Lovely's Blot

Zero tolerance

2012-01-25T20:36:00.000Z

After a good session at the dog class last week where Gremlin misbehaved again and Ian and I were put in our places for not being strict enough, we have started to adopt a zero tolerance approach to Gremlin. That means he doesn't get anything unless he does as he is told first time. We are trying our best to be good pack leaders. It does seem to be working although I am cautious as Gremlin does seem to have a habit of working out our latest tactic pretty quickly and then either ignoring it completely or finding a way to disobey!!

Moving forward

2012-01-25T20:24:00.000Z

The work on the garage is progessing, in between rainy days and a few other chores. Here are some pictures taken yesterday.

The garage

2012-01-13T13:54:00.000Z

Monday arrived and it was the day to start the garage, assisted by our neighbour. Ian had painstakingly drawn up the plans again and again, calculated the materials required, ordered them and had them delivered, lost a few nights sleep to worries about certain aspects of the design. The design was finalised on Monday and by Tuesday the planning was over and it was time to start building.

11th November 2011

Back in November Ian finished off the concrete base by putting in a row of blocks to support the timber frame and finishing off the positions of the drainpipes, water and electricity.

day 1- sun

Monday was cold and sunny. The first job was to erect the old tent to protect workers and tools form the rain and to set up the work benches. Wood was measured and cut.

cutting and measuring

Cutting and measuring continued until the shadows lengthened and daylight faded! Much tea was needed to keep up motivation and morale. The A frames were constructed.

Yesterday I was in Bordeaux so I didn't see the progress. In Bordeaux it was cold and foggy all day but according to reports was lovely here and so progress was made. Today is day five and when I looked out of the window I saw this.

13th January 2012

It's funny how suddenly my view has changed forever and something has appeared where once there was a muddy field.

erecting the A frames

Erecting the frames has required the digger arm to lift them in place and from what I could see a bit of cursing and swearing to get things into place and secure. When all 4 frames are in place it will be time to do the end bits (I think they have a more technical name).

Great expectations

2012-01-05T18:29:00.000Z

No New Year resolutions about blogging more or less, or changing the blog layout. All I am hoping to do is to continue and not to get too bogged down in the day to day of living that I forget to record it. After all, it was recording the day to day of living that was my first intention when I started the blog ?? years ago (I can't remember without stopping to look) rather than write a novel or use it as a therapeutic ranting tool. So I will plod on, just as we are plodding on stoically with our housebuilding.

New Years eve was a brief and pleasant interlude from the work, but we are now back on course, trying to finish indoor jobs while it rains outside and then work towards the major project, which is building the garage. This is due to start next week, all being well with the weather. The weather has been wet but really mild. We have so far only had a couple of mild frosts and it is already January. Will this mean a late cold spell this year or is this it for winter?

One of the jobs that Ian did was to finish off the wall in between our bedroom and bathroom. This involved plumbing in the sink and shower before we could close off the wall. For ages all we have seen is the back of the wall, and to brighten it up over Christmas we stapled all our cards there and when the time came to finally seal off the wall for good we decided to leave them there, together with all the Christmas letters people send! One day someone will have a good time trying to work out what they were all about! Maybe they will find this site and this picture!

Tomorrow I am back to Bordeaux for the day and then next week I am doing some marking for my on-line course while Ian and the neighbour battle with the garage!

On a completely different note, there must be something in the air or water as next year will see the arrival of three new babies in the village, all with a kilometre of here. The latest to announce their news were our friends, who are expecting in July. It looks like 2012 will see some changes!

Happy Christmas (and what on an earth happened to 2011!)

2011-12-24T16:52:00.000Z

It's Christmas Eve and all is quiet! Well not really but I decided that I really must try and make a quietish few minutes to update my blog just in case anyone wants to read it after receiving my Christmas card. As you can see from the more limited number of entries this year I have rather got out the habit of regular posting. As usual there is much I could say but somehow the urgency or the need to say it passes as I get absorbed in the many and varied things that make up my life. I think that has been the biggest change since making the move here; and that is that although we do have a routine, each day is different.

So we have been here over a year. You would think that would be long enough to get settled and feel part of the furniture, but no, I feel like we have only just arrived. We still have both vehicles on UK number plates, my French is a little better but we still watch mainly UK TV (although we do actually have a French TV arial but realised that there is just as much cr*p on French TV as there is in the UK). However I can now spend a whole day in the company of French people, listening to and speaking some French, without getting the headache from hell.

In order to improve my French and maybe to see if I can get some work as an Occupational Therapist, I have been spending one day a week at the local nursing home as a volunteer come student. Sometimes I am not sure that I want to bother, but what it has done is to help me feel more part of French life rather than the ex-pat community. I have also done some occasional work in Bordeaux, helping occupational therapy students evaluate research papers in English. It has been a very steep learning curve and I am not sure that I have really got the hand of it, but spending the odd day in Bordeaux is a nice change from the country from time to time.

Apart from these activities most of our time has been taken up with trying to make progress on the house. We have worked hard but these things take time, and we are still semi-camping in two rooms. However we now have the basics of a swimming pool, the foundations for the garage, a half a front garden, a drive and are making progress with the plumbing and electrics. Next job is to build the garage so we can decant our things there and then finish off the final floor in the house.

The other thing I have done this year is get a dog. It was something I always wanted to do but could never even think about when I lived and worked in the UK. So, now we have a Gremlin, a 7 month old Australian Cattle dog, who as I write is chewing his tail to pieces in an attempt to alleviate the frustration of flea bites, a short attention span, exitability and rageing hormones! I am now a member of the Club Canine de Bergerac, where Gremlin continues to embarrass me by being a b*gger with me but behaving himself when anyone else takes his lead!

So now I am off to prepare a shrimp pasta thingy and drink some wine to celebrate our second Christmas in France.

Happy Christmas to you all.
get relief from hi

Building the yellow brick road

2011-12-01T19:21:00.000Z

I noticed today that the vines are suddenly bare; almost overnight the yellow leaves fell to the ground. Winter is approaching. It gets light at about 8.00 and is dark by 5.45 in the evening, so less than 12 hours of daylight. However, the temperatures have still been mild enough to sit on the terrace in a T-shirt during the day. As dawn breaks, if it has been clear, a morning mist emerges, edging up the land from the river. Most mornings it clears up, but some days it lingers almost all day, making it feel cold.

We have been focussing on finishing the driveway. It sounds like a luxury but the downside of having an unfinished drive is that as soon as it rains the ground turns to muck and sludge and we tread it all into the house. Worse still, it sticks to all our shoes and if you don't remove it whilst wet, attempts to chip it off when dry usually end up removing the sole of the shoe as well. The other problem is that if we need to have anything delivered, without a solid driveway it can only be delivered to the edge of the land.

before

So last week Ian marked out the drive and we put down some geotextile. Monday morning a large lorry arrived full of yellow gravel, hence the yellow brick road. Yellow gravel is important because the white stuff disintegrates and gets sticky, whereas the yellow stuff packs down nicely.

We eventually needed 4 lorry loads as the drive is about 100 metres in total; and rather than the two days Ian had estimated it took more than a week to finally get it all down and spread out. This was mostly due to the fact that the lorry couldn't drive down there without getting stuck and so we had to have it delivered to the car park and then Ian had to transport it down to where it was needed in a dumper truck. The result was very pleasing and I now feel a little more ready to brave the winter knowing I might be able to keep at least one pair of shoes free from mud.

stuck lorry being towed out by tractor

After

The other job we have been doing is planting some fruit trees in the front garden. 24th November is the day they should be planted, so on Saturday we to a tree show in the Lot et Garonne, where we were spoilt for choice with varieties of apples, pears, apricots etc. In the end we bought 6 tress and 6 fruit bushes. Planting them required the digger and buckets of horse manure and lots of hard work, but we eventually managed.

A year ago

2011-11-06T16:08:00.001Z

All of a sudden the warm Autumn days and crisp nights have given way to the grey and damp days of November. Not that it is cold yet, and we haven't needed to use much heating at all, but we have suddenly had about a months rain in three days and everywhere is looking rather soggy. We are back to treading mud in through the entire house every time we go outside and regretting that we have not got round to finishing the drive yet.
Ian is now focussing on doing some electrics as the temperature is ideal in the loft for running wires and lifting insulation. He is installing something called a VMC or ventilation mechanique controlee. This is standard in all French new homes and is a whole house ventilation system that works by extracting humid air from the bathrooms and kitchen and drawing air through the rest of the house, thus hopefully preventing the problem of condensation that is common in modern sealed houses!

Just to proove it isn't always sunny here!

I realised last week that it was a year ago that I gave up my full time job. Have I missed it? Well, I miss the security of the regular paycheck, although when I had it, I never really appreciated it. I haven't missed the regular, boring routine and the internal politics at all. I suppose to some extent I have struggled with losing some of my professional identity, but as I become more settled here and my life here gets fuller, it becomes less and less important.

The dog whisperer

2011-10-29T14:07:00.000+01:00

Thursday saw us heading North to the Corrèze, about a two hour drive from our house. The purpose was to meet some other cattle-dog and kelpie owners and give Gremlin his first try out with sheep. We found the farm using sat.nav., perched on a hillside surrounded by fields and other farms. The Correze is one of the least densely populated departements in France and the farm consisted of an old stone cottage, lived in by the grandmother, a slightly bigger house belonging to the mother and father and big farmhouse, that seemed to be occupied by various siblings and their families. We were greeted by a barking cattle dog and a yard full of border collies.

We were the first to arrive, shortly followed by Pascal (the dog whisperer), Gremlin's breeder and her Dutch friend, and an English woman from Brittainy who had driven for 9 hours in a small car with her teenage daughter and 7 dogs!

As I said earlier, the idea was to see if Gremlin and the other dogs had a natural herding instinct, and to see some of the other dogs. I was immediately struck by how much bigger Gremlin was compared to the other cattle dogs. Each dog got a chance to meet the sheep, starting by running round the ring while the owner and Pascal were inside. When Pascal felt the dog was ready he let him in and then watched what he did with the sheep, encouraging him to be interested in them. I say Pascal is a dog whisperer but he would never call himself that. He just has a natural instinct with dogs and watching him communicate with them and work with them was amazing to see. He frowned at my use of treats and said 'the way to train a dog is with the leash'; producing a 2 metre piece of fine line and demostrating how he used this to get the dogs to follow him. His 'hobby' is to rescue border collies from frustrated owners and dog pounds and train them up to be sheep dogs, selling them on at the end for no doubt less money than he spent on them.

So was gremlin any good with sheep? Well, the first time in the 'ring' he ran round like a mad thing, chased the other dogs, and then as soon as the sheep moved he got scared and jumped out of the ring! He got another chance when he was a bit calmer and then proceeded to be mostly interested in eating sheep poo rather than herding sheep. The breeder thought that all was not lost and he may improve as he ages. She managed to take this picture of him looking half interested!

Gremlin, sheep and Ian

Autumn jobs

2011-10-26T21:55:00.000+01:00

Ian returned from UK as planned with another van full of materials, tools, possessions, a topper, a box for the tractor and roller shutter garage doors x2! Unloading took a couple of days but we managed with help and as the boxes just added to the clutter already here we hardly seem to notice them!

Autumn is here all of a sudden. The trees are turning and the vines have lost most of their leaves; but autumn isn't as spectacular as it is in colder parts. The days are now decidedly shorter as well and we have got up in the dark a few mornings this week.

October

One of the first jobs was to sow some grass seed in the field. We ploughed up the far end and according to the farmer it had to be sowed this week in time for the rain. Monday morning early Ian and farmer drove up and down the field several times and got the job finished! In the middle were some old hay bales that were never used. We tried to spread them but they fell apart so the farmer stuck a match and they ended up in flames! It was a bit worrying to see how easy they went up and a bit of luck that they didn't go up in the dry summer.

Burning the bales

The final job that we finished this afternoon was to hibernate the swimming pool for the winter. This involved reducing the level a little, cleaning, putting in something called 'hivernage' (winteriser). In case of freezing you add a row of bobbing half empty coke bottles. The theory is that the bottles will squash up in any ice and thus prevent the pool from cracking. After this, we covered the pool with an old cover and fixed it as securely as we could with a row of old paving stones.

Bobbing bottles

Next job will be to finish our drive, so that we are not walking in mud everytime we go out of the house. We are a long way from Little England!

Still home alone

2011-10-18T14:45:00.000+01:00

Ian left for UK 7 days ago now. He has been doing what most of us do in UK; driving around from one part of the country to another, sorting out things, visiting people, spending money and probably now acutely aware that all his clothes are tatty, worn out and when he walks into a shop everyone stares at him, wondering whether he is a down and out!

In the meantime life here ticks on at our slower than snails pace. It took a bit of adjustment to being here on my own. At first the silence was hard to deal with, until I reverted to one of my habits from my single life; that of having the TV on virtually all the time to provide the background noise! I have also been invited to friends houses for supper a couple of times, which has made a nice break from the silence. My main luxuries have been

1. Catching up with writing and other on-line activities that I have found strangely difficult to focus on lately.
2. Taking Gremlin for long tiring walks in the hope that he will calm down in the afternoon (except it is me that is sleepy and him that is wondering why I have suddenly stopped!)

The weather is becoming more like autumn, with colder nights but still warm sunny days. Autumn has also been anounced by the arrival of the cluster flies. These annoying little black buzzy flies head indoors about now to find somewhere warm to sleep over winter, and they are the most annoying things, ignoring the flourescent fly lamp and seeming to be particularly resistant to fly spray! Fortunately they don't lay eggs in the food and cause maggots!

The drought continues as we have had no rain since July, and that was after a bone dry spring. Today I walked Gremlin round the Lac de Lescouroux and looked at the old river course, the bridge, the road and not a drop of water.

lac de lescouroux 2011

Ian returns Thursday night and I am looking forward to it.

On my own

2011-10-12T13:17:00.000+01:00

I have 10 days here on my own now, and it feels really strange. Ian has gone back to UK to sort out a few things and buy some more building supplies and I have stayed behind, mainly because the pet passport regulations don't change until January and so Gremlin can't travel.
I have a list of jobs that I want to do, many of them mundane. Today I wrote to my bank and did some work for an online module that I am still doing. Before starting that however, I decided to treat Gremlin to a long walk around the lake. The lake is a man made reservoir, formed 20 or so years ago by blocking off the river and flooding the valley. At the moment the levels are so low due to drought you can walk across it and see the old road, bridge and former course of the river. It's 5 miles around the main lake. It was meant to be warm and sunny today but instead there has been a mist over everything, especially the lake and so we had a brisk walk resulting in me being tired and Gremlin getting boisterous and grumpy. He got particularly exited by a dip in the stagnant smelly water, and now I smell like a stagnant smelly dog as I sit here wiriting this.

One of the jobs Ian managed to finish before leaving was putting the first row of bricks around the base of the garage; so now we are truly 'out of the gound' and I am hoping that progress will be rapid!

We have also been watching Little England, a lightweight bit of fluff describing life in these parts. All in all creates a pleasant picture of cloud cuckoo land that is several million miles from the reality but harmless enough!
(They don't show you the annoying, glue-pot black flies that seem to be around at the moment, that don't die with fly spray and sit on your nose just as you are about to take a mouthful of food! Yuk!)

Holiday

2011-09-26T13:38:00.000+01:00

How could I forget to mention that we actually managed to have four days holiday as well before I went back to UK. We went to the West Coast of the Gironde, to the North of Bordeau. It reminded me of Canada and in particular the West Coast of Vancouver Island (although the weather was better!). There are miles and miles of sany beaches, surf, lakes and forest and fortunately not too many people. We had a lovely relaxing time, just the three of us!

Days out

2011-09-26T11:37:00.000+01:00

I seem to now be into a routine of posting every 4 weeks or so. This seems to fit with most other bloggers who start by reporting on the processes of a major life change on a daily basis but then, once the change has occurred, settle into a less frequent and more mundane report on day to day events.
So, what has been happening? I made a brief visit to UK to see friends and family, flying in by the oh-so-cheap Ryan air and then taking the oh-so-expensive train once I had landed! It was a feast of friends, family and food and for me an indulgent few days. I got to eat a Chinese take-away, a curry, pizza and an English Sunday roast. I got to enjoy hundreds of sweaty armpits on the London Underground, people teaming on the pavements, traffic, noise and more people and although it was lovely to see everyone I was very glad to be back here.

I arrived back with Ian's mother, who made a brief visit to see our progress. The good thing about having people to stay is that you have an excuse to be a tourist for a few days and explore things in the area that we haven't seen before despite living here. So, in addition to the weekly market in Eymet we went to the gardens of Latour-Marliac, the largest collection of water lilies in Europe and the inspiration for Monet's own collection at his home in Giverny.

And then yesterday we went to the national agricultural show in Bergerac for the local breed of cows, the Blonde d'Aquitaine. These are rather like the cows of the Limousin being pale coloured and very big. Although Gremlin is a cattle dog he did look a bit scared of them. I'm not suprised really as the bulls were the biggest, strongest looking beasts I have ever seen. In France all bulls must, by law, have a ring through their nose so that they can be handled more easier, and to see these enormous creatures being led around through a crowd by lightly built teenagers and girls was quite a sight.

Sausages (and other things..)

2011-09-01T15:41:00.001+01:00

Oh dear, my blogging has really slowed down since the arrival of Gremlin and the summer months. Its not that I don't have anything to say as I am often thinking about things that I want to write. It's just that everytime I think of them I am either nowhere near the computer, or doing other things, or about to take the dog for a walk. Here's where sausages come in. We took Gremlin to puppy school last weekend at the Bergerac Club Canine. It was reassuring to see that dog people are the same everywhere! The trainers were fierce looking women in leather and even Gremlin was called to order. However, in the end it was a combination of firm handling and a good smell of greasy, stinky, oily frankfuter sausage that had him eating out of my hand better than any other treat we have tried! He was excellent at the agility exercises, new situations and suprisingly good with other dogs, although dominant with them. Recall is a work in progress as even a smelly sausage was not enough to entice him away from the other dogs!

Job number two has been dealing with the abundance of fruit and veg that has appeared in my garden (or from the farmer). Despite a dry summer, poor soil and lack of attention from me I am overwhelmed with tomatoes. I also harvested my pumpkins and now have at least 50kg of pumkin to use.

Pumpkin Harvest

They are currently in the shower in the end bathroom, along with the remains of the onions. The courgettes have just about finished and I still have a few potatoes waiting in the ground. I am quite exited about the prospects for next year and have earmarked two new beds that need cultivating in autumn. In addition to my produce we have been given figs, melons and strawberries and plums from the local farmer, to the extent that I don't really know what to do with them all. I have always thought it would be hard to starve here!

The other big job that has been looming was laying the concrete base for the garage. This was finally finished yesterday with the assistance of our friendly neighbours. At 8.30 in the morning a large truck arrived and poured 7 cubic metres of ready mixed concrete into the carefully prepared base.

Concrete delivery number 2

This was raked and tamped as a second lorry arrived with another load. Finally after some waiting a third lorry arrived with the final load and fortunately we just had enough to finish.

Concrete Boots!

We now have to wait a month or so before we can build on it and so we are off on a well deserved break for three days next week! We are staying here!

Getting on

2011-08-07T10:44:00.001+01:00

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last made an entry here. Suddenly I have become so caught up in day to day things that I haven't had the energy to write about them, even though I have thought about many posts and things I could say.

Having the dog has forced us into some sort of routine. I get up at 7.00 or thereabouts and take him for a walk; I then give him breakfast and put him in his outside shelter while we get up. Mid-morning he has another play or walk, or comes out with us if we are going shopping, mid afternoon we do the same, followed by a longer walk in the evening and some training if we can. By this time, with any luck Gremlin is asleep in his box and sleeps through until morning whilst we are exhausted! He is growing fast and loves food, treats and play in that order. Everything else has little interest for him! I soon realised that you can read as many dog behaviour books as you like but nothing prepares you for those moments when it's just you and the dog and the dog has one idea and you have another! Before we got a cattle dog all the books said don't get a dog like this as your first dog, but we did anyway! I am not so sure that it would have helped having owned a dog before as if we were used to a nice laid back puppy we would never have been able to cope with this hyperactive over stimulated beast with ADHD! As it is, we are managing with what we have and enjoying his antics and behaviour. He seems to be thriving quite well on it!

Here he is at 13 weeks old but still a baby!

We have also had two jobs on the go to fit in around dog ownership. The first one has been to lay the base for the garage, as until the garage is built and we can move our possessions and tools into it, we can't finish off inside the house. The soil was scraped level by the builder but we have had to infill with gravel, put the shuttering in for the concrete, lay the damp proof membrane and put in the steel reinforcing. We have been fitting this in around the weather and other jobs but think we can get this done next week in preparation for the concrete, which will arrive in two lorries, ready mixed. Then we can take a small break until the autumn!

The other job has been to finish off the sofits around the tower and so prevent Renata redstart from making her third nest of the summer in our house. We had to wait to do this until the builder went on holiday and was able to lend us his heavy duty machine for getting up to the roof. He did this last week and although it was not fully operational (as with most of his machines) it did the job and we now do not have a gale blowing through the house everytime the wind blows

Ian on the machine!

I mentioned that we have been fitting in these jobs around the weather. After a hot spring and early summer we have now had a really wet July, with storms and a fair bit of rain. Yesterday we had the most amazing double rainbow ending at our pot of gold!

Pot of gold in front of the field shelter

Responsibilites

2011-07-13T10:13:00.000+01:00

I suppose owning a puppy is the closest I will ever come to parental responsibility! I am getting used to balancing the puppy's needs of firm, fair treatment, our needs for a life and the demands of our continued project. For the first time in my life I am up at 6.30 and by 7.00 have walked for a mile or so. By 7.15 the dog has been fed and we have had tea and by 8.30 we are usually up and ready to go, having done all our morning jobs. Gremlin, in the meantime, is growing up faster than we can keep up with and is certainly living up to all the breed characteristic of being intelligent, strong willed, energetic and loving human company, especially ours. Ian is also warming to him as well although the walking is definitely my responsibility!

The dry summer has been particularly bad for the vegetable garden as even with watering, the high temperatures have burnt a lot of the leaves. Also, as it is the first year of growing on my patch and I did not have much time to cultivate the soil I was not holding out any high hopes. So, it was too hot for the spinach, the peppers are tiny, the aubergines have not flowered and the potoes have produces a minimal crop. However, for some reason the pumpkins are enormous and will be ready for harvesting soon.

Locally the farmers are pessimistic about the sunflower crop this year, which is way below what it should be. With the cost of fertiliser, seeds and the labour to sew and harvest they need a good yield just to break even.

I am still going to the nursing home on a volunteer basis. It takes quite a bit of energy but it helps with my French and I love the engagement with the residents. We will see how it progresses over the summer!

Ian is off to see a friend over the weekend so I have a few days here to myself to catch up with some writing, admin and do my tax return!

The Gremlin

2011-07-06T15:08:00.000+01:00

So the pool is in, connected and finished as much as it can be before winter, as we need to wait for the earth to settle before we lay the slabs around. The temperature has been increasing and we have been glad of somewhere to cool off.

In the end we had just a couple of days to finish the outside dog area before we had to collect Gremlin. It was a boiling hot afternoon as we drove to Bordeaux and our morning shopping trip was stressful and unrewarding. We finished with our usual meatball lunch in Ikea and then drove out to the breeders home, a little later than we hoped. Gremlin was out playing with his brothers and sisters when we arrived. After a while the others were put back in the puppy pen and Gremlin stayed out. He came in to the house, we sorted out the paperwork and then took him with us.

His first voyage was in the crate that we used to bring the cat down with us. It was more than big enough and after a few minutes of high pitched barkng he settled down the the journey, uttering the occasional whimper as Neil's cornering caused him to slide across the cage!

On the whole he has been pretty easy for a high energy, intelligent puppy. He sleeps okay in the night in his crate, he has only had the occasional accident, he now tolerates a lead and he will do anything tp please, but what I have learnt the most is that with a puppy you have to spend time getting to know each other and finding out what works and what doesn't. There is no one way of doing it; only a few principals and a lot of trial and error. What I hadn't realised before is how forgiving dogs are and that you don't have to get it right first time. I have a lot to learn.

Gremlin at 9 weeks

The week of the pool

2011-06-24T21:02:00.000+01:00

The focus of this week has been the swimming pool; checking the hole, awaiting the delivery, getting it in place, filling, backfilling, connecting up the filters and pipework etc etc. This is the story of the week in pictures.

This is how the pool arrived, on a truck from the South of France. It left Monday and arrived with us on Tuesday.

It was hoisted into the air

And lowered into the hole (the hole was 'impecable')

Our neighbours helped with the filling in with gravel (what lovely neighbours)

As the pool was slowly filled with water

The filters and skimmers were connected

And Ian went for a swim

Pools and plants

2011-06-18T16:12:00.000+01:00

This week has felt busy. Ian has continued to dig the hole for the pool, this time with some help from our neighbour. It arrives next week and we are slightly anxious and slightly exited. It is coming on the back of a lorry from the South of France; staying nearby on Monday night and arriving first thing Tuesday, when, all being well it will be carefully lowered into the big hole!

In the meantime growth in garden has slowed down a little due to lack of rain and sun. However today I harvested my first courgette. Apparently from now onwards I will be inundated with the little green things and by the end of June running out of courgette recipes!

More tractors!

2011-06-13T11:31:00.000+01:00

Ian has been struggling to dig the pool and has got rather disheartened with it. I think it is just one of those things when you take on a big project, as when things don't go quite to plan it can become overwhelming. We needed a day off and Ian had been looking forward to Sunday's event for a long time. It was a heat in the national tractor pulling competition that took place about 20km from us in the Lot-et-Garrone. Ian went last year by himself as he was here for a few a days, but this year we both went, along with our cycling neighbours. It took us just over an hour to get there on the bikes. I didn't think I'd enjoy it but I must confess I found it an entertaining and enjoyable day out.

Tractor pulling is like drag racing with tractors. The machines are purpose built, specially engineered, hot-rod, tractor- type bling-things that Ian admired!

They are hooked up to a sled with varying amounts of weight on it and have to tow this sled down a 100 metre strip. The tractor that gets the furthest is the winner and there are various categories of tractors, including a class for garden vehicles such as ride-on mowers. The engines are mostly old aircraft engines or equivalent and when they are on full power you have to put your fingers in your ears or wear ear defenders as the noise is so loud it vibrates your whole body.

The event was well organised and had a good family atmosphere. There was a tent where you could buy sausages, chips and beer and another one selling t-shirts and toy tractors. Unlike a similar event in the UK no one was drunk and there were no police on duty (as there was no expectation of trouble and even if there had been any it would be have dealt with swiftly by the local farmers)!

All in all and enjoyable break from the grindstone. When we got back the day was finished off nicely by watching Jenson Button win the Montreal Grand Prix. Ian was much more relaxed this morning!

Continuing professional development

2011-06-09T18:31:00.000+01:00

My work in Bordeaux has finished for the summer and I decided that a summer without speaking French would not help me at all. So, to continue with my quest for greater integration and some professional development, I contacted the local retirement home and offered my services as a volunteer. I spent a day writing my CV in French and I think it rather took them all by suprise. I will not speak too much about the details here except to say that I spent an interesting two hours talking with two new graduates from Bordeaux who work there for one day a week. By the end of the morning my head was spinning in French so all was good!

Miscellaneous

2011-06-07T16:08:00.000+01:00

Another week flies by... This post is really a mixture of the weeks'events with no particular theme. Today it has rained most of the day, which is a real relief, as the ground was begining to look like it does in August, and water restrictions are in force.

Last Friday we delivered 95 bales of hay to someone about 60 km away. It was a long, hard day. Ian loaded the trailer the night before with the first load, we got up, drove over, unloaded, drove back, loaded again, drove over again, unloaded and then came back again. It was a long day but our second day of feeling like proper farmers.

Yesterday Ian started digging the swimming pool. We got down to the required depth fairly easily, but the logistics of digging a fairly large hole with a pretty small digger are still to be worked out completely.

I remember last year saying to Ian that you would have to work hard to starve here and it is never truer than now, when people's trees are brimming with cherries and things in the garden are starting ripen. In our field we have a mirabelle tree which is rather like a cross between a wild plum and a nectarine. We noticed yesterday that they had ripened and now I have a big bowl of the things waiting to be used! I must go searching for recipes!

I have also put in an order for my second lot of dog supplies. Ridgey Didge Green and Gold aka Gremlin is now 5 weeks old, growing fast and will be with us soon.

On a sadder note, one of our not so near neighbours has just lost his dog to what they think was poisoning. The vet thinks that some of the farmers are using illegal chemicals on their land and has asked for all the fields around to be tested, as this was not the only dog affected. The worries of being a dog owner!

Raptors, hay and other things

2011-05-31T09:38:00.001+01:00

Our main task over the last week has been cutting the hay; or for my part overseeing the process! In the past we have arrived late in the summer to an overgrown field and ended up giving the hay away to the local dairy farmer who uses it to feed his cows. This year however, we have had a bit more time to appreciate our resource and start to manage it. The first thing we did was fertilize it and pray for rain. There was a little, but not really enough to get it going. However, by last week the field was as thriving as it was ever going to get this year, and ready for cutting. Our dairy farmer friend arrived with his big tractor and cut the field in a matter of hours. The sound and sight of this tractor attracted every bird of prey for miles, and at one point I counted about sixteen hovering around; diving the tractor to get the fresh grasshoppers as they lept out of the way. After the cutting, they feasted in the field for a few days on the remains of the dead wildlife until they were so full they couldn't fly! As our neighbour said, this must be where the phrase 'having a field day' came from as they gave the impression this was raptor heaven. Mostly they were buzzards, with one or two smaller hen harriers and maybe a kite or two.

A few days after the cutting our farmer friends returned to fluff the hay into piles ready for baling. (I'm sure this has a technical term but we don't know what it is). After fluffing the race was on to bale; Ian with his small tractor and a square baler and the farmer with his larger round baler. The agreement was that he could take 10 large bales in payment for cutting the field and we would keep the small bales for ourselves and to sell. All was going well until the small baler malfunctioned due to incorrect string and in the end the farmer got 12 bales and we got about 230 smaller sqaure bales. We inlisted the help of our neighbours to load the bales onto the trailer while I drove the van and we collected them all up, stacked them and covered them. We were in a hurry to get them in before the rain the following day; only the rain never came.

On the subject of bird of prey, when we were sitting eating our chocolate cake the other week there were two birds of prey circling above us which our neighbours identified as kites. They were then 'joined' by a third much bigger bird. A fight ensued and eventually the bigger bird was driven away. Our neighbours reckon the bigger bird was a short-toed eagle but if so it is a bit off its usual course as they are found more toward the Pyrennes and the mountains. However, the dry weather and shortage of food may have attracted them further East.

The weekend we get out on our bikes at last!

2011-05-23T10:55:00.000+01:00

At last..we got out on our bikes this weekend! Ian has been too focussed on the building work to allow for a break, but this week he changed his mind and got his bike out of storage! Was it the sun, the thought of exploring, of getting fit that motivated him? No, it was an village fete with a display of ancient tractors located about 10 miles away; so too near to justify driving! He also knew that he would only be able to tempt me to come by saying we were going for a bike ride! So we had a nice day out with our neighbours. It wasn't too hot, the rain stayed away, the roads were quiet and Ian got to look at some tractors. We took sandwiches and bought some chips and beer there, which made the route home rather painful! Ian is now trying to recover from his sore rear end!

When we returned we sat on the terrace with tea and chocolate cake. The cake was an experiment, made with the first harvest from the garden; beetroot! Yes, Beetroot Chocolate fudge cake, and I have to say it was very nice, although I reduced the sugar by 50g and made a fudge topping instead of the one in the recipe. I pickled the rest of the beetroot.

So the history of the beetroot is from this:

To this:

To this: (after we had feasted!)

Shifting earth

2011-05-18T11:04:00.000+01:00

Mont Blanc (the pile of white soil that has been outside our house since it was built) is now gone!

It was loaded into the dumper, moved and spread out at the back of the house to form the supporting structure for the swimming pool. Ian has been watering it in place as it really needs to pack down a bit before we put the pool in place in five weeks time, and we haven't had any significant rain for some time.

Meanwhile, Mandi the cat is getting rather upset about the fact that everytime he looks outside the view has changed!

Pigeons, boar and snakes for dinner?

2011-05-15T12:02:00.001+01:00

So the French really do eat everything and anything! In a way it is an admirable trait as the concept is environmentally friendly and non-wasteful, but it certainly requires us to toughen up and lose our squeamishness!

Ian returned from the farmer with a bag bulging with freshly picked cherries. It is that time of year and everyone has ripe cherry trees and can't pick them, eat them or bottle them quickly enough. He also had a bag with what looked like quail in, which he presented to me as 'dinner'. It turned out not to be quail, but four pigeons, freshly caught, killed and plucked. Apparently they are a nuisance on the farm as they eat the chicken feed, so the young ones are promptly dispatched and rather than thrown in the bin, they are prepared for the pot! We were given four because in reality, the farmer doesn't like them much! So, I asked around and Googled how to cook pigeon and ended up removing the breasts, marinating them in ginger and garlic and stir-frying them. I have to say that although they were okay I wouldn't rush to eat them again! I attempted to make a stock from the remains but after smelling it decided against using it. However, the cat enjoyed the cooked pigeon liver!

Yesterday we went to another hunt dinner, this time in our village. Hunting is a very traditional country activity around here and whether you approve or disapprove, think it is cruel or a poor sport it has gone on in France for centuries. Unlike in the UK it has never been seen as something that rich people do just for fun, but has been a legitimate way of feeding your family, and hence everything that is killed is eaten or used in some other way. At the annual dinner a feast is prepared of the season's kill, interspersed with a few token vegetables and lots of alcohol. Unlike many of the feasts and fairs, those attending are mostly French and of the older generation. And so, it happened that we found ourselves seated next to an elderly French couple that we had not met before. He was a man of few words but she was happy to talk to us and reminded me of the French equivalent of Nora Batty. She was large and bold and definitely the boss. The lady sitting next to her was around the same age, with no teeth but that didn't stop her polishing off a huge plate of tough old wild boar steaks, cutting them skilfully with her opinel knife! I felt quite sad that my French isn't fluent enough to really communicate with them as their stories would be interesting. These are the last generation to remember the second world war. Most would have been children but, like my mother, would vividly remember the war years, when this part of France was occupied by the Germans. There is a plaque on the war memorial to the local Maire, who was taken into the woods and shot at the age of 69, and the older villagers remember the tanks being driven up and down the road outside our house. During occupation and shortly after the war food would have been scarce and hunting probably saved many from starvation. We were telling Nora Batty about our encounters with snakes. She told us that the best way to deal with the large 'coulerves' is to slit their throats; take a knife and run it down the length of their underbellies, peel the skin off, slice them up, fry them in butter and eat them! I would not like to meet her on a dark night! Formidable!

Sunday walk

2011-05-09T13:32:00.002+01:00

The dry and warm weather continues and Ian is currently in the field trying to pull out as much ragwort as he can. We want to cut the meadow for hay (a shortage of the stuff at the moment) but it is no good for horses if it is full of ragwort, which is poisonous to them when cut and dried. Yesterday we went for a walk around the field and the orchids are out in full force.

This one is a bee orchid and there are fewer of them than the pyramid orchids, which along with the daisies make really make the field look spring like. Of course once it is grazed we will lose a lot of this, but for now it is beautiful.

The other things that are out in force are the insects. There are enormous big black bees, blue butterflies and closer to the river, we saw a few dragonflies.

The word in French for dragonfly is libellule, pronounced a bit like 'lee-bell-loo'.

After our walk through the field we headed off down a footpath in search of the old 'lavarie' or washing place. The farmer had told us that before these farms were connected to mains water people had wells for their day to day water but walked themselves and their animals down to the local washing place to water the animals and to wash their clothes! Well, we think we found it; a fair walk from the road, down through the trees and through a small meadow. The dam for the stream has long since washed away but with some imagination we could picture it! I must admit I am grateful for running water!

Introducing Gremlin

2011-05-04T20:32:00.000+01:00

The puppies arrived yesterday. Not a big litter, so we didn't get a girl, but we have reserved a red boy. We have decided to call him Gremlin, although he will also have an official name that is a bit longer. We will pick him up in two months, but in the meantime here is a picture of him at a day old. (He will develop a red coat as he gets older). (Not that he is a child subsitute or anthing!)

Realisations

2011-05-01T14:49:00.001+01:00

Just back from a few days in Bordeaux. This was partly for work and partly for pleasure! I had two days of teaching but had accidently booked the wrong night in the hotel, and as I had paid for it on-line I was unable to cancel, so in the end Ian and I decided to spend a rare evening off in Bordeaux together. It was a nice evening; the weather was mild and sunny, the bars were crowded and full of young trendy people. Bordeaux centre is definately a place for young people! I also enjoyed my teaching. It had been about 6 weeks since my last visit and so I had forgotten what it was like and how much I benefit from the intellectual stimulation, even if it is only on an occasional basis. So the first realisation was that as much as I love the country life I do need the occasional trips into something more lively to keep me up to date and current and, that somewhere is only 2 hours away.

On Saturday we spent the morning trying to buy a bath and in the afternoon we paid a visit to the very pregnant Australian Cattle dog, so that we could get a feel for the breed and an idea of what we will need to do. I was not dissapointed. The dogs were smaller than I thought (a little smaller than a border collie) inquisitive, very dingo like and with personality. We did realise however, that we will need to build a secure dog pen before we get the puppy, as we will not be able to fence in the whole garden at this point. This year, all pedigree dogs must have names starting with 'G', which put paid to our plans to call it Carla. We thought about it some more and I am quite keen on the name 'Gaga' as in Lady Gaga. Ian likes the idea of teaching it to howl along to 'Bad Romance'!

Snake in the grass

2011-04-26T20:03:00.000+01:00

Well, this snake wasn't in the grass but curled up inside the old grass topper that Ian acquired today. Our neighbour has been working on a house near Bergerac, and lying abandoned in the grass was the rusty topper and a tine harrow. The owner didn't want them anymore so Ian went up this morning to pick them up. He was showing a friend how it worked, happily spinning the blade round, when the friend noticed the metre long snake curled around the drive shaft! As we didn't want a massacre like the digger/snake incident, and as grass snakes are a declining species, we decided (or rather Ian decided, as I have a snake phobia) to persuade the snake to leave. However, here is where the plan failed as no amount of banging the topper and poking the snake, could persuade him to leave the safety of his metal home (and I can't say I blame him; I am developing a new respect for snakes!) So, now the topper is halfway down the field, next to the hedge in the hope that in the peace and quiet of the evening the snake will leave of his own accord!

The Eiger vanishes!

2011-04-23T17:04:00.001+01:00

After another day working with the digger and dumper the Eiger; the pile of earth that has blighted our view since the house was dug, has now gone! For the first time we can see the whole of the front garden and the view across the fields and slowly we look less and less like a building site.

The contents of the Igor are now spread behind the house, where the pool is to be dug. The pool arrives on the 21st June so the hole must be dug by then and we are a little short of soil in the right places. We are also doing rain dances as we speak as we really need the ground to pack down before we start. Today we watched the storm clouds circle us but went straight past and left us high and dry! My veggie patch needs a good downpour to thrive and we are expecting a storm in the next two days.

In the meantime I decided to go for a swim!

PS: Just been old that it is The Eiger and not Igor!

Routine

2011-04-18T11:30:00.002+01:00

Oh for a day off! One of the problems we have is that we have so much work to do to finish our project that we don't think about taking a day off. Ian gets embroilled in tractor parts and I get bogged down in the garden (although not literally since we still have had no rain). We made a real effort yesterday to take a break with the help of our neighbours, who have been in a similar position themselves and realise the importance of not letting the project take over your entire life, whilst continuing to feel that you are making progress. We started off with a morning visit to Issigeac and the Sunday market. The village dates from medieval times, with the streets shaped in a spiral up to the church. Many of the old buildings are still there and on Sunday mornings there is a market selling the usual market type stuff but quite interesting. I bought a large straw hat to protect me from the sun and we stopped and had a beer/coffee in the local bar. All in all a nice diversion from work.

After lunch we went to see the farmer to get some eggs (her chickens produce more than she can eat). She showed me the rabbits she breeds for dinner and offered to show me how to kill them and turn them into pate! I think this may be a step to far for me just now, although in terms of sustainable, cheap and environmentally friendly food, rabbit is probably better than most other meats. I explained that in England rabbits were kept as pets and she found that quite amusing!

We concluded the day with a visit to our neighbours and watched the moon rise while we drank wine and ate lovely leftover veggie curry!

Ian has been engrossed in his tractor since Friday. It has a serious technical problem in that it pumps diesel into the engine and the source of the problem cannot be found. He is now stripping it down for the second day running. Personally I would rather he got on with something more immediately important, but I think he is also tired and we have both lost a bit of our mojo since returning from UK. Anyway, here is a picture of the tractor with Ian up to his neck in oil !

Heavy metal

2011-04-14T21:28:00.003+01:00

Today Ian is at a friend's house trying to repair the ancient tractor that he bought several years ago and I have a day to myself in the house. This is probably the first time since we have been here and I promised Ian that I would catch up on some 'proper' work at my desk while he was away! Well, I managed until now but what I really want to do is catch up on some blogging, without my thoughts being interupted by sounds of engines and cursing as something else breaks! All I can hear today is the drone of the flies as they get more and more exited by the approaching hot summer.

So, what is the cause of Ian's cursing? Well, he can never resist a good bargain when it comes to heavy machinery and one of the things we towed back from UK was an old roller; apparently we need it for when we do the drive. This was a bargain but sold on Ebay as 'spares or repair' so Ian set about repairing it only to find that it needs rather more repair than he had hoped! It goes forward and 'rolls' but apparently does not perform its secondary function of vibrating!

He has also been spending quite a lot of time on the digger and dumper trying to move earth. After the builders went we were left with two very large piles of earth that we have called Mont Blanc

and The Eiger

Truck loads of earth have been removed but the size of the piles never seems to decrease. While Ian was clearing Igor he accidently hit a snake with the digger bucket. The snake was probably searching for food in the pile. It was about a metre long and most probably a grass snake just awaking from hibernation. Unfortunately he wounded it but didn't kill it outright and then we didn't really know what to do. We probably should have killed it as it was unlikely to survive its injuries, but at this point it decided to try and fight back and so we had to let it go; maybe to be dinner for one of the birds of prey that fly over the field. Our encounters with snakes so far have been seen two, mortally wounded two!

So, just as I was halfway through writing this entry Ian returned declaring that the tractor was ready and we could go over an pick it up.

Hotting up

2011-04-07T21:46:00.000+01:00

Today the temperature in the sun was close to 30 degrees. Amazing for April although from what I can understand this is not unusual down here. I have been concentrating on my veggie patch. I have never had any luck with veggie gardening in UK; with all my efforts destroyed by slugs, cats (turning the newly dug soil into their litter tray), lack of time, lack of water, bad soil etc etc. Looking at the hard lumps of clay here I was not holding out much hope as I planted five rows of potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, and beetroot. However, so far, nothing has died. The neighbours tell me that everything grows here really easily including the weeds and it is certainly true that this time of year with the warmth and a little rain you can virtually see things shooting up. I am keeping my fingers crossed., although I did work out that with the cost of plants it is probably cheaper to buy seasonal veggies from the supermarket! Next year I will have to try my hand with seeds.

The fine weather meant that at the weekend everyone was out mowing the lawn on their ride-on mowers. Our neighbour mowed his lawn, left the mower outside the shed and settled down to an evening meal and a few glasses of wine and failed to notice when thieves cut through his fence and stole it. This also happened to someone else so we suspect a lawn mower gang! This is only the third crime in the history of village in the last 20 years, the other main one being the theft of Ian's caravan from the field a few years ago. It has lead to a lot of disussion, debate and purchasing of locks!

On the menu

2011-04-04T09:27:00.000+01:00

The lunch yesterday was very pleasant. The hall in Thenac is functional. Like most of these places it was brightly lit, with a wallpapered country scene on one wall and the village banner on the other. It was full with about 30 long trestle tables down each wall. The room filled up with close to 70 people; in this case the majority being over retirement age, but in remarkably good health. The man in charge of the food was strangely Neanderthal looking, with a thick set head and neck. The menu was as follows

An aperitif of kir (sparkling wine and blackcurrant, tasting a bit light fizzy ribena) and a few salty snack biscuits

Asparagus soup

Red and rose wine (and some water)

Terrine de sanglier and crusty bread (a pate made with wild boar that tasted a bit like a peppery corned beef)

Venison stew, made with red wine, garlic and the addition of some rather strong alcohol, probably cognac, served with a piece of French toast and a clove of garlic to rub on the toast!

This was followed by roasted boar meat with a redcurrant sauce (our neighbour had a piece of lead shot in his!)

Following this was a plate of garlicky green beans.

Then more wild boar meat.

Then a bowl of endive salad

More wine

Cheese (Roquefort or camembert)

Desert (an ice cream cornetto from Lidl)

Coffee

Strong spirits if you wanted (we declined this bit!)

The whole thing lasted 6 and a half hours and we then had to sober up before bed!

We are expecting!

2011-04-03T10:21:00.001+01:00

I bet that got you going! No, a miracle has not happened, but it has been confirmed that doggy dad did his stuff and there is a litter of approximately 5 pups due in May. So, all being well I may get my first dog in the summer and we have time to puppy proof the house! At times I wonder if we have done the right thing by considering such an active dog, but then last night our neighbour had his lawnmower stolen from his garden and the thought of having a dog on stand by was a little reassuring, especially if Ian is away. See, even in the heart of rural France there are still thieves.

Today we are going to the Salle de Fetes in nearby Thenac for a Chasse lunch. Five courses of meat, meat, meat, cheese, coffee and red wine all for 15 euros and an appointment at the doctors for gout the following day!

Culture shock 2

2011-03-31T17:12:00.000+01:00

Just back from week in UK and never thought that I would feel so pleased to be back here so early on in our adventure; although when you think about it, if we are not enjoying it now then there is no hope! So, UK seemed frantic, stressed, expensive, the supermarkets were packed, we spent a lot of time in traffic, people had no time for anything. Even Eastbourne, known as God's waiting room, seemed busy and crowded. What has happened to this former vegetarian Londoner!

Of course it was lovely to see everyone but all in all we decided that next time we will do it a bit more slowly!

Culture shock

2011-03-20T12:39:00.000Z

My week ended with two more days of teaching. I have got a little more accustomed to the commuting and the contrast between Bordeaux and our quiet hamlet and a bit more familiar with the French students. I had an enjoyable session on Thursday but on Friday they all seemed remarkably quiet! Turns out they all had a major hangover from St Patricks day celebrations! I had noticed when I went for a walk that evening that the pubs and bars were full of people dressed in green. 'The Irish in France' I thought; but no, they were all native Frenchmen. As one of the students said to me, in Bordeaux we like any excuse for a party!

Last night, amidst our preparations for a week back in UK, we went with our neighbours to a small village about 35 miles away, where their friends were playing in a celtic band. The location was a village hall and the cause of the celebration was St Patrick. The music consisted of Irish jigs and reels (diddley dee music), there was food, wine, beer and dancing. One thing that struck me was that there were all ages there, from infants to old people, including some teenagers, who spent most of the time in a small room upstairs, presumably playing video games and smoking dope that had probably been grown on their parents' farm; but at least they were safe and not causing problems to the rest of the world! The children danced, played and came to look at us (as we were strangers) and we commented on how wonderful for them to feel that they could do this in safetly. All in all a pleasant time and we are not particulary exited about the prospect of UK, although to see friends and family will be nice.

Gaining confidence

2011-03-16T16:57:00.000Z

Fortunately I did not overturn the trailer or damage the car in my two hour lesson on 'how to drive with a trailer'. My instructor was called Pascal and despite the fact that he spoke no English and my French is limited I still managed to understand the complexities of driving backwards with a tall box fixed to back end! The worst of it was that the lesson started at 8.00 a.m. so we had to leave at 7.15. By 10.00 I was finished, we went and had a coffee, went shopping, stopped in and booked a doctor’s appointment on the way back and were done by mid-day in time for lunch. We almost felt French! I am, however, spared the joys of driving the van complete with trailer just yet as Ian discovered that one brake had gone and the bearings need changing; making it unsafe to take it back to the UK with us next week. I remarked at how I am developing a strange vocabulary in French. I know all the words for most things on a building site, am learning the words for many medical terms through my work and know the names of all sorts of strange wildlife that appear in the field. What I don't know is how to have a conversation with the check-out girl in the supermarket. (Mind you, that is difficult in the UK !).
Talking of strange wildlife, we have a mad March hare in our field, running hundreds of miles in frantic circles in search of sex. Spring is definitely sprung!

So, another two days in Bordeaux and then next week we are off to see friends and family and to buy more materials for the house. It will be a busy week and today I wondered how I ever found time for work and holidays.

Awaiting news

2011-03-09T07:53:00.000Z

Apparently the romantic liaison between our puppy parents went well over the weekend and a good time was had by all. We won't know for a month whether it has resulted in puppies so I feel the closest I will ever get to being an expectant parent! Here is a picture of the handsome happy couple!

An unusual gift

2011-03-08T20:58:00.000Z

Today Ian bought me a present. It's not my birthday but Ian must have felt particularly romantic today when we walked into the HGV training centre just outside of Bergerac. So.. next Tuesday I have a 2 hour lesson with a French HGV instructor who is hopefully going to show me how to drive a van and trailer. I have a UK licence that enables me to drive a vehicle up to 7.5 tons but I have never been particularly comfortable in anything more than a Ford Fiesta so when we drive back to the UK towing a trailer Ian is on his own all the way which as well as being a lot of driving, means that if he ever felt unwell, we would just have to wait until he got better before we could continue.

The one problem I can see is that I don't know left from right in English, let alone in French, and it is a long time since I drove a left hand drive vehicle!

Progress

2011-03-07T21:05:00.000Z

Today was warm and sunny and a perfect temperature for a short bike ride. The bike ride itself was perfect for working off the slight hangover that I still had this morning. Yesterday lunchtime we had lunch with our neighbours and other friends to celebrate the fact that they have finished building their new roof. This was quite an achievement and has meant that for most of the winter they have been living under a tarpaulin, in fear of a storm. We celebrated from lunchtime until early evening.

The bike ride took me around the lake. There were two vehicles there; a couple taking their dog for a walk and a minibus with some of the monks from Plum Village, who were lying in the sun. It was a truly peaceful scene and when I told Ian later he comented that a lake like that in the UK would probably be packed and would charge £5 a day for parking.

We are still progressing with the house. The kitchen is now completely wired, the wall in the hallway closed off and the ceiling frame in the sitting room in place. In the meantime we are planning a trip back to the UK at the end of the month and our shopping list is growing! I am looking forward to seeing friends and family but I can't say that I am missing my homeland at the moment.

We may be getting the first two of our livery horses in May from Ian's friend but before we can do that we have to get some fencing in place so that may be the first job to do when we return. The other animal we hope to get soon is our dog. I will write more on that on another occasion but for now I will say that if all went to plan our new dog was conceived this weekend!

News

2011-02-28T18:11:00.000Z

Spring continues to approach but is not quite here yet. We have just had a wet spell which has enabled us to test out the drainage system properly, and so far we are pleased to report the cellar and underneath the house has remained bone dry. I am reluctant to cheer too loudly as we have yet to see what happens after a heavy storm, but so far it looks to be working. We have moved inside to work this week and Ian has been concentrating on the wiring. We now have functioning light switches in the kitchen, wired in plug sockets, and are close to being able to close off the dividing wall between the kitchen and the hall. This has the added advantage of using up six sheets of plasterboard that are currently taking up space.

Today we prepared the heap of carcass that was donated to us by the hunt at New Year and learnt our first lesson about game; you should hang it before sticking it in the freezer to drain all the blood away. We also realised that we had been given the piece that suffered the fatal blow; as we removed the lead shot from inbetween the broken ribs! To think I was once a non meat eater! After the carnage the kitchen looked like a scene from a masacre but bambi is now in bits in the slow cooker and will be served tomorrow night when our non vegetarian neighbours come for dinner.

On a totally different note, my friend who lives in Christchurch, New Zealand has had her house turned upside down for the second time in a few months with the latest earthquake. Fortunately her family were safe although her husband works just round the corner from one of the buildings that was completely flattened. I spent a great holiday there several years ago, and have some other friends from there that I have not kept in touch with. I am hoping that they are all safe and okay. My friend described it as their 9/11 but they have no one to blame.

A definitive sign of spring

2011-02-20T13:33:00.001Z

Various people have been posting on their blogs about the first signs of spring (including me). Well two days ago we saw the strongest evidence yet; the cranes migrating north to their breeding grounds in Scandanavia.

I have never seen this before. They passed overhead at about 5.30 in the evening. We first noticed these black lines in the distance, and then before we could really make out what they were heard this squawking sound, getting louder and louder as the flock got nearer.

And then they were overhead. We could hear the sound of their wings beating together and the sounds as they called to each other. Within 5 minutes they had passed over, heading North, their dark line contrasted with the vapour trails from the jet planes high above them.

It was an amazing sight and my only sadness was that I have had to wait 52 years to see it. I shall be looking out closely for them next year.

A country life

2011-02-16T17:36:00.001Z

The weeks progress and spring seems almost here. We have learnt to ignore the weather forecast since it is almost always wrong. It is supposed to rain at some point, and we have had a few light showers, but not the day-long rain that was predicted. Most days we have not needed more than a light fleece or jumper over a t shirt and at lunch time on the terrace it is possible to sit out in shirt sleeves.

I survived two days in Bordeaux last week and now have a bit of a break until March. For the first time I was not exhausted by 8.00 pm and so walked around the city in the evening. I was surprised at how lively it was; and as the temperature was mild, the restaurants’ outside tables were full. I asked the students if this was usual for February in Bordeaux and they assured me it was!

On my return to the house however, I got back to basics. Herman had ploughed up the square that has been identified as my vegetable patch (note that things to do with cooking and growing food are mine and things to do with diggers and machines are Ian’s). I am more familiar with a little hand digging in the back garden and a quick half hour with the rake whereas this is digging on a more serious scale!

Well, the digging was easy enough but then the job was to spread the pile of sh*t that the farmer kindly donated! This was hard work and took me two days with a wheelbarrow and pitch fork!

The wildlife is begging to re-surface after winter. We have three young deer that run across the field in the morning and various birds that appear. One of them looked bigger than average and when I looked closer we could see it was a heron; obviously trying to supplement his normal fish diet with a few field mice! Then, on Monday (Valentine ’s Day) we woke to see this just outside the bedroom window. He looked like a baby buzzard (although I am not sure what a fully grown one would look like). He sat looking at the rain until the sound of the electric tea-maker finishing brewing scared him off.

There is a little bit of shaking at the start of the video while Ian bounced up and down on the bed !

2011-02-10T21:07:00.000Z

No sooner had I started writing about grey, damp days the weather improved dramatically and we have been basking in 18 degrees centigrade in the afternoons (warm enough to sit out on the terrace for a while). Mandi the cat has now woken to the delights of spring and is beginning to get his small head around the fact that his world has grown beyond his wildest dreams. For the first time in his life there are no walls, roads, other cats or buildings within his sight and now that he is beginning to get it, he has been driving us mad by wanting to go in and out and in and out in as many different compilations as he can manage. He is most active during the night, preferring to sleep it off during the morning. I think his days of sleeping at then end of the bed may be coming to an end!

Ian has spent more time working on the outside of the house. We dug out for the second Canadian drain. These are air vents in the form of plastic pipes that are buried into the ground and have an inlet above the ground to draw in air and an outlet in a vent in the floor. As they pass underground the theory is that the air is slightly warmed in the winter and slightly cooled in the summer; well that is the theory! We thought it sounded a good idea and better than having vents in the windows. However, as we investigated it further we found out that it was rather more complicated than we thought and actually would make very little difference in terms of heat in our part of France as it is not cold enough (or hot enough) for long enough for it to be effective. We also did not have the 1.5 metres of top soil necessary so put it deep enough. So, in the end we have compromsied and made an air inlet pipe that goes underground a little! The run in the ditch by the side of the house and in digging it out Ian managed to break the sewage outlet pipe with the digger! As it was sunny he took it in his stride and promptly fixed it!

I am currently in Bordeaux. I am only working a day and half this time which meant that I didn't have to get up too early! However, I still had to get the 9.12 train, and as we drove to Ste Foye le Grande we passed the monks and followers from Plum Village on their morning walk. I smiled to myself as over their sackcloth dress they were wearing hi-visibility vests. Even the budhists are not exempt from health and safety!

Second of February

2011-02-02T18:00:00.000Z

The grey weather has continued; leading to a lack of motivation and energy and a feeling that maybe we are back in the UK! Today we took a trip in the car to look at stones for the driveway; as we are fed up of our boots and shoes getting covered in sticky, gloopy mush everytime it rains.

According to one of my former colleagues today is " ‘Imbolc’ on the pagan calendar and represents the flowing of new life with the growing daylight hours and the retreat of winter and darkness – but a warning that winter hasn’t completely gone. " He then added "So let’s hope that you two country folk are beginning to feel that spring is on its way. I can see you and Ian sniffing the misty air each morning and communing with nature with sage -like astute nods". Don't think we are quite there yet, but on our way over to look at stone we saw at least six buzzards out hunting. We have seen them before but not so many and not so close to the road. They obviously no something that we don't!

We dropped something into the farmer on the way and his wife told us that if the weather is good today then it means we are going to have a second winter. According to Wikipedia it is Groundhog day and
"According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks"
The second of February is also
Candlemas
Pancake day in France
Bun day in Iceland

Frosty starts and glowing days

2011-01-31T12:12:00.000Z

The last couple of days have been grey and misty, although prior to that it was cold, dry and sunny. This is typical winter weather and with misty dawns and red sunsets.

We seem to live under the flight path for planes heading down to Spain. They fly high above us, so we don’t hear them, but on a clear day they leave their vapour trail across the sky.
Ian has been spending time on the digger.

The priority has been to try to stop the cellar from flooding every time it rains, so ditches have been dug and drains have been laid,

culminating in the biggest ditch of all; constructed around the house like a moat. This was dug by the builder using his very big digger, when I was working in Bordeaux and consists of a two metre deep pit across the front of the house filled with gravel. The theory is that as the rain runs down the hill, along the rock bed, it will hit the drain and run off into the field before it reaches our cellar. We are so confident that it will work that yesterday we started to paint the walls of the basement (although we stopped just above the flood line!).

I have done another two days in Bordeaux and although it was exhausting it didn’t feel quite as strange as on the previous occasion (although I was in bed by 9.00pm and asleep by 9.30). This time I took the early train and my Brompton bike and navigated my way through the rush hour traffic and trams to get to the school. On Saturday we were both tired and decided to have a ‘weekend’ day. We went shopping to Bergerac and spent our time buying groceries, a new doorbell; a mat to put our muddy shoes on and a chimney for our Canadian drain (more on that another time). Despite what some English people here seem to think, food is not more expensive if you buy fresh food in season (although tea bags and other things imported are naturally a little more). The best place for fruit and veg is a shop called le Grand Frais (or the big fresh), which has rows and rows of beautiful looking fruit and veg; some of them long forgotten types, such as purple potatoes and carrots. As we were there, three monks from plum village were doing their weekly shop.

So, life goes on in rural France as we continue to adjust to our new life.

Lost in translation.

2011-01-24T20:35:00.000Z

We have had a day off work today. At 9.30 we had a visit from a salesman about a swimming pool. We are not really that bothered about a pool for ourselves but when Ian got planning permission for the house it was dependent on us having a source of water for the fire brigade. It was either a pool or a fire hydrant and the cost for the latter was not much less than a basic pool, so a pool it is! As Ian has been focussing mostly on the outside of the building and the groundworks we decided to at least give some thought to the pool.

So.. after lunch we went pool shopping, around the many pool merchants of Bergerac. We have several appointments booked to get opinions on what is possible and we have some nice glossy brochures. The best one has been rather poorly translated into English, to the extent that Ian had to download the French version so that he could understand it. Here are some gems.

The etancheity of your swimming pool is ensured by a resistant coating, the liner

Amongst a pletoric choice, you will give substance to your ideas... your swimming pool will become a reflection of your desires.

Worldwide Pools disencumbers you of the inherent concern of the earthwork. This stability confers you the insurance to arrange the beaches quickly..

and my favourite:
Some common sens, a little bit of dexterity, a knowledge of work of masonary and an imense desire to give pleasure to yourself...

Your friends will be astonished, your close relations will be proud of you and you will have a great satisfaction from this experience.

This is a great example of why you shouldn't use Google Translate!

Squirrels and doctors

2011-01-19T14:35:00.000Z

Yesterday I had my first contact with the French Health System; except I am not fully registered yet so I am still learning! I was amazed to have a whole half an hour with my GP; who took one look at the referral letter from my GP in the UK and panicked! I now have referrals here, there and everywhere for permission to have my medication prescribed, for blood tests, and for appointments with a specialist in April! How quickly things move and how great that the GP can organise it all from his office! No waiting, no letters but as I have no inusurance yet, quite a heafty bill for me at first! Unlike in the UK, healthcare is not free at the point of delivery.

Ian opened the bonnet of the Ford Focus to put some windscreen washer fluid in before I left, only to find 24 neatly stored acorns, squashed in the sound proofing of the bonnet. It looks like a squirrel saw it as a nice nesting box and as here they are not the aggressive grey variety but the rather timid red squirrels, we were sad about disrupting it. (However, squirrel barbequed on the engine block would not be a good idea!). Ian now has instructions for a squirrel house!

Students

2011-01-17T17:06:00.001Z

I guess students are students wherever you go. Despite my careful planning most of them didn't bring their papers to the class.. one had read the wrong paper, one was on the phone during the break and then came back in and cried to herself for the rest of the class; they talked amongst themselves, they spoke so quietly I could hardly hear them, they sat looking dumb and they laughed from time to time. No change there then!

Phew

2011-01-13T20:19:00.000Z

When I told Madame Martenago that I was going to Bordeaux for two days to work she was so exited and started telling me about the wonderful buildings, the opera, the concerts and what a great time I would have! I thought about her comments as a I struggled up the road from the station to the hotel; carrying my luggage; as I walked past the sexy lady peep shows and the all night supermarkets and laundries that line the road from the station and I thought that this was probably not the good time she had in mind!

It's been a long time since I was in a city. Bordeaux seems busy, young, trendy and amazingly warm for January! I spent the day saying 'il fait chaud' and' il est comme printemps' only to be told; well you are in the South of France now! I found the day quite hard and spent most of it feeling out of my depth. To make it worse, I arrived in the middle of a hot flush and spent the entire day feeling sweaty. Now I am only fit for bed!

Digger tales

2011-01-09T16:04:00.000Z

While I plan my teaching sessions in the relative warmth of the bed-sitting room, Ian has been enjoying playing with the digger. He has been digging drainage gulleys to try to solve the problem of the subfloor flooding in winter. However, the thick claggy clay and his desire to make progress at all costs did lead to a few problems.

The digger was stuck fast in the mud, leaning over at a precarious angle and even the farmer's big yellow tractor could not shift it! Hmmmm what to do??

Eventually, after some discussion, digging, twisting, levering and groaning the digger was freed and lived to see another sunrise! Ian was happy.

The end of the holidays

2011-01-09T15:43:00.000Z

In all our time coming here we have always been on holiday, (although with the amount of work we had to do it was never very restful). We would rush around with things to do, no time to do them, deadlines approaching. We would make progress and then frustratingly have to tidy up, pack up and return home exhausted to our equally busy lives. Well, now the holidays are over and this is it...We can't turn our back on it and head home as home is here. This has begun to really hit us both now and although it is great, the degree of adjustment we have to make is quite overwhelming at times and we have both had 'wobbly' days when we think 'what have we done'. However we have also had days of peace and relief.

I have found coping with the French bureaucracy the most unsettling. My attempts to get a bank account, registered with a doctor and signed on to the health insurance system have been a case of two steps forward, one step back (normal progress in France). I am slowly getting there and for me it is about having an independent identity and ‘existing’ in France in my own right and not as part of Ian. I came to this point as someone who has lived independently for 33 years, with my own history and outlook on life and at now would it be too difficult to exist entirely as part of someone else. For this reason I am looking forward to spending two days in Bordeaux next week on the first of my teaching tasks, although I am rather nervous as to how I will manage, given that my spoken French is so much worse than my written (and that my new colleagues thought that my carefully prepared session may be a little too difficult for the pupils!) Still, I will blag it and I’m sure it will be okay!

Happy New Year

2011-01-02T20:48:00.000Z

Happy New Year to everyone! We celebrated New years Eve in the house; with a party with our neighbours in our temporary kitchen, in the makeshift dining room, on the trestle table covered with a plastic cloth, with the three sets of Christmas lights that we managed to salvage from the unpacking and with six of our neighbours. We barely had enough crockery and cultery, everyone brought bits and pieces and we finally got to bed by 3.00 a.m. It was a great start to our new year and new life.

Today I had to do some work for my part time job that I start in a week and Ian spent the morning on his digger; which he enjoys a lot! We visited some friends for an hour or so this afternoon and then this evening I came back and started to cook dinner when there was a loud knock at the door. Ian got up to open it and standing on the doorstep were 'Le chasse'; carrying a dripping bit of animal carcass!

Now, we can recognise a bribe when we see one and this dripping bit of bambi was in the hope that we will continue to allow them to hunt for the next year (and also a bit of a welcome present)! If you are a bit sensitive to these things I suggest you look away now.

Anyone know how to cook foreleg of bambi?

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T20:22:00.000Z

Well after my last post about the balmy weather the snow God obviously heard me and decided to sprinkle a few centimetres of the white stuff over us just before Christmas. This is unheard of here and so promptly caused a 19 hour power cut on Christmas Eve.

Fortunately power was restored in time for me to cook Christmas dinner. We also managed to get the satellite dish connected so we had TV over Christmas. Inspired by Gordon Ramsay does Christmas, we had scrambled egg and smoked salmon on toasted croissants for breakfast and then went for a walk. Most of the snow had melted by this point but there was enough to create the feel of a white Christmas.

The rest of the day was spent eating and resting. For the first time in many years we didn’t have to worry about how much we drank because we didn’t have to drive various parents everywhere.

On Boxing Day (not a holiday in France) we went for a longer walk around the lake and visited some neighbours. It was all very non commercialised and low key.

As we now have a ceiling in the dining room we have decided to have a New Years Eve party amid the building site. It has given us a focus to work towards in our endeavours to make the place feel comfortable and we are looking forward to welcoming our English neighbours to see in the New Year with us.

In transit

2010-12-22T16:24:00.000Z

We are slowly making progress into our new life in France. For a start, the snow and freezing temperatures seem a bit of a distant memory as we bask in daytime temperatures of 12 degrees. The other thing that seems different is the daylight. We are no longer surrounded by buildings, we are few hundred miles further South and the clocks are an hour ahead so although it has been grey at times it hasn’t had the oppressiveness of the greyness in England.

We now have a warm room to sit in, our clothes are sorted (nice clothes packed away in boxes and thermals, work clothes and wellies are unpacked), we have a warmish kitchen, an area that has potential as a dining room space, Internet (except for two days when we didn’t have it!) and now we have TV via a satellite dish temporarily installed on the end of the terrace.

On a spiritual level I am not entirely here. I still dream of packing up, dangerous journeys and not reaching my destination but last night I was in France in my dreams for the first time. I have not entirely finished all my business in England and have a long way to go before I have things set up here (Governments don’t understand this, expecting you to be either resident in once place or another; they don’t understand that you can be in-transit for a while even if your body is in one place.)

The cat also seems a bit in-transit as well. Some days he is bold and runs out exploring his new environment, getting muddy and excited; and some days like today he prefers to sleep under the bed all day.

But, at the end of the day I can sit and watch Herman’s sheep as they make their way across the field in search of warmer and lusher pasture, and look out at the tidy wintry field that is South West France.

The shortest day

2010-12-18T16:43:00.001Z

It is the shortest day of the year in a few days and one of the main things I notice is that there is just that bit more daylight than further north. It is 5.30 pm and I have just taken this photo of the sun dipping behind the trees. Now, as I look out of the window it is almost night. Dusk does not hang around here for long.

Freezing!

2010-12-15T21:24:00.000Z

God it's cold in the kitchen! With a temperature of 1.7 degrees I have to dress up in thermals to cook the dinner! Main problem is the butance gas freezes at 4 Celcius so it is a race to get the dinner cooked before the temperature falls! Once on the plate the distance from the kitchen to the dining table is enough to cool down the dinner considerably! Mandi the cat decided that today he wouldn't venture out of the warmth of the bedroom and really, we should have done the same!

Early days

2010-12-15T09:06:00.000Z

The first few days here have been spent acclimatising to the change in environment. For a start, we are now ‘camping’ in one room, with the rest of the house looking like a building site! (And now full of our possessions in boxes and packing, spread randomly around).

We have arrived to typical winter weather. The nights are cold and clear; going down to minus 5 or 6, and the days are sunny and crisp. The contrast in temperatures between first thing in the morning and the evening requires maximum flexibility in terms of clothing and heating.

When we arrived the temperature in the bedroom was 6 degrees and in the kitchen around freezing. With our heating we managed to get the bedroom up to a comfortable 18 and now it feels quite comfortable. However, the kitchen was 0.1 degrees this morning and I can only cope with 10 minute spells at the moment!

However, the positive thing is that washing dries on the line in two hours! Unheard of in the UK.

Plan is to finish the kitchen ceiling and insulate it as soon as possible so that we can get some heat in there!

Onward!

We made it.

2010-12-12T16:01:00.000Z

When I asked people here how their move went they all sighed and said pretty much the same thing. "Well we made it". It's only now that I can fully appreciate what they meant!

We made it but the journey was long and stressful! We were still packing the trailer at midnight on Thursday and putting the last things in the van as we were due to leave the following morning but somehow we made it onto the ferry and heaved a sigh of relief. We drove in convoy with Ian only managing 55 mph (less uphill) and me behind with the cat. We kept in touch using walkie talkie radios. Friday we stayed in a nice hotel but collapsed into bed and passed out. We overslept the following morning but continued our drive southwards by mid morning and got here, finally at 8.00pm.

So we are here and keep having to remind ourselves that we don't have to go back

I will write more details as the days progress but for now we are resting!

One step closer

2010-12-07T22:08:00.000Z

Today we drove up to London to collect the trailer. The snow here has gone but from Crowborough northwards it was still there beside the road with a most spectacular hoar frost through the Ashdown Forest. On the way there we stopped off to get rid of some scrap metal we had collected in the course of our work. I have never been to a scrap metal yard before and it felt very much like a scene from Mad Max minus Mel Gibson. The old copper and lead pipe paid for the fuel we used today.

The car park by Ian's garage was covered in a thick sheet of ice, so prising the trailer from its cave was a long job, involving a lot of digging, scraping and heaving. It was a hectic day but eventually we got here with the trailer and managed to park it outside the house. Tomorrow we start packing!

D (for departure) Day

2010-12-06T22:50:00.000Z

Well, we've gone and done it! We've booked the ferry crossing for Friday morning. Over the past week the house has got emptier. Yesterday I gave away my bed frame and now we are sleeping on the floor. This evening the dining table and chairs went to a good home.. The kitchen is half packed, most of my clothes are in a suitcase and the cat has definitely realised that something is up!

We have no snow here but tomorrow we are driving up to London the get the trailer, and that is still snowed in. I think we will have to do some digging.

I still don't know whether everything will fit in the trailer, van and car but I suppose we will sort out that problem if and when it happens.

Am I exited yet? Well, I don't really know. Sometimes I feel a twinge but then I think of all the things to do between now and getting on the ferry and I have to put my excitement to one side. Maybe when we are driving to the port I will feel a bit exited?

The journey down will take two days as we are driving slowly and in convoy. Thursday night we are having fish and chips at home, Friday night we are eating in a hotel. The hotel is cat friendly and will let us keep Mandi in the room in his crate.Mandi has a very special travel crate designed for a small dog so that he will have room to move around a little.

By Saturday evening we should be in the house..

Halted by the cold

2010-12-03T22:19:00.000Z

The limbo continues and our progress has been slowed further by the coldest December that I can remember; with no sign of a let up! I went into town today and was stunned by how cold it felt. I had underestimate the weather and did not have nearly enough jumpers or socks! Tonight the temperature is -8 and there is still 10cm of snow and ice everywhere. We are making good progress with the jobs in the house but desperately need two snow free days to do the necessary outside jobs and then to get and load the trailer. We have not booked our tickets yet but hope to go next Thursday. I have now got rid of most of my furniture and we have packed most of our things. Last night I almost felt exited. If we have a thaw tomorrow and manage to get on with things I will more so.

Limbo

2010-11-27T16:51:00.001Z

We are still heading forward, inching towards leaving..but with no definitive end in sight. Our first date was to be 1st December but that edged towards the 5th, then the 6th and now maybe sometime the week following. We still have a lot of jobs to do and our progress has not been helped by a sudden early snowfall. Snow by the coast is an uncommon event (although we seem to have had a fair bit over the past two years). Autumn has only just gone and suddenly we are in the middle of winter as this street scene shows.

This rose is doing its best to survive under the heap of snow! It's the earliest snow for 17 years but at the moment in the South East seems to be confined to Eastbourne for some odd reason, as Hastings and Brighton are clear.
I must admit I didn't think we would have to deal with snow again and it has thrown us a little. Never the less we are getting there although the logistics of loading up, tidying, cleaning, handing the keys to the estate agent, manhandling the cat into his crate; and driving down through France through what is likely to be winter weather does fill me with some panic! Ian's IBS has started to play up in anticipation.

So, I am half moved out and half here. I am in limbo. My mail is now being redirected, my car is currently on EBay looking for a new home, we had farewell drinks with friends here on Thursday and have a family Christmas tomorrow and then technically we are gone..only not quite!

Warm and furry

2010-11-23T22:44:00.000Z

We called in to see Ian's mother the other day while we out her way, and she decided that I might find her sheepskin footmuff a useful addition to our French home. With nightime temperatures of -12 at the moment by the land this may be the case (although I can't imagine us ever having time to sit still at the moment). In the meantime Mandi the cat has found a use for it as a bottom warmer!

Changing times

2010-11-19T23:11:00.000Z

It's now just 4 weeks since I left work for my new life. I am amazed at how much we have managed to do since then and my everyday life has changed beyond all recognition. I have gone from spending 40 hours a week sitting on my backside to days of physical activity. We usually get off to a slow start as neither Ian or I are morning people, but once activated we work hard until about 7.00 p.m.when we stop the hard work but then I then cook dinner if I am not too sleepy! I pack boxes, lift things, paint, hold screws in place, shop, wash, clean etc etc. and the most interesting thing is that even after only 4 weeks, my body is metamorphosing. My rounded shoulders are gradually opening up, my feeble arms are getting tiny muscles and my legs can leap upstairs without noticing. Of course this change is not pain free, and my body feels worse than it used to after a day of mountain biking, but I am optimistic and convinced that this will be a temporary thing. I even enjoy the odd bit of computer work that I still do, as it is a nice rest. I can definitely appreciate how unhealthy my previous life was.

Post script

2010-11-16T16:07:00.000Z

It certainly is a dark month in more ways than one! Condolences also to Shirkaholic.

Virtual death

2010-11-14T19:27:00.000Z

Even in blog land death is not far away:

I learned from my blogging friend The Chairman that The Irascible Fairy has died. Readers of his blog will know that he has been ill and in fact he hasn't posted for a few months. I only knew Richard through blogging in that strange kind of friendship where you share secrets with someone that you don't know at all. I never met Richard but I think if I had, I would have liked him. He taught me a new word...."coruscates" It means to give off or reflect light in bright beams or flashes.. to sparkle.

In his profile Richard wrote this:

I dream. I am falling endlessly through a blue and cloud flecked summer sky. Around me the music soars and coruscates.

I can imagine that wherever he is, he is coruscating now.. In memory of him I plan to use this word as often as possible!

Fiona, from Two Sheila's and Dog, posted that her mother died yesterday. I send her and Richard's partner Gavin my condolences.

Onward

2010-11-08T22:19:00.000Z

The strangeness continues as we progress slowly through the process of packing and decorating. The work on my house consists of two steps forward and one step back. The backward step involves Ian finding some electrical or plumbing abnormality that requires fixing at once. The latest discoveries have been a leaking lead water pipe, a leaking radiator, an unearthed lighting circuit.. the list goes on. I go out to Screwfix or B&Q to buy more plaster/electric boxes/plumbing bits etc and Ian continues with the repair. We are progressing but I can't predict what we will uncover next and what other jobs we will need to do so although the day that we depart for France is looming, D day is still uncertain!

Disorientation

2010-11-05T22:12:00.000Z

There's something about working 9-5, five days a week that means that you never have to think about what day it is. Life follows its regular, routine pattern; you get up, go to work, your day is organised for you, you come home, wait for the weekend, when your time is your own, but mostly you wake up around the same time anyway. It is quite freeing not to have that structure anymore, but yesterday I truly forgot what day of the week it was and although tomorrow is Saturday, for me it will be the same as Friday,

A nice break

2010-10-31T19:14:00.001Z

We actually had a proper 'weekend' for the first time in ages! The occasion was the wedding of an old friend of Ian's in the New Forest. We decided to make a little break of it and stay in a hotel on Saturday night. Unable to find a reasonably priced bed and breakfast in the area we decided to look further afield and ended up doing an Internet search for hotel rooms in Bournemouth. We were amazed to find a very good deal at The Chine Hotel in Boscombe, where we got a room and breakfast for two for £52.95. It was almost too good to believe and we turned up expecting a catch and expecting one of the poorer rooms in the hotel but too our surprise, this was the view from our window.

The service was good, the room comfortable, the breakfast was good and all in all we were very satisfied.

Ian used to live in Boscombe in the 1980s and had a small house there. It was his first house, he had no money, and learnt most of his D.I.Y skills renovating it. We couldn't resist driving by to have a look and Ian was surprised to see that the gate that he repaired 23 years ago was still there!

Ian remembered Boscombe as being the rougher end of Bournemouth and was surprised to see how much improved it was. The beach is a surfers paradise (but colder and greyer!) and the seafront itself quite unspoilt.

The weekend concluded with a visit to a friend on Ian's in Wimborne and a pub lunch. All in all a much appreciated break from D.I.Y.!

Ridding myself of possessions

2010-10-29T05:10:00.000+01:00

I remember now why I haven't moved house very often; at least not since I started acquiring things! I actually find the process of sorting, packing and moving quite stressful, and not being one for creating lists, I wake up at odd hours with a long list of must do's circulating around my brain and hence find myself blogging at 4.45 a.m. in a vain attempt to make myself feel sleepy again! I suspect that today it is not going to work! Just to add to my sense of unreality it just worked out that this highly complicated and stressful move coincides with Ian and I finally living in the same house at the same time! For me, at the age of 51, this is a first! How mad is that! Actually, I think I might quite enjoy that bit if we weren't having to focus on a whole other life project at the same time! So, this is a time of massive transition for me and maybe I need to allow myself a few sleepless nights to help me cope!

The end effect of all this sorting and packing and trips to the dump is that my life should be lighter and less full of clutter. That's what I said last time I moved 8 years ago and I made a resolution not to acquire so many things and to be more organised. I must have forgotten that somewhere along the way!

It's all there in black and white

2010-10-26T22:15:00.000+01:00

It's been five days since I left work and I have never been busier! I soon realised that the weekend is no longer a relevant concept as we continued packing, cleaning,decorating, repairing etc. We are progressing and the new kitchen is almost finished! It is very monochrome! I think Ian is very clever!

You can have your cake and eat it

2010-10-23T07:28:00.000+01:00

This was my farewell bespoke cake, made for me by another of my talented colleagues who, as well as having a full time job as a lecturer, two children to look after, studying for her PhD, also runs her own cake business! Thank you Tania!

Parting gift

2010-10-23T06:55:00.000+01:00

This is a picture of Simone- The contortionist llama, mentioned in my previous post. I feel quite honoured to have her as she was made for part of an exhibition of circus animals by my colleague Victoria. She was a gift to mark my leaving and my colleagues thought she was appropriate obviously because of the llama connection but also because apparently I always stand with my legs twisted around each other!

The leaving

2010-10-22T12:23:00.000+01:00

Well, my last day at work has been and gone. All in all, leaving work was actually very pleasant, and not in a negative way. I spurned the idea of an official leaving event, with presentations and speeches and organised something myself that involved maximum activity and minimum opportunity for discussion. And so it was, 16 of us went to our local bowling alley and together we did two games of bowling, ate a meal in a basket and then had a go at Laser Quest; where grown men and women put on belts with flashing lights and carry laser guns and try to shoot each other in a dark room with scary music playing! I enjoyed every minute!

Earlier that day my colleagues had presented me with a clay llama, made by Victoria, the pottery teacher. I will post a picture of it and more information later. Similarly, my colleague who makes fantastic cakes made me a big cake of 'the house on the hill', complete with mountain bikers and a French flag ribbon.

When I arrived at work yesterday there was a large bouquet of flowers on my desk and throughout the day, I did various little jobs that I had saved up interspersed with farewells to different people. It all felt very positive.

At 3.30 my colleagues came down and helped me transfer my possessions to my car, using the opportunity to remove any office furniture that was better than they had into their own offices like vultures pouncing on the dying! I returned by office key, made one final defiant gesture and left my unwashed mugs in sink, waved goodbye to everyone and left! It felt good.

Last week

2010-10-18T14:45:00.000+01:00

Today is the first day of my last week at work. This morning it was cold and crisp as I left the house and got on my bike. I could see the sea from the top of my street and the horizon was a deep blue line against the paler sky. The leaves are falling from the trees in earnest. I am feeling quite content with no sign of panic and I am actually looking forward to the rest of the week.

Progress notes

2010-10-14T17:08:00.000+01:00

I am still without a kitchen, but work is progressing and Ian is working hard at home while I finish my last few days at work. I am currently clearing out my office, which is as bad as my home for being full of junk and unsorted bits of paper!

Heartwarming

2010-10-14T17:06:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I found myself totally glued to the television or to the Internet, watching the rescue of the Chilean Miners. I saw almost every one of the 33 step out of the rescue capsule that had pulled them some 700 metres from below the the ground, and step into the arms of their families, friends and waiting dignitaries. I can't remember a time when a news story has gripped me so much, except perhaps watching the events unfold on 9/11. This was totally different. It was a wonderful positive story of people working together to save other people with a happy outcome. I know that after this initial euphoria, it won't all end happily ever after for them all (one wife discovered that her husband had a mistress for years while he was missing in the mine!); life is not really like that. The cynic in me also noted that the politicians were there, and milking the event for their own gain; but yesterday my cynical side was pushed very much to the background. Someone commented on Facebook that it was the best reality TV show they had ever seen!

Co-incidence?

2010-10-04T21:01:00.001+01:00

I have no kitchen at the moment as we ripped out the old one at the weekend. As usual once we had stripped everything out we realised that there was more to than we had hoped. C'est la vie! Plugs needed replacing, walls re-plastering, floors levelling. The most peculiar thing we found were some pipes buried in the floor, wrapped in old plastic bags. Unfortunately these seemed to be still connected to the heating system and Ian was for once stumped! We called my friendly plumber but no reply!

Tonight we went to Screwfix and B and Q to buy the rest of the bits we needed to finish the kitchen and who's van should I see parked outside but the Plumber's! I hid behind it until he left and pounced! I stood between him and his van until he agreed to come round next week and remove the wayward heating pipes! In fairness to him he said he was very busy as everyone had switched on their heating systems and found them broken!

Moving

2010-09-27T18:40:00.000+01:00

The Universe works in mysterious ways as no sooner had I changed the banner at the top of the blog to demote the llamas to a less prominent position, they suddenly re-inserted themselves into my consciousness! I occasionally do a Google search of 'llamas for sale' and this time I spied someone selling a whole herd for a very reasonable price on the condition that the herd stayed together. Obviously an opportunity too good to miss and a quick email established that they had not been claimed. However, here is where the present interfered with our plans for the future as this news coincided with the weekend that Ian was finally moving out of his flat.

I arrived at his house on Friday evening. "I'm nearly packed; just a few bits of wood to remove from the loft tomorrow" said Ian; so with that I drifted off to sleep imagining some light packing, moving and cleaning the following day! Well, the few bits of wood turned out to be a loft full of tools, boxes, old cupboards etc and with 20 minutes to go until the new tenant arrived, we were still removing them from the loft! It really was like a scene from one of those DIY programmes where they are finishing off as the owners walk up the path!
Like one of those programmes we made it by the skin of our teeth, drove back to my house and were so tired yesterday it took us all day to recover! During our recovery we looked into the how's of transporting llamas to France and considered how we might do it and whether it would be possible! I eventually phoned the seller of the llamas in the evening only to be told that someone had bought them that afternoon! Well I was a little disappointed but also relieved as logistically it would have been a nightmare! However, what it did was re-ignite the llama flame and for that I am grateful!

My grandmother's chair

2010-09-21T22:21:00.003+01:00

This is my grandmother as I remember her in her later years. She was in her 90s here and in the winter she would move this chair into the sun and sit, looking out over her garden, snoozing, or just looking. I always remember her in this chair. She had two of them and they were her mothers' I think. She only ever had the money to get one re-upholstered and the other languished in it's original covering. She particularly liked the chairs because she was quite short and they were small and upright. When she died I couldn't bear to throw them out and no one else wanted them, so I took them to my small flat. I had every intention of getting them re-upholstered but never got round to it and in the end they have just cluttered up everywhere and had been and been virtually destroyed by the cats who seemed to think the rough wool covering was a perfect claw sharpener!

I still couldn't bring myself to throw them away despite their poor state but Ian insisted that if they came to France they must finally be re-upholstered. After a few attempts at finding an reasonable upholster I eventually stumbled into Chris from Valley Upholsters. He works with a partner in a smallish mews workshop near the station and mostly does contract and commercial work. However, he seemed genuinely interested in the chairs and knowledgeable about their construction and for a very reasonable sum of money put his heart and soul into rebuilding, restoring and recovering them. I got them back yesterday and I think my grandmother would be delighted to think that her old chairs will now be used again, and with any luck could last another 100 years!

About to jump

2010-09-21T21:53:00.002+01:00

I have been experimenting with a new layout as I was getting a little bored with the other one. The banner across the top was taken from the terrace in France in the middle of August. There was not a cloud anywhere. The background is from a blogger template but I thought it fitted quite well. The sky and clouds seem to fit quite nicely with my current mood and feelings as it is like I am just about to jump out into space and float away freely to whatever awaits! (Well on some days it feels more like I am going to jump and land flat on my face, but I try not to think about that too much!) I also changed the description slightly as the dreams of llamas and cycling everyday seem a bit of a long way off at the moment!

Ian is on his way back from France after unloading a van load of boxes at our neighbours' house and trying to finish putting in the ceilings in the kitchen. This job took on more of a sense of urgency after he got up to make tea yesterday and realised that it was only 11 degrees in the kitchen! Ceilings and insulation make a big difference! I think my electric Teasmade is going to come in rather handy on the mornings when it is my turn to make the tea!

When he arrived there was no power to the house. We are still on a temporary supply until we have finished all the wiring and had it signed off by the local inspector and it had tripped out at the main switchboard, which happens to be on a pole in our neighbours hedge. Every time he re-set it, it tripped again, until he discovered the black and crispy plug socket in the bedroom! He later discovered that the pole had been hit by lightening a few days before, causing one of our neighbours plugs to fly out of the socket and across the room! Time to get the lightening arrester fitted!

Last minute panic

2010-09-15T20:20:00.000+01:00

Suddenly I feel that the speed of events is picking up way too fast! Of course this is not true as we have been planning our move to France for more than two years, but all of sudden it is within touching distance and in some ways I can't believe we are there. It feels a little unreal and all those feelings of excitement and hopeful anticipation are being swept away into a tide of uncertainly and doubt and to make it all worse I am beginning to realise that I will miss my job and work colleagues! It's a strange feeling. I don't get it all the time but I am glad it is there as to really leave somewhere hating every last minute would be a bitter experience. At other moments I can get a sense of a new life ahead and an uncertain but exiting future. How great to still be able to have adventures when you are the wrong side of fifty!

Very soon there will be no time for these feelings as we will be totally caught up in the logistics of packing and moving. Ian is there already. Olga, a Russian woman from his previous workplace, was interested in his flat and she moves in next week. She is exited and Ian is rushing round trying to pack up his things. Tomorrow he drives down to the house with a full van of boxes and plasterboard, hoping to finish the ceiling in the kitchen before the winter starts. On his return we will start the final countdown.

The earth moved...

2010-09-06T22:44:00.000+01:00

Well, it did for one of my closest friends, who now lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. They were close to the epicentre of an earthquake measuring 7.1 magnitude. These are her words:

an amazing 24 hours. the earthquake the most terrfiying thing ever. It felt as tho the house was picked up and dropped many times. I woke leapt out of bed shouting "earthquake" ran to Owen's room and was screaming at him to get up. It was so loud as the ground groaned. The house shook and china and glass crashed around us. We are all happily ok but left with a chimney that needs to be pulled down.

and from her husband

we are ok after major earthquake here in Christchurch. Our chimney is a gonner and a few precious things lost but we are fine if shaken. On top of it all, it is my wifes 50th birthday today - what a way to celebrate.

I called tonight on SKYPE and ironically had the best quality SKYPE call I have ever had ..no annoying echo or time delay.. She had gone to work. The schools are closed and they are still experiencing after shocks. Last night Owen slept under the table and they slept on a matress in the living room. As I spoke they had another aftershock. Someone had suggested that they go out for dinner, but I don't think there was anywhere to go out to!

End of an era

2010-09-06T22:28:00.001+01:00

I am an occupational therapist. I do not talk about this specifically in my blog very often as I moved from clinical practice many years ago into teaching and did not want this to be a blog about occupational therapy as such.

When I did my training occupational therapy was a diploma and became an honours degree course in this country in 1991. It had already been a degree course for many years in the United States prior to this, and about that time a new breed of occupational therapy academics were emerging; helping us to back up our observations with science and developing theories to help us to understand what we were doing. One of these pioneers was Gary Kielhofner. In the early 1990s his youthful enthusiasm and ideas inspired us to think about our profession in a different way. His ideas were amongst those that guided me to towards my degree and PhD.

I met him on a couple of occasions. He became involved in some projects that were happening in my previous workplace and spent a few days with us. I didn't find him an easy person to work with at that time and I didn't always agree with him but found him interesting and charismatic as always!

He had just bought a farm with his new wife and it was rumoured that he was trying to cut down on his work commitments and spend more time there. Two weeks ago he became ill and was taken to intensive care. He was diagnosed with malignant lung cancer and died at the end of last week. He was 61 years old.

My profession is suffering from bereavement at the moment.

Merging lives

2010-09-06T22:07:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the lack of posting. Contrary to what some think I did in fact make it back from France but was thrown immediately into work without time or energy for a moments reflection. However, this period of my life is now coming to an end.

This time I have returned in a different mood. Of course I will not miss the frustrations from work, but at last, thankfully, I am beginning to appreciate the things that I will miss. The colleagues who I can chat and joke with over lunch, the way I am challenged by some of the things I have to do (in a positive way) , the grateful students, and the not so grateful and the students that I know I have made a difference to! I can finally say that I am glad and sad to go. This trip was different to the others. Up until now I have had my time in France; a working holiday, my work life, and home lives here and at Ian's place in London and I have managed to keep them in separate boxes. Now, they are merging together, and my 4 lives are becoming one. In a couple of weeks the London life will cease when Ian rents his flat; and I already have some potential tenants for my house and I can see a real end to these lives soon.... and in the not to distant future my main life will be in France. This is important to realise I think. One thing I learnt over the summer is that for our change to work we must make a 100% commitment to it. There can be no going back and forth to England every month because we feel like it (although some trips will be necessary at first); we need to work hard to make sure that we integrate into our new life in France and not spend most of our time with other English people, I need to work the two days a month that I have been offered in Bordeaux and maybe look for some other work to keep me interested until our B&B is operational; I need to try to learn to be French for a while even if, for a while, it means putting my English bit on hold. (I can easily revert to it if necessary).

Time to go already

2010-08-27T21:18:00.002+01:00

All to soon our three weeks are coming to an end and we are, as usual, rushing around trying to finish off things before we return home. The weather has continued to be hot, which has been a problem for working. Yesterday the temperature reached 39 degrees again but this was accompanied by a strong wind that was so warm it took my breath away as soon as I stepped into it. Last night the temperature didn't drop below 29 degrees in the room and neither of us slept that well. However, today the cloud came in, the wind increased again, the temperature dropped slowly and by afternoon we watched as brief but heavy rain storm raced across the land towards the house. When it hit us it blew down the ladder that Ian had used to get onto the roof! Just as well I was there and not too p*ssed off with him as I was able to put it back and enable him to get down. He has been trying to finish the soffits. This was a job we started last year but could not finish as we couldn't access one side of the house and ran out time with the tower. The disadvantage of not having soffits is that Renata redstart and her family now think that the roof is the perfect place to raise a family and have moved in; covering everything with bird sh*t. We are on course to finish all but the front of the tower, for which we need to build some scaffolding to reach. Hence I fear we will not deter Renata this time round.

We spent a day in Bordeaux this week and I have provisionally agreed some dates with the school to do some teaching. It is not brilliantly paid but is a start and will certainly help me to settle into my new life.

The local Mayor (think Vicar of Dibley) owns a airstrip that he uses for microlights. They had an open afternoon and we dropped in briefly to see what was going on at the same time as group of monks from Plum Village, mindfully watching the scene! The whole thing was quite bizarre!

We asked the Mayor if the Russians were landing on his airstrip. He didn't laugh at all but said that the Gendarme had asked him the same question a few weeks ago!

We had a full moon at the beginning of the week. When the moon is full you don't need any lights to see outside.

A second French wedding

2010-08-22T14:41:00.001+01:00

When we arrived the temperature was comfortable, reaching 22-25 degrees during the day and 12-13 at night. This was just right for working in. However, for the last few days the temperature has crept up into the mid 30s, reaching 39 degrees yesterday afternoon and not going down much below 26 at night. This has been pretty uncomfortable and made us reassess the need for some portable air conditioning for the bedroom!

Yesterday we went to the wedding of the farmer's son. Ian visits the farmer (M Mulatier) often and talks about tractors and machines. His son has two children and he and his partner were not married so I guess eventually the presuure to conform got to them, or it felt like now or never in terms of timing! In fact, it was a double ceremony with their wedding and the baptism of their second child. I hope it was a buy one, get one free deal!

This was the second French wedding that I have been two. As France is a secular state everyone must marry first at the Marie. So, following the trail of hedge clippings laid that morning (a tradition) we headed up to the Marie in Thenac in our Tranist van, with the air conditioning on full blast. In due course, the procession of cars arrived, with lights flashing and horns blaring. Following up behind was this tractor, decked in flowers and various banners!

The banner reads " convoy of happy angels".

Nothing was quiet about the arrival; there was lots of shouting and cheering and the wedding was conducted by the local Mayor. The bride and groom say "oui" and then the Mayor reads out a long list of relevant French legislation and law, things are signed and everyone leaves, heading for the proper ceremony in the church.

The church in Puyguihelm is spectacular in that it is perched right on top of the hill, with the doors opening onto the most wonderful panorama over the vineyards of the Duras region.

The searing heat make it look more washed out than it actually is.

Fortunately the ceremony was not a full Mass. As in the UK no one but the priest knew the words or the tune of the hymn but at least he had a wonderful voice! Being a dual event the service was still quite long and by the time it finished I was soaked in perspiration and longing for a cool drink.

As the couple left the church for the obligatory photos their friends had a special guard of honour with hard hats for her (she is the manager of a building site) and toy tractors for him. This was accompanied by heart shaped confetti (with no one complaining about who was going to sweep it up, the priest just being relieved that he had managed to save two more souls!).

The day finished with a 'Vin d'honor' in our village hall where I thought I was drinking grapefruit juice but alas it was a local cocktail containing something very alcoholic! I was served in a refridgerated fountain which meant that we all drank more than we should. However, I noted again the phenomenon that alcohol improves my French!

The Russians are coming

2010-08-18T16:23:00.001+01:00

Our three weeks seems to be racing by and already I can tell that we will not get all the things done that we had on the list, but that is what usually happens. We are aiming to finish off some more wiring and to plasterboard the rest of the ceiling in the kitchen. Ian intersperses this less interesting activity with sojourns on the digger! I can hear it whirring in the background!

On Saturday evening we went to the soiree jambon braise in the village. The committee de fetes in the various communes usually organise an event each year to raise money for local projects ets. I suppose it is a bit like the English village fair. Tickets are 18 euros and you turn up with your own place setting (knife, fork, plate, bowl etc). There were about 100 people there; a mixture of locals, French, English and tourists. The food consisted of an apperative, tomato soup with tapioca, barbecued pork with pepper sauce, braised haricot beans with garlic and pig skin, cheese, cider and dessert of cherries soaked in alcohol and ice cream. This was all accompanied by wine, music, etc. and I must say was enjoyable enough to justify the hangover the following day.

On Monday night we went to our neighbours to finally eat the leg of venison that as been in their freezer since February and was given to us by le Chasse as it was shot on the land. I must confess it was very tasty and I only had a slight pang of guilt when I thought about the four lovely deer that have been running across the field all week.

We caught up on some local news. Now France has become too expensive for most English people the Russians are arriving. In the nearby village of Thenac the Chateau has been bought and beautifully restored by a mate of Abramovich and the rumour is Abramovich himself has bought the neighbouring hilltop! The reaction of the locals has been mixed but I am not going tho say anything bad at all!!

Visitors

2010-08-14T09:50:00.000+01:00

We have had a few visitors chez-nous over the last few days. On Thursday Julie from my French class came for lunch. We sat in the sun on the terrace and looked out into the field while her partner and Ian discussed the problems of building in France and the UK. It was very pleasant. Just as they were leaving Ian's friend from the north of France arrived. He is staying with us for a few days to help Ian and also for a change of scene for him. He arrived complete with his pop-up caravan. This was a bargain Ebay purchase as it cost him all of £200 and as it folds into a trailer, means he does not have to pay the higher tolls on the motorways. It comes with all its original fittings and is now parked under the trees.

Yesterday morning we were looking out of the window just as a hot air ballon glided into view. At first we thought it was going to put down in the field, but it managed to stay aloft for another kilometre or so and we saw it ditch in a nearby farm.

The final group of visitors have been of the wild variety. We have seen several deer and hare but the most frequent visitors have been the praying manitis (is the plural mantii or mantises?). There are lots in the field..so many that I abandoned my strimming so that I didn't kill any more. One in particular has taken a likeing to the house, despite all our attempts to rehome her in the field, she keeps coming back!

Connected to the rest of the world

2010-08-11T20:49:00.000+01:00

I haven't minded the fact that we have had to get all the hot water from the shower , or that I have been cooking on a camping stove, or that the toilet has until recently flushed directly into the field, or that we have no TV.. However, I have missed the Internet. When we were here last we signed up to a new WiMax service. "It will be installed within two months" said the girl, from the comfort of her Parisien office. Two months came and went and still no sign. Ian called once, and then again and then eventually, 4 weeks ago, got through to the installer who came out with the age old excuse ,'sorry, my van broke down'. He agreed to put us in his diary for first thing Monday. By 10.00 o'clock on Monday, when there was so sign, Ian called him. "Sorry, I forgot. I've just got back from holiday". (In France the customer is always wrong!) We agreed to reschedule until today. At 9.30 there was no sign and a call confirmed that the installer was lost! Eventually, however, at 11.00, he found us and started his work installing an arial pointing at the only transmitter that was not obscured by a hill. As you can see we now have Internet access. It is a little slow for uploading things and at times has been a bit hesitant, but at least we can now stay in touch with our virtual lives and virtual friends!

The dumper truck made it down in once piece without any more problems. However, getting it off the trailer and into the field was another matter as it starts with a starting handle. Two grown men could not get it to fire so ended up bump starting it down the field. In the end there was a puff of white smoke and it coughed into life and trundled around the field with Ian cheerfully in command!

Fly free water butt! Fly free!

2010-08-06T20:14:00.000+01:00

Tonight we are staying in the Premiere Classe hotel in Rouen, which is neither premiere or classy but does have free Internet. The dumper is still attached to the trailer although the water butt that Ian fixed on to it with straps managed to disconnect itself and fly free somewhere south of Calais. The first we knew of it was when we were stopped by a 'securitie civile' man who told us he had been driving behind us as it launched itself into the air! We said sorry, decided the water butt was not worth rescuing, and continued on our journey. Later on we heard a traffic announcement saying that there was an object on the road south of Calais and to take care. We suspected the water butt!

We ate in the only restaurant in the area, the Campanille. Campanille and Premiere Classe are operated by the same group. The meal was expensive and just ahout edible but being English we didn't complain!

All aboard

2010-08-05T22:05:00.000+01:00

We are off to France tomorrow for three weeks and I am feeling a bit stressed as I still haven't finished the packing! I am quite good at last minute packing, but I need to be totally focused and alone. This time I had Ian looking over my shoulder so I am convinced that I have forgotten something very important. Ian arrived mid-day with a dumper truck on his trailer. When I got home at 3.00 it was covered in small boys, staring at various mechanical bits!
We now start the slow and tedious journey to the Dordogne; never going above 90 km an hour! We should arrive some time on Sunday, stopping overnight in Rouen tomorrow. The good news is we should be getting our WiMax on Monday so I may manage blogging on the go!

Happy Birthday

2010-08-03T23:33:00.000+01:00

Despite her protests to the contrary I think my mother quite enjoyed her 80th birthday party. We had tea, wine, sandwiches and cake in the company of the other residents. We didn't stay late and we cleared up afterwards and my mother even managed a smile for the camera! This is all of us! (Photo by Ian).

Some you win and some you loose

2010-08-01T16:37:00.000+01:00

I have been trying to buy an ice cream maker for ages. I started by scouring eBay, but missed out on a few bargains. I bought a Magimix one from John Lewis but decided that it was rubbish (and it didn't work properly) so I sent it back and today I saw quite a nice one on eBay that was local, so would save me the £8.00 postage normally quoted. Ian suggested I bid with 20 seconds to go with the maximum price I was prepared to pay. With 6 seconds to go I was the highest bidder, but in the end I lost out! Never mind! I'll get the ice cream machine one day!

In the meantime Ian bid on a second hand dumper truck somewhere up near Birmingham and he won it, so is driving up on Tuesday with the trailer and then we are taking it down to France on Friday. That marks the start of our three week trip. I no longer call it a holiday since we spend most of the time working. The good news is that we should be getting our WiMax connected on the 9th August so no more walking up to the neighbours' garden to use their wireless network!

My Brompton

2010-07-28T20:57:00.000+01:00

I have been trying to rid myself of some of my bicycles before I go to France. The Brompton, my folding bike that I have had since 1997, was on the list to sell. However, it has been saved by the possibility of the part time job in Bordeaux. The school is 6 km from the railway station, and as the train looks like it will be the best option for travelling, the Brompton will come in handy. Now we come to problem two. I rode Brommie for 5 years and did not one single bit of maintenance on it apart from mending punctures! Ian was horrified at my neglect and decided that we needed to do some work on it. I also needed some new handlebars after falling off and damaging the originals in the first three weeks of owning it. So.. we replaced the chain, cogs and jockey wheels, put a new front brake, cables and saddle; and I bought some folding pedals. We then decided to try a bit of customisation for the bars and brake levers and 'stole' some riser bars and mountain bike levers off of one of Ian's bikes. This is a bit radical as anything like that can affect how if folds. However we experimented, it worked and now I have the first ever' pimp my ride' Brommie!

Brommie with riser bars

Ready to ride

And it still folds

Logo launch

2010-07-26T22:24:00.001+01:00

So here it is.. the logo..

As explained in an earlier post, this was done by my neighbour Dave. This is a scanned picture of the original pen and ink drawing that we have. I may at some point experiment with a bit of colour but at the moment we have the black and white version for letters, cards etc.

Trendsetters!

2010-07-20T22:41:00.000+01:00

We edge slowly towards France. Thinking about everything that needs to be done in a short space of time fills me with panic but each day more jobs get done. Ian arrived at the weekend with 30 packing crates and insisted that I start packing so that he has somewhere to put some of his things when his flat is rented. I went a good way to filling them up with my books, photos, and contents of some cupboards but Ian is most concerned that I start on my wardrobe! That is a job for later!

Today I took Mandelson the cat to get his pet passport. He was micro chipped, given two rabies jabs, and had a blood test (that can only be done at a government approved, i.e. expensive, laboratory) and today I had to go to pick up all the documents. Total cost was approximately £200 which makes it more than double the cost of my passport! There is a space on the document where I can put his photo but as I can never get him stay still long enough to take a photo of anything other than his a*se I don't think I will bother!

My mother told me that she is waiting until her 80th birthday (in two weeks time) before renewing her passport, as then she won't have to pay.

Talking of Mandelson (this time Peter), I saw an interview with him the other week about his memoirs where he confessed that he wants to be a farmer. This is a quote from an interview with him from the spectator:

If you ask me where in 15 or 20 years' time I'd like to be, it will be probably on a farm somewhere close to the land, getting up early in the morning ... I want to be near land. I want to be able to grow my own food. Look after my own farm animals, worry about the weather and get the timing of my harvest right.

Where we go Peter Mandelson follows!