sure this would be a really exciting workhsop.  If you are interested in this, then please contact me for further information via email on info@francepainitingholiday.com

All the holidays are full board and include materials and we can even say now that for the health conscious we have a mini gym.  Special dietary requirements are also catered for.

  

I have not produced a lot of artwork recently as my energies have been geared towards the current bookings for the current year.  But creative things are never too far from my side and have found myself  knitting a lot which I haven't done for ages and enjoy doing during the winter months.   

The watercolour challenge on I draw and paint this month is principally portraits and this is an area that I would like to improve on and have been studying favourite artists of mine to see how they approach the complexities of facial techniques in watercolour. The portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge that was recently painted inspired this subject matter and wanted encourage all our members to give portraiture a go. Have a peek and see how everyone is getting on.  Very impressive so far!  This portrait of Katherine - Duchess of Cambridge was done by Meenakc and IDP member!

Fishing

This weather evokes spur of moment decisions like dipping in your fishing rod into the water to see what you can get.  Especially when you see the amount of little fish that are jumping out of the way of Mr. Pike.

After 5 mins both Drew and I caught a lovely specimen of Pike and satisfied our curiosity to see if it really would be easy fishing!  It was!!!!  But this is not always the case....and of course we threw him back in!

Please feel free to comment on any of the posts and do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested in any of our holidays.

See you next time!

End of the Year - End of the world?

Autumn at Bandouille

Autumn saw wonderful colours here at Bandouille, but my most favourite of them all were not the usual changing foliage of the trees but the fantastic display of toadstools (fly algaric) under the Birch trees by the lake.  I think you will agree they look spectacular but also deadly as far as I am aware. 

2012 is nearly at an end and according to many myths so is the end of the world.  Well today is the 13th December so we have bypassed one date comfortably (being yesterday the 12th) and now to wait and see what our 2nd deadline brings (21st)!

 

I think business as usual – don’t you?   

So with 2013 in mind, our calendar for art holiday bookings is open for our forthcoming workshops and standard holidays. All groups are also welcome and these can include, Yoga, golf, Zentangle, writing, photography etc in fact anything (pretty much).  Please enquire for group rates

ART

We are very excited to announce  that Joanne Boon Thomas and Eugen Chisnicean will be joining us in 2013.  For more details on their workshops please click the appropriate links.

June 30th - July 6th -  2013 – for a Brusho/watercolour workshop - Click here for details

and Eugen Chisnicean 

August 25th - August 31^st    - Watercolour workshop with Eugen Chisnicean - Click here

If you are interested please do not delay as space is limited to 8 students per workshop and we have already taken some bookings in part for both events.

We also have the opportunity of hosting a Zentangle and Colour Therapy Workshop.  If you are interested in this please contact us here

RENOVATION - Bandouille a work in progress - slowly!!!!

After having our underfloor heating installed at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, we are now cosy and warm.  But when we had that work done we still had to consider replacing the 40 year old boiler that was servicing the house as it was now deemed not to be efficient nor economical.  This has now been done after digging into the last of our savings with very little upheaval and the benefits are already apparent.

Also those that have had the pleasure in staying in the largest of our guest rooms would have noticed that the ceiling boards needed to be completed and this has now been done and the room completely redecorated too.  So nice and fresh for the the next season.

The work on the floor of the capitalaire is on hold due to all the wet weather we have had and we are not able to move waste out of there due to the wheelbarrow sinking in the soft ground.

GARDEN                                   

 Our new ducks, Bianca, Coco and Blanche….- (guess what  - they are all white!!!!)  have now been with us for 6 months and although they are free to roam all day have only just discovered the lake and that they can swim.

We tried many times, with and without guests to "whoosh" them to the water but they bottled it within inches and it had not been possible till now.  And then the next day the lake froze…Confused….they certainly were!

LOCAL 

Wherever you may be in the western part of the globe, you can be pretty certain you are not too far away from a Christmas fair or market.  This year I found myself at St. Loup (a place where I take my guests in the summer to paint) and was thrilled to be an wonderful christmassy environment in the village.  The evening was perfectly cold and frosty to add to the atmosphere and all the stalls were inspirational for crafts and ideas

So wherever you may be both Drew and I wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy new year and hope to welcome you to Bandouille one day so that you too can share the peace that we have here.

Bx

Yay! Summer has arrived......

Out and about near Chiche!

Welcome back to Bandouille everyone!

Again apologies for the delay in updating you all but we have been wonderfully busy and now that Summer has finally arrived properly getting more work done outside too!

ART/YOGA HOLIDAYS

We've had a few more art holidays between April and now and also a Yoga week here at Bandouille in July which was great fun and very exhilarating too.  Just by having different people here helped put us in a different perspecitve.  We had three lovely girls from Sweden and 3 other guest from the South of England plus their Yoga teacher Liz Warrington. The atmosphere that week was vibrating with peace and tranquility if thats possible. 

The weather although not the traditional scorchio up until now has been comfortable and pleasant for plein air trips and site seeing and overall considering have been very lucky..But looking at the Olympics at this time in London...haven't they been so lucky too!

We were also visited by two lovely American ladies who drove down from Paris and in the time that they were here in France (just over two weeks) they came with just hand luggage…We were very impressed! You can click here to see a compilation of their photos on Youtube.               

Lucy one of the ladies from Colorado even kicked me out the kitchen on the last night to cook for us some Creole Egg Plant which took her 4 hours to prepare and boy was it an interesting experience…Very tasty! And she had great fun doing it too!  Not sure due to the preparation time it will be going on my menu list though.

Having the yoga group here also encouraged me to develop a menu of Vegetarian recipes to see them through the week.  I loved doing this and working out new and exciting and colourful dishes and have now kept that as a format for another vegetarian group/week given that we are now advertising for more Yoga groups to come and visit us here at Bandouille.

We have also now extended our guest accommodation to the gite in the garden for 2/4 people and have installed a shower and sofa bed in the Studio for tutor accommodation so that we can now sleep around 10 people comfortably based on 4 people sharing.

GARDEN

The wet start to the summer sadly did not help with the development of the tomatoes and other such vegtables and this year it seems that we have little to practically no apples.  But we have been blessed with a profusion of little plums called Mirabelles.  Sweet and juicy I doubt they will get further than being eaten fresh from the tree..  Delish!   This is the first time in 5 years that we have got to even taste the fruit. 

MY ART

I have not done as much painting as I normally do but I have been zentangling though which I find very relaxing to do in the evening infront of the telly.  This is one that I just completed and is my largest to date.  Larger than A3 and incorporates loads of images that say Bandouille to me…For example, tiles on the roof, apples, cherries, flowers, rushes, chains, fish, water,  bubbles and many many more.  They are all in there! What can you see?… I also managed to do a quick warm up and paint an old lock from Judiths loose group on Paintmyphoto...Click here for link

Rodders perch!

FISHING

July saw Bastille night come and go and my birthday too..But I am rarely in France for my birthday but we were this year and we had some lovely friends (Rodders and Pauline) over for a couple of days and celebrated accordingly.  Rodders, a keen fisherman took great pleasure in fishing whilst he was here and was thrilled when he caught this perch.  Chuffed to bits he was!.

So with promises of regular updates - honest - we are going into a very busy period until the end of September with both Art and fishing groups.  Very much looking forward to these next few weeks. 

Now off to enjoy some more sunshine and get ready for our next guests and also to wish good luck to the remaining competitors in the future events of our surprisingly wonderful Olympics 2012 and catch up with you again in a couple of weeks.

Please feel free to comment and also visit our pages on Facebook to see all our photos

Adieu!

Bix x

April Showers!!!??? - Keiko's week

Keikos view of Bandouille

I know I know….before you all think it…It has been a long time but that’s because we have been so busy.  We were away for a couple of weeks at the very beginning of the month to recharge our batteries before our workshop with Keiko started.

Keikos Bandouille pond!

We had a fantastic week with Keiko….We had four lovely guests plus me when I could avoid kitchen duty…..and we were all blown away by Keiko’s speed and beauty in her paintings.  She produced 2 demonstrations per day which we later tried to follow and had for each roughly half a day to complete each piece.  What we learnt mainly from Keiko was her philosophy of tonal values and how they were paramount in her work and colour came as a secondary consideratoin.  This then allowed her to make her own colour choices to suit the painting.  She also taught us how not to be chained to what we saw in a photograph and be creative and see beauty even in ordinary things such as cars, traffic lights, signs etc.  Very inspiring. In this painting in Parthenay she has immortalized two of our guests.  Photos of our week can be seen on facebook  - click here 

David and Dorothea in Parthenay

Here is a link to more of her work so you can see for yourselves. http://www.facebook.com/ktanabewatercolor She did indicate that she would love to come back again next year, so watch this space and a waiting list will be drawn up until a confirmed date is set.

Around the studio stove!

Fortunately Drew had the foresight to see that our art week was probably going to be a bit chilly and we have fitted an amazing woodburning stove (that we just happened to have lying around)  in the studio which will now provide me with more opportunities to use the space in the winter and therefore will also open the possibilities of running workshops out of season too.  If anyone is interested please let me know.

  

Garden

Just before this wet weather hit Drew went shopping and was able to play for a couple of days on his fantastic new toy.  What a handsome beast it is (for now) and has a grass collector on the back too.  So gone are the days where I have to rake up the cuttings and take them away.  hoorah!  Now Drew is just waiting for it to be dry enough to go back out there…before the garden turns into a jungle…which of course will be demain!

Well…..April showers! At least that was true to form but what a contrast to last April where it was hot and sunny throughout. 

With these downpours come incredible skies and here are some that I managed to catch just in time.

Bandouille Monastery courtyard

Check out the video below -  boy did it come down.

Stormy skies!

The sky has been amazing for days now with the glow from the rape fields and the contrasting shadows.  So of course I had to try and paint this too!



Gardening is going to start a bit late for me this year and my veggie patch now has zillions of weeds growing on it but I am loathe to dig it over as these are mainly poppies….so his potatoes are going to have to wait!  As

I do have a couple of raspberry bushes, a gooseberry bush and lots of courgettes, melons and tomatoes to go in.  So am excited about that, amongst two packs of wild flowers seeds, nasturtiums and lots of other seeds that I collected from last year.  


Fishing! 

Great catch guys!- Bandouille April 2012

We have already had a couple of groups here this month and what a result they all have had.  The first group caught over 20 unique fish between two of them and the second over 35 between 5 of them and they were all biguns.  We look forward to receiving more fishermen during the year to see who will hold the lake record for 2012 so keep an eye on our Facebook Page  http://www.facebook.com/pages/France-fishing-carp/200670423304620 or if you would like to book the lake then please contact us through www.francefishingcarp.com on the contact page.

Cafe des Art - Thouars

In true Bandouille tradition…the ducks have been laying but in very random places.  So we have had to rescue the eggs and now one of our very broody chickens who was sitting on 13 unfertilised eggs (we have no cockerel) is sitting on 5 duck eggs that are due to hatch around the 5^th May…so that is always fun to watch.  Will keep you posted!

I have an art holiday week coming up this weekend so will be busy all next week and will post the results of that at a future date.

That’s pretty much it for now.  Will try and be more regular in future and do little and often, rather than these lengthy posts .

A bientot!!!
Bx