Last day with all our French family

Sunday 15 September

Last day with all our French family

It feels a little strange that today is the last day we will see James, he is off to Hamburg very early tomorrow morning.  It was another lovely late summer morning, not quite as warm as it has been but blue skies and gentle breeze.  It has been quite noticeable that the temperature has dropped, Rachel assures me that there is more hot weather ahead, I hope so, they had such a long wet winter.

A late breakfast then we all got ready to go to church.  It had been some time since they had a Sunday free, so it was fitting that we should all go on our last Sunday.  A nice drive out into the country again.  

We were made very welcome at the church, it was so informal and yet followed the patten of songs, prayers, sermon and communion.  There were several announcements and at the end the children were all called out to stand on the front, and Jasper's birthday was celebrated, he got a round of 'Happy Birthday' and a nice card that the pastor had signed.

 

The children then went to one of the rooms at the back where their Sunday school teachers kept them happy and interested.

We were home for lunch about 1.00pm. And Rachel made us lunch.  

Jasper and Penelope decided to try some new ways to wear a 'beany cushion' and dress up while we were waiting,

 

and after lunch we decided to go 'blackberrying', something I haven't done in many years.  The kids all had containers that Rachel had made out of plastic bottles with the tops cut off and string attached.  

Rachel tries to go for a walk around the farmland and lake as often as she can, and has watched these blackberries develop and grow and she reckoned that today was just about the right time to pick them.  So off we went, it was such good fun, the kids were trying to compete for the most blackberries and Penelope was being very particular about not picking the small scrawny ones.  

James went for the high ones, he and Jasper were a good team, Jasper found a good stick which he sat and whittled with his new Swiss army knife and removed all the bark, then he tried to reach and bring down the high branches for James to pick the fruit, unfortunately James broke the stick, so was in the dog box for a while, but not for long.

 

 When we got home we washed the blackberries thoroughly, peeled and cut up some apples, Rachel made some gluten free pastry and Jasper decorated the pie. Voila !!

We had Raclette for dinner, we last had this in Klosters where the apartment had a proper Raclette set, but Rachel and James managed fine using the hot plate they usually make crepes on, so it was a great way to spend our last meal together as a family.