Skills

On my first day at the Maison back in June, Sarah and I sat down for a chat about the kind of jobs we'd be doing over the summer. Most things I had expected; working with visitors to the farm, organising school groups, marketing in local towns, helping with animals and the like... but spinning wool was something I never thought I'd ever have to get to grips with...

And so, Andy and I have a new and rather bizarre string to add to our bows. Spinning. I appreciate that this is not the most fashionable of skills, so without wanting to bore you with too many details, we started off with hand spindles, then were promoted to the spinning wheel and can now card, spin and ply wool.

Now, every day at 4pm I do a wool demonstration on the farm, which goes down a treat. Visitors guess different samples of knitted wool and then get a chance to try carding and spinning, before making a souvenir bracelet.

So as our summer in France is drawing to a close, and we begin to look back at the experiences we've had and the skills we've acquired, I realise something shocking: I'm now well on the way to becoming a medieval housewife.